Skill Spotlight: Wigfrid & Willow in beta.

[BB Marioni]

Based on what I have been seeing so far, the skill tree perks are mostly good. a couple of things:
- Beefalo riding and tame time perks are basically useless after beefalo is fully domesticated.

- Wigfrid's old fear song needs its duration increased

- Wigfrid's affinities are underwhelming. I would prefer special perks like Wormwood's interaction with brightsahde gears rather than just shadow and lunar damage buffs.

 

Some thoughts about skill trees in general:

I noticed some characters lack objectives that last long in the game. I first felt this experience when trying out the new Woodie. You have everything he needs early on in the game, and does not need any setup/ hunting specific items. I just need monster meat and I'm good the entire game. Dont need any farms, no brightshade/ void/ ruins gears because of the moose and beaver. I feel like Wigfrid is going this path as you just need to craft her 3 new equipment and youre done, its permanent, there's no upkeep needed. Before the beta, she would at least always want to get Gold to continuously produce battle helms, but that's not the case anymore.

I enjoy more characters that need to setup or upkeep their perks. For example:
Wurt needs to setup her multiple merm huts and merm king
Webber needs a spider farm, and to constantly farm items to upkeep his spider army and to craft switcherdoodles
Maxwell needs to get tier 2-3 shadow gears to unlock his puppets potential. and constantly farm nightmare fuel to upkeep his spells so needs to setup a bunnyman farm/ splumonkey farm
Wormwood needs to get Brightshade gear to activate his affinities which in turn also means he needs to cnsistently farm brightshades to make repair kits
 

[Soul7k]

25 minutes ago, BB Marioni said:

*snip*

on that note it would be cool if Bernie would ignore neutral shadows while wearing bone helm

[Mike23Ua]

39 minutes ago, BB Marioni said:

Based on what I have been seeing so far, the skill tree perks are mostly good. a couple of things:
- Beefalo riding and tame time perks are basically useless after beefalo is fully domesticated.

Do they? OR Can Wigfrid tame Beefalo out & then “Give” them to other players while she goes off to tame another one for another player?

I think since people have ALWAYS bothered the Wigfrid mains (I used to secondary main her so I’d know..) to craft them Battle Helms & Battle Spears, that it just seems “Fitting” for them to also pester her for Commander Helms, a Tamed Beefalo, and her special Beefalo Saddles.

Remember that with the Beefalo Bell (a permanent item now after Year of the Beefalo ended) that Beefalo are “Bonded” to the Cowbell your holding in your inventory, so faster taming, and longer riding (which also counts as taming..) then “giving” the bell to another player, assigns the Beefalo to them.

Like I said it’s “fitting” to give armors, spears, saddles & now even battle mounts, to other players as Wigfrid, Only this time Klei actually did my girl Justice, not only does she have all these crafts people will beg her for, but they also gave her some new weapons, combat abilities and a container for her singing scrolls.

I said I’d eat my own words when Klei did something I wasn’t expecting them to do.. so this is me eating my own words-  Thank You Klei for Wigfrids redemption story.. For once in a very long time I’m actually excited to be playing her again soon.

Willows new perks are also looking like way more fire. <3

Thank You Klei!

[randiao]

It feels a bit expensive to make a spear with two sheep horns.

Edited December 1, 2023 by randiao

[somethin]

16 minutes ago, randiao said:

It feels a bit expensive to make a spear with two sheep horns.

You can repair the spear by using her charged attack at mobs, so if you're careful, it's basically infinite use.

[Yuuko]

20 minutes ago, somethin said:

You can repair the spear by using her charged attack at mobs, so if you're careful, it's basically infinite use.

I've found the repair basically just makes that attack free.  I have not gained durability using the charge attack ever.  Unless this is a bug...

Edit - only the upgraded spear repairs on dash.  It repairs 2% per target hit.  If you can line up spiders or bees or something its fairly easy to recharge.  In a boss fight you could use the dash on cd to extend the durability of the spear a bit.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Shosuko

[somethin]

1 minute ago, Shosuko said:

I've found the repair basically just makes that attack free.  I have not gained durability using the charge attack ever.  Unless this is a bug...

Ah, I assumed the durability regain skill is able to recoup more than it used. Nevermind then.

[Soul7k]

10 minutes ago, somethin said:

Ah, I assumed the durability regain skill is able to recoup more than it used. Nevermind then.

i think you have to hit like 3 targets to break even or 5 for it to actually repair. you basically need a spider or bee swarm to effectively repair it

 

[Yuuko]

16 minutes ago, somethin said:

Ah, I assumed the durability regain skill is able to recoup more than it used. Nevermind then.

edit - I'm wrong, I just realized I never actually did the UPGRADED spear, and that is where the repair comes in.  The normal spear's dash attack is free, but does not repair it. 

