I agree with D_G and yes I do remember hearing about the trees all being one tree from somewhere (honestly think that would be awesome and add tons of variety since you would only put in points to get to next tiers)
I honestly more look at this as probably a change in the look rather than the system itself. You can still have a system with skill points without using a tree layout.
1) No prereqs (and thus wasted points) - skills become active at certain levels so you can skip skills if you want. Looks like tree, just no progression if you don't want. Similar to Hellgate:London, I'd suppose.
2) All skills become available at certain levels or achievements. No tree or progression whatsoever, just a list of skills. However, your skill points go to specialize in certain skills.
That was from the Diablo twitter
I honestly more look at this as probably a change in the look rather than the system itself. You can still have a system with skill points without using a tree layout.
♣Strength and Honor♣
I am actually excited about this. Looking back, i think Jay knows what hes doing.
(i know hes not alone, but hes lead designer so yeah).
Those are still trees no matter how you slice it.
Unless they're thinking of doing the Torchlight system, which still has trees but... I guess you could say that those aren't.
1) No prereqs (and thus wasted points) - skills become active at certain levels so you can skip skills if you want. Looks like tree, just no progression if you don't want. Similar to Hellgate:London, I'd suppose.
2) All skills become available at certain levels or achievements. No tree or progression whatsoever, just a list of skills. However, your skill points go to specialize in certain skills.
3) Some other way?
Apparently not