Build Diversity is and will always be low

they will keep adding skill gems and support gems on top of new meta and whatnot

on top of adding weapons and classes and ascendacies

no weapon is restricted , u can play a dual weild 2h sorc

"

Quizzlemanizzle#2632 wrote:

"

Xzorn#7046 wrote:

Skills being weapon restricted follows suit with what they've been doing for quite a while. There was a time Witch and Shadow could melee. Ranger made a decent caster well as Chieftain. Limiting it further is no surprise. They couldn't balance PoE1 at all.

I'm not sure if you noticed but majority of the Ascendancy options do not specify much. You can pick a Monk or Merc and go literally any direction with them on the tree. There's only one perk each between Invoker and Stormweaver that actually decides if you go melee or caster.

The single Support gem I think might cause issues. Likewise your max number of skills should be per weapon set. Not in total. These are the things which are going to limit options.

What are you even talking about.

You can still make melee Witch and Shadow in Poe1 and you can do the same in Poe2.

People are playing Melee Blood Mage already or Melee Mercenary and Caster Monk.

Melee skills have had weapon requirements in Poe1 already. Same in Poe2. Spells generally do not have weapon requirements.

Stat Stick Golems was my jam. It's pretty terribly by comparison. Only Trickster can reasonably try to melee. It's all mostly because of the Fortify changes and now Endurance Charges.

I'm not sure why you repeated what I said about PoE2 Ascendancy but the Weapon req generally forces the build to only pick from adjacent weapon options to the path they picked. I was explaining it is more restrictive on weapons but not bad as OP thinks. For instance it's much harder to hang out in Templar/Witch area and use a high level Bow since you only get +5 and no large nodes for Dex.

If a Chronomancer wants to use a Bow it's more ideal for them to go down the Merc/Ranger area than the Witch area and try to make up for the stats but they can still use both a Bow and Crossbow if they wanted. Least for now. There are more restricted options which makes me wonder if they will keep it open ended on Ascendancy choice or limit it more like they did with PoE1.

Making skills tied to weapons so much is a bad idea. Even things like totems or granades require a particular weapon. Same with bashing skils, some should be free to choose them with staff, mace, and even flail. Similar with cuts, pierces, shots (some skills working for bows and crossbows).