It seems to repair 2% per target hit so you can do like some bees or spiders to recharge it easily.  Using it on cd in a boss fight would probably extend its durability considerably too.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Shosuko

[Dr.Webber]

Nice work with willows  alignments I only wish the lunar fire work like the shadow fire or the other way around 

 I hope to see something similar to Bernie’s alignment redesign for Webber’s spiders 

Edited December 7, 2023 by Dr.Webber

[WenericMember]

42 minutes ago, Dr.Webber said:

Nice work with willows  alignments  I hope to see something similar to Bernie’s alignment redesign for Webber’s spiders 

My only concern is if characters continue to only get the "+ Damage to opposing alignment" perk

The alignment perks are basically the only ones to actually be locked behind progression in some form, so they're the one's that can have truly potent effects (wormwoods, Willow's fire cast, Woodies to an extent) , But a lot of characters only get the singular alignment bonus Perk (Wolfgang, Wigfrid & Bernie).

I'm excited for skill trees for new perks, not bigger numbers, and as such I REALLY hope the remaining combat-ish characters, Wendy, Webber, Wanda  and I guess Walter and Maxwell don't exclusively get the damage buff perks. Wendy's the one I'm probably most concerned about, but I hope Wendy gets a second skill like Willow.

[Nikki Darks]

Noteworthy mentions:

- Willow's sanity regen from fires is significantly weaker due item burn times are shorter
- Lighter refuel % needs to go up from 1% to at least 10%
- No fire spread is very inconvenient to use because you can't get charcoal as fast and can't even use makeshift "fire farms"
- Lunar Bernie needs to be usable in lunacy otherwise he just can't stay as BERNIE! due to Willow gaining sanity from lunacy, on top of gaining 10% increased sanity

[lenship2]

6 hours ago, KvltBear said:

As mentioned it's difficult to even keep up with the usage depletion rate as you absorb the fires much less actually add durability. Has to be at least 5% to be worth the time doing it. Probably closer to 10 since I can easily craft another one for one gold, some flowers, and a rope

you can fuel it infinitely by standing next to a magma pond and absorbing its power :>

[Bee PichiL]

Wigfried, who can enliven teammates with her singing. Willow who demolishes everything in her path with her magical fire. Do you also feel a balance in all this?

[Yuuko]

14 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

Noteworthy mentions:
- Lighter refuel % needs to go up from 1% to at least 10%
- No fire spread is very inconvenient to use because you can't get charcoal as fast and can't even use makeshift "fire farms"

If you drop a stack of grass individually and use 1 ember you can light them all on fire and put them out to gain ~50% durability on lighter.

Also - its not perfect - but you can use the fireball spell to let fire spread.  I don't think there is a way to turn it off early, but it can still enable fire farms.

You could also just not take any points in that tree...  but I don't disagree that it is an issue.  Same with things burning quicker eh...

[Nikki Darks]

3 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

If you drop a stack of grass individually and use 1 ember you can light them all on fire and put them out to gain ~50% durability on lighter.

Also - its not perfect - but you can use the fireball spell to let fire spread.  I don't think there is a way to turn it off early, but it can still enable fire farms.

You could also just not take any points in that tree...  but I don't disagree that it is an issue.  Same with things burning quicker eh...

Oh this is hella good to know, thanks!

Also, , this skill does not work? I tried dropping Bernie while sane to defend me against shadow or lunar mobs... And he just did nothing? Maybe I am misunderstanding this vague description.

 

[Dr.Webber]

1 hour ago, WenericMember said:

My only concern is if characters continue to only get the "+ Damage to opposing alignment" perk

The alignment perks are basically the only ones to actually be locked behind progression in some form, so they're the one's that can have truly potent effects (wormwoods, Willow's fire cast, Woodies to an extent) , But a lot of characters only get the singular alignment bonus Perk (Wolfgang, Wigfrid & Bernie).

I'm excited for skill trees for new perks, not bigger numbers, and as such I REALLY hope the remaining combat-ish characters, Wendy, Webber, Wanda  and I guess Walter and Maxwell don't exclusively get the damage buff perks. Wendy's the one I'm probably most concerned about, but I hope Wendy gets a second skill like Willow.

