Why can’t you respec from masteries? I can guess that the implication is you can use that one character to essentially be all the character, but I think simply preventing respec on the LAST point on a mastery can rectify that, rather than blocking respec from masteries altogether. So, everything but the two points you put in the first level of each mastery can be respec’d if one so choose.
Very simply, it’s that way because that’s how Crate want it to be 
Use Grim Defiler.
Crate should care about what players want. And most players want to make experiments with their characters, try new exciting builds or changing old ones.
We’re in 2017, and ARPG history/evolution shown, that any modern ARPG should allow a complete reset of all spent ability/skill/stats/whatever points, inside a specific class. If they dont, players will be just forced to use 3-rd party software to make what Crate hadnt done for them, and game rating will drop down. No one wants to level up a new character just to remove 16 points from mastery and put in into other skills, or remove 30 points from Cunning and put them into Physique.
Things like full respec, stash, shared stash, loot filter, map, sorting inventory, etc should a golden standard of any modern ARPG, because it encourages experimenting, replayability and shown that game’s developer do care about their players.
Take that literally and you will have a game with hundreds of thousands of features, not to mention the problem of having to face features that some “players want” and other players don’t want. So that is not a reasonable thing to say when arguing for an obscure game feature that is not a tradition of ARPGs.
The thing is that for many things the developers count on the community for features they don’t feel should fit on their game. It may be just a product to you, but it is a creative process for them. You can’t argue that Monet should have painted more trees at View at Rouelles. He painted exactly the trees he wanted.
And the community worked on those features. You can actually do what you want to do. The developers, contrary to some other companies out there, even unofficially sanction these tools by sticking them on the forums. And no doubt there’s been here and there a developer helping hand in understanding the game files structure that enabled these tools to come to be. You can say Crate Entertainment helped do it. You have no reason to complain, my friend. Sorry.
Agreed.
Basically the core game still wants you to choose how to use your skill and stat points carefully, giving it an organic feel. This also puts pressure into the player into making a build work, which it still can thanks to items/devotions/augments/etc.
In the end, players work harder to create the build they want and are rewarded for it. Perfectionists need to be more careful but the simple fact is that the bar for what makes a build “viable” is quite low, which favors the average player.
You seem to be equating experimentation/replayability with total respec freedom, which speaking as someone who has been playing strategy games since the early 90s, doesn’t work. It’s not an “ARPG history/evolution” heh, the concept of respecs is as old as mods, and if there’s one thing that people actually agree on, it’s that such freedom can very easily ruin games.
There is a balance of control and freedom that game developers must learn to juggle, otherwise Crate might just as well start implementing seasons or something and just focus specifically on end-game and forget about like 90% of other content, because that’s what it’s going to come down to.
I obviously know this because there’s precedence for it.
Leaving such things to mods is basically the devs’ way of saying “feel free to play however you want” while at the same time defending the values of the core game… and if the presence of GD players here who got tired of D3’s template system (which is the epitome of absolute build freedom - there’s basically no unique build in D3 so much as just an item setup) then this seems to be a compromise that works - and one which is actually appealing to experienced gamers.
and you can, you just cannot respec from e.g. Arcanist + Occultist to Soldier + Demolitionist, you have to stick to the masteries you picked.
As to not being able to respec mastery points, that is such a minimal problem. I would not mind if you could, but it has next to no impact either way. Already most builds go 50/50, 50/40 or at least 50/32, with the expansion pretty much anyone will be 50/50.
We’re in 2017, and ARPG history/evolution shown, that any modern ARPG should allow a complete reset of all spent ability/skill/stats/whatever points, inside a specific class.
really ? Most do not actually do so and the ones that do (Diablo 3) got negative feedback for doing so
If they dont, players will be just forced to use 3-rd party software to make what Crate hadnt done for them, and game rating will drop down.
Given GD’s rating it seems to have no impact whatsoever… Crate designs the game they think is the right way, that will never please everybody. For those that absolutely want something else, there are mods or tools.
