Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and its subsequent 3.0 update have been live for a few days now, and if there is one thing the community can’t seem to agree on, it’s whether Blizzard’s second attempt at class skill trees is a roaring success or a downgrade from what came before.
Blizzard shocked more than a few Diablo 4 players when it announced in the leadup to Lord of Hatred’s release that the expansion would herald the arrival of all-new skill trees for each class, and that those trees would no longer feature any passive skills. Prior to Lord of Hatred, a large amount of player power came directly from damage-boosting passive skills, making their removal controversial.
Instead, players would have more options to customize their active skills, as well as the ability to invest more points into key skills in order to make them even more powerful. The idea was to make it so the power of a character largely came from gear and the endgame paragon system, rather than selecting the right passive skills in the skill tree.
It’s a change that has made each of Diablo 4’s classes, including its launch roster, feel fresh and new. In many ways, Lord of Hatred feels like an entirely new game, and one where each class suddenly has a myriad of new builds and possibilities.
Players seem to agree the new skill trees are certainly different and add a whole new level of replayability to a game that has been out for close to three years. What they can’t seem to come to a consensus on, however, is whether or not the skill trees themselves are actually better.
One quick look at the Diablo 4 subreddit is enough to find multiple threads of player discussions about the reimagined class skill trees. Some players are enthusiastic about the change. User ZakkBalzak in a post praising the rework said the overhaul “slaps” and “Blizzard really cooked with this update.” They praised how skills can easily be modified into different damage types or other types of skills using skill points, instead of relying on gear to make those changes as in the past. Another user, FastlaneKnight, said the new skill trees are “insane but in a good way,” calling them “incredible” and “more intuitive than I thought it would be with options that actually make sense.”
Others don’t understand the hype. Even in threads largely praising the skill-tree rework, a common complaint can be seen in the replies. While the new skill trees are exciting for the first 20-35 levels as players unlock new modifier choices for their abilities, options for where to spend points quickly begin to dry up. With no passive skills to invest points in and a limited number of modifiers available for each skill, players are essentially forced to dump points into ranking up the handful of core abilities they’ve selected for their build. Each skill can now be ranked up to 15 via the skill tree, up from five prior to the rework, making every level up in later stages of the game feel less and less meaningful. Since Lord of Hatred raises the level cap from 60 to 70, players at max level have even more points than they know what to meaningfully do with.
“After level 25 there is not really anything else to put points into other than ranking up your skills,” user Tomsball said. “That to me is way more boring than the passives from before.”
Another user, Ixziga, said they enjoy the new modifiers found in the revamped skill trees, but that it “feels like there’s actually fewer choices in the tree despite it looking way larger and cooler … I’m not sure it addresses the actual issues we had with the original skill tree.”
As for what could be done to make the skill trees more exciting in the mid-to-late game, players have a few different ideas. Some simply want passives to return, preferring them over dumping 10 additional points into each active skill. Others, however, would like to see higher-rank skills function differently than lower-rank versions. Instead of a simple damage increase, one player suggested having every three to five points invested in a skill unlock a powerful, skill-altering buff, such as a bigger area of effect, longer skill durations, or other similar changes that could make investing more points into a skill feel more worthwhile. Another idea is to let players pick more skill modifiers or actually invest multiple points into the modifiers themselves, making their effects more powerful.
Given how often Blizzard has completely overhauled various aspects of Diablo 4 since launch, from its loot to its endgame, it certainly seems possible it could revisit class skill trees again in the future. For now, players are sinking their teeth into all the new class possibilities and seem to be enjoying Lord of Hatred’s new region of Skovos and the expansion’s story, even if its skill trees have left some in the community wishing for more.
In GameSpot’s Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred review, writer Jessica Cogswell came away impressed with the latest overhaul of Blizzard’s ARPG, calling it a “must-play expansion” and praising its story and quality-of-life changes.
