Passive skill system- question

Hey there (new poster here)...this passive skill system looks a bit on the intense side. How do you know which direction would be best?

Do any of these passive skills have a dramatic effect on how you play or is it just 2% extra damage here and there (ect.) ?

When you create a new character, what exactly determines your choosing of one path over another given that you start with no skills and dont have an exact way of finding specific skills? (I am also somewhat unfamiliar with the skill gem system, so correct me if I am wrong)

From what I've read and seen, there are passives that provide modifications to attacks, like knock back upon critically hitting a target or elemental damage and effects of one kind or another on weapon strikes. In addition to that, activating the different passives provide stat point increases as well as the passive trait's benefit. The stat increases are larger if you activate a passive that shares the same stat orientation of your class. As a hypothetical example, a Witch or Templar activating an intelligence passive would receive 6 to intelligence and 2 or 3 points in the other 2 stats. A Marauder or Ranger activating an intelligence passive however, would receive 2 or 3 stat points across the board. One very well could level a Marauder's passives along the intelligence tree, it would just be a considerably bad idea as the bonuses received would be generally poor. Though there's something a bit entertaining about the idea of a wise and learned Marauder. :-D

I haven't had the opportunity to play yet though, this information is second-hand. I may have misinterpreted some things.

Thank you...

I like this passive system, it allows some interesting choices if you want to try builds that would normally be sub-optimal, but could still be quite useful.

The direction you take on the passive skill tree is really guided by two things: class and how you want to build your character.

There are two components of each passive skill point, and each is directly related to those two things. Each point you put into a passive skill will give you a predetermined amount of attributes (strength, dexterity, and intelligence), which is affected by where that skill is on the tree (whether it's in the strength, dex, or int areas of it) and your class. For example, a Marauder, which is a pure str character, will get +8 str from strength passives, while a Ranger, a pure dex. character, would only get +4 str. This is significant because it will limit both your gear and active skill development, as each require attributes to equip (or in the case of skills, level up).

After that, it really depends on how you want to play your character; search a bit for what passive skills look good (such as, you like 2-handed maces, fire skills, summoning zombies, bow skills, etc.) and then find a path to them. There are a lot of points in which you can move from area to area in it, so it's really quite flexible.

It's a bit confusing and overwhelming at first, but it quickly becomes interesting and fun once you start playing with it. Since all the skills are laid out as they are, as you level, you feel a real sense of "going somewhere" each time you put in a point.

Bombadil, you seem to have a little experience on the skill tree. Even if you have let's say a marauder, and that you put your points exclusively in the strength skills, isn't there still a terrible number of them? Is there a respec system, maybe not yet implemented, to let you experiment?

On most games without a respec, I hoard my skill points for many levels before I finally spend them... I hate that.

There will be a respec system implemented later that will let you respec a small number of points to fix mistakes.

You get 1 skill point per level so that's 100 skill points plus a few more from quests or other things.

Groups of common skills tend to be clustered together so it's usually not too difficult to decide where to go. If you want to use maces then you go to the giant cluster of mace skills.

What I'd really love is the ability to reorganize passive skills at will. It would be unfair in a fight (imagine keyboard macros that reorganize your skill tree for each attack), but reassembling it in a safe area (camp/village) would be great.

It would be great to try a close combat witch, without ruining the skill tree. There's a D2 sword necromancer build, that uses blood skills to gain life and increase damage. I'd have loved to try this, but my necros are bone and building a completely different one up to level 85 (that's the point where I found out whether a build is going to work) is just too much for a wild experiment.

Thanks for the clarification tpapp!

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lonkamikaze wrote:

What I'd really love is the ability to reorganize passive skills at will. It would be unfair in a fight (imagine keyboard macros that reorganize your skill tree for each attack), but reassembling it in a safe area (camp/village) would be great.

Word, that would be sick. Maybe have a league without any respec possibilities, so you have to know what to do from the beginning. And the default league would be like tpapp said.

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tpapp157 wrote:

There will be a respec system implemented later that will let you respec a small number of points to fix mistakes.

You get 1 skill point per level so that's 100 skill points plus a few more from quests or other things.

Groups of common skills tend to be clustered together so it's usually not too difficult to decide where to go. If you want to use maces then you go to the giant cluster of mace skills.

It will be cool to see a respec to the whole passive skill tree... so we can play as we want during level-up(make mistakes :D)If we are not happy with the current skills we can just respec however this should come in a price requiring certain items..To sum it up-you can respec all you want but it should be costly...