Diablo 4's respec cost isn't changing before launch

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

When it launches in June, Diablo 4's respec costs will work just like the recent beta, Blizzard says.

The amount of gold required to move your skill points around is "final," associate game director Joseph Piepiora said in a group interview with GamesRadar.

After the recent beta and endgame video, players have been concerned about the price of refunding skill points and paragon points (after level 50). As you level up, the price increases, which could make changing your build a real pain as you move toward the game's level 100 cap.

Piepiora says that you'll earn a lot more gold as you get closer to the level cap, and that the fee plays "an important role in asking players to start to harden up their build a bit once they get to that portion of the gameplay."

Last year, speaking to IGN, Diablo 4 general manager Rod Fergusson said respec costs will eventually get so high that you might be better off making an entirely new character. But last month, Fergusson wrote on twitter that they won't be "prohibitively expensive".

Fergusson's comments sound a little contradictory, but, admittedly, they were five months ago, and it's unclear to what degree he means they won't be expensive. It's possible he meant that you won't be able to move your points around multiple times a day rather than once or twice a month when you pick up a build-altering legendary item.

Diablo 4's endgame promises to offer considerable challenges with nightmare dungeons, PvP, and daily quests. A free respec would probably cause players to swap for every activity, but if it truly becomes too expensive, it would also kill the creativity that happens when people puzzle out fun builds like we saw in the beta. I'd suggest heading over to a Diablo 4 build planner and deciding on a direction for your build so you don't go broke.

Diablo 4 is set to release on June 6.

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.