i mean… id say a bush is just a bit bigger plant ^^
Edit, sneaky edit on your part, yes, a bush might be a tree without a trunk
as for your OP
I loved d2s skill tree, especially with its mastery connections. but yea, sadly, games need to become as easy as they can be when it comes to that.
I dont think d4s skill tree is bad, id want more branches for sure, but thats about it. I mean, lets be honest, we wont redesign d4s skill tree here ^^
With D 4’s “Skill tree” You get the chance to decide how your Tree skill looks. You have more Options for optizmizing.
For a barb, will you have Shout skills hanging on your skill tree like Christmas Decoration?
Or maybe a Skeletal tree with skulls for ornaments representing your summons…
Regardless, all trees end up looking the same in the end. I wouldn’t mind having the skill tree expanded though, NOT as much as POE 2 (wth), but more so.
Regarding the d4 tree specifically… there’s only one, and it’s very small. (To be honest, I think the game could be better without it, like in D3)
But at the same time, a huge tree is a problem, in my opinion… Too complicated.
It’s possible that dividing the complexity into several different trees would make it more user-friendly, understandable and capable of compressing a lot of complexity.
Agree with you, skill trees or skill forest concepts both have their disadvantages. They both have the potential to waste skill points and are quite complicated.
If I were the developer of this game, I would create a skill collection for each class and allow players to pick up the skills that they like into the 6 slots of the action bar freely. Then the selected skills will light up and the player will increase the points for them. These skills when placed next to each other on the action bar will complement each other and change the effect when the user casts…
IMHO, a tree structure that branches from basic skill selection. Each class has four basic skills, your tree options build on the basic skill with a floater that builds on a combination of basic, or mix in the beneficial skills that work well for all basic choices.
D4 team can’t manage to balance the game as-is, making the skill system more complex will just further the gap between FOTM metas and otherwise viable builds.
Blizzard also has a history of making skill trees that don’t really encourage player agency - there are always choices that are just universally bad.
Adding complexity for complexity’s sake (and to satiate those who just want to click a button every level to see a number get bigger) does no actual service in this situation.
D3’s skills and runes system was the the most flexible system Diablo games have had, allowing for actual player choice within many builds, based on elemental preferences and skill variants. Yet it has been crapped on since launch for being “not a tree” despite Blizzard having shown over multiple titles across multiple decades that they are incapable of building a skill/talent tree that provides real choice.
In short, big emphatic no, at least for this company.
Except for “increase the points for them” (which is mostly a gimmick: devs can ‘republish’ a 1-point skill as a 5-point skill just by dividing its potency into 5 click-segments) this is D3’s system essentially.
Aaaand this reinserts the ‘complexity’ you listed earlier as a possible disadvantage. Also, it’s effectively a synergy system like in late-stage D2 - except D2’s is pretty simple & can be learned within minutes, before expending a single point. I’m not sure D4 devs have a proven track record of writing coherent tooltips, for starters.
…
I hope you’re not implying that D4’s is “massive”… I think most players would disagree (idk). But in terms of devs’ brains… who knows - reimagining the core structure of the skill tree (not to mention paragon) might ‘enhance’ their grasp of crucial interactions that they’re struggling with so far.
This is already how it is in D4 and it’s basically been a costumed copy of D3 since the start. It’s still pick any 6 and a “rune” (with less runes per skill this time around.)
To your gimmick point, that’s exactly what they did. They pushed D3’s skill, skill modifier, and passive system into a tree, and added ranks, to appease the “I like to click on things when I level up” crowd.
You get more skill options as you put in more points instead of strictly as you level, so that’s the only thing keeping you from picking everything from the tail end of the tree.
sry that pun made me gag…
….ah 
….well not the first time I guess 
