The developers at Blizzard have revealed more information about the upcoming ARPG Diablo 4 regarding the skill system. Accordingly, you cannot unlock all skills from the trees directly, so you have to focus on a specific build.
What is known about the skill trees? In the latest quarterly update on the development of Diablo 4, the devs highlighted the skill system. It is supposed to be unusually complex and actually looks like a “tree.” A nasty, blood-red demon tree. There, powerful passive skills can be found in the “roots.” The individual branches focus on specific effects and play styles.
There are square elements that unlock active skills. Round elements, on the other hand, unleash enhancements for existing skills.
Limited selection of skills makes builds more important
How many skills can be unlocked? The developers intentionally brought more skills into the game than you can unlock in one playthrough per character. When you reach the endgame, you should have unlocked between 30 and 40 percent of the available skills for your class.
This is the reaction: Among players on reddit, this harsh statement sparked mixed feelings. However, positive voices praised especially the “return of builds.” Because when you can no longer have all skills, you must focus clearly and skill a character in such a way that it can optimally utilize the available resources. Furthermore, this would encourage experimentation and having more than one character of the same class, which would differ radically.
- LukeSkycocker69: “This is very good. It makes each class at least 2 to 3 unique classes.”
- PianoEmeritus: “I’m excited about the philosophy of allowing only 30-40% of the talents in a build; please consider making reskilling relatively costly. It doesn’t have to be impossible, but it should be a bit of a torturous experience.”
However, some players criticize that you can reskill at any time, and that this limitation would only be annoying. User MrDryprosium says: “You can’t be excited about a skill tree when they just let us reskill the moment we leave combat.”
This is how classes become unique: Further information from the developers’ report shows how classes will further differentiate. Taking the Sorceress as an example, there will be a system called “Enchanting.”
With this, you can place any skills into a specific slot. Then the skills are no longer actively available. However, they will trigger passively in a slightly different manner. As an example, the developers mentioned the Meteor skill. As an active ability, you can rain down meteors as usual. However, as an enchantment, the skill regularly triggers random meteors that fall on enemies.
Overall, it is well received that the classes in Diablo 4 are all quite different and can still significantly differ through specific builds within the class. However, according to our MeinMMO author Patrick Freese, a specific class is still missing for Diablo 4 to truly rock at launch.