No one wants to level up a new character just to remove 16 points from mastery and put in into other skills, or remove 30 points from Cunning and put them into Physique.
and no one has to… first of all, you should notice you want to go in a different direction before you spent 16 points and even if you do not, that is just a few levels until you have caught up and eventually you spend the mastery points anyway, so you are back to where you started mastery point wise, but with different skills
Things like full respec, stash, shared stash, loot filter, map, sorting inventory, etc should a golden standard of any modern ARPG
and yet most do not have everything on your list, and as far as full respec is concerned, there are many people who disagree even
I dont mind that you cant change your mastery, because materies just define your class.
But if you’ve put too much skill points into mastery, you cant remove them back and use for other skills. Let’s say, you play Witchblade 1h+shield, and you maxed both masteries while leveling. Later, you realize you dont really need last 16 points in Occultist, because you cant use both Possesion and Menhir’s Bulwark, and spending those 16 points for Blitz, for example, will be far more benefitial. Also, you’ve put half of your atributes into cunning, and some into spirit. Later, you realize i would be better to put most attribute points into physique, and few into spirit, to be able to equip endgame amulets. And even if you done that, you may find legendary leggings, that add bonus to spirit, you now you better put ALL your points into physique (cause spirit will be useless for you). For other builds, things may get even worse - they wont be able to equip an item due to lack of physique or cunning… Game just doesnt allow you to respec attribute points, forcing you either to use 3-rd party software, or make a new character and perform boring as fuck fasrm of everything once again…
As to not being able to respec mastery points, that is such a minimal problem. I would not mind if you could, but it has next to no impact either way. Already most builds go 50/50, 50/40 or at least 50/32, with the expansion pretty much anyone will be 50/50.
I wouldnt look forward into future, that is unknown for me. I dont know what expansion will bring to us. Maybe, going 50/50 on both masteries will be a standard, just like in Titan Quest. But maybe dont. Maybe, characters will get more skill points, but masteries and skills will requires more skill points to max out too. Or maybe there will be other changes. I dont know that, and wont speculate on that. When expansion comes, i’ll check changelog and will make my judgement.
You do know that versatility is one of the main reasons why some builds are so amazing, right? Like some builds can freely switch between heavy armor and caster gears (and as a result are often much more newbie-friendly than others).
You are basically taking that advantage away from them and for what? Just so you can personally meet your “optimal” item setting?
I can see how there might be some room for a compromise when it comes to just a few stats, but the fact is that stats are so cheap atm I don’t really think it matters anyway. Either you’ll find some other way to fix that or you’ll just find another setup which works very close to the previous setup.
Personally I think it removes replayability and over all reduces the amount of time spent playing the game.
If all you want to do is run a single char to max level and then simply swap it from one max level build to another max level build of a completely different pair of classes without spending any time levelling the other classes then yeah I guess it’s okay…you’ll be done with the game in a few days as you’ll have tried every single class combination at max within that time, so where’s the increased replayability of having one single char that is max level and can be every single build with the click of a few buttons.
If anything I find that the demands for the game to support this is just to give people instant gratification of multiple max level builds without spending any real time.
Simply download any of the blank level 85 chars and use that it’s no different to what you are demanding.
So simply because the game doesn’t have every single feature that YOU demand should be there you somehow manage to twist this to claiming Crate don’t care about about the players…sorry, but in my personal view, that is just plain rude and uncalled for. 
I dont say you should be able to change mastery. So you will be able to change build only inside chosen 2 masteries. You wont be able to change Conjurer for Druid, for example. And even then, you’ll have to find proper gear for new build, level up new constellations, spend some currency on respec (and after several respecs, cost might became quite high)…
Forcing player to level up another character of the same class just to change his build a bit is a DICK move. It’s just artificial and annoying way to improve replayability. Let’s say, Crate decides to reduce drop rates and exp gain by 10 times. Now, players should spend much more time to level up, and much more time to find decent items. Will it improve replayability and make more positive impression from the game? I doubt it, players will get bored is drop/exp rates are too low. On other hand, making loot drop rates 10-20 times higher also wont be really good for game, because too much loot will make players get BiS items and quit too quickly. A game developer should keep balance there and cae about making his gme really interesting, not just crating artificial rewards or penatlies to manipulate game’s process.