Torchlight 2 respec?

[soullos]

Anyone know if there is a respec option in the game? I hear there is a beta going on, maybe they can shed some light on this?

[Bugs Bunny]

in the BETA you can respec till level 10.

[Billshere]

I'm not an expert on RPGs so correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean you can't respec once your character build starts to take shape?

[angrytigerp]

Originally Posted by Billshere

I'm not an expert on RPGs so correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean you can't respec once your character build starts to take shape?

This is true, but for an RPG that has classes unique enough that building them from the ground up is a new and viable experience every time, level progression would be such that you don't NEED to respec, e.g. "high-level skills for skill tree A are really good but low-level skills from that tree suck, so I'm going to keep playing the good low-level skills of tree B until I hit a level where I can start using the good skills from tree A" -- essentially, if Torchlight is designed well, there won't be this disconnect between a viable low-level build equating to a poor end-game build.

The character respec until Level 10 addresses a different but very prevalent issue, which is that a player new to a class or build will inevitably experiment. Hearkening back to Diablo 2 terms to establish a followable analogy, think of a player who really likes the Fire tree for Sorceress. Fine, at low levels and Acts I-III, the build is fine, but starting in Act IV the player encounters enemies who will simply ignore the fire damage. On top of that, they recently added a point into some Cold skills to see what they do, and HOLY ♥♥♥♥ THIS IS AWESOME I WISH I HAD CHOSEN COLD TO BEGIN WITH. With respec at that early of a level, you give the player the ability to experiment with several builds without having to commit wholeheartedly to any one until they're sure it's right for them.

If it's done right, the fact that a player will have to restart TL2 to make a new build hopefully means that replayability is up. Perhaps you and OP had TL1 in mind, where there are very limited skill 'trees', and the game was far too monotonous to re-grind just to try out a different skill, so the respec was needed. With any luck, TL2 has solved this issue so that respecs simply aren't needed EXCEPT in that above scenario of experimenting with a new class, etc.

[Simian_]

There was a respec mod for TL1 and there will certainly be one made for TL2.