In the industry, generally speaking, yes. Players are arbitrarily limited/hindered in the respeccing process.
Just for famous ARPGS :
Grim Dawn : Mastery locked
Lost Ark : Destiny (specialty) locked
Last Epoch : Mastery locked + time gated skills releveling
PoE : you can respec via orbs, but you’ll need a ton to undo all your tree, so you’ll most likely reroll instead.
Diablo 4 and 3 are still the most player-friendly by letting you respec anything instantly for a few coins (granted you stil have to change your gear but it is what it is)
Only one question remains : why can’t all these barriers just fall? What’s the point in having them, when we could all enjoy the game to its fullest without them?
Ex 1 :
New void staff? Neat, now I can swap all my points to make my skill deal void damage and… oh wait, I have to respec 9 points and hamper my fun while it’s releveling. What if it’s less powerfull than my previous points? i’ll just have to switch back to the previous one and relevel these 9 points all over again. Maybe 3 times a day. Everyday. So fun.
Ex 2 :
I love playing archer, Marksman is so cool. Oh look, a new staff just dropped that boosts shurikens. Let’s test it. Oh wait, my mastery is for bows, I should be bladedancer in melee. Welp, guess I’ll just have to reroll up until the required level for the staff just to see if I like playing with it. So fun.
I don’t know, it made D3 felt more shallow than D2 for me because my character had not that “I’m a whirlwind bard”-identity. Or my luck-based falcon ranger in Ragnarok Online, even if it was bad for WoE.
I have fully respecced all my skills at once at level 20, at level 35 and similar. More than once. Not once did I have any issues continuing the campaign and getting skills back to where they were. Even if I respecced from a level 6-7 to 2-3. It’s even less impactful later on because you’re making more XPs as you advance in the game.
And if you try to respec your character at level 60 in PoE (before reaching maps, therefore), you’re going to have to relevel the skill anyway, so how’s that any different?
Basically, as I’ve pointed out in many other examples, ARPGs fall on a spectrum on a wide variety of issues. Regarding ease of respec you have D3, where you can respec at will and a single character can instantly be all builds in less than a second, and you have PoE where you have to spend a lot of currency to respec (which isn’t an issue for veterans, but is an issue for casuals who quite often don’t have that currency).
Each ARPG aims for a different kind of player. LE is kinda in the middle. They don’t want D3 players nor do they want PoE players. They want LE players.
If they ever change respec to not have these penalties they might as well also implement loadouts and change the name to “D3 the sequel: the snoozefest returns”.
They are different, yes. PoE’s support gems and passive tree perform the same functions as LE’s skill trees and passives, but in a bit of a different mix. Some of the effects that are in LE’s skill trees are in PoE’s passive tree and some of them are more equivalent to PoE’s support gems and vice versa.
IMO, PoE’s support gems are closer to LE’s skill trees and PoE’s passive tree is closer to LE’s passives.
It’s not & it’s not. I started PoE during the closed beta & I think that it only went up to the Warden.
Its a nosense system just like block the main subclass. Even POE allow you reroll the full ascendancy, they got this exactly feedback several months ago over and over. They listen the community sometimes others the are deaf.
Can confirm this is a NONE issue at lvl 85. I just respeced twice in span of 4 min for memes and i am only lvl 85. Maybe make respec under lvl 45 free for first 20 respecs. Could be a middle ground.
If you look at the character creation screen, it tells you that “Mastery CLASS is chosen later in the campaign”. It’s not a subclass, it’s a class. When you join you stop being an Acolyte and you are now a Necromancer. If you selected mastery at character creation, this wouldn’t even be an issue because people would simply treat mastery as base class.
The system can be a bit punitive in the early game, but it is by no means a major issue.
Once you get to Monoliths, it becomes trivial to respecc a skill.
You plan ahead & make the changes after you have completed an XP Echo.
Complete the Echo, make skill changes & then pick up the XP books.
This way you get a massive chunk of the required XP immediately.
But no-one is talking about respeccing an entire tree. I have done it in PoE - I do half a tree every league actually, which is about 40-50 points. But it’s a transition from the levelling version of a build to the endgame version. And it’s always painless because it can be prepared for (and includes a full gear change). It’s instant - you do it and continue on. It doesn’t interfere with your gameplay at all.
Now compare that to LE at 60.
My example in LE was 3 skill points only to test something out. That ended up being 30 minutes + another 30 minutes to get back to the point I was at beforehand, as it turned out the change was bad. That’s 1 hour to test something that should have been simple.
BTW, I brought up PoE for comparison only, I don’t want this to become about PoE. This is LE’s forums, and I don’t mean to disrespect that. I used to hate the PoE Andy’s coming into the Blizz forums back in the day and blasting them with their vitriol. That’s really not my intent here.
Anyway, whew. A rose by any name smells just as sweet, as the Bard said. Whatever you call this or however you want to frame it, it’s an issue - for me it’s game breaking. Which is fine. I have plenty of other games to play. I just hope the devs are listening - to all the views on this. And if they decide the game is where they want it to be, all good too. I just won’t be playing it.
mastery = subclass. Youre acolyte necromancer or acolyte linch and its a terrible system force to create a new character for test the 3 subclasses. But if you love it go and create 15 characters, people its free for advice about they dont want to have 3 characters/class.
Because people like you need to understand there are consequences for your actions. That was a joke but seriously if you think this is punishment go play diablo 2 and make your own build. You have no idea how good this system is actually. Could be better? Yes of course. Is it so bad you can call it a punishment? Not even close.
I do love it. I prefer to make a new character than have a D3 system where you can simply switch builds instantly. It’s the main reason I gave up on D3 because I had no incentive to play after the first week.
And the devs have said before that they mastery IS your class. You’re no longer an Acolyte. You might feel different because you’re used to D3 or whatever, but that is what the devs are aiming for. And many people also equate mastery to class, and being able to respec it would make the mastery choice meaningless.
If you want quick and easy respec, then maybe D3/D4 is the game for you. LE (much like Grim Dawn) don’t want you to change your masteries on a whim, they’re a part of your character identity.
Did it with a 62er in a couple of 66 black sun echoes, getting 2 character levels and pushing my skills actually one level further. My char is now 64 and has farmed enough stability to fight the boss. I needed 20:57 min - time in that I made active progress.
That’s exactly how it doesn’t happen. You can even play the same build with different masteries. I don’t like Diablo 3 or Diablo 4. I prefer the system of Titan Quest, where the pick of your class and subclass felt unique and encouraged you to create new characters for different combinations. Creating a character in LE just for a new skill, most of the time, you don’t even use more than one extra skill in your mastery builds. It’s simply a poor design, and that’s why everyone complains. It’s not just my specific issue or my personal preference its common sense.
