I don't think Wigfrid's skill tree is very good, extensive opinions on it.

[CuteC]

Don't get me wrong, the spear is very fun to use, but that's pretty much all of note there is.

I will start on the commander helm, it is so much more expensive (or rather complex to make since the ingredients are stuff you REALLY have to go out of your way to get) to make and it is only SLIGHTLY better than a regular battle helm,  what is the point of it? Not only that but there's barely any enemies that deal knockback damage, guess what they are, that's right, planar, "oh but there's a skill that makes it have planar defense", it is NOT good enough, planar enemies will absolutely demolish you and need I remind you, you can already make brightshade helmets to deal against these enemies, the one thing you could use them for is the bosses, sounds like a good decision right? But that means not using boosted brightshade sword, "oh but you have the charged spear", it deals LESS damage to planar enemies than a brightshade sword without the helmet boost, not to mention that you can't use warbis either because it uses the head slot, that means not boosting the spear's damage, so you trade damage and defense for... not being knocked back? Not even that because you're still knocked back a bit, just less, to finish this, the perk that makes Wigfrid restore commander helm durability is worthless, you only repair it during a fight with FULL HP, when is that going to happen?

Now for the spear, I will say I did not test properly the normal spear, only the charged one, it is a fun weapon to use, but it's not good, I will elaborate; it does a LOT of damage to normal enemies, but that is to normal enemies and its apparent use is planar damage, which it is not good at like at all, it deals LESS damage than a brightshade sword without helmet boost, so there's no reason to use it against planar enemies, it needs a restrained static as well which is a lot more effort to get than other materials you would use for a weapon, I assume they were worried about the charged spear being good given it is pre-rift, but nothing stops them from having it be upgraded with post-rift materials instead of a restrained static, now, the thing can actually break which is pretty tough for something that requires a static, it does have an attack that restores durability but that is only if you hit something NOT including dummies, so if you end with low durability after a fight then you're doomed with attacking random birds and rabbits everywhere to slowly repair it, I'd say you should be able to restore its durability on a gemerator so it has another use AND the spear has a reliable and convenient way to recharge it.

The battle rond is absolutely worthless, it does not do a lot of damage and yeah it's a weapon that gives armor but you can still just use actual armor, I am not gonna be too harsh on that front since what really bothers me is that it has a COOLDOWN on switch, so the shield is not something you can have to quickly block an attack which is what I initially thought it'd do, it is shield of terror minus the repairing and a useless block ability, why do I say useless? Because the spear can do the exact same thing, enemy about to attack? Dash through them or away from them ALSO on a faster cooldown AND the spear provides a speed boost (at least the charged one that is), and to put the cherry on top, they conflict with each other because of the cooldowns.

She has beefalo skills that not only are bad but also out of place, faster domestication is like kinda neat but also it's only gonna be useful once, longer riding time is extremely minor during taming and useless when tamed, the timer is already way too long you don't NEED this, the planar damage boost is barely anything and the saddle is bad, you DO NOT need to tank on a beefalo, they already take quite the beating and also they do not exactly have a way to regen mid tanking, if you're on a beef you should focus on being able to deal as much damage as possible, not tanking and eventually killing something in 3 hours, now the worst part is that ALL of this conflicts with Wigfrid, she does NOT benefit from any of these perks, not to mention she would do a better job NOT using a beefalo to begin with, the perks should allow her to do cool stuff on a beef, not like 10 more damage and that's it, even if she was allowed to use her gimmick on beefalo it still wouldn't be good but at the very least it'd be fun.

The battle stingers should NOT require minimum inspiration to use, you will not build up enough inspiration to use them on a fight with say hounds, but they are also not useful when you DO build up enough because that means it is a boss and they will punch you instead of being scared, also the one fight where they would BE good they still manage to be bad because the cooldown (though I am not sure if the new cooldown is alright) stops you from using it, but don't worry because you can make a billion stingers and somehow that is a workaround and it makes no sense.

Last time I tried the affinities they were extremely bad, though I haven't used them after the patch.

Listen, I think the ideas on the skill tree are good but they are not executed well, like I said the spear is very fun but it falls short on its purpose, I suggest changing the way these items work and make it so they have an upgraded version (at least the spear does) with post-rift items, that way Wigfrid has stuff for early, mid and late game, instead of having the skills directly upgrading these items, since that last thing makes it so this gear cannot be too good since you can get it early, I REALLY looked up to this skill tree since Wigfrid is my favorite character and I REALLY want it to be good.

