Blizzard is looking to rework the skills and talents system in Diablo IV--which should come as a welcome change for longtime players.

　　"We've been reading through a lot of the comments from the community and agree that the talent system needs more depth," Diablo IV lead systems designer David Kim wrote in a blog post. "Similarly, skill system progression felt too simple, which created issues where a player would have no meaningful reason to spend their skill points."

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　　So now, skills and passive abilities exist in separate sections of the skill tree. By leveling up, you'll earn skill points that you can then spend to unlock certain skills, additional abilities for the skills you already have, and passive points. With passive points, you can unlock new passive abilities for your character.

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　　"The passive part of this system is where you will find more general upgrades to your character," Kim writes. "These effects are not specific to particular skills. Therefore, the skill tree will have a good mix of all types of different choices for players to make."

　　In Diablo IV, your skill tree is a literal tree--your character's individual skills make up the branches while their passive abilities are the roots.Kim also mentions that under this new system, players will likely only be able to earn about 30-40% of a character's skill tree by the end of Diablo IV's campaign. This should ensure that all players "can have very distinct, and different ways they build out their character."

　　Hopefully, we can expect to learn more about Diablo IV's skills and talents system during the upcoming Blizzconline 2021 event, which will be hosting a few panels diving deeper into the game. More importantly, the event might shine more light on Diablo IV's release date, which we know won't be until 2022 at the earliest.