The Price of Character Customization in Diablo 4 vs. Diablo 3
Diablo 4's lead class designer, Adam Jackson, explained that respec costs in the game will be cheap early on but will get more expensive in the endgame to balance the need for players to commit to a character build while still allowing for experimentation. The game's design philosophy is somewhere between Diablo 2's difficult respec system and Diablo 3's freeform approach. The team has also removed super-powerful item sets to allow for more open-ended gameplay. Jackson hinted at the possibility of Runewords, a gear customization system from Diablo 2, being included in the game.