Passive tree

Not sure if this has been suggested or brought up yet, but I wanted to give some feedback for the passive tree. I remember in one of the interviews they were saying that they gave each class it's own passive tree, and I noticed the difference between the Witch and the Sorceress. The starting nodes being different isn't that big of an issue, my problem is with the second set of nodes. On the Sorceress she has Fire, Cold, and Lightning nodes, while the Witch has Physical, Minion, and Chaos nodes.

I started Witch because I really wanted to try the Blood Mage ascendancy, and I started out with minions with the bone spells. However, I stopped liking the gameplay of it after a while and wanted to try elemental instead. The problem is that there are no easily accessible elemental nodes early on, meaning that the power of elemental is lower, and with the new difficulty of the game we kinda need all the power we can get.

My suggestion is to make it so that we can just select which node we want, regardless of class, similar to how we can select attribute points. This would be for all of the classes of course, as I'm sure there are similar issues for other classes too. This way we can just pick the node we want on the class we want, and not have to have a super struggling early game or rely on finding a cracked out weapon to feel like we're doing good damage.

I know that you guys probably had the idea that Witch was supposed to be minions and Sorceress was supposed to be elemental, but my whole draw to PoE, both 1 and 2, is that you're supposed to be able to make whatever you want with no real restrictions. The trees being different in the start kinda goes against that a little bit, making the early game a struggle if you don't go for the suggested class theme.

I suppose the reason I feel this may be a good solution is because I know, based on the interview, that we were supposed to have that early elemental power on the Witch but people didn't select it because it also had increases to other power, so I figured I'd offer an alternative suggestion to bring that power back to the Witch (or Sorceress even with phys/chaos/minions) instead of taking it away.

This node selection might even be helpful later on because I look at the passive tree now and it's so much bigger than the PoE1 tree is and everything feels more spread out as a result. I'm wondering if we're gonna have the points to be able to grab the things we need for our builds, and being able to select nodes may help to condense the tree a little.

Anyway, just my thoughts. Thanks for listening and for all the communication during launch.

Agreed.

Yeah in my opinion the two weakest parts of the game are the skill gem system and the passive tree layout. Both systems are extremely limiting, and if you play in a party with a lot of people you start to see that every class is basically the same because they have to be to combat the difficulty.

I totally agree with you.

Each class have a different passive tree? Why?
This sounds weird. Couldn't there be cluster of both classes accessible from the same spot? Then no matter which class you play, you know exactly how the tree looks and can plan accordingly.

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New Idea


Flexible Class Starts:

-Players may allocate their first passive point into any of the class starting nodes on the tree, not just the two tied to their chosen class.


Weapon-Swap Passive Functionality:

-Weapon-swap passive points can be allocated into any node on the tree, regardless of pathing or current connections.
-A node chosen with a weapon-swap point functions as a new starting hub for that weapon set.
-Level-earned passive points can be allocated branching from this hub.
-However, when swapping weapons, all nodes tied to the other weapon’s hub(s) — including the original weapon-swap node and any normal passive points branching from it — are inactive.
-In effect, any level-earned passive points spent branching off a weapon-swap node become “owned” by that weapon set.


Example:

A Witch starts the game by putting her first point into the minion hub.
Later, she earns a weapon-swap point and places it into a melee damage cluster on the Warrior side.
She invests 8 normal points branching from this hub.
When using a wand, those melee nodes (and the 8 points linked to them) are inactive.
When using a 2H mace, the melee nodes and their branches activate, while wand-specific nodes deactivate.


Advantages

-True Build Freedom – Players can begin their journey however they like: a Witch specializing in strength, armor, and melee damage, or a Warrior focusing on minion modifiers. Starting archetypes no longer lock players into narrow identities.
-Meaningful Weapon-Swap Passives – Weapon-swap points gain greater value by letting players bypass filler nodes and reach impactful clusters on the opposite side of the tree, making alternate builds feel viable much earlier.
-Balanced Dual-Build System – Normal passive points invested through a weapon-swap hub become tied to that weapon set, ensuring balance. Players must choose between:
-Building both swaps evenly for versatility, or
-Investing more heavily into one swap while relying on weapon-swap passives alone for the secondary build.
-Strategic Flexibility – Weapon-swap branches can be allocated toward situational defenses or utilities (e.g., elemental resistance) to adapt to specific encounters like boss fights, encouraging thoughtful customization.


Potential Balancing Levers:

-Weapon-swap passive points may only be allocated into small entry nodes, not directly into notables or keystones. Players must branch out with normal points to reach those.

Alternatively, use a tiered cost system:

-Small node = 1 swap point
-Notable = 2 swap points
-Keystone = 3 swap points
This ensures players can still access powerful nodes across the tree, but only at a meaningful opportunity cost.

Maybe something where
A specific milestone needs to be achieved first before something like this is enabled

Like if you get a character to complete some end game task, or defeat a specific boss in a specific difficulty, etc then it flags your account to allow your alts to have this option for the league season