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POE's one dealbreaker for me : no full respecs of your passive tree

FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

This game has 100 levels with a very in depth passive skill tree.  Occasionally a quest will give you a free respec point for one skill and there are rare orbs of regret that will do the same thing.

 

Both Blizzard and the developers of Titan Quest (in their expansion) realized what a horrible design decision it was to force people to reroll if they didn't like their build.  It's not an issue in Torchlight as mods are quickly released to address such a horrible design decision.  The only reason it was tolerable in D2, before they added full respecs for a minor grind, was that you could rush new characters to Baal hell within a day or two. 

 

This is the only dealbreaker for me in POE. If I level a marauder to 90 and decide that I don't like my current sword and board build, why on earth should I have to create a brand new character?  I see no positives, other than having to really think out your build ahead of time and avoiding flavor of the month rebuilding. 

 

I'd suggest:

 

1) Offer one full respec per difficulty level completed

2) decent grind to earn a full respec if you run out from #1

3) Considering it's a F2P game, selling a respec for a few dollars would be fine as well.

 

 

 

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Comments

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

    Originally posted by Aori

    Originally posted by FrodoFragins

    This game has 100 levels with a very in depth passive skill tree.  Occasionally a quest will give you a free respec point for one skill and there are rare orbs of regret that will do the same thing.

     

    Both Blizzard and the developers of Titan Quest realized what a horrible design decision it was to force people to reroll if they didn't like their build.  It's not an issue in Torchlight as mods are quickly released to address such a horrible design decision.  The only reason it was tolerable in D2, before they added full respecs for a minor grind, was that you could rush new characters to Baal hell within a day or two. 

     

    This is the only dealbreaker for me in POE. If I level a marauder to 90 and decide that I don't like my current sword and board build, why on earth should I have to create a brand new character?  I see no positives, other than having to really think out your build ahead of time and avoiding flavor of the month rebuilding. 

     

    I'd suggest:

     

    1) Offer one full respec per difficulty level completed

    2) decent grind to earn a full respec if you run out from #1

    3) Considering it's a F2P game, selling a respec for a few dollars would be fine as well.

     

     

     

    Bingo, you figured out their plan :p

    Has that been announced?

  • gaeanprayergaeanprayer Member UncommonPosts: 2,341

    Originally posted by Aori

    Originally posted by FrodoFragins

     

     

    3) Considering it's a F2P game, selling a respec for a few dollars would be fine as well.

     

     

     

    Bingo, you figured out their plan :p

    That would be my guess as well. I was actually enjoying my time in PoE, but I found the passive skill tree to be a major cluster-fuck, and unnecessarily complex. It's not the amount of skills there to choose from, and the amount of customization, but the placement and difficulty in keeping track of your intended path and available skills. It looks like they took the Final Fantasy 10 system and sort of ran with it. 

    I'm all for complexity, but with something that extreme, you need to give people a way to fix the mistakes they are absolutely, 100% bound to make eventually. I don't mind them selling it, but if its overpriced, that's going to look like the system was made purposely complex in order to trip people up. Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    "Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

    Originally posted by gaeanprayer

    That would be my guess as well. I was actually enjoying my time in PoE, but I found the passive skill tree to be a major cluster-fuck, and unnecessarily complex. It's not the amount of skills there to choose from, and the amount of customization, but the placement and difficulty in keeping track of your intended path and available skills. It looks like they took the Final Fantasy 10 system and sort of ran with it. 

    I'm all for complexity, but with something that extreme, you need to give people a way to fix the mistakes they are absolutely, 100% bound to make eventually. I don't mind them selling it, but if its overpriced, that's going to look like the system was made purposely complex in order to trip people up. Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    It's absolutely too convoluted.  It's a major min/max nightmare really unless i want to find cookie cutter builds.  At this point I've seen enough of the game to put it way behind D3 and TL2 based purely on subjective fun factor.

     

    It's impossible to grade this game without knowing their final store model and pricing.  All I know is that if there isn't a full respec option at all then I will most likely not be playing it on release.

     

     

  • ElderRatElderRat Member CommonPosts: 899

    Originally posted by FrodoFragins

    Originally posted by gaeanprayer



    That would be my guess as well. I was actually enjoying my time in PoE, but I found the passive skill tree to be a major cluster-fuck, and unnecessarily complex. It's not the amount of skills there to choose from, and the amount of customization, but the placement and difficulty in keeping track of your intended path and available skills. It looks like they took the Final Fantasy 10 system and sort of ran with it. 

