Weapon Set Skill Points - No benefit / Purely visual?

So, I've been wondering about weapon set skill points for a while now.

What is the actual benefit of them? They require skill points that deduct from your overall available pool of points, so you're not getting to use them on something more worthy in the other weapon set.

Here's an example about my Merc:

I have 10 skill points and use Crossbow(Set 1) and Bow (Set 2).
I use 5 points in crossbow nodes. They don't affect my bow, so I put them in Set 1.
Now I have 5 points left.
I put the last 5 points into some bow nodes. These don't affect my Crossbow.

Since these nodes don't negatively affect either of my weapon sets or skills/spells, I might as well just spec into both crossbow and bow nodes without using the weapon set system. It's the same result.

Now if the points of each Weapon Set would be available to both, I'd see the value of using this.

Taking the above example once more in this scenario:

I have 10 skill points to spend.
10 points go into Weapon Set 1 for crossbow nodes, because I only need these for Set 1.
10 points go into Weapon Set 2 for bow nodes, same reason.

EDIT (13th Dec 2024): To prevent abuse of "double points", maybe make it so you can convert (up to X amount) of passive points into weapon set points. Player's choice how many they want to convert up to a limit. Each point converted will be available for each weapon set separately.

Now there's a benefit to splitting my passives.


Let me know your thoughts, community and GGG. Please enlighten me if I'm getting this all wrong. I just want to understand it. :D

The point is that you have 25 points that can be either used in one offensive setup or another. If you were just given an additional 25 points, you could put them all into 1 offensive setup and it would be 'too much power'.

That is the idea, anyway. I have gotten some use out of it with my shield/crossbow setup on warbringer.

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Vaapad9000#3212 wrote:

I have 10 skill points and use Crossbow(Set 1) and Bow (Set 2).
I use 5 points in crossbow nodes. They don't affect my bow, so I put them in Set 1.
Now I have 5 points left.
I put the last 5 points into some bow nodes. These don't affect my Crossbow.

Since these nodes don't negatively affect either of my weapon sets or skills/spells, I might as well just spec into both crossbow and bow nodes without using the weapon set system. It's the same result.

This is how it works.

Currently: 5 skill points unallocated. 0/5 allocated weapon set skill points in both set 1 and set 2

Activate set 1: Spend the 5 points in crossbow specific abilities you are close to. Save. 5/5 points now used in set 1

Activate set 2: You have spent 5 points in tree 1, so you can now allocate the same 5 points to other options in this set without spending more skill points. You spend these in bow damage/speed, since weapon set 2 is a bow and not a crossbow.

You have now allocated 5 skill points to 10 different nodes, with 5 of them going to improving your crossbow abilities when a crossbow is equipped/in use, and 5 of them going to bow abilities when your bow/set 2 is in use.

"

I have gotten some use out of it with my shield/crossbow setup on warbringer.

Thanks for the reply. Can you explain to me how your setup benefits you? So, why would it be worse to just put your points in without using the weapon set skills?

Because I don't have enough points. Im invested into armour break and elemental attack damage and area damage. I have 23 points in crossbow skills for my damage setup and 23 points into shield nodes for my defensive setup. If I just had 23 extra points to spend anywhere I would probably not use the shield points and chase more projectile and elemental damage but since I have the weapon swap points I am incentivized to 'build' my second weapon set instead by removing all the crossbow node while shield is up. It is like having an extra 23 skill points but I cant put them all towards one setup.

I think it is a decent system for incentivizing weapon swap combos.

I'm using shield wall/shield charge with molten shield and blink on my weapon swap to spawn walls for armour explosions and to push out of tough spots when surrounded. I boosted block chance and damage per block chance for when the shield is up which synergizes with the warbringer block chance.

I understand the incentive to use weapon swap combos with this.

I wouldn't make the points extra for the general tree, but make the points like this:

1 Passive Point = 1 Weapon Set I Point + 1 Weapon Set II Point

This way you can not spend double the points on an offensive setup, but get the value of the passive point for each set.

Personally, I will use the passive points for both weapon sets as long as they don't do something detrimental to a certain weapon skill. Don't know yet if I will come across such a thing, but yeah.

Is there a visual identifier for which points you spent those weapon passives in or do you need to remember them?

I've yet to locate a visual identifier..

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MyztikalD#1561 wrote:

Is there a visual identifier for which points you spent those weapon passives in or do you need to remember them?

I've yet to locate a visual identifier..

I think it's color ? red and green outlines on the nodes. And they flash when you swap. But it could be better.

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1 Passive Point = 1 Weapon Set I Point + 1 Weapon Set II Point

This way you can not spend double the points on an offensive setup, but get the value of the passive point for each set.

This is essentially how it works. I think you're just not understandig the post above that tries to explain it.

Weapons Set Points are not passive points, you can't spend them, you have X passive points and that is it. The weapon set points just allow you to have two slightly different trees and swap between them on the fly depending on the skill you are using.

But both trees have X points, where X is the number of passive points you have.

Thanks again for sticking with me here.

"

This is essentially how it works. I think you're just not understandig the post above that tries to explain it.

Weapons Set Points are not passive points, you can't spend them, you have X passive points and that is it. The weapon set points just allow you to have two slightly different trees and swap between them on the fly depending on the skill you are using.

But both trees have X points, where X is the number of passive points you have.

What I wrote above was more a "This is what I suggest to make it", I know it's currently not like that.

What I mean is: I have 1 passive point to spend and have 3 options:

Option 1: Spend it without any weapon set. 1 point used, 0 points left.
Option 2: Spend it on Weapon Set 1. 1 point used, 0 points left.
Option 3: Spend it on Weapon Set 2. 1 point used, 0 points left.

The outcome is the same, I can only choose either/or, so I might as well spend the point without a weapon set. The only real benefit would be if said passive somehow has a negative effect on one of my weapon skills that I want to avoid.

At this point I'm really certain I do not understand something, so apologies for being slow on this.

I'm currently testing this out (who needs gold anyway...).

See my passive tree below:


I have 0 skill points but there is a disparity between the weapon sets. I can somehow spend 2 points on Set 2, even though I have 0 points available.



If this is intended, how would I know this by looking at it?