Like previous Diablo games, there is a Skill Tree into which points earned through leveling are invested. The Skill Tree in Diablo 4, used to gain new abilities by assigning skill points, is a sinister and impressively blackened tree with hellfire inside and blood pouring from the bottom.
Leveling up from level 2 to at least level 25 earns you one skill point at a time. In addition, the Renown system allows for unlocking more skill points, with three extra skill points available in Fractured Peaksalone. Since all regions are considered the same and offer this feature, it is possible to earn up to 15 additional skill points through renown.
Skill points can be spent freely without paying a fee and can be refunded unless it affects a dependency. At reaching level 7, removing points from the skill tree incurs a Gold cost. This cost increases significantly as the player levels up, starting at 1 gold at level 7 and going up to an expensive 222 gold at level 25.
Some items give you extra rank in certain skills. These ranks make those skills more powerful, but they do not affect your skill tree progression in any way. Therefore, even if you already have a skill that is active due to an item, you still need to put at least 1 point into that skill before you can get its upgrade.
Skill tree nodes and connections
Diablo 4's skill tree is made up of connected clusters of nodes. Nodes come in three shapes, which help distinguish between Skills, Upgrades, and Passives:
- Skill nodes
Actual Skill nodes are square-shaped and larger in size. They have Upgrade nodes branching off them. A player can put up to 5 points into a Skill node.
- Upgrade nodes
These nodes are diamond-shaped and enhance the skill they branch off of (e.g., increased Critical Strike chance of skill). A player can allocate 1 point into an Upgrade node (assuming at least 1 point in the adjacent Skill node). Branching off the initial Upgrade node are two other Upgrade nodes, of which the player may choose only one.
- Passive nodes
The circular-shaped Passive nodes are unique in that they don't branch off square Skill nodes like Upgrade nodes. They likely have some relation to the nearby Skill nodes. A player can invest up to 3 points into a Passive node. Also, a Passive node can have other Passive nodes branch off it. These abilities work in the background to make your character stronger.
Skill Tree Structure
The Skill tree is divided into 7 clusters. Each Cluster is unlocked as you put more points into the skill tree. It doesn't matter where you put your points; you need to hit a certain number of points invested in total.
- 0 points: Basic Cluster. Here you have only your Basic skills and their upgrades. These skills are your weakest attacks, but they have no cost or cooldown. They can help you generate your Primary Resource in many ways.
- 2 points: Core cluster. Contains Core skills, their upgrades, and some passives. Core skills are generally your main damage-dealing skills; they deal substantially more damage than Basic skills at the cost of your resource.
- 6 points, 11 points, and 16 points: Unique clusters per class. The next 3 clusters contain a variety of skills and passives. Usually some defensive and mobility skills, but also some more damage-oriented skills, which are more complex and conditional than Basic and Core skills.
- 23 points: Ultimate Cluster. Here you get your Ultimate skill with its upgrades and more passives. Ultimate skills are extremely powerful skills with very long (45s+) cooldowns. Unlike all other skills, you can only have one Ultimate.
- 33 points: The final Cluster only has several big passives. These passives are a lot stronger than all the others but similar to Ultimate skills you can only pick one.
There are 6 clusters of active skills - the same as your available skill slots. However, you are not forced to match them individually; you can skip any cluster entirely (except the base) and pick multiple skills from another cluster.
Upon receiving more information about Skill Tree, we will update this article.
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