How make more class distinction without removing build flexibility

I love the skill tree, and enjoy the fact that you can create flexible builds and can access many skill points far from your start point. This however leaves classes not feeling unique enough for me.

My Idea is to have more Keystones and notable that they are only accessed by other Keystones, for example, hex master into Whisper of Doom and the dodge to spell dodge keystones. This would force you to invest a lot of skill points to select a powerful keystone, so builds that want to stay in there general area will be rewarded while the more flexible builds may not have the point to invest in them.

So if my point does not make sense, I will give an example.
Let’s take the Marauder area : Resolute Technique, what if Resolute Technique had an 3 strength nodes after, and then splits into a 2-hand and shield Keystone
2-hand could be:
• Penetrating Hit, remove or lower physical reflect on damage but cannot do elemental damage.
• Iron Defense, takes 15% less damage, but cannot hold a shield
(something to make two handed build special)

Shield could be:
Towering Shield, every block returns damage to attacker, but cannot cast spells

These are just example, so if they are bad, don’t be a hater, but the point is people should be rewarded for a focused build, (2-hander build).

Anyway I hope my post was understandable, and I think it will make the game more exciting

In theory I'm for this suggestion to allow more distinctive builds in the passive tree and I like your melee specific keystones, let's see what GGG comes up with in the next expansion.

sounds good to me

I think if they were going to take the phase acro and whisper of doom idea further it would be cool for them to introduce several mini 'mastery' trees in which at like, idk lvl 70, where you can pick one of them giving your character more distinction and also give more progression options late game.

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GeorgAnatoly wrote:

I think if they were going to take the phase acro and whisper of doom idea further it would be cool for them to introduce several mini 'mastery' trees in which at like, idk lvl 70, where you can pick one of them giving your character more distinction and also give more progression options late game.

I think this is a great idea too!

Anything to allow for more specialization.

I'd settle for each class area being a keystone itself.

This is a great suggestion. Even if it was just an example, making more specialisation after resolute technique can only expand build diversity. You can even turn it around so that you have to take another keystone before resolute technique, either improving one handed or two handed.

I also want to do the same with Unwavering Stance, so first keystone is 50% chance to avoid being stunned then 3x15% nodes after that.

For blood magic keystone I would like to have some good armor nodes like 30% for each or so to make that keystone attractive.

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puviel wrote:

This is a great suggestion. Even if it was just an example, making more specialisation after resolute technique can only expand build diversity. You can even turn it around so that you have to take another keystone before resolute technique, either improving one handed or two handed.

I also want to do the same with Unwavering Stance, so first keystone is 50% chance to avoid being stunned then 3x15% nodes after that.

For blood magic keystone I would like to have some good armor nodes like 30% for each or so to make that keystone attractive.

Armor is kinda bad at making you tankier. I'd recommend raw physical resistance (+% Phys Resist or +Flat Resist based off [stat]) rather than Armor/Evade/Health due to how the mechanics work.

Note that adding "tax" to keynodes does in fact reduce build flexibility by forcing (potentially crippling) specialization.