Disclaimer, I've got plenty of gems.

I believe the first respec should be free. The game has a learning curve and the first respec I just think is too soon, even as cheap as it is, to throw money at the game. I just think it will turn away a lot of players if they see that pay requirement so soon without getting to experience the game a bit more.

Side note, another option would be to simply give new accounts a small amount of gems.

Just my opinion, back to the grind.

I've considered rewarding 10 crystals per "virgin" boss kill. So that's an idea. It's still early, so hang in there

That would be a good way to do it as well.

I think it's best if the player can choose skill reset to cost gold or crystals. (either a large sum of gold or a small sum of crystals). Or unlock skill resets for a one-time crystal fee. Crystals for resets seems too "money-grab" for me and punishes player for experimenting.

Agreed, experimenting is a big part of the appeal, if experimenting costs money, it's not fun anymore. It's only like a quarter per reset but still :p

Fine. I'll remove it.

FWIW, I don't think pay-to-respec is unreasonable for a free-to-play game with no pay-to-win components.
Maybe as long as there's, say, one respec per difficulty level achieved...or per 25 levels...or something like that.
You have to monetize *something*.

I was entirely on board for 10 crystal per virgin boss kill. It allows people to actually play the game for free or purchase things as necessary. It would give you essentially 4 free respecs through beating hell if you choose to spend all your crystals there which is very reasonable.

It would also encourage people to create new characters and try new classes and they could earn more crystals (would have to pay for the slot initially still).

It seems like people are figuring out how to power-level chars in a few hours...not sure you should get 10 crystals per virgin kill per char...maybe per account?

I'll try to come up with ways to monetize that aren't required parts of the game. I think future stuff like mailboxes and trading/auction house will cause less chafing. I also considered charging per account to enable chat. That would keep spammers out, too.

But respecs aren't required, especially if there's a way to get a very limited number of free ones.

I can see added features like that being extra. Especially for a game like this. New Classes, New Races, etc. etc. I could all see being monetized.

Leveling and progressing are different. I can go from 50 to 95 in 2 hours once I get to a point where I can chain indefinitely but progression still takes time. If people want to farm progression for 20 crystals an hour I'd say let them. They are putting a lot of time into the game and earning a pseudo income of a quarter per hour.

I've never heard of a f2p game where the cash shop currency is so easily farmed. Why would anybody buy crystals?
Players "putting time into the game" doesn't defray the costs of an ISP, server, artists, etc.

You have to take a character to act 3 hell to earn a single dollar worth of Crystals... Even under ideal class, race, gear, everything, it will take at least 4-5 hours to get that far in the game. We can count on probably 1 hand the number of players that have progressed that far in the game since release... If people are willing to put that much time and effort into earning Crystals, they weren't going to buy anything regardless and at least now they will play the game and be a part of the community.

Putting time into the game means a more active community which is what sustains a game.

Agree to disagree...