The current system is similar to PoE 1 where your skills are defined on your weapon. Initially this sounds ok, and I’m sure the hardcore fans and dev team are happy with it.
However, I think it’s not the right choice.
Why?
- It’s convoluted, the system simply isn’t intuitive and we’ve already seen plenty of players struggle with this. Check the data: what percent of the players use runes?
- It doesn’t feel like you’re building your character. You aren’t speccing into a build, you are reliant on the weapon to dictate the power of your character, rather than growing the character into a powerful force.
- It’s annoying: you find another weapon and now you can’t play the build you like anymore. Sure, if I go from sword to bow I have to change my skills, but why can’t my character do the same sword attack that he was able to do with his previous sword?
- In PoE 1 you can at least freely move skills around. In NrftW it’s even worse: there’s all sorts of menus involved to move your desired skills over to your new weapon (if you can even do it in the first place)
Ultimately, while I know it’s not a quick fix, I think you should strongly consider revamping this entire system before the 1.0 release. At that point you’ll feel locked in and this will be the final state. Right now you can still pivot major design decisions. I think this one should be extremely high on your list.