Skills | Diablo 4 Wiki

XP & Skill Points

Playable characters gain different amounts of Experience Points (XP) by defeating Enemies and completing Quests. The higher the threat, the higher the XP reward. Once the character gains a certain amount of XP, your character will level up. Each time you level up, certain stats increase or decrease to the player advantage and they will gain 1 Skill Point per Level.

Skill Trees now have a Node System that expands in all directions, unlocking a certain Skill will make the next Skill available to unlock later. Once the character reaches Level 50, they will no longer receive Skill Points from leveling up, there are other ways to gain additional Skill Points such as the Renown system.

Renown & Skill Points

Completing certain objectives such as completing Side Quests, Dungeons and Strongholds will grant different amounts of Renown Points. Achieving certain Goal Amounts of Renown Points will grant the player different rewards, such as an additional Potion Charge, extra Paragon Points, and Additional Skill Points.

Skill Rank

Common Skills can be Ranked up by spending more Skill Points into them (Up to Rank 5). This will affect the Skill in terms of Stats by for example, increasing damage, but this won't change any mechanic in the skill. 

Ultimate Skills can only be Ranked up to Rank 1.

Passive Skills can be Ranked up to Rank 3.

Enhancement & Upgrades

You can also Enhance certain Skills (Skills that not only grant passive effect or that are not an Ultimate skill) by spending a Skill Point, in order to not only buff the stats of the Skill, but to also add some special mechanics for it. It's not necessary to Rank the skill to the top to enhance it.

After Enhancing a Skill, you will then be able to Upgrade the skill, once more by spending a skill point. Each of these Skills has available upgrade from which you can only choose one.

Respec Skill Points

Respec can now be done directly from the Skill Tree menu, without having to visit any specific NPC to do so. Players will be able to Respec their entire Skill Tree or Respec only a few selected Skills. Respec only has a currency cost that is relative to the amount of Skill Points the player wants to Respec, and also the character Level affect the cost of the respecification. The more Skills you want to Respec and/or the higher the level of the character, the higher the cost.

Having the ability to Respec a single skill was well received as Builds can be very complex. But as the cost increases, high level Builds may become less dynamic as it becomes too expensive. In previous Diablo games, Players used to respec their skill trees in order to swap their build for PvP, Grinding high value items, or complete the campaign in the hardest difficulty. But now instead, players may consider having multiple characters for each game mode.

Passive Skills

Skill Clusters now include Passive Skills, once the player spends Skills Points in these skills, they won't require any activation during combat to use them. Passive Skills can be ranked up to Rank 3. These skills also obey Cluster lock rules, as the player has to spend a certain number of Skill Points to unlock the Cluster to then be able to spend Points in the Cluster's Skills.

Skill Tree Mechanic & System

The Skill Tree uses a Node System, where Skills are grouped in Clusters. The players start unlocking Skills from the center of each Cluster, and depending on their class, once they reached a certain amount of spent Skill Points the next cluster will be unlocked. The order of clusters unlocks from the Top to the Bottom.

There are multiple elements that can be seen in the Skill Tree:

• Square Icons represent Skills (Non-Passive Skills).
• Diamond Icons are Enhancements and Upgrades
• Circle Icons are Passive Skills

Some of these are exclusive, such as Skill Upgrades, Ultimates or Masteries. In these cases, players can only choose one of these and then they will be unable to choose another unless they Respec the Skill Points use in them.