Statistical customisation invites tinkering, and the passive tree does not allow it

In a game where a unique drops that has nothing to do with your build, it sure would be nice to be able to respec to use that unique item. Not saying only relevant uniques should drop for a build/class, just that it's rather stupid to not allow a total respec when game changing uniques drop at level 46 and you're already committed to another build.

Perhaps a separate "total rebuild" orb would be in store, or perhaps a better solution would be starting a character with 2 or 3 "completely reset skill points" available. Once used, no more would show up for that character and you'd be limited to orbs of regret.

Won't you be just as annoyed when your second unique drops (as it will) and you want to rebuild around that? I think allowing one full respec is potentially kind of a compromise which neither the purists, nor the life-should-be-easy players - nor the many in between - particularly support. Just my opinion, natch.

Petrov.

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TehHammer wrote:

In a game where a unique drops that has nothing to do with your build, it sure would be nice to be able to respec to use that unique item. Not saying only relevant uniques should drop for a build/class, just that it's rather stupid to not allow a total respec when game changing uniques drop at level 46 and you're already committed to another build.

Perhaps a separate "total rebuild" orb would be in store, or perhaps a better solution would be starting a character with 2 or 3 "completely reset skill points" available. Once used, no more would show up for that character and you'd be limited to orbs of regret.

We have thing called a stash, and it allows us to share items with our other characters. Just make a different character build around that unique. People did that all the time in Diablo 2. They would design a build around items they had found with other characters. I did it all the time.

I like that there is weight behind our choices in POE. I actually feel like Im making my character and I feel a lot more invested in it. If I could just respec willy nilly then I would lose all connection to that character. Plus leveling up a new build is a different experience then just respecing at a high level.

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Artophwar wrote:

I like that there is weight behind our choices in POE. I actually feel like Im making my character and I feel a lot more invested in it. If I could just respec willy nilly then I would lose all connection to that character. Plus leveling up a new build is a different experience then just respecing at a high level.

You give people the ability to respec 2 or 3 times, that's not the ability to respec "all willy nilly". I want there to be a sense of commitment to a build, but at the same time, I want to be able to change if a crazy event happens (like finding a unique).

If I find a rare 2H 5L Axe at level 43 and I'm spec'd to use 1H swords, that could be a relatively minor change, and everything in place now would work fine for it. But if I'm spec'd to roll Staves and a godly level 56 bow drops, I don't want to have to level another character 55 times to be able to use that one weapon. It's fine the way it is, but it WILL hurt the game's popularity. And particularly in a beta where starting a new character and getting him to level 56 might mean the next day finding out there is going to be a legacy migration and all that time spent trying to get to use that bow means either playing in the inferior legacy league or starting all over... again.

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Sairony wrote:

A case can be made in the other direction. If it's free to experiment on the grid people will find the optimal solution fast, after which everyone re-specs to it.

That's what I'm more afraid of.

Orbs of Regret are fine by me. Honestly, for a F2P game, GGG has incentive to make gear customization via orbs as painful a process as possible...

As a disclaimer, I only read the first page of this thread and wanted to touch on the idea of "Best Builds"

Where is the fun in that?

If you are just copying some other players build you are not going to discover novel and unique strategies of playing, and will quickly get bored due to copying what others do.
It seems, to me at least, to be a lot more fun coming up with strange combinations of skills and passives and seeing if they work. You can get a char up to lvl30 in a matter of hours, and usually by then its apparent whether the build will be viable in the long term.
One of the biggest draws of Path Of Exile to me is the practically infinite possible combinations of skills, passives, and gear mods (Someone who enjoys mathing it up in the mechanics thread could entertain themselves for an evening trying to find out the actual number) that allow you to make an incredible array of playstyles.

The players who only want to be "uber" will always exist, and to let them drive the direction of char development is what went horribly wrong in D3. That's why many D3 players are now complaining about the lack of variety.

To me this argument boils down to how long it takes to level a character.

for instance in D2 i kept remaking my sorceress character over and over when i would get new and better drops because i could give her better stat allocations with it making her more powerful.

The reason it was ok was because you could level up to about 60-70 in a night or two, and be in your 80s a couple nights later.



If it took weeks to level up the character, i would be pissed after the first time i needed to remake the character... and i would probably be screaming about "we need respec option"

Am I the only one that doesn't consider spending 40 hours o gameplay on a character only to have them start to fail at life in later stages to NOT be a waste?
Its a learning experience. I wanted to experiment with a new character and I got as far as I could go and if it didn't work out, well, chalk it up and make a new one.
That is all I used to do in Diablo 2 until in the end I was only left with my group of powerhouses that all made the cut.
That is half the fun for me. I am glad repseccing is not something that can be done easily.