    I'm all for complexity, but with something that extreme, you need to give people a way to fix the mistakes they are absolutely, 100% bound to make eventually. I don't mind them selling it, but if its overpriced, that's going to look like the system was made purposely complex in order to trip people up. Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    It's absolutely too convoluted.  It's a major min/max nightmare really unless i want to find cookie cutter builds.  At this point I've seen enough of the game to put it way behind D3 and TL2 based purely on subjective fun factor.

     

    It's impossible to grade this game without knowing their final store model and pricing.  All I know is that if there isn't a full respec option at all then I will most likely not be playing it on release.

     

     

    Guess i am twisted because I love how convulted it is.

    Currently bored with MMO's.

  • NinetynineNinetynine Member Posts: 4

    Not being able to completely change your Passive Skills sounds like a great ide!

    Hope they wont add some item in Shop that will make it possible.

  • ThanosxpThanosxp Member UncommonPosts: 177

    Originally posted by Ninetynine

    Not being able to completely change your Passive Skills sounds like a great ide!

    Hope they wont add some item in Shop that will make it possible.

    Care to explain why? And yesterday a dev said they don't plan to add an auction house in the game. THAT was the deal breaker for me. Spamming in global for trade, and not even a trade interface yet? 

  • ZadawnZadawn Member UncommonPosts: 670

    quoted from their site:

     

    Path of Exile doesn’t allow entire-character passive-skill respecs. We will allow a limited quantity of small-scale respecs to fix mistakes or planning errors, but we want to encourage people to build a new character rather than entirely repurpose an existing one. This isn’t just because we want people to play our game more, but because it’s meant to be fun to play characters, rather than some chore that people want to press a button to skip. Also, the quality of characters evolved through play is often substantially higher than that of characters that have all of their passive skills allocated in one go. As we’ve seen from resetting passives in the Alpha, many players are very short-sighted with their skill allocation and skip important skills to maximize damage. This means they don’t have the right amount of life/mana/accuracy and other crucial stats they wouldn’t think to allocate without actually playing the character as they allocate the points. The lack of full respecs means that it’s not trivial for people to merely copy a good build from the internet. This rewards players who come up with innovative builds themselves.


  • MikkelBMikkelB Member Posts: 240

    The lack of full respecs means that it’s not trivial for people to merely copy a good build from the internet. This rewards players who come up with innovative builds themselves.

    Could someone explain that part to me? It sounds cryptic to me. Firstly, the don't give out full respecs to make people plan ahead. Then they say that it's "not trivial" to copy & paste builds (I don't get that part) and that it rewards player who come up with innovative builds (how?).

    The lack of full respecs caters to the Diablo 2 crowd I guess, the ones that dislike the skillsystem in Diablo 3. Fair enough, not my cup of tea, but what the heck. But the first thing a lot of people are going to do, is look up builds, because people are "shortsighted" like they said and don't want to plan their whole way to level 100. The only "reward" I can think of, is that someone tries something new, posts his build on the Internet and people start to use it.

    For me no full respecs is a dealbreaker. I don't like building three Marauders for example, because I want a sword & board, a dual wielder and a two-hand wielder. It's three times the same champion, with nearly the same skills, just better in some areas and worse in others.

  • ZadawnZadawn Member UncommonPosts: 670

    i personally go neutral on this one.For me it is neither bar nor good.


  • DraftbeerDraftbeer Member UncommonPosts: 517

    What if I plan ahead my whole passive build til lv100 - I start to play stick with my build

    just to reach a point where it turns it's not viable at all?

    I definitely not going to reroll just to start another experiment again, the game is good but not that good.

     

    No full respec - big nono for me.

  • ElderRatElderRat Member CommonPosts: 899

    Originally posted by Zadawn

    quoted from their site:

     

    Path of Exile doesn’t allow entire-character passive-skill respecs. We will allow a limited quantity of small-scale respecs to fix mistakes or planning errors, but we want to encourage people to build a new character rather than entirely repurpose an existing one. This isn’t just because we want people to play our game more, but because it’s meant to be fun to play characters, rather than some chore that people want to press a button to skip. Also, the quality of characters evolved through play is often substantially higher than that of characters that have all of their passive skills allocated in one go. As we’ve seen from resetting passives in the Alpha, many players are very short-sighted with their skill allocation and skip important skills to maximize damage. This means they don’t have the right amount of life/mana/accuracy and other crucial stats they wouldn’t think to allocate without actually playing the character as they allocate the points. The lack of full respecs means that it’s not trivial for people to merely copy a good build from the internet. This rewards players who come up with innovative builds themselves.

