Skill Tree System Guide
Last Updated:March 4, 2024|Changelog
Introduction
Skill Trees (commonly referred to as “Tripods”) are additional perks that grant your skills various benefits. The benefits can range from basic stats such as Cooldown Reduction, Damage Increase, Crit Rate/Damage, to ones that completely alter how skills function. Some Skill Trees are more powerful than others, so choosing the correct ones is important. Skill Trees can gain additional levels from Tier 3 gear to further enhance their benefits. Let's start optimizing your character!
System Overview
Each skill has 3 tiers of Skill Trees, unlocked when leveled to 4, 7 and 10. The points required to invest for those breakpoints are 4, 20 and 48. Levels 4 and 7 provide three options to choose from, while Level 10 provides two options. Awakenings and skills for classes that possess a separate move set during their transformation state (Shadowhunter, Artillerist, etc.) cannot be adjusted with Skill Trees. Skills can be dragged from the Skill Window to the Skill Bar for use.
Choosing the Right Skill Tree
Prioritize leveling your most useful skills to gain Skill Trees. Some Tier 3 skill trees are quite powerful, while others are not worth the points. The skill trees you pick can depend on your build and playstyle. Here are some general recommendations:
- Damage scaling Skill Trees, such as % Damage and Crit Rate/Damage increase, are worth obtaining for your most hard hitting Skills.
- Useful skills with long Cooldowns benefit from Cooldown Reduction (CDR) Skill Trees.
- Consider Skill Trees with Push Immunity to guarantee landing hard hitting skills on bosses without being interrupted or knocked down.
- Most Raid Bosses & Guardians are weak to certain types of elements. Skills that offer Trees for these elemental damage types take advantage of this weakness and grant you increased damage against them. More detailed information about elemental weakness can be found in our Raid Guide.
For optimal Skill and Skill Tree setups for a specific class/build, check our Class Guide Section.
Skill Tree Levels
Starting from Tier 3 content, you get access to a new feature that lets you increase Skill Tree levels to raise their power. Chaos Dungeons drop Amulets that lets you accomplish this. The maximum level a skill can reach is 5.
Depending on the rarity of the item, they have Skill Tree lines, granting anywhere from Lv.2 to Lv.5 to any skill of your class. These items can be brought to a Skill Tree NPC available in all major cities shown as a on the map. They let you transfer these effects to your character with various rates of success depending on the Skill Tree level. Here are the maximum obtainable Skill Tree effects and levels found on gear:
Rarity | Effects | Level |
Rare | 3 | 2 |
Epic | 3 | 2-3 |
Legendary | 3 | 2-4 |
Relic | 3 | 4-5 |
Skill Tree Filter
When in your character skill window (K), press "Settings" on the bottom to access the filter window. Here you can select Skill Trees for the skills you want to level. By clicking on the icon, you can either enable or disable notifications for these skills. This same symbol will then appear on Amulets you find that have your desired Skill Tree effects on them.
Skill Tree Transfer
- Select an Amulet from the left side.
- Choose a Skill Tree effect from the three options that you wish to transfer to your character (you can only choose one).
- Decide if you want to use Powder of Sage to double your success rate.
- Click Transfer and hope it succeeds!
- If successful, the Skill Tree effect is permanently unlocked for your character.
- Your Amulet gets destroyed in the process, regardless of outcome.
Note that:
- Silver cost depends on the level you're transferring.
- Skill Tree effects you already own are grayed out if their level is lower or equal to yours and can't be transfered.
Success Rate
Your success rate is affected by the level of the Skill Tree you wish to transfer. This rate can be further increased with Powder of Sage. This special item is typically obtained from weekly Guardian Raids, crafted in your Stronghold or bought from the Guild Vendor with Sylmael Bloodstones.
Skill Tree Level | Base Success Rate | Powder Rate |
2 | 100% | N/A |
3 | 50% | 100% |
4 | 25% | 50% |
5 | 10% | 20% |
Skill Tree Level Activation
Each character can select up to 18 Skill Tree effects. These can be allocated within your Combat Skill window (K). Based on the levels you've unlocked, you can choose these here. Selected Skill Trees that cannot be leveled higher than Lv.1 do not count towards the Activation limit of 18.
To know which Skill Tree effect to level, check our Class Guides.
Amulet
Hope Amulets and Wishful Amulets can be bought from the Legion Raid Exchange Vendor with x25 Mayhem Marks or obtained through special events hosted by Amazon Games. Right-clicking the Amulet opens a window which lets you select any Skill Tree effect of your choice and upgrade it to Lv.4 or Lv.5 with a 100% success rate. Ideally, these are used for effects that you don't plan to max out or to upgrade the highest damage scaling skill effects for your build.
Summary
- Prioritize leveling skills to 4, 7 and 10 to unlock Skill Trees. Select the ones that benefit you the most depending on the situation.
- Curious about how to further improve your skills or obtain more points to allocate? Check out our Rune Guide and Skill Point Guide.
- Awakenings and skills for classes that possess a separate move set during their transformation state (Shadowhunter, Artillerist, etc.) cannot be adjusted with Skill Trees.
- Starting from Tier 3 content, you get access to a new feature that lets you increase your chosen Skill Tree levels.
- Setup a notification filter for the Skill Trees you want to level.
- Amulets have 3 Skill Tree effects with various level ranges.
- Skill Tree effects grant anywhere from +2-5 levels, depending on the rarity of the Amulet.
- Hope Amulets and Wishful Amulets is a powerful item that lets you upgrade any Skill Tree of your choice to Lv.4 or Lv.5.
- Sell Amulets with high level Skill Trees on the Auction House for profit.
Credits
Written by Choilicious
Reviewed by Lexyu