Wormwood Enjoyers Pitchfork Revolution - feedback and cry for change

[Sapientis]

(meme stolen from the Maxwell thread some time ago)

 

I'm sorry to say this, but while Woodie got great and impactful improvements to all his wereforms, poor man's Walking Cane and Battle Helm, freaking Treequard spawner and overall awesome QoL chages, Wormwood just doesn't feel like much changed in his gameplay.

Seed Sleuth won't get used unless you really want to use it for some reason,
Bloom Branch works in the background and doesn't change much, even Photosynthesis I was so hyped about when I saw it is just unnoticeable (you can just rub 2 Rots in and be better off anyway), Shade Plant is skippable when Thermal Stones exist.
Odd Branch (I cannot find any fitting name for the crap that got mushed in there) has Farmhand which feels like it should be base Wormwood's perk anyway (quicker picking should probably apply to more things, increased tending radius is skippable), Skilled Self-Fertilizer which should speed up or stack effects of all fertilizers, I rarely even use Compost Wraps, this is also a really weak skill, Bee Kind is useful, but not that much to waste a skill point on it when you can just run from Killer Bees (again, skippable, could just be base Worrmwood's perk), lowering Bee damage would be much better and practical for a character having harder time healing, Bramble Trap Specialist is a good skill, shouldn't trigger on friendly mobs such as Carrats and Saladmanders though, Fly Trap is underwhelmingly bad and its name is misleading, another skippable and barely noticeable skill.

Butterfly Friend is a good flavour and fitting character but it doesn't improve or even impact Wormwood's gameplay.
Mushroom Branch would be good with just the implementation of Moon Shroom Planter or Moon Shroom Planting (so either a new structure or just a character ability to plant them in generic Planters). I don't use Mushrooms when playing Wormwood because he only benefits from Green Caps and you have Bramble Husk to gather Cacti for free when basing near any Desert, so why bother wasting Living Logs on Planters. Moon Shrooms would probably encourage me to use Planters, especially as you have to take them because otherwise you'd have to waste points on...
Plant Crafting Branch is pretty bad and skippable for anyone able to walk around and craft a Shovel. Period. Yes it has a decorative Berry Bush variant and Juicy Berry Bush variant. Monkeytails are costly to craft when Swamp and Moon Quay Island exist, Lureplants are too expensive to craft early (5 Leafy meats) and not needed later when you could easily afford them (because you probably have 3-6 of them already and don't really need more). This whole branch is sadly just there to fill space, you won't use it in normal playthrough and it still lacks many crafts to be the crafting station for plants on longer running worlds. Also changing characters just to craft plants for decoration feels wrong...
On a side not, I did craft 6 Leafy Berry Bushes near my farms and had to get rid of them because of Brightshades targeting them all the time, I don't think decoration is the intended way anyway so why bother?

Lunar Cultivator Branch is ok, needs some improvements to Saladmanders (I'd personally put Lightbugs 1st, costing 5hp and Carrats 2nd costing 15hp), but overall it was executed in a good way. Has nothing to do with left side branches though. Sadly.

Lunar Guardian Branch is a late game branch (Brightshade equipment) and to be honest it's underwhelming when I used it.
Lunar Guardian I is just a root, but it encourages to wear Brightshade Armor, which is weak (80% +10 planar), you should probably wear better armors on body slot as Wormwood (like Bone Armor or Shadow Armor) if you risk getting hit and still want to use Brightshade Helm which increases damage. I'd rather have something like Abigail's shield proc on hit, that would block hits for next 0.5 seconds (with recent changes of damage reflection it would work like a poor man's Abigail with Distilled Vengeance). That would grant great defensive ability and still fill a niche no armor has (and that would make it great for escaping or even fighting larger hordes of mobs). Recently Brightshade set buff was moved to just Helm, so wearing Armor feels wrong with much better choices at hand.
Lunar Guardian II is a good skill on its own - some bonus damage from time to time that will hit mobs standing in place, but given how much Insight you have to invest to get it, it just falls on its face. And it falls hard. As stated above, Plant Crafting Branch is skippable so you're left with Mushroom Branch, which is mediocre at best. Moon Shroom Cloud doesn't even synergize with Lunar Guardian in any way, so there's that. The cost of Lunar Guardian II is also not taking Lunar Cultivator II and III and we're talking about end game phase (as we have no further progression), Wormwood just gets a single hit with a random proc when using a specific weapon and that vine might even miss if its target moves a bit. I remember Lunar Guardian II before nerfs and its damage made sense for its cost. I actually think it's not worth going right side at all when the cherry on top is Lunar Guardian II. But well, it's not really worth going left side either...
At least you can craft some cute pets with suicidal tendencies. With your own blood.
90 hp for 6 Bulbous Lightbugs which will die after 2.5 days(?) if not killed earlier, 50 hp for 2 Saladmanders that look cute when they sleep and also have similar death timer, 20 hp for 4 Carrats that bring you stuff and will die on your own traps.
I mean... Come on...
For a character like Wormwood it would make sense to have locked health when the pets are alive and you're refunded that health when the pet dies, so similarly to Maxwell's Sanity but filling from downside up. If your health drops below locked health either your pets summoned with it die or you just die straight up.

Lastly there is no Bramble Husk Specialist skill, Bug-loving skills are in separate branches and even in different sides, plus they all are weak.

TL;DR: Wormwood's skills are weak, unimpactful and unorganized with just some shining exceptions.
I might even list them, because they need to be praised:

• Bramble Trap Specialist
• Poor Sapientis (fun, fitting, produces Manure)
• Moon Shroom Cloud
• Lunar Cultivator I-III (but especially Lunar Cultivator II)
• Lunar Guardian II (even if it still lacks power for how much Insight you have to spend to get it)

 

Here's my take on Wormwood's tree (it has been posted before and talked through in beta branch)

That pretty much sums up my frustration about Wormwood.

P.S.