    I would tend to agree - I have been playing a witch  and started a new character to solve some of my mistakes(?). I like both characters.  The second one is more rounded.  The first one is concetrated more on spell damage/casting.  I like the approach, ut am probably in the minority, at least here on MMORPG.Com

     

    Currently bored with MMO's.

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247

    Originally posted by Zadawn

    quoted from their site:

     

    Path of Exile doesn’t allow entire-character passive-skill respecs. We will allow a limited quantity of small-scale respecs to fix mistakes or planning errors, but we want to encourage people to build a new character rather than entirely repurpose an existing one. This isn’t just because we want people to play our game more, but because it’s meant to be fun to play characters, rather than some chore that people want to press a button to skip. Also, the quality of characters evolved through play is often substantially higher than that of characters that have all of their passive skills allocated in one go. As we’ve seen from resetting passives in the Alpha, many players are very short-sighted with their skill allocation and skip important skills to maximize damage. This means they don’t have the right amount of life/mana/accuracy and other crucial stats they wouldn’t think to allocate without actually playing the character as they allocate the points. The lack of full respecs means that it’s not trivial for people to merely copy a good build from the internet. This rewards players who come up with innovative builds themselves.

    Holy crap. Please tell me that's a random post from one of our local armchair developers and not from a person who is actually making a commcercial game. :(

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
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  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

    Originally posted by MikkelB

    The lack of full respecs means that it’s not trivial for people to merely copy a good build from the internet. This rewards players who come up with innovative builds themselves.

    Could someone explain that part to me? It sounds cryptic to me. Firstly, the don't give out full respecs to make people plan ahead. Then they say that it's "not trivial" to copy & paste builds (I don't get that part) and that it rewards player who come up with innovative builds (how?).

    The lack of full respecs caters to the Diablo 2 crowd I guess, the ones that dislike the skillsystem in Diablo 3. Fair enough, not my cup of tea, but what the heck. But the first thing a lot of people are going to do, is look up builds, because people are "shortsighted" like they said and don't want to plan their whole way to level 100. The only "reward" I can think of, is that someone tries something new, posts his build on the Internet and people start to use it.

    For me no full respecs is a dealbreaker. I don't like building three Marauders for example, because I want a sword & board, a dual wielder and a two-hand wielder. It's three times the same champion, with nearly the same skills, just better in some areas and worse in others.

    Those lines aren't very clear to me at all.  All I know is I'm better off finding a guide to build the type of character I want, than experiementing.  Maybe after a year or so, if they haven't added content, I might want to reroll and experiment a bit.  But frankly, it's just a passive tree that won't greatly change the gameplay experience for quite some time.  I never found rerolling the same class in D2 to be fun.  It was a necessary grind in order to change your build due to mistakes, patch changes, or to make them more viable in hell.

     

    My guess now is that they want people to use up their character slots and buy the following items from their store:

     

    1) extra character slots

    2) extra stash space - shared by all characters in the same league

     

    They have to monetize the game somehow.  I'd just prefer it as a B2P game with full respecs.  I'd rather roll all of teh classes than keep rerolling the same one until I like my build.  I don't think they really understand the allure of the genre to most.

  • spikers14spikers14 Member UncommonPosts: 531

    Originally posted by ElderRat

    Originally posted by FrodoFragins


    Originally posted by gaeanprayer



    That would be my guess as well. I was actually enjoying my time in PoE, but I found the passive skill tree to be a major cluster-fuck, and unnecessarily complex. It's not the amount of skills there to choose from, and the amount of customization, but the placement and difficulty in keeping track of your intended path and available skills. It looks like they took the Final Fantasy 10 system and sort of ran with it. 

    I'm all for complexity, but with something that extreme, you need to give people a way to fix the mistakes they are absolutely, 100% bound to make eventually. I don't mind them selling it, but if its overpriced, that's going to look like the system was made purposely complex in order to trip people up. Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    It's absolutely too convoluted.  It's a major min/max nightmare really unless i want to find cookie cutter builds.  At this point I've seen enough of the game to put it way behind D3 and TL2 based purely on subjective fun factor.

