Respec is slang for respecialisation and refers to a game feature that allows players to partially or completely reallocate the points they have spent in various skills, 'talents', 'attributes', 'feats' or other character values. Respeccing in Diablo 3 will allow players to reallocate most or all of their skill points, thus allowing high level characters to change their play style.
This was not a feature offered in Diablo 1 or 2, where characters could never change their stat or skill points once they were placed. (Respecs were added to Diablo 2 in the v1.13 patch.)
Respecs are a player-friendly feature found in most RPGs, notably Blizzards MMORPG, World of WarCraft.
Contents
Diablo III Respecs
In Diablo II, prior to v1.13, characters could not alter any of their attribute or skill points after they were initially placed. Not even a single point, just to fix a mis-click. (Respecs were added to D2X in v1.13.)
The Diablo 3 designers have committed to including some form of respecs in the game, though the precise mechanism remains to be determined. Game Director Jay Wilson has said [1] that respecs will be one of the main gold sinks in Diablo 3, but no other details are yet finalized.
Jay again confirmed respecs in an October 2009 interview, but declined to give any more details. [2]
- Diii.net: Respecs. Cost, gold mechanism, any specifics?
- Jay Wilson: We will have respecs. We haven’t determined the mechanism yet, but we’re definitely trying to do something different than a wholesale pay a token price and get all your skills back. We want to have a higher price than that.
Bashiok addressed this issue in September 2010, and added a bit of detail about how respecs will be obtained in Diablo III.
- Bashiok: We don't plan to have full resets, they'll be per-skill (if it goes as currently planned), and we don't plan to allow them to be easily obtained. Probably similar to the Diablo II 1.13 respecs a couple will be easy, or granted through quest rewards, but the idea is to involve some amount of rarity, cost, something. What that balance will shake out to mean... I don't know.
Diablo II Respecs
Respecs were added in the v1.13 patch. See the Diablo 2 wiki page for full details.
This change to D2 was largely instigated by the Diablo 3 developers, and Jay Wilson stated during an interview in August 2010. [3]
- in.Diablo.d3: If you could only change one thing from D2 to make D3. What would be the thing?
- Jay Wilson: *happy and eager* I already did it. Respecs. My design team worked with the D2 patch guys. We highly encouraged it, they did the work.
Diablo I Respecs
In Diablo I spell levels were gained by reading books, and higher level spells were always better (aside from a bug with Mana Shield in earlier versions). There was therefore no need for respecs, and they weren't anything any player ever wanted or thought about.