Wolfgang Skilltree Feedback

[mr. brj]

TL;DR: I really like it, although some variety would be nice.

 

I'm enjoying this update a lot, and am very much looking forward to experimenting with the skilltrees in my new worlds. I wasn't completely opposed to skilltrees at the start, but was rather skeptical about how they could change the feel of the game. Others might disagree, but I think Klei has been doing really good making the skilltrees feel natural and not forced.

 

As for the topic: Wolfgang's skilltree. Obviously it is mostly focused on dealing more damage, and I love this. Not just because I enjoy seeing big numbers, but also because it is one of the defining aspects of this character. The utility from the "Chores" and half of the "Training" branches are also nice and fun additions, and even though the elemental dumbbells are, in my opinion, practically useless most of the time, I'm glad they exist as a filler. We need such silly, small and fun stuff in the game.

What I want to criticize, however, is the insane lengths of the "Push the Limits" and the "Mighty Weapons" branches, and how they prevent a variety in Wolfgang's skilltree. They could both be reduced down to 4 stages (would suggest 3 but I don't want anyone to complain about "balance" and stuff) and tweaked accordingly to give more room for other perks that speak to Wolfgang's character.

Mighty belly: Even though hunger to mightiness mechanic doesn't exist anymore, Wolfgang still has a mighty belly. He just speaks a lot less about it. Giving him a completely new branch to increase his maximum hunger would therefore be fitting to the character and could create interesting combinations with the "Push the Limits" skilltree, since hunger also affects the mightiness drain.

Leg day: I feel like this exists just to nullify the speed penalty from the piggyback while in normal form. While I think this is a good addition, this branch could be improved a little further by adding another stage that gives mighty Wolfgang a small speed boost while holding a dumbbell.

Mid-game Wolfgang suffered heavily from having to choose between staying mighty by holding a dumbbell or holding a walking cane for a short time speed boost other characters could keep indefinitely, something that also became close to irrelevant because of the slowdown from piggyback while in normal form. You could argue that this  short time speed boost actually gave mighty Wolfgang a pseudo speed debuff during the mid game when comparing him with the other characters.

If "Leg Day" removes the actual speed debuff from the piggyback, I think it's only fair to compensate for the pseudo debuff with a "Leg Day II". As long as it isn't Walking Cane levels of speed, mighty Wolfgang will still be slower than other survivors while hanging around, just not that much slower.

Something related to "afraid of monsters": Let's be honest, this would still be a trivial branch for experienced players but would somewhat help newer players. But most importantly, it still speaks for the character. I love that Wolfgang shouts like a little kid when he sees a ghost even after all his time in the Constant, but it would also make sense if he built up a tea spoon's worth of courage, which could slightly decrease the insanity aura of monsters.

 

Any suggestions or constructive discussions are, as always, more than welcome. Thanks for reading:D

[Baark0]

Imo Wolf is the most boring of the 3 new trees, basically every skill is just bigger numbers, with the exception of the coaching whistle which I do think could be fun with a Wurt duo. I don't think this is a bad thing, Wolf is meant to be the character who does tons of damage, but when you compare him to Wormwood spawning vines and Woodie flying around the map/levelling forests with tail slams, it's hard not to be dissapointed.

I do feel it should be noted that leg day doesn't require the piggyback to work. 10% movement speed for 2 insight points out of 15 is insane value when you compare it to other characters with speed boosts. Walter needs to keep Woby fed and avoid getting hit, Wormwood has to re-apply the speed boost every few days outside of spring, and WX has to give up 2 circuit nodes, which otherwise completely remove a number of threats from the game (darkness, temperature) or leave you with fairly low stats. While Wolfgang's speed boost isn't as strong, there's no real penalty outside of not being able to use it while mighty.

[Toros]

Personally, I think there's only really 2 choices in wolf's tree.

Mighty 5 is a given, and I think Chores 3 is a given.  Absolutely skip the gym perks entirely.

For me, it comes down to Leg Day vs Heavy Hitter II, and I prefer Heavy Hitter II to be able to 1 shot mactusk with a gembell.  I spend most of my time mighty already either for gathering or combat purposes, and since I love the piggyback and marbell I need to stay mighty to avoid the slowdown.

Beyond that it's about going either lunar affinity or shadow affinity.  bonus 30% vs shadow applies to a lot more enemies (you can 2 shot crawling horrors and 3 shot terrorbeaks with a dark sword while lunar aligned) but 30% vs Crab King, Celestial Champion, and Brightshades has appeal as well, but I'd probably just moon idol respec after Ancient Fuelweaver in that case.

Still no reason to use the gym, and I'm not seeing a lot of applications for the coach whistle in current state.

[xhyom]

Well, I mean he's already one of the best characters in the game so I really wouldn't expect much, BUT, we can be SURE that the next updates will have basically only moon/shadow alligned monsters so that will be probably very important. Don't know if anyone was expecting anything more than big numbers from him, I wasn't expecting those upgrades at all so I'll just accept it dunno; But If I got it right isn't that 25 planar damage extremely good with the moon staff? Did he just turned into a wizard?

[maradyne]

6 minutes ago, xhyom said:

But If I got it right isn't that 25 planar damage extremely good with the moon staff? Did he just turned into a wizard?

That is exactly how it works, yep!