free unlimited respec on passive skill (or a sandboxed Free Unlimited Respecs League)

I think people are missing the fact that an ability to "totally respec" your character has already been built into the game's economy via orbs.

Orbs of Regret

Orbs of Regret refund one passive skill point per Orb. Based on the moderate drop rate they seem to have at low level, it stands to reason that we'll see more of them as we level up. As such, and at higher levels, players will easily be able to trade for Orbs of Regret, and thus there is a mechanic for full respecs.

Personally I think that's all you need.

The way I look at this is:

- Some of us like to master a topic by reading a book on the subject and then taking what you read and plan out in theory what the solution should be before they even dare to put that solution into practice.

- Some of us skim through the book as needed, but overall we spend most of the time in the lab testing our thoughts and coming to a solution through that.

In the end, we both achieve the same thing, we just achieve it differently. Telling people to change their approach doesn't work. People just learn differently. It doesn't make one person more right than the other.


When I was a child (and teenager), I loved math and physics, and before the school year even started, I would go through my books and do the exercises for fun. I didn't read the chapters, I just tried to understand on my own. If there was a symbol I'd never seen before, I would go and find out what it means. Then I'd go back and try to solve the problems. Most of the time I solved the exercises correctly. Only when I was truly stuck, and no amount of thinking got me around a tough spot, would I go and search for what I could be missing.

Maybe you see me as odd, but my approach isn't any worse or any better than someone who waits for school to start and for the teacher and the book to tell them what and how to do the exercises. In the end, we learned just the same. It's just a different approach.

Orbs of regret aren't sufficient for a person like that. Orbs of regret are only enough for the first type of person described.

I take offense that someone says "No Re-Spec" is necessary to make this game re-playable. Are you admitting that you don't find this game fun, therefore the only way you can make yourself repeat it is if you have no other choice?

I like this game, so I would repeat content... with or without free re-spec :)
Even with free re-spec, I will still choose to have two Witches and two Templars, and two Rangers, and two Shadows :)
And I will still make (more) new characters to experience the low-level normal-difficulty level again, just because I like to. I will do that even if I don't intend to keep those characters.

In other games, with free re-spec (and zero punishment for re-speccing), I still made many characters to repeat the story. Even if I already had a max level and fully geared guy of that class... I would make a new one often and repeat the story. Then when I finished the story, I would think "goodbye now, thanks, I had fun!", and I would delete that guy. I would do this for each class 2 or 3 times, and this is after I took my max guy to repeat the story many times already.

Lots of just silly whining in this thread. It really just seems to me that a lot of people in this thread didn't play Diablo 2 all that much, at least before 1.13 when respecs where FINALLY allowed(though to a very limited extent. You got one free respec if you were already in Hell mode and you got 1 respec every time you finished Den of Evil on each difficulty. You were also given a respec if you were able to farm very rare drops from the act bosses and toss those materials into the horadric cube.

They played D3 and are trying to say, "I really can't stand D3, but this game needs respecs just because."

They're never going to be in.
From a business standpoint, its totally against GGG business model.
From a game standpoint, it goes against the heart of meaningful choices in a game like this (ala Diablo 2) and starting from scratch on your character.

You never minded doing it in Diablo 2 all that much. You probably didn't mind it playing Diablo 2 a month before release.

Why is it that some eternally crappy game that almost managed to sully the memory of the entirety of Diablo managed to change that in your heads?

Well, there is an easier way to sum up this suggestion.

I like the idea of it, but it just isn't going to happen. Devs don't want it; it's not the spirit of the game. Would be cool to arse around with it for a bit but at that point you might as well throw in ability to summon all gem types on a whim, basically playing devmode, without the learning curve or surprise of discovery and wonderment.

I've yet to read a coherent argument against a respec league. In fact most posts against it say a) L2P noob b) it encourages replayability or c) the devs don't want it.

a) is simply name calling. b) is just plain wrong. and c) the players do want it.

and d) a respec league would not affect the gaming of others who choose not to play in it.

Of course ultimately the devs decide but I'd wager a respec league would be immensely popular and bring in more revenue (yes, even in a F2P the players' cash pays the bills), allowing the game to live longer.

I suggest a "Build Workshop" where we have full respec and create / test new builds with our current items and test pre-defened maps & areas with this new build... All drops are not permenant (or you canot keep or you cannot grab) & no XP / no penalty when we dies here...

have a look at this:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1235356

Just came here to declare my vote: Im against it.

Why not why's:

-It would hurt the current economy (Regret orb value).
-It would hurt the deep thinking tru of the players (i.e. making mistakes easily and downgrading your mental exercise).
-It would promote lower IQ player types to hop on POE, in-game and forums. Believe me, that's bad.
-It would make the free respec quests... (do i even need to finish that sentence?)
-It would directly increase survivability, making players 'adapt' to mostly everything in the game. Think. about. it. (crucial reason)
-No. Just, no.

Thanks for reading!

I am against free respecs for existing leagues. (Duh.)

I am undecided on a separate league with free respecs, although I don't really see a problem with having more choice. (If you don't like this type of league, don't play in it.)

I am completely FOR a SANDBOX where I can play in "dev mode". In fact, such a feature would help GGG in ironing out the bugs during the beta phase because it would provide easy means for players to have a go at *breaking* new features. Heck, make the sandbox non-free to provide extra revenue for GGG. Has no outside effect. Don't see a problem.