I meant the design 

what i actually want for his spider half alignments is this:

Alignments:

shadow:

The Shadow Queen will reward your loyalty with the kingly ability to share your power with your fallen feral friends 

shadow widower I: 

upon death a befriended spider will molt into a shadow spider and over a period of day there shell will harden they will grow stronger with it 

you can keep  cool 20% longer in summer and if you have the bite skill it provides the same poison effect as the shadow  spider 

(Alignment spiders have a similar transformation animation to horror hounds, they don’t eat  off the ground, and have two attacks one attack is a poison bite attack  and the other is a poison spike attack like the shattered spiders spike attack but pure horror/brilliance instead of purple moon glass,stronger,and poisons instead of exploding both spiders types are more resistant to creatures of the same alignment and are more effective against creatures of the opposite) 

 

shadow widower II:

shadow spiders has +15 health 

you can keep  cool 40% longer in summer and if you have the pseudo den skill you sleep more efficiently in it

shadow widower III:

 

shadow spiders has +30 health 

you can keep   cool 70% longer in summer and if you have the baby spiders skill they turn in to nurses of the corresponding skin to the beard skin you have or just triumphant and they can drain a little bit of health from nearby enemies and a it on to they’re heal

Lunar:

The Cryptic founder will reward your curiosity with the kingly ability to trigger your adaptations in your fallen feral friends 

Lunar araneae I: 

 

upon death a befriended spider will molt into a mutated spider and over a period of day there shell will harden they will grow stronger with it 

you can keep  warm 20% longer in winter and if you have the bite skill it provides the same poison effect as the mutated  spider 

(Alignment spiders have a similar transformation animation to horror hounds, they don’t eat  off the ground, and have two attacks one attack is a poison bite attack  and the other is a poison spike attack like the shattered spiders spike attack but pure horror/brilliance instead of purple moon glass,stronger,and poisons instead of exploding both spiders types are more resistant to creatures of the same alignment and are more effective against creatures of the opposite) 

Lunar araneae II:

 

Mutated spiders has +15 health 

you can keep  warm 40% longer in winter and if you have the pseudo den skill you sleep more efficiently in it

 Lunar araneae III:

Mutated spiders has +30 health 

you can keep  warm 70% longer in in winter  and if you have the baby spiders skill they turn in to nurses of the corresponding skin to the beard skin you have or just moonbound  and they can drain a little bit of health from nearby enemies and a it on to they’re heal

( the reason I added a temperature peak is the mutated spider legs  description  says “a thick layer of fluff to insulate you against the cold lunar landscape and to mirror th lunar alignment I desired to have something similar to elephant hair in order to go the opposite way  ) 

[gamehun20]

39 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

Bernie while sane to defend me against shadow or lunar mobs... And he just did nothing? Maybe I am misunderstanding this vague description.

you need to be at enough sanity for him to grow not max sanity

[Neu7ral]

5 hours ago, Szczuku said:

No, I don't like it because I was one of those people that believed that Willow would be better off if she remained just a pyromaniac and that turning her into a fire mage would be a bad move. Not to mention that Maxwell's rework now feels less special as Willow also has spell casting

Maxwell refresh is Wickerbottom with extra steps.

Why don't you want Willow to have pyromancy?

[Nikki Darks]

Okay so, the sanity regen from fires, contrary to what I had thought, is still very good.

You can spam a bunch of fireball spells to gain a lot of sanity from them since it stacks.

[arubaro]

4 hours ago, BB Marioni said:

Wigfrid's old fear song needs its duration increased

but outside of the skill tree. Skill trees shouldn't be the way of fixing stuff that is useless by their own

[KvltBear]

I was thinking for Wigfrid's 2nd beefalo perk, how about buffing the hunger fulfillment? If steamed twigs lasted twice as long that'd be much more impactful to me than a flat ride time bonus.

Edited December 1, 2023 by KvltBear

[Captain_Rage]

1 hour ago, Neu7ral said:

Maxwell refresh is Wickerbottom with extra steps.

Why don't you want Willow to have pyromancy?

In the current iteration it trivializes every downside that Willow has.

1 hour ago, Nikki Darks said:

Okay so, the sanity regen from fires, contrary to what I had thought, is still very good.

You can spam a bunch of fireball spells to gain a lot of sanity from them since it stacks.

Why do characters even have weaknesses at this point when they get pocket strats which are available all the time that they can use to negate them? It's a question for Klei.

Next up will be skills for Warly that let him gain extra sanity and fullness for eating the same dish consecutively if this madness goes unchecked.

[Yuuko]

3 minutes ago, Captain_Rage said:

In the current iteration it trivializes every downside that Willow has.

 

What downsides did Willow have?

[BalkanCockroach]

2 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

What downsides did Willow have?

Outdated refresh was her downside lol

Edited December 1, 2023 by BalkanCockroach