Maybe add some legendary or regent to put on your gear or even crafting - Adding +1-5 to the skill of your choice limited to one per character. that could make some build go quite far I reckon.
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I was also thinking they could redo the model for leveling skills. Instead of leveling skills individually you just get your normal 5 slots all opened at there normal levels, then every time you level you get 1 passive point like normal and 1 skill points (you would collect 100 Skill points by level 100) 5 x 20 level skils = 100 so it would be the same amount of points. This model means you would have to get to level 100 in order to have 5 level 20 skills which might be to high, but this also means once your level 100 or any level that if you take a skill out of the specalization you would instantly get the points back, just like with passives. and then you put a new skill in the slot and have all the points to put back in it.
Could change the skill points around so maybe there also quest related so you get them all by level 60 or what ever is balance. But this would also solve the problem everyone complains about the respec of skills. Hope this makes sense i am tired ha.
I dont think I agree with this.
Either it means you can cheese out your main skill really early (by character level 20), or the skills will still have other restriction before you can put points into them (e.g. can only start putting X points into meteor at Y character level) which makes the whole skilling up unnecessarily complicated.
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Really good suggestion, + 1 to this.
I agree with your disagreement… ha
It’s natural for most arpgs to have skills and their modifiers be mostly available before end game. I think what we are really missing is end game systems to keep us occupied and end game gear to change how skills function to round them out. Though I like the idea of some more impactful passives in the mastery trees when you reach certain levels or investment.
We should probably remember that the general majority of players that purchase the game won’t spend much time in the end game, especially if their favorite skills / playstyles are locked behind arbitrary skill level up systems to make max level “feel” more rewarding/complete.
I like the idea of going to level 30 on each skill. Just add more nodes to invest in. For the sake of ease, each skill could have 4 branches. So for the Elemental Nova in the example, you have a tree for each of the elements and you have a single node going upward for general (not element specific). It could just expand the general branch. Even now, with all 20 levels, I run out of options if I want to spec a specific element.
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Just adding 10 skillpoints and “some new skillnodes” sounds simple, but I doubt it is. It’s already hard enough to balance the skills we already have with 20 nodes. There’s no symmetry in this system. Skills have different number of skillnodes, different number of routes to go. Some offer a change in mechanics, some change the damage type, some offer defensive options, some add mobility.
Every skill is absolutely unique. Not only the mechanics, even the structures of the trees differ.
Of course it would be nice to have more skillpoints availability to spend in the trees. But the key feature of this system ist to make decisions. If you wanna max out route 1 you can’t max route 2. So there’s a tradeoff. And this is what also creates that build diversity.
Adding new skillnodes along with more skillpoints only shifts the problem some levels later. Even with 30 ov even 40 points you will out level your skills long before your done. At some point you reach the top spot of character progression and you can only progress in gear. And more skillnodes makes the skills harder to balance. And think about releveling. This would be much harder. There are already people suggesting to make it easier. This goes in the opposite direction.
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I think it’s too quick to dismiss with something like this. The next 5 or 10 points can be something that goes deep into the tree and impactful. It can also take twice as long to earn as each of the first 20 pts. I doubt that would translate to out leveling the skill longs before I’m done when I’m finishing my main skill currently around level 50.
Im not saying make level 30 skills and keep the trees the same. They would have to be changed for that very purpose of not maxing all routes. But think back to d2. Every level that you got was a big deal because it was another skill point in your skills. Ven level 99 to 100 you would be like yes!!! Skill point now where to put that. That’s the feeling I want from this game. Right now you hit level 20 skill by level 40-50 and then its just blah try something new. I’m not saying that giving skills 30 levels or giving a skill point for skills each character level is the right way butt I want that feeling that every level matters
And d2 made you make very very hard decisions.
