how many skills should i use?

[00yiggdrasill00]

given the limited number of skill points, whats a good number of skills to build around where i can still get the most out of them? i just started playing again after a few years (stuff happened and wasnt up for a grim story) and very much remember the buffs later in the tree are important.

[Soulo]

i would start fresh on a new character. sounds like your playing a character that you don't know what your doing with.

[Neit]

There is no right answer to this.

Depending on class, type of build, damage type and gear this might vary greatly.

In general, you will probably build around 1-2 main skills, followed by several buffs/auras that boost what you have, skill(s) with related resist reduction and some utility skill(s). And possibly some skills granted by items or sets. So the number can be anywhere between 3 and 20 skills and both edge cases might be correct depending on the build and your preferences.

[Safarel]

Originally posted by Ghost:

sounds like your playing a character that you don't know what your doing with.

i also fell this

[Catalytic]

You'll figure out how many skills you really need pretty quick. You need an attack skill. Likely, you'll run into something resistant to that attack and find that you really need a second one to help kill the things that first one doesn't do a good job with. This might be if you specialize in an AOE skill at first and get to a boss only to find it just doesn't have the punch on a single target that you need. It might be because of resistances on the monsters and your attack that clears the screen of everything else doesn't touch some types of enemies. Maybe you need a third one to lower enemy resists or which applies some sort of crowd control effect? You'll feel that out as you try it.

You need something that helps you move around. Play long enough and you'll recognize that you can find yourself trapped in bad positions or needing to dodge attacks. As of the last major patch, you get the evade skill by default. But, you may want another, especially if you're playing a melee character or if you're particularly squishy with low defenses and can't take a hit. At lvl 50, you can get a glyph that'll offer this, so maybe you need a skill early and can unlearn it later.

You need something to help with your defenses. There's a lot of variation here. Skills that increase your stats passively, skills that you have to activate when you need them, and some that you basically just keep up all the time while you're in combat. These can boost your health, boost your resistances, boost your armor or defensive ability (DA), etc.

I know this is very general, but so was the question. There are a huge number of options in the game for how you might build your character. The specifics are going to change based on how you want to play them, which masteries you choose, which gear you have, etc. Do you use a 2H weapon for more damage or a 1H weapon and shield for survivability? That sort of thing.

You can figure this out as you play, or if the idea of constantly switching around your build seems to be too much work, you go to the Build Compendium on the Crate forums and copy someone else's build that looks like something you'd like to play. Personally, I understand why you'd do this with your first character(s). There are so many choices out there, you really need a guide to follow to sort of figure out what you actually need and what you don't. But I also think this robs you of a key part of playing the game, which is building the character you want based on how you play. Yeah, you'll make some mistakes along the way and you'll hone your character. You should be doing that anyway as you get new gear and as you level up. It's a big part of the experience of playing an ARPG.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask them here. People are generally pretty good at helping if you run into a roadblock.

Above all, have fun!

[CRCGamer]

Depends on what kind of character you are playing. Almost everyone uses multiple buff skills within their class trees. Its the active skills where things are more varied. But even the really basic left click auto-attack replacement builds tend to have at least four active skills. Basically the attack replacement, some form of gap closer or displacement ability, a resist reduction ability, and a triggered defensive boost or heal of some sort that has a high impact devotion tied to it.

[00yiggdrasill00]

thank you all for the advice

Originally posted by Ghost:

i would start fresh on a new character. sounds like your playing a character that you don't know what your doing with.

you are correct i have no true idea what im doing beyond a general feel of what i want to play as. but yes it is a new character

Originally posted by Catalytic:

You'll figure out how many skills you really need pretty quick. You need an attack skill. Likely, you'll run into something resistant to that attack and find that you really need a second one to help kill the things that first one doesn't do a good job with. This might be if you specialize in an AOE skill at first and get to a boss only to find it just doesn't have the punch on a single target that you need. It might be because of resistances on the monsters and your attack that clears the screen of everything else doesn't touch some types of enemies. Maybe you need a third one to lower enemy resists or which applies some sort of crowd control effect? You'll feel that out as you try it.

You need something that helps you move around. Play long enough and you'll recognize that you can find yourself trapped in bad positions or needing to dodge attacks. As of the last major patch, you get the evade skill by default. But, you may want another, especially if you're playing a melee character or if you're particularly squishy with low defenses and can't take a hit. At lvl 50, you can get a glyph that'll offer this, so maybe you need a skill early and can unlearn it later.

You need something to help with your defenses. There's a lot of variation here. Skills that increase your stats passively, skills that you have to activate when you need them, and some that you basically just keep up all the time while you're in combat. These can boost your health, boost your resistances, boost your armor or defensive ability (DA), etc.

I know this is very general, but so was the question. There are a huge number of options in the game for how you might build your character. The specifics are going to change based on how you want to play them, which masteries you choose, which gear you have, etc. Do you use a 2H weapon for more damage or a 1H weapon and shield for survivability? That sort of thing.

You can figure this out as you play, or if the idea of constantly switching around your build seems to be too much work, you go to the Build Compendium on the Crate forums and copy someone else's build that looks like something you'd like to play. Personally, I understand why you'd do this with your first character(s). There are so many choices out there, you really need a guide to follow to sort of figure out what you actually need and what you don't. But I also think this robs you of a key part of playing the game, which is building the character you want based on how you play. Yeah, you'll make some mistakes along the way and you'll hone your character. You should be doing that anyway as you get new gear and as you level up. It's a big part of the experience of playing an ARPG.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask them here. People are generally pretty good at helping if you run into a roadblock.

Above all, have fun!

i think this is what i needed to point me in the right direction. go by feel and a bit of thought to see how it plays out. i can always reskill.

[Dingo]

Threads like theses are why I love this game but also can't help think I'm not quite ever playing it right. Whether overvaluing what some things provide or overlooking others.

I set out to be the world's tankiest grenade chucking gun totin' commando but I still feel like a squishy child if suddenly thrown into the wrong situation. I guess I just never really learned and adapted enough when going from normal to elite. I'm currently on my second elite play through (first time ended up with a sorceress though I was doing very similar stuff which is why I scrapped the character and made a similar but different one to realize my ideal once I had an idea of what I wanted to do) my goal was to do an Ultimate play through by the time the expansion arrives (which feels more out of reach the more and more I get spanked on Elite) and while I generally feel "strong enough" it's those certain encounters where you just get insta-smoked that make me doubt what I'm doing.

Not really looking for any answers, just adding my thoughts. I have raised much of my defenses up to 80% at least finally which I guess has helped somewhat.

At the end of the day though, I can say I enjoy playing the game which is why I continue to do so. I thought about moving on around the launch of D4 but the quality of this game and its continued support made me decide to just stick with GD.

Sorry, wasn't trying to derail thread. I guess ultimately what you "need" slightly changes from difficulty to difficulty.

[phenir]

Originally posted by Dingo:

Not really looking for any answers, just adding my thoughts. I have raised much of my defenses up to 80% at least finally which I guess has helped somewhat.

Most is not all. Resistances are the most important defense for survival so they should all be maxed or as high as you can get (physical resist excepted, it's good no doubt but very hard to stack beyond 20-30% now). Also check your armor rating and absorption. If you're still using low level items, your armor is probably suffering for it, and slap on some scale hide components while you are at it to get 100% absorption.