     

    It's impossible to grade this game without knowing their final store model and pricing.  All I know is that if there isn't a full respec option at all then I will most likely not be playing it on release.

     

     

    Guess i am twisted because I love how convulted it is.

    I like the passive skill tree, but it leaves me wanting more from the experience...For example -- Why, in an open-ended progression game, do I need to choose a class at the beginning? To decide how I look? Decide where I start on the tree? Its just seems counter to the whole web skill tree.

    I would prefer, with a huge web skill system such as this, to participate more in the way my character looks. Also, I would like to decide the point i will begin my skill progression WHEN I want, rather than choose a superficial class with no (visual) customization up front. Then from there, let me explore the web from some static point. The real difference is -- what 5-10 skill points anyway? It just doesn't make any sense the way it is now, and each point really does not represent a new passive. Most are repeats and not placed in a manner that makes cohesive builds practical (for the most part).

    But to the Op, whether you choose to pay to respec or farm orbs of regret, your build will always be limited. It is based on the amount of resources you are willing to put into the game (money or time). With a skill tree like this, there will always be mistakes or even small things you want to change. I'm quite sure that is by design, so, of course its F2P?

  • CaldrinCaldrin Member UncommonPosts: 4,505

    I dont mind it like it is, you can find re-spec things that do 1 point like you said and you can also buy them from some stores.

    I have no issue with this at all, in RPGs i like to have to work for things dont like any of this instant gratification stuff and I really think it needs to stay away from all types of RPGs..

  • FargolFargol Member UncommonPosts: 303

    Originally posted by spikers14

    Originally posted by ElderRat


    Originally posted by FrodoFragins


    Originally posted by gaeanprayer



    That would be my guess as well. I was actually enjoying my time in PoE, but I found the passive skill tree to be a major cluster-fuck, and unnecessarily complex. It's not the amount of skills there to choose from, and the amount of customization, but the placement and difficulty in keeping track of your intended path and available skills. It looks like they took the Final Fantasy 10 system and sort of ran with it. 

    I'm all for complexity, but with something that extreme, you need to give people a way to fix the mistakes they are absolutely, 100% bound to make eventually. I don't mind them selling it, but if its overpriced, that's going to look like the system was made purposely complex in order to trip people up. Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    It's absolutely too convoluted.  It's a major min/max nightmare really unless i want to find cookie cutter builds.  At this point I've seen enough of the game to put it way behind D3 and TL2 based purely on subjective fun factor.

     

    It's impossible to grade this game without knowing their final store model and pricing.  All I know is that if there isn't a full respec option at all then I will most likely not be playing it on release.

     

     

    Guess i am twisted because I love how convulted it is.

    I like the passive skill tree, but it leaves me wanting more from the experience...For example -- Why, in an open-ended progression game, do I need to choose a class at the beginning? To decide how I look? Decide where I start on the tree? Its just seems counter to the whole web skill tree.

    This.

    While it's nice to run a duel wielding witch, is that going to be viable at higher levels? By putting together a hybrid, I might be skipping passives I really need, such as Armor passives for my marauder. It just doesn't feel cohesive. The game is fun as all get go, for sure, but the passive tree leaves me feeling a bit detached.
  • KostKost Member CommonPosts: 1,975

    Originally posted by Aori

    Bingo, you figured out their plan :p

    Exactly.

    And no, it has not been formally announced, but it is pretty common knowledge on the forums by this point that respecs and items that enhance or alter your appearance will absolutely be for sale.

    Atm they are only selling extra Stash Tabs and Character Slots, but by sometime next month that will change.

  • KostKost Member CommonPosts: 1,975

    Originally posted by Caldrin

    I dont mind it like it is, you can find re-spec things that do 1 point like you said and you can also buy them from some stores.

    By "Stores" do you actually mean a Vendor?

    If yes, then no, you cannot purchase Orbs of Regret on any vendor.

  • DeserttFoxxDeserttFoxx Member UncommonPosts: 2,402

    Well after actually playing the game ive found several quests that give you passive tree refunds, also there are items you can find that do the same when you play on higher difficulties.

     

    But then again, i actually played the game.

    Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy

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  • KostKost Member CommonPosts: 1,975

    Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

    Well after actually playing the game ive found several quests that give you passive tree refunds, also there are items you can find that do the same when you play on higher difficulties.

