More combined nodes in the skill tree

I would really like to see more nodes in the skill tree that have benefits for entirely different characters.

For instance in the Marauder area you have nodes for Axe and Swords. These have potential benefits for sword or axe users.

I would like to see similar nodes, such as (Sword Damage + Spell damage) or (Bow Damage + Melee Physical Damage). Also dropping the "melee" part of some of the One Handed nodes would be nice, to make more viable Wand builds.

I think more of these types of hybrid style nodes would lead to much higher build diversity without making the skill tree more complex. It could also lead to more viable hybrid characters that I think a lot of people would like playing. Being able to have a viable second set of abilities tied to your second weapon set would become much easier.

This would obviously only work with nodes types that would not both affect the same ability.

if you want a versatile build you can try playing with the scion. she has nearby nodes for auras, life/mana, res, energy shield, ele dps of each type, trap nodes, claw nodes, sword nodes, dagger nodes, sword nodes, bow nodes, crit nodes, and a variety of other kinds. scions almost have too many advantages near their area of the passive tree... but i suppose that's what makes them so popular. hope that helps with your planning of a versatile build.

I'm less concerned about making a single character versatile, than making the entire tree a little more flexible.

For instance, to build a Wand using character starting from the bottom of the tree you end up needing to go all the way to the witch area to grab wand nodes.

They could easily double up on more of the nodes without making any skills easily overpowered. They already do this in a few places.

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druid318 wrote:

I'm less concerned about making a single character versatile, than making the entire tree a little more flexible.

For instance, to build a Wand using character starting from the bottom of the tree you end up needing to go all the way to the witch area to grab wand nodes.

They could easily double up on more of the nodes without making any skills easily overpowered. They already do this in a few places.

you should choose your class based on what nodes you want most of. it would simply be silly to do a duelist wander when there are no helpful wand nodes near the duelist. what would be the purpose of having different classes if each allowed for the same builds?

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If you want a bow marauder for example you gotta move across the tree to get to whatever nodes you benefit most from.

what nodes near a marauder benefit a bower though? bowers should choose scion or ranger... there are different classes for a reason.

Just glancing at the tree I see Fire Damage nodes in the marauder section, and the most glaringly obvious ranged node for a marauder being Iron Grip. Moving to the complete oposite end of the tree the witch has fairly easy access to both dual wielding nodes and mace, staff, melee nodes etc.

I think it is pretty obvious that the game designers are attempting to make the game as flexible as possible and my suggestion moves it in that direction.

If I wanted to play a game where only Rangers can use archery, or Witches use wands I would go play something with class based abilities like Diablo.

The other thing you guys seem to be missing is this would make it far easier to use two abilities instead of just spamming one skill all day long. Spellswords for instance could become much easier to build, or melee types with a bow as a backup weapon.

Furthermore they already have some nodes doing this, such as the Staff and Mace nodes, or the Sword and Axe nodes. I simply suggest that they increase this, as it would increase build flexibility and make the game a little more interesting.

There is nothing wrong with having small clusters of more diversely useful nodes.

However, you should realize that the more universally beneficial a node is, the less efficient it needs to be... or else everyone will nearly have to include it in their build (if it's just too good for everybody.)

Therefore, you might get a 10% melee physical damage node, or an 8% projectile damage node. Notice the drop in efficiency? The projectile node could benefit bows, wands, spells, or spectral throw... beneficial to a very diverse group. Meanwhile, neither of these are as efficient as even more specialized nodes (the ones you really want in your build.)

This means that if you have a small 3 node wheel that helps everyone, such as +% damage, it might then need to have nodes of say only 5% or 6% each. I'm not saying this would be bad to have available, but I am saying you also might often be better not using it...


But yes, I'd like to see more nodes. This includes both highly specialized nodes and also those with less efficiency and more diversity. You can't get everything. Choice is good. More nodes done properly could lead to more viable build alternatives. But don't get me wrong, there already is more stuff on the tree that you'll want to get than you can afford.