File:Skill-tree-blizzcon09-barb-muldric.jpg|Fan-made recreations of the trees seen at Blizzcon 2009.
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==Skill Caps==
Bashiok spoke to this issue in a forum post in May 2009. [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/diablo-iii-skill-trees-innovative-overhaul/]
::''Currently we’re envisioning the majority of skills to be capped at 5 points, to begin with. As a form of progression we're planning for players to be able to increase the point caps of skills. More than likely to a maximum of 15. It's a system that’s still under heavy design, but the fact of choosing and increasing key skills beyond their initial cap is important to this new unified tier system.''
Until June 2010 this was all we knew, and fans were free to speculate that skill levels would be increased by Clvl requirements, quests/in-game achievements, skill runes, item bonuses, or something else. The speculation ended in June 2010, when [[Bashiok]] confirmed that the caps would be tied to difficulty level. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/skill-caps-increase-on-nm-hell/ Bashiok forum post] - IncGamers, June 2010</ref>
::...the cap raises another five every difficulty level? So when you reach hell difficulty the caps would be at 15? No?
This seems the simplest method of doing things, with players able to move up to level 10 skills on Nightmare, and level 15 on Hell. (Plus potential +skill mods from item bonuses.) It might create some interesting strategy as well, with characters wanting to hurry to the next difficulty level in order to unlock their next five skill points. (That was not the case in Diablo 2, where untwinked/unrushed characters could find better gear and score bigger experience doing [[Baal]] runs from 30-45 or so, rather than moving up to Nightmare.)