Diablo 4 respec overview: How to reassign skill points and Paragon points

How does the Diablo 4 respec process work? Outside of the game's pure bloodlust, one of the most amazing things about Diablo 4 is how easily you can develop and create interesting character builds by assigning skill points to various traits. While game developer Blizzard designed these skills to work in tandem with one another, there are doubtlessly some skill point combos better suited for your character than others. If you've assigned dozens of skill points only to find that your character isn't quite living up to all its demon-slaying glory, you may want to respec.

Respec is a short-hand word that simply refers to reassigning skill points. Here's everything you need to know about the Diablo 4 respec process.

How does Diablo 4 respec work?

Buildcrafting in Diablo 4 is both an art and a science. But whether it's a mere misclick or merely a lack of clarity around what you need from your build that leads to a character catastrophe, there are cases in which you will want to respec. In fact, you may even want to respec your character simply because you're ready to try something different. And, the great news is that you can, though it will cost you some gold.

It's incredibly easy to respec in Diablo 4, as you can do so from a skill menu and don't need to visit specific vendors to do so. You'll have two options: refund each individual skill point, or reassign all skills with the 'refund all' option in the build menu.

To respec an individual skill, open your 'Abilities' menu and hover over the skill you want to refund. You'll see how much it will cost to refund at the bottom of the description box. If you have the requisite amount of gold, you can refund the skill point and assign it elsewhere on your skill tree. Right-click to refund the skill, or hold down the refund button as indicated if you're using a controller.

Note that if you choose to respec a primary skill on the tree that has other contingencies, you'll refund all associated skills and pay the cost accordingly.

If you want to respec your entire character build, look to the bottom of the skill tree menu and you'll see the option to 'respec all.' If you accidentally click on the 'respec all' button, don't worry. There's a confirmation screen that will allow you to confirm what you want to do, so you won't lose a bunch of gold and your entire build from a misclick.

Once you open this dialogue box, clicking on the 'respec all' option will show you the cost to respec all skills simultaneously. If you choose to do so, you can rebuild your character from scratch.

How much do Diablo 4 respecs cost?

Diablo 4 respecs will increase in gold costs as your level increases. During your first eight levels, respecs are free. However, after these levels, the game begins charging its in-game gold currency for respecs. (There is no option to pay actual money to purchase gold and respec your character.)

Reddit user "gamer_sa22" calculated estimated Diablo 4 respec costs and found that respecing a character at level 50 would cost over 1,000 gold per skill point and more than 52,000 gold for the entire build. This cost increases even more once you reach Paragon levels, which, by the Diablo 4 max cap of level 100, could cost players more than 400,000 gold for a full respect. Notably, players won't continue earning skill points after level 50 but will begin earning Paragon points.

You can respec both skill points, which you'll earn through level 50 and through a few extras throughout your game journey, and Paragon points, which will appear on a board and grant additional bonuses. Players can respec Paragon points in exchange for gold just as they can skill points, and Paragon points have both individual and full board respec options.

Although Diablo 4's options for respecing remain a topic of heated discussion, perhaps the increasing respec costs as a player levels their characters make sense. This process allows demon slayers the freedom to be flexible with their builds as they progress but makes it difficult for high-level players to completely swap builds on a whim while grinding endgame activities.

While the costs may seem high, it's important to know that you'll earn more gold for playing at a higher difficulty and will often get thousands of gold for selling items such as Ancestral loot, which you'll earn from playing on harder Diablo 4 World Tiers. So even though the gold amount seems quite high, it may not take as much work as you think to be able to use gold to refund skill points, even at higher levels. For example, a Diablo 4 endgame content promotional video released several months prior to launch showed a player's option to refund a set of skills for more than 100,000 gold, but also showed the player had more than 2.6 million gold on hand.

That's everything you need to know about the Diablo 4 respec system and how to reallocate skill points. If your build wasn't quite right the first time around, you're going to want to check out our best Diablo 4 Druid build guide, best Diablo 4 Necromancer build guide, or best Diablo 4 Sorcerer build guide so you can build the most beastly character in all of Sanctuary.

And, if you're going all in on Diablo 4, you'll also want to see our Diablo 4 battle pass insights, learn how to earn Diablo 4 murmuring obols, and peruse our overview of Diablo 4 seasons. We've also got an interactive Diablo 4 map to help you out when you're feeling lost.

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