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Hey guys, I like a spirited discussion so I figured I would poke my head in and possibly very foolishly get sucked in haha. General disclaimer: this is all still very malleable and will change.
You’ve all got really good points and I think that it’s really important to know that so many of these systems work together to make the whole experience and it’s really hard to judge how it’s going to be from what is there now.
I think that the scenario that @Korinokiri is trying to avoid will end up happening to some extent only in the standard league. I think that most players will not really play standard league very much. I’m using PoE terms for the characters which get moved to a long term mode after a new league/season.
1st up, let’s talk passive tree.
So what do we hope our current plan will look like? We do really like having some character permanence in the builds. We like that feeling of “I’m a fire mage.” That’s not to say that you won’t be able to change if it’s not fun for you. Large scale character changes will be available in 2 main scenarios (possibly more). 1: Large scale changes to the passive tree will probably refund your points so you can respec your character if you want. 2: Some sort of very high cost investment in gold and/or some sort of found item. Maybe something like the tokens from D2 after they added respecs.
We are going to add single node respec items to the drop tables. I’ve been working on this recently. It’s a little tricky but it’s coming along. The big problem with the current respec system (which is 100% placeholder) has the primary problem of requiring you to remove your most recently placed point first. These items will ideally have a pretty low drop rate but will allow you to change that one point near the bottom of your tree that you just didn’t quite get right.
The goal with this system is to give you the capability to experiment if you want but make wide sweeping changes a little costly. Changing from Meteor to Volcanic Orb as your primary big skill would probably not require too many changes in your passive tree but with a few respec items you would be able to tweek your tree to fit just right. Want to switch from a Sorc to a Spellblade and completely change your playstyle entirely? That’s going to take quite a bit more investment. We don’t want that to be something you’re doing daily. I’d like switching between mastery classes to be a really big deal. Not as large a change as switching between Barb and Wizard in D3 but more similar to that than putting on a new 6 piece.
As for skill trees, their leveling rate will change pretty dramatically going forward. We’re also planning individual respec items for skill trees too.
One of the biggest problems with looking at it as a whole right now is that the game is still growing so much that the end game systems and the speed that you get to them and the content that’s available is all going to change. The top end gear doesn’t even exist yet in game. Being able to experiment with your character is an important part of our game and is something that we want to be possible. We don’t want it to be as quick and easy as D3 was but also not as restrictive as D2 was. Somewhere in the middle is where we are currently aiming.
I’d also like to say thank you @Korinokiri for the kind words about the game so far 
Being able to pick your gender is something that we get as a request a lot. I’m sorry to have to say this but it’s not going to happen at launch. That’s not to say that it will never happen but we just don’t have the throughput to make it for launch. It would delay the launch and as an indie studio we sometimes need to make difficult decisions like this.