Skill Respec System: issue & suggestions

Sorry to create again a post on this topic, but this is the biggest game issue in my opinion that make me stop to play the game.

Last Epoch is an ARPG/Hack’n’Slash (or call as you prefer).
To me the the joy to play this kind of game is build experimentations that allow variety of gameplay. All the rest is linked to that (i.e. Loot system that here is nice)
To me on this field, LE is very very bad.

Main issue is Skill Respec system.
I like the idea to exp the skill so that you learn their potential on the way you level them, but I see two major issues:

1- If you respec skill point you’ve to exp them again all the way up. This is just very tedious and does not add anything good to the game.
This is even more true because the point you spend can completely change the playstile of a skill, but often they are not the first nodes in the skill tree (and I do agree with that).
=> SOLUTION? Just allow to redistribute the points you earn in the way you want without having to exp them again… I’ve already exped the skill point… why I have to loose my exp (and so my time) to just respec it? I already spend game currency

2- Even worse, if I already have levelled a skill and I wanna to change it to try another different one, I’m forced to fully unspec it to ZERO before removing it.
If the new skil I try is not fun to me or undeperforming with my build and I want to come back… It is really a pain!
=> SOLUTION: allow me to remove the skill without having to loose all the point I invest… the skill is not equipped and I should have not any bonus.

Really this system to me is very bad and actually I went back to play other games for this reason.

There are several post on this topic since the beginning, but I do not see any plan to change it.

Question to the dev: is it really planned to remain as is?
I sincerly hope not…

Thanks

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If you followed the posts about respec you will have noticed that opinions on this topic differ.

The main reason this mechanic is implemented as it is right now is to prevent instant and repeatedly swapping specs depending on the content you are going to play. This destroys build identity and also prevents from really min/maxing. Imagine people respeccing everytime they think a skill or a node is not performing like they think it should without trying to adjust their gear and synergize stats with that skill.

The solutions suggested by you or others in the past that say “let me keep the skillpoints / specialisation” are no solutions. Because they don’t solve the problem that builds and decisions will get trivial.
And that’s a big point for me and others that share the “make decisions meaningful” mindset.

If you could provide a solution that says

  1. Make experimenting more accessible and
  2. …Prevent hotswapping builds, …
    …you’ll get my full support.

But right now I feel these 2 goals are opposing objectives.

The best point to start experimenting is when you finished the story and have saved some gold and can go for farming specific items. E.g. when you spec your shield throw FG into Warparh you propably won’t have any gear to fit the new spec. This is something you have to plan and don’t make just by walking on by especially not during campaign.
So real experimenting and discovering new possible builds is something you really just can afford when you have a decent knowledge of the game, skills and synergies and have the resources to do so.

LE gives you all the opportunity to respec when you don’t want to relevel a new toon besides your mastery. So it’s not restricting you from experimenting. It just takes time to do so. And the further you progress the lower the effort you have to put in.

And what’s the point in spending time on character building in a game you like? It’s a kind of content.

Another thing is that there are also posts on this forum that complain about difficulty spikes. This is not only a result of the game difficulty, but also related to builds not being viable.

Experimenting as a new player will certainly result in a crappy build with less synergies and low balance between defensive and offensive capabilities. To every new player I would suggest to not experiment that much, but to stick with their skills and learn how they interact with items and passives. There are classes that have skills with very different skilltags and mixing and swapping them is nothing that is done successfully by a beginner.

I am playing LE for a long time now and have a decent knowledge. And I’m of the opinion that the respec is fine. Also I share @Thyworm 's opinion of his respec video that in most of the cases a full respec and drastic change of you build and playstyle is harder to carry out than re-rolling a new toon an learn how to play that new build.

And if you are that experienced and well stocked player you could respec anything you want without suffering from missing synergies and practical knowledge, the current system offers all you need. As well as for min/maxing and tweaking builds.

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The only solution s to create a “Test” arena, a place where you get max skill points so you can test how each skill build behaves. Vreate some mobs of player level and see how it feels to play that skill against them. Another option = pay gold to respec, with exponential cost per point {if you want to keep those points) ex: dirst point - free, next point - 100g, next point 200g, next point 400g etc.

Yea, i would prefer some area, where you are free to test any skill without deleveling other skills. This way player will know, how skill behave and what he can expect from the build before fully committing to it.

Most of us who have played for a while and work on higher level builds, but want to rebuild them will take a stepwise approach. We only respec one or two skills at a time, maintaining one primary damage ability at the cap until we have leveled up another to replace it. For example, if I’m playing a mana strike build, but I want to switch to shatter strike, I’ll level shatter strike in a seperate specialization slot and maintain my points in mana strike until shatter strike has leveled enough to be viable. Then, I’ll remove mana strike and replace it with another skill I want to level. At higher levels (80+) this happens very quickly, as the xp is very high and I can still kill things quickly with my leveled skill, so we are able to test new builds in a relatively short period of time. The approach also works for lower level characters, it just takes a bit longer to level the new skill.

Hi there,
first of all - up to here, LE is, i think, a fine approach to ARPGs. It hat the fine and dark visuals of D2, an interesting skill system and some nice features along the way.

Concerning the skill system, i sure do underlin the threadstarters intenstions: for me, most of the fun of enjoying an ARPG is levelling a character which, mid-game, respecs into another build or at least another specialized skill-tree.

Honestly, i don’t think that levelling up a skill from scratch is what most of the users like (see D2 Median XL on this) - especially not, when there is (from what i have ssen in-game) absolutely no randomization in leveldesign.

So, replaying / reskilling a char on the same maps over an over again until you get that build you thin suits best can get quite frustrating.

So i too do support the idea(s) of a) making the skill-respec much less affording and b) randomizing levels for greater replayabilty.

Regards,

J.

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