Responding to Diablo 4 community's time sink worries, Blizzard reaffirms character respeccing won't be "prohibitively expensive"

gamesradar.com:

Reallocating your Diablo 4 character's skills won't be "prohibitively expensive", Blizzard has assured fans. 

Now that the Diablo 4 open beta has wrapped up, one fan has taken to Twitter to message Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson to say that, while they've had a great time so far, they simply don't have the time to "remake characters", and would rather more easily redistribute skill points. 

"It's not prohibitively expensive, and we've made it easier by being able to refund a single skill point or the entire tree at once," Fergusson says (opens in new tab) in response.

The cost of reallocating skill points, or 'respeccing' your character has popped up here and there within the community since late last year. Speaking to IGN (opens in new tab), Fergusson and Diablo 4 game director Joe Shely spoke about each skill being open to reallocation point-to-point through the cost of gold – it'll start cheaply at first, though prices will increase the further you get into your build. 

What really set tongues wagging, however, was the suggestion players would find themselves in a position where creating a new character would be preferable to footing the bill of respeccing their current one in the late game.

Blizzard has long maintained that respeccing your character at higher levels remains affordable, though the comparison to starting a new character didn't help, going by the community (opens in new tab) reaction (opens in new tab) since.

It's also worth mentioning that, while players have been able to try Diablo 4 through the open beta, that playtime has been limited to the early game, so most don't know what it's like to repec a higher-level character. 

Speaking of, Blizzard says it will address Diablo 4 beta feedback