What’s the deal with the complex paragon board? We explain the skill system of Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 advertises much more freedom in character customization than in Diablo 3. This applies to what your hero or heroine looks like, but of course also to your skills. In a new developer video, the team now clearly summarizes how you can put your own personal stamp on your character.
You can also watch the video right here and get some new insights into the talent trees, but also into the Paragon board. The latter only becomes available in the endgame and was therefore not yet visible in the public betas.
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Diablo 4 Dev Video shows more of the Talents and the Paragon Board
How to customize your heroes
To make each hero feel special, you can customize these characters extensively in two areas. On the one hand you can change their appearance, on the other hand you can determine their abilities. Here we explain both.
customize appearance
To determine the look of your hero, you basically have four options.
- Creation: Already at the beginning of the game you choose face, hair and jewelry or paintings that distinguish your character. But you can still change some of them later in the game.
- Armor: When playing you will find a lot of loot and this includes armor parts or helmets. Depending on the area, these items look different and can of course also differ in their values. There are even unique objects with a unique look.
- Transmog: In the inn of the largest cities in each region there is always a chest of drawers that you can use to customize your character’s appearance at any time. Here you can give each armor the appearance of another and also color it.
- Cosmetic shop: Diablo 4 also comes with a cosmetic in-game shop, which also offers armor or weapons. These have no stats but only change the appearance of your found equipment.
Lawsuit against Activision Blizzard
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customize skills
Your heroes’ talents and traits are a bit more complex. There are several mechanics here, which of course also have a strong effect on each other. We’ll briefly walk you through each mechanic you use to customize your characters to suit your playstyle.
The talent tree
The talent tree is arranged in the form of synapses and consists of themed sections, such as offensive or defensive skills.
Right at the beginning of the game, defeating enemies, completing quests, and activities in the world will earn you skill points for your talent tree. The tree consists of sections around which active and passive talents of the same type entwine. For example, there is a section for your class’s basic attacks. To unlock a new section, you have to invest a certain number of skill points in total. You can choose some skills more than once and level them up. However, you cannot buy every single skill up to level 100, you have to decide.
The Paragon Board
The Paragon Board has many nodes and you must choose wisely which path you take through the board.
This even more extensive talent tree is unlocked at level 50. With each leveling up, you get four Paragon points until you reach level 100. In total, you unlock at least 200 Paragon points. You invest these points in nodes on the board and thus receive bonuses. There are five different nodes:
- Normal knots: Normal nodes give simple bonuses such as +5 to Strength. But here you should make sure that you choose the smartest route through the tree.
- Magic Knots: These points do not improve your attributes, but specific skill abilities, such as more damage for your basic skills.
- Rare nodes: These slightly rarer nodes give both stronger attribute buffs and specific skill bonuses.
- Legendary Nodes: With these nodes you unlock special abilities. For example, you will then do more damage to opponents who have been affected by a control effect.
- Board selection: If you reach the edge of your board, you can place another board at this node and turn it so that the cheapest route to the desired skill is offered.
In addition to these nodes, you can also find magic glyphs in the world and use them at specific locations on the Paragon board. The glyphs have a radius and the more skill points they cover, the stronger their buff becomes.
How do you like the customization system in Diablo 4? Would you like more options or are you completely satisfied with it? How many characters do you actually want to create and which class will you return to Sanctuary with first? Write us everything in the comments that you would like to get off your chest!
