Your favorite weapon is getting a longer relationship with your character. Twenty-six trees, automatic milestones and some difficult hotbar decisions.
Keep doing the thing
Swing a sword long enough and you should get better at swinging a sword. That is the starting point for the new proficiency trees. Weapons, magic, armor, recovery and movement each get a path from level 1 to 100.
Unlocks happen at proficiency milestones. They do not eat the points you use for your class tree. Higher ranks replace earlier values, so three ranks of a discount are three steps up the same ladder.
The useful bits are arriving
Physical weapon training now scales damage toward a 50% bonus at level 100. Matching weapon attacks pick up stamina discounts at levels 10, 40 and 70. Bandaging benefits improve treatment, Breathing helps manage combat exertion, and Sprinting gets recovery benefits.
Shield work includes impact-paid stamina costs and Stalwart. Longbow True Flight increases the speed of a fully drawn arrow. The new trees put those benefits beside their later upgrades, so you can see where all that practice leads.
Eight slots. Choose wisely.
The design includes signature actives and level-100 upgrades. They share your eight ability slots with class spells. You do not get a secret second hotbar because you practiced with a mace.
Sprinting offers a choice of running styles. Athletics branches into Jumper, Dodger and Kicker. Swimming has its own water-and-diving path. Everything in the 26-tree collection is here to inspect, including the artwork and the numbers.