Isn't respeccing way too cheap right now?

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stalkingjackal#2441 wrote:

let it be cheap. There is no reason to make it expensive as that discourages experimentation.

It discourages everyone switching to the best meta build in every single league. If respec would be cheap or free, at the end of the league we would only see 1 build for each character

Respeccing is not too cheap, because all my gold goes toward gambling for gear, which is basically a required venue for gearing up your char in SSF.

Making respec too costly is what will push people to play 'safe' cookie-cutter builds and to avoid experimentation.

There has to be some cost, but not too much.

If the point of making money is having players spend more time in your game then adding needless resistance does the opposite.

Why should respeccing have any friction?

I think all issues at the moment are amplified as there are so many frustrating issues that have filled up our tolerance bar too quickly at end game.

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It discourages everyone switching to the best meta build in every single league. If respec would be cheap or free, at the end of the league we would only see 1 build for each character

That would highlight an issue that is not related to respeccing cost but with viable alternative build options.

And does that matter if the point is really about players having fun and spending more time in the game increasing possible money spend.

I have four characters in maps that I am somewhat regularly respeccing to experiment with different build ideas because I'm trying to figure out mechanics (most recent one is a low life crit infernalist, going quite well). I suspect if I'd stuck to one thing I'd be sitting on millions and share your view but a full respec currently costs me a gold amount that I might make in a couple of hours of mapping. I don't think it should increase before launch and I'd certainly burn out faster if we went that way.

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Gimatria#7361 wrote:

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stalkingjackal#2441 wrote:

let it be cheap. There is no reason to make it expensive as that discourages experimentation.

It discourages everyone switching to the best meta build in every single league. If respec would be cheap or free, at the end of the league we would only see 1 build for each character

If everyone switches to the best meta build in every single league, it's because builds aren't close enough to be competitively fun and GGG has failed to balance appropriately. This is the responsibility of GGG, not the players.

The answer to that is not "make it prohibitively expensive to respec and thus put the onus of bad balance on the players", but rather "spend more time balancing so that non-meta builds aren't prohibitively disincentivizing". And, furthermore, even if everyone does choose to respec to the "meta" build, so what?

Respeccing being expensive discourages experimentation and thus makes it MORE likely people will spec to the meta and stay there, whereas if respeccing is cheaper, people are more likely to respec to an off-meta build to see if it is fun in the knowledge they aren't trapped there. You have the chicken and the egg entirely back to front. If you can only afford 1 respec instead of 10, you're never leaving the thing that works and makes you money. If you can afford to spec to something crap and respec back if it doesn't work, you will more likely try it.

At current cost, it is disincentivizing enough to stop people respeccing twice a between a boss killer and a mapper, but cheap enough to allow significant experimentation. This is a good place to be.

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BlackPlagueZA#4203 wrote:

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It discourages everyone switching to the best meta build in every single league. If respec would be cheap or free, at the end of the league we would only see 1 build for each character

That would highlight an issue that is not related to respeccing cost but with viable alternative build options.

And does that matter if the point is really about players having fun and spending more time in the game increasing possible money spend.

On the first point, I'd say that it's impossible to not have a 'best build' in games like this. There will always be a build that is better than everything else.

On the second point I completely agree. Perhaps it doesn't matter as long as people are having fun. However, I don't really have fun when you can respec everything. This is why I absolutely hated Diablo 3. Everything felt menial and without consequences.

Yes they should triple the cost from where it is now. Reducing it more than for a week was a huge mistake. There's no reason to play your build until you're in maps now when you just respec your whole character into it.

With the same gold cost, opportunity cost of respeccing will become higher when new ways of using gold will be introduced. If they ever will, of course.

For an experimental phase of the game? You want to slow down the speed of feedback?