1st off: I am loving your game, there is so much potential here and I really hope you continue your methodical approach to content release. (I’ve done MMO game database development in the past so I get it)
The one part of the game that is killing me mid-level(60’s) is that want to check out other options for my build…but I cannot. Respec cost is too high—I have a full time job and a family…I cant play 24 hours game time to swap a spec. Make the swap monetary, not exp based. Or change the curve for sub 90+ players
How do you respec?
I use Arena to level my new skills and it doesn’t take very long. Of course it depends what we call “long”, but I’d say in about 30 minutes and with no rush or hurry your skills are leveled.
The respec has an accellerated exp gain for skills when you are above the threshold for the skill - look in the top left of the skill window for the message - at level 60 you should be high enough that you regain the skill exp really quickly…
Just running a few high level MoFs (e.g. if you are level 60, then running some level 80s) should level up new skills to a decent level for testing purposes pretty fast…
As @Shtrak mentioned, Arena is also a good way to quickly gain skill levels…
I would be for XP to first gain the skill levels and then gold like our passives for any deleveling/respec. Once you earn the XP you do not lose it unless you have been life drained by a blood-sucking vampire (shhh don’t let my better half read this post).
I thought the devs said somewhere that the xp cost was at least in part to prevent cheesing the game by instantly changing from (for instance) AoE spec for running an instance to single target spec at the boss. They prefer players to make choices and compromises, I believe.
Yip… The devs have said this is behind their reasoning for not making the Respec too “easy to change”.
I recall reading somewhere - possibly an old Q&A that mentioned this possibility With all the game changes since then, perhaps they have reconsidered but I still dont think that they want people instantly changing their specs…
I have a feeling this is one of the many decisions the devs have made based on a particular overarching philosophy that they have decided they want for the game…
It’s possible the reasons make sense in some context, but for the life of me I can’t think of what it might be. It just seems like a strictly inferior method to go about it than almost any other ARPG I have played.
Yeah, but given one of the end games is monolith, I personally think it’d be a bit “unreasonable” to have a skill spec’d for clear while you’re working through the monolith then before you do the final quest echo/Shade, respec it for single target/boss.
Right, and I’m not suggesting it should allow that sort of thing. I’m just objecting to having to reset or delevel the exp on skills just to swap them out.
I think the increased exp catch-up mechanic should activate a bit more aggressively at early-mid levels (up to lvl ~60-70), but after that point it’s not much of a bother to regain the experience.
However, I’d like to see a “training room” of sorts where I’m able to temporarily switch points around and have a go against a training dummy.
Once the player exits, all skills would get reset to their previous states, and you’d only be able to reallocate the amount of points you already had available (if you enter with a lvl 10 skill, you can’t add points beyond that).
Sometimes you just want to test some minor changes or tweak a thing here and there. To me, this is when the exp system actually starts to feel burdensome.
“Trial and error” is often a satisfying process in figuring out the best approach for your build, but when it becomes “Trial, error and grind”, it’s easy to lose steam in your minmaxing autism process.
It is precisely because of this that I dislike the respec costing exp. Sure, at higher levels you don’t care as much, but at level 30, if you accidentally place a point wrong–or if you want to try a certain node and find out it’s really bad for your build–you get to delevel it and relevel it in an environment that is doing you no favors in getting that point back. If you want to respec an entire brach, you could be losing 7 or 8 points this way and the time to recover them might have players think, “Nah, f** it. It’s good enough and not worth experimenting with.”
The ability to respec builds in this game is one of the key selling points underwriting the build diversity it appears to offer. To have it undermined by these kinds of issues is just painful and seriously detracts from what the game is and could be.
I think just having a gold cost would be sufficient. My gut tells me that 1,000g per point would be enough of a cost for people to consider not doing it too much, but affordable enough that it’s still a usable feature. Given how few gold sinks are in the game and that stash tabs are really the main one, this seems like a much healthier approach.
With a 1k gold price the only environment people wouldn’t do it whenever and wherever they want is in SSF. And if you have a gold cost instead of an xp cost (or any currency that you can collect and pay upfront) then you enable people to respec between single target & AoE which I don’t think is reasonable.
I think you’re still arguing this from the perspective of “respec right before a boss fight,” which I agreed shouldn’t be the case. So if you’re not, I don’t see a reason that being able to respec that way is somehow unreasonable.
I also should point out that I don’t really buy this logic anyway (the respec between fights thing). Of the games that do allow you to freely respec, even right before a boss, I don’t see people doing that. It’s too much work for too little gain. It’s just not how people play.
But there’s nothing in your suggestion that would prevent that, given the bosses that you want to do (monolith quest echoes) are in separate instances that you can respec before & after.