     

    But then again, i actually played the game.

    Good luck redistributing 66 or more points with orbs of regret and quest reward respec points.

    Not feasible at all.

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

    Originally posted by Unreal024

    Originally posted by gaeanprayer

    Hopefully the game developes enough of an audience that some kind, able soul will make a skill calculator.

    There is already an official skill calculator available on the PoE website, there's also an unofficial offline skill calculator which can be downloaded from the sticky post in the beta general section of the forums. There used to be an unofficial online calculator that was much better than the official one, but it's since been discontinued and the link now just leads back to the official one.

     

    Link for the offline skilltree: http://path-of-exile-skilltree-planer.googlecode.com/files/POESKillTree_1.001.zip

    I personally dont like the offline calc, and it didnt help that I never could get it running correctly.

     

    I agree about the respecs, I've brought it up on the forums and my concerns have mostly been brushed aside. The majority on their forums, which will ultimately be the minority who actually play (and pay), seem to feel that there shouldn't be an 'easy' way to respec. I feel it's one of the largest faults of the game, and in the end may be it's downfall. I like the game, a lot, but the devs are too willing to listen to the vocal minority on their forums and too unwilling to veer from their idea of exactly how the game should be.

    I assumed it was stubborn developers and that the players they attract are just the ones that agree with them.  I also think it is their biggest flaw.  I was playing during a fairly quiet time and asked the devs online if they considered allowing full respecs and they simply ignored the question.  If they are  planning on offering full respecs in their cash shop and simply staying quiet until release, then I won't really respect them very much.  I'd much rather just pay $20 up front than have that feature in the shop.

  • StekkyStekky Member Posts: 36

    I have several orbs of regret already.   They aren't THAT hard to come by to be honest and are a tradable item.     If you are serious about a full respec it is possible.      

     

    I don't get why people have such a difficult time making decisions that have some level of permanance to them.     That's half the fun in these games.      

  • dave6660dave6660 Member UncommonPosts: 2,699

    You mean a game exists on market in this day and age that requires you to plan ahead?  Oh the horror!

    Where do I sign up!?

    “There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.”
    -- Herman Melville

  • CitalkayCitalkay Member Posts: 141

    Originally posted by dave6660

    You mean a game exists on market in this day and age that requires you to plan ahead?  Oh the horror!

    Where do I sign up!?

    +1

  • dave6660dave6660 Member UncommonPosts: 2,699

    Originally posted by Unreal024

    Originally posted by dave6660

    You mean a game exists on market in this day and age that requires you to plan ahead?  Oh the horror!

    Where do I sign up!?

    You can plan ahead all you want, it doesn't help if you have no idea what is going to be viable and what is not. I can tell you right now that you can completely screw your character within the first few levels. If every build were viable in the higher difficulties then no one would care.

     

    It's no fun when you hit the third difficulty, and your already level 50, to find out that you have messed up big time and your only choice to fix it is to reroll. The orbs and the few points you get from quests are just not good enough, often you realize that you messed up early on, and the passives you need to replace are nested behind 20 other passives. Or, other times you may find out that what you wanted to do works better with another class. The average person would wind up having to reroll four to five times just to figure out a way to make what they wanted to do viable. And that's just for one spec, let's say a ranged spec with a bow, that's not even taking into account having a 2-hander, caster, sword & board, etc. How many people are going to stick around for that?

     

    All the current system does is promote the use of FotM builds even more. People will use whatever builds the 'hardcore' come up with because they know it will work, and they won't have to put any brain power into it. At least if we could get a few respecs per character, and I'm talking like one per difficulty, then you wouldn't have to reroll as much. Then the average player might not be so discouraged from trying to find their own way or even completely change up the way they play.

     

    Their best option is to just give in and give us a few respecs per character. I'm sure they're banking on respecs being a big seller in the cash shop, but I have to wonder how many people will actually pay? Oh sure, the 'hardcore' figuring out the FotM specs will, but everyone else will either use a FotM build or just stop playing.

    In games like this I know when I start that my first character is pretty much a throw away character.  I use him to learn the ropes, see what works and what does not and also to see if I like the class.  I never ever follow FOTM anything so I'm not concerned with what "hardcore" players do.  I'm in no rush to beat the game or hit max level so starting over doesn't bother me.

    In the end they probably will give players a full respec, through a cash shop.

    “There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.”
    -- Herman Melville

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