[Feedback/Suggestion] Make respecs free, will retain more players and foster creativity.

I would argue in favor of free respecs. Removing the cost will encourage new players to stay in the game longer, as it will make choosing their specs less intimidating. Furthermore, it will foster creativity and experimentation among players, rather than pushing them to look up min-maxed builds on the internet from a time/money perspective.

Let’s face it: 99% of the player base will eventually gravitate toward the most optimal build designed by a famous YouTuber. Therefore, it makes more sense to remove the double limitation—first, when reaching the required level, and second, when players want to try something different but have to pay a significant cost.

respecing cost is some thing from the past.

and if there are people that want to have a POE1 feel, why not have a game option for them as we have for Hardcore, here you could set your own limitations etc

I dont agree with this yes it would make the game more appealing to the "Normal" players but I personally like that youre "Punished" for specing in the wrong trees its not like its impossible to earn that cash while playing

pure free respec is just not good for the game. having top players feel like they need to stop and respec to an entirely new perfect setup for each boss does not foster good gameplay at all. the respec definitely needs balanced and it way over the way but it should not be purely free.

we need either massively reduced costs in the campaign or in general, or to get passive respec points from quests in the story imo

Either reduce the cost significantly (75-90% less) or periodically (or when the nerf hammer strikes) give a heavily reduced full tree respec option which does not stack over time.

Maybe make the cost of respecs decrease over time. Lets say after one week, respecs cost 90% less. When you then redo your whole tree, they are back to full price, and you slowly regain your cost reduction over time. If you redo half your tree, your cost reduction is at 45%, etc.
That could prevent excessive spamming. Could be per account or per char.

If you have this much friction to respec there will be less experimentation and consequently less testing.

Of course these suggestions are for EA, when there are frequent changes.

But yeah I disagree with making it completely free.

I'd definitely support limited-time free respecs, or at least very cheap respecs, while the game is still in its early stages, where a hotfix can break and has broken many builds. Currently the game doesn't do a very good job of letting players switch to a different build when their current one doesn't work, and being able to at least respec one's passive skill tree without too much of a barrier at the moment should allow for better recovery and more experimentation.

I will say, though, that this also highlights in my opinion how the passive skill tree in PoE 2 inhibits freedom of customization, along with several other systems. The idea of speccing into a particular build through a customization tree is good, but because you're making all of these semi-permanent choices that direct you into a particular playstyle, you're locked into that playstyle until you respec. Because the only way to get skill gems right now is to either get really lucky or trade, players can't reliably switch builds, and because gear is really scarce and difficult to make good for one's level, it's also difficult to farm one's way into a decent build. All of this I think is quite different from the more freeform customization GGG advertized in the lead-up to this game. I think there's room here to make it a lot easier for players to switch up their builds even after we leave early access, so that we get to try out new builds more frequently and enjoy more variety, while also being less vulnerable to sudden shifts in balance.

i agree with your reasoning for flexible build adjustment. i dont think it can be free but currently (a) the costs are high and (b) you cant really plan for it because the costs are escalating. my guess is the uncertainty on the escalating cost and the uncertainty on whether your build is good enough or not, is what creates most of the psychological tension. so a better solution would be to have a respec token additionally to the respec merchant. you would use the respec token for full build resets and the merchant for smaller node changes. the respec token could be acquired through a challenge for example or could be a super rare currency. if you know "you can always respec if you need to", the mental cost of trying stuff would sink instantly.

or i could imagine getting 1 respec token as an end of act reward through acts 1-6 of the campaign could be fine and good enough to try a few build ideas, while not making the decision completely frictionless.

Oh please stop with the "stop punishing players" hyperbole. A couple points, in the game reveal we were told that there are so many interactions between skills, supports, and gear that even they didnt know what interactions it would have. I heard that and knew there would be some completely busted builds that would be nerfed. What we want is class balance, and we dont have that at all. Look at builds out there and you would see most people are playing 2 classes. Ranger will be next on the chopping block, they are instant phasing bosses right now. This is EA, there will be a lot of slider adjustments, nerfs, etc. Everyone here that is playing said "yes, here is my money. I know that this is early access, and things will change. Some things wont work, they will be identified and fixed over time." Did yall forget that?

I have 5k hours in poe and they buff and nerfed things all the time.

I dont care about the nerfs at all, however op is correct. We are expected to adjust to nerfs and changes, however we shouldnt have to pay for it. Its costing me 100s of thousands of gold to respec a build that no longer works the way I made it. Everything is subject to change so make it free, or less restrictive for use to make changes with every new patch. Once its live and figured out, I dont care about paying for respec.