One of the most daunting things new players experience early in their adventure through Wreaclast is the skill tree. At a first glance, it looks large and overly complicated for an MMO. In this article, we will explore how the skill tree works and how it creates a wide array of opportunities for players to make their builds as personalized as they can.

First off, the skill tree consists of passive skills, hence its name, passive skill tree. This means that progressing through the nodes of the tree will augment your character and in some cases, it provides you with passive abilities that will completely change the playstyle of your character.

You may not notice it at first but the passive skill tree is identical for all character classes. Thanks to this you can go towards any build you please regardless of your starting "class". It may take longer but any path you want to take your build towards, you have the option to do so. 

Now that you are a little acquainted with the skill tree let us talk about what exactly it offers the player in terms of character improvements.

The tree is built up from nodes that can have a different range of improvements. The basic node offer stat boost like more health more damage, more armor all-in-all general stat improvements all across the spectrum.
It gets more interesting with notables, which are distinguished from basic nodes by their larger size. They offer an assortment of passive bonuses catered towards a build type. Since they are larger, you can use them as a means of navigation through the skill tree. 
The most exciting aspect of the skill tree is keystone nodes or keystones, that change the rules of the game in a way that always comes with positive and negative effects. Generally, it is recommended to only take a keystone when its negative effect is either manageable or does not really affect you at all. To give you an example, Resolute Technique is a keystone, that makes your attacks unavoidable but you will not be able to crit. So if you do not rely on crit damage to make your build work you can feel free to take this but if you are, well let's just say it would be a suboptimal choice, to say the least.

It is also worth mentioning cluster jewels, that originate from the Delirium League and can be found as rewards from various objectives in the game. They are the way to expand the already passive skill tree by placing them into the outermost sockets of the tree, which adds a cluster of nodes to further invest into. Besides basic nodes, depending on the rarity and size of the jewel, they may contain notables and keystones as well.

Now that we covered the basics of the tree's elements let's get into more advanced stuff like the ascendency skills or anointments. 

Anointments are in close relationship with a mechanic called blight. Blights spawn from fungal growths that appear on any map, and they are a tower-defense type encounter. Completing these encounters awards the player with at least one oil used to anoint amulets. These anointed amulets unlock a keystone on the skill tree, which doesn't require any point to activate. You create these anointments by combining your oils, for example, two black oils and an opalescent oil will annoint the Way of the Warrior keystone (+30 strength, 16% increased melee damage, and 16% increase in armor).

Ascendancy skills are the cherry on top of your build. This unlocks after the first time a character completes the labyrinth, which awards two ascendancy points per difficulty for a total of eight. Think of ascendancies like sub-classes within each character class, providing improvements toward a certain type of build. Each character has three ascendencies besides the scion with only one. So let's say you are a templar that specializes in elemental damage. Then you will likely land on the inquisitor ascendancy, which provides the templar with elemental damage and resistance enhancements.

We hope this guide helped you get a grasp of the skill tree and what it offers to the player. Stay tuned for more guides covering other PoE-related content.