[chirsg]

19 minutes ago, CuteC said:

I will start on the commander helm, it is so much more expensive (or rather complex to make since the ingredients are stuff you REALLY have to go out of your way to get) to make and it is only SLIGHTLY better than a regular battle helm,  what is the point of it? Not only that but there's barely any enemies that deal knockback damage, guess what they are, that's right, planar, "oh but there's a skill that makes it have planar defense", it is NOT good enough, planar enemies will absolutely demolish you and need I remind you, you can already make brightshade helmets to deal against these enemies, the one thing you could use them for is the bosses, sounds like a good decision right? But that means not using boosted brightshade sword, "oh but you have the charged spear", it deals LESS damage to planar enemies than a brightshade sword without the helmet boost, not to mention that you can't use warbis either because it uses the head slot, that means not boosting the spear's damage, so you trade damage and defense for... not being knocked back? Not even that because you're still knocked back a bit, just less, to finish this, the perk that makes Wigfrid restore commander helm durability is worthless, you only repair it during a fight with FULL HP, when is that going to happen?

 

I've covered alternative options on the survey thread I posted, but I see you've already weighed in, so thanks for that. I share your sentiment. It's really just a pretty hat, as you have to work harder to avoid getting it damage, while paradoxically putting your pretty hat in risk of being broken in an attempt to repair it. 

It's like sewing up a shirt while it's hoisted on a hanger made of razors.

One of the options on my survey included having an endgame upgrade to it like the Elding Spear. I think it's fitting. 

I'd go Craft helm and have serviceable insulation for the winter and small health increase > Modest inspiration decay slowdown >Charge using one of each endgame materials >Static increases defense. >Shard increases repair on strike for a day to day niche >Restrained static increases Elding Spear + Commander helm damage when used in tandem.

Not sure if I'd have all 3 active at the same time, but it would be a gigantic cost to have the ultimate helmet lol. 

 

30 minutes ago, CuteC said:

Now for the spear, I will say I did not test properly the normal spear, only the charged one, it is a fun weapon to use, but it's not good, I will elaborate; it does a LOT of damage to normal enemies, but that is to normal enemies and its apparent use is planar damage, which it is not good at like at all, it deals LESS damage than a brightshade sword without helmet boost, so there's no reason to use it against planar enemies, it needs a restrained static as well which is a lot more effort to get than other materials you would use for a weapon, I assume they were worried about the charged spear being good given it is pre-rift, but nothing stops them from having it be upgraded with post-rift materials instead of a restrained static, now, the thing can actually break which is pretty tough for something that requires a static, it does have an attack that restores durability but that is only if you hit something NOT including dummies, so if you end with low durability after a fight then you're doomed with attacking random birds and rabbits everywhere to slowly repair it, I'd say you should be able to restore its durability on a gemerator so it has another use AND the spear has a reliable and convenient way to recharge it.

 

As for this, I have to kindly disagree with it's inferiority to the brightshade sword. It's got crowd control for day to day use, it has utility unlike the brightshade sword and even if it's inferior in damage vs planar defense, I wouldn't be caught dead using sword as Wigfrid. It's too important to have in my hand. And if you're so inclined to use the BS sword as Wigfrid, it's nice to know the flexibility is there for expression of options in a fight. 

I'm just a regular dude, so it won't mean much coming from me, but I appreciate your passion, even though we don't see eye to eye on this specific thing.

 

33 minutes ago, CuteC said:

The battle rond is absolutely worthless, it does not do a lot of damage and yeah it's a weapon that gives armor but you can still just use actual armor, I am not gonna be too harsh on that front since what really bothers me is that it has a COOLDOWN on switch, so the shield is not something you can have to quickly block an attack which is what I initially thought it'd do, it is shield of terror minus the repairing and a useless block ability, why do I say useless? Because the spear can do the exact same thing, enemy about to attack? Dash through them or away from them ALSO on a faster cooldown AND the spear provides a speed boost (at least the charged one that is), and to put the cherry on top, they conflict with each other because of the cooldowns.

 

I don't have much to say about this. I'm just generally grateful about the spear, so my opinion is clouded on this. I'll have to see further developments to see it's potential at this point. Perhaps there are applications after the buff. I think it's too early to tell.

35 minutes ago, CuteC said:

She has beefalo skills that not only are bad but also out of place, faster domestication is like kinda neat but also it's only gonna be useful once, longer riding time is extremely minor during taming and useless when tamed, the timer is already way too long you don't NEED this, the planar damage boost is barely anything and the saddle is bad, you DO NOT need to tank on a beefalo, they already take quite the beating and also they do not exactly have a way to regen mid tanking, if you're on a beef you should focus on being able to deal as much damage as possible, not tanking and eventually killing something in 3 hours, now the worst part is that ALL of this conflicts with Wigfrid, she does NOT benefit from any of these perks, not to mention she would do a better job NOT using a beefalo to begin with, the perks should allow her to do cool stuff on a beef, not like 10 more damage and that's it, even if she was allowed to use her gimmick on beefalo it still wouldn't be good but at the very least it'd be fun.

 

I agree generally about the beefalo tree, but at this point it's akin to by beaten down description of "not being able to squeeze the toothpaste back in the tube"

I don't think Wigfrid should have had the beefalo tree to begin with, but it's a modest QoL and I appreciate it even though I don't agree with it. 