Seems we have very different memories of D2 
All skills were locked behind a level requirement. The highest skills needed level 30 to unlock. And those weren’t the mightiest skills in the game. For example a nova sorc got her main skill with level 12. So you skilled 20 points (I think this was max cap) in nova and are out skilled with level 32. And all the skillpoints did was increasing the main stat (damage / duration /…), nothing changed mechanically. So the rest of your progression you leveled synergy skills that did the same like leveling the main skill but with lower impact.
Your damage was maxed out with around lvl 70-80 when all skills and synergies were maxed. Till max lvl 99 you only could improve your passive stats.
I never leveled a character above lvl 90 because it was not necessary.
So there was this one moment early to midgame when you got your favoured skill. Rest was just constant damage increase with no climax at all.
What made decisions matter was the fact that you couldn’t respec.
When you think about D2 you probably see things very biased because of the good time you had. But if you would use the same mechanics like back then people would not like it today. It was a different time with different expectations.
well its been about 10 years so yea idk, i remember playing necro and there were several skills and each point i put in could give them damage or raise 1 more maximum. I barely remember but i do remember that each level was like… Yes!!! now where to put it!! How often between skill level 15-20 do you say oiii boyyyy here we go!! Never cause you already got the skill the way you want it build now its just a twinkle of added filler.
I could image a second tree in the tree that you unlock after hitting level 20. With this tree you could increase all the passive bonuses of your skill.
But afaik Sarno stated that they are going to increase skill level progression time. Additional skillnodes would make respecing much harder I think.
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Thats even more of the problem… so level 15-20 dont really hold any wow factor and now were going to make those levels slower and harder to get and respec 
That could be a really cool addition. Each skill could maybe to go level 25, but 21-25 points were specifically for an unlocked “elite” skill tree that doesn’t appear until level 20. Those levels past 20 could take a lot longer to get to as well. Similar to leveling “Awakened” Gems in Path of Exile.
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Sounds good, though Disintegrate needs to get the “Extra Wet Noodle” & “Can’t aim up stairs 'cause I’m a Dalek” nodes. And Shield/Hammer Throw need the “Redheaded Stepchild” node.
Yeah! But Desintegrate would stay as week as it is compared to the other skills. It should be viable before hitting the 20+ extra perks because other skills are right now. This skill built towards damage should melt the stones that prevent you falling from the map. Worst skill right now for me. The tree and the perks sound nice. Just performance is u underwhelming.
I’ve been thinking about this while I’ve been making my tempest strike build and am conflicted about skill extra points. When I look at the other 4 skills I’m using right now, it doesn’t feel like they need an additional 5 points to make them any better. Avalanche, ice thorns, thorn totem and storm totem feel fine with 20. 5 extra points in tempest strike, however, would be really wild. I could pick more baseline proc chance and flat damage or you could really justify going all in on buffing the individual element if you choose. Again I’m conflicted on it because you can look at the Tempest Strike tree and say “wow, this is a good tree because I’m forced to make a decision and go a certain path”, unlike the others I’m using that seem to only have one way to go. Is the middle ground on this being able to select a “Main” skill and get a few bonus points to spec into it or are we being too early to judge and there is still significant tree rework coming for most of the existing skills?
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I wouldn’t say significant reworks for most skills. I think most skills are in a pretty good place and just need some tweeking to get them in to that sweet spot. Several high profile skills are in desperate need of reworks but we have to prioritize between reworking old trees and making new ones for new skills. I’m sure skill trees are something that will continue to get tweeked and fully rebuilt after 1.0 we don’t like to set things in stone in general.
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Is the general intent to keep the # of nodes in a skill tree roughly at current levels, or to possibly add to it in the long term to maybe a 50% increase from current levels, or even more?
Currently the plan is to have about 25 to 30 nodes per skill tree. Some trees are significantly under this number. Those ones will get more nodes. We find that’s generally the sweet spot where we can get a tree to not have too many dud nodes and still have interesting choices that pull you in multiple directions while still being digestible. We tried making a tree with 42 nodes (summon skeleton), it didn’t work out too well and we split it in to two trees that each are much better I think.
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