I know what your going for devs but this is not the way. It should be the players choice whether or not they want to lock their build. Have it so at max level the player can choose to to either lock the build permanently or keep it fluid.
Give players that lock their build an incentive to do so like a small permanent stat increase to that character or something else. Also, let the players who want to keep their builds fluid be able to change things up with no cost or hassle at all.
Call locking a build Soul Bound or some other goofy name so it sounds significant. Add some perks to it to make it worth it but not too strong that people will feel like they are forced to do it. Transmogs, titles, small stat increases, cosmetics, etc. could all work.
I think this way everyone wins and no one is a sad frog.
You people had the last 5+ years to contribute to this topic in forums and reddit. Blizzard read this feedback on this topic for many years now. Where were you to contribute then? Sorry but the overwhelming feedback was to have some degree of respec costs - thats why you’re seeing it as their decision.
Everything shouldn’t be player choice.
If I want to choose to get unlimited items within a second of starting up the game, or choosing that I should be able to oneshot world bosses by emoting at them, the devs should say “no, not the game we want you to play”.
No different with respec limitations.
Limits on what a player can do is fine. Outright essential for a game.
D4 respec cost should be higher than it is. Gold is just not enough. Add some respec token as well.
I’m not against respec costs in some form. I’m lvl 25 and have 100k gold just by instead of salvaging I was selling from 20-25. So gold will more than likely be a nonissue. There’s always gonna be gold dumps. But you misunderstood me. Perhaps I should have written more. There is my concern that people will be forced to respec depending on their gear, and may not be able to provide the resources necessary. And if they are forced to respec every now and again some players will be angry there is a cost at all.
It is exactly a low respec cost that end up resulting in a game where you “need” to respec. Like in D3.
If the cost is so high that you cant respec often, then the game will also end up being designed around not needing to respec often.
Please allow free respecs. Make hardcore characters cost gold or not respec. The d2 people should be happy with that.
How on earth can i know what skills i like if i can’t freely try them? Everyone will use whatever builds the guides tell them to if it is cost prohibitive to respec.
Please look to wow in this regard. The market research that you have already done clearly shows that this is what players want.
The main argument against free respecs is that players won’t make new characters, but seasons already solve that problem perfectly.
Again, free respecs for softcore, limited respecs for hardcore. Hardcore people are happy, casual players are happy. Why wouldn’t you do this?
Respeccing at early lvls are super cheap. So you can know that way.
Imo the main argument is that free respeccing leads to bad gameplay and game balance, when people can make optimal builds against every single dungeon, event, boss, monster etc.
If someone dont want to make new characters, they should never feel like they have to do that.
But they also should never feel like they have to respec.
Because the issues free respeccing creates hurts SC as much as HC. SC should not be left in the dirt.
At early levels you don’t have the whole tree. What if you want to try out later trees?
Not being able to respec makes classes dead every time there is a balance pack. People will just play fotm. Also hardcore players are separated anyway. The non respeccers will never play with the respeccers.
How does respeccing hurt balance in any way? The same exact builds are achievable either way so that argument is completely bogus.
You say that changing spec is a bad thing that players don’t want, then why make skill trees at all? Players definitely want to respec, based on legendary or sets, yes. I love to explore different playstyles. But you certainly aren’t forced to. If you like your spec and a legendary drops that doesn’t fit with your spec, just don’t use it. Why should your elitism hurt the rest of us?
I’m sorry I don’t see any validity in your argument.
You don’t need to respec in D3 at any point. You can research good builds and never change if you want to. Please tell me which evil man forced you to respec against your will?
Because if you can freely respec, you can optimize perfectly against every enemy. If we then want any kind of challenge in the game, enemies need to be rebalanced for those perfectly optimized builds.
Yes, the exact same builds are technically possible in all cases. But which builds will be usable, let alone viable, will change.
That is extremely inefficient to do in D3.
To have a ton of different build options for players to choose between.
A shame that D4s “tree” is more of a twig sadly.
Having limitations isn’t the same as being hurt.
Do you also feel the game hurt you because you need to spend some time to lvl from 1 to 100?
This argument is in such bad faith. Exploring builds is completely different than unlimited items.
If you are going to speak on behalf of the devs then so will I, Blizzard is a business that wants to make money. They should cater to a large audience.
The large audience wants to be able to respec. How do i know this? Look at WoW. It was demanded for years and finally it was given to players, and the feedback from that is nothing but positive.
I see no problem with the re-spec fee. The fee is only an issue now because no one has build guides out yet and the full game hasn’t even released. Once the full game releases, all the streamers will be theory crafting and putting build guides out. Plus with the full game release, gold will not be an issue anymore as higher areas will give more loot and higher tier items which will bring in a substantial amount when you sell to NPC.
If you think the feedback to freespeccing in WoW is nothing but positive, you likely havent looked much.
Why is it completely different? Some people hate hunting for items.
Anyway, the point wasn’t that the two are the same.
It is that having limits on what the player can do is fine. Literally the concept of a game.
All of your arguments are in bad faith. I’m fine with you.
You say having one spec in d3 is inefficient. I completely agree, and it will be in d4 as well. You will need a speed set, and farming set, and a pushing set.
It sounds like you agree we should be able to respec freely with that comment
If the respec cost is high enough, no you wont. Since you can’t.
Which has been my point. Choosing not to respec in D3 is not just some “cosmetic” choice. The game is designed around constant respeccing being the efficient way to play. To an extreme degree.
There should be some way to let you try out builds, but still, it is perfectly fine to have respec cost, because that will make you be serious about your choice, your char is more connected to the build and live through it with the good and bad.
Pretty much every game in this genre has some form of a cost to repec. I think D3 was the first I played that did not and it literally killed any reason of having more than one of any character (Outside of playing Hardcore or not). You choices meant nothing when you can just go change an entire build mid game on the fly just cause that sweet new build you found online didn’t kill things a fraction of a second faster than the other build you just found. It was not fun and many people have pointed that out since D3 launch, so many in fact that Blizz changed it in D4 for that very reason that so many people hated it. You are the minority here friend, not the other way around.
I think this is, or will be alleviated with the “arsenal” system (?)
However, since the level 15 quest is in a zone that is not available, Barb doesn’t really get to flesh out so people can get a feel for the system.
It’s possible the Barb class quest offers nothing, but from what I understand, there’s a mechanic (Arsenal system) that addresses some of your issue/concern. frowning:
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