37 minutes ago, CuteC said:

The battle stingers should NOT require minimum inspiration to use, you will not build up enough inspiration to use them on a fight with say hounds, but they are also not useful when you DO build up enough because that means it is a boss and they will punch you instead of being scared, also the one fight where they would BE good they still manage to be bad because the cooldown (though I am not sure if the new cooldown is alright) stops you from using it, but don't worry because you can make a billion stingers and somehow that is a workaround and it makes no sense.

 

I've almost all but given up on stingers lol. I don't think we'll get an amp for them this update. Reprise is absolutely gutted right now lol. In practice it wasn't that fantastic when I was using it with a group as no one would die and to add, the ghost was literally waiting for 5 minutes before I could revive them vs 2 seconds if you have the LGA and a little bit of foresight. 

 

39 minutes ago, CuteC said:

Last time I tried the affinities they were extremely bad, though I haven't used them after the patch.

 

I don't have faith in the affinities, but who knows. 

[KvltBear]

It just feels weird to give someone who already had a unique spear and helmet craft...3 more equipment crafts? The dash is cool, the block is cool. The cooldown is not. The helmet, like you said, almost pointless because of how few knockback attacks there are. And the spear and shield already offer their own way out of a knockback attack. The battle songs, imo, hardly seem worth the inventory space they take up and the distraction during a fight, unless you're with teammates. Health regen and durability are really all you need, and only worthwhile fighting a boss.

Slight disagree on the beef takes. If the faster domestication was 25% or even 20% it'd feel more impactful. The extra ride time should be huge during domestication because you can get more mileage out of your obedience fillers and twigs and, thus, domesticate faster via riding. Heck, maybe that's why the first perk is only 15%. Has anyone actually tested how fast they can tame one with these perks yet? Of course she'll never fight on one, but thematically it fits the Valkyrie. It just feels very weird to lock the only defensive advantage for beefalo behind a Wigfrid perk.

[chirsg]

8 minutes ago, KvltBear said:

Heck, maybe that's why the first perk is only 15%. Has anyone actually tested how fast they can tame one with these perks yet?

In theory and under stress, you'd be able to domesticate a beefalo faster as wigfrid than anyone else. That's not the problem imo. It's diet. Beef and wigfrid eat entirely different things. One of the advantages of other characters taming beefalo is that excess food goes to the beefalo, while with Wigfrid, that isn't the case. 

Another thing is that she spends more time off saddle due to the value she has in combat, therefore, there's potential the beefalo would need to eat more to make up for wigfrid being wigfrid. The entire perk tree almost seems like assistance to taming a beefalo more than her being the definitive beefalo character.

[NoodlemanNed]

1 hour ago, CuteC said:

it deals LESS damage to planar enemies than a brightshade sword

without damage boosts the spear deals more damage towards lunar planar enemies compared to brightshade sword. it only falls behind in damage against shadows, but the difference in both these cases is only by a few damage points.

you can disagree with all the other stuff i just wanted to point out that the difference between the two weapons' damage isnt very much despite how exaggerated this post makes it seem.

[flamboyant wolf]

1 hour ago, NoodlemanNed said:

without damage boosts the spear deals more damage towards lunar planar enemies compared to brightshade sword. it only falls behind in damage against shadows, but the difference in both these cases is only by a few damage points.

you can disagree with all the other stuff i just wanted to point out that the difference between the two weapons' damage isnt very much despite how exaggerated this post makes it seem.

Speaking of, how much would the damage improve if the enemy was wet?(if current planar creatures even can be). With how planar entity defense works, I'd assume it wouldn't be by a lot, but still. 

[CuteC]

2 hours ago, NoodlemanNed said:

without damage boosts the spear deals more damage towards lunar planar enemies compared to brightshade sword. it only falls behind in damage against shadows, but the difference in both these cases is only by a few damage points.

you can disagree with all the other stuff i just wanted to point out that the difference between the two weapons' damage isnt very much despite how exaggerated this post makes it seem.

When I was testing the weapon I saw that it just dealt an insane amount of damage, then I wanted to check against planar by building all 3 dummies, normal went really high as expected, lunar and shadow were significantly lower and I was dealing more damage with a brightshade sword not even using the helmet, which I think is a good thing to have in mind since that's not the way you're even supposed to use the sword and it was dealing more or around the same.

I have seen a lot of people say that the spear's dash is good against crowds but given this game works on difficulty = stunlock,  I don't think dashing into a group of enemies is a good idea, considering I was still being hit when I was trying it out and I dashed through single bosses.

[chirsg]

5 minutes ago, CuteC said:

I have seen a lot of people say that the spear's dash is good against crowds but given this game works on difficulty = stunlock,  I don't think dashing into a group of enemies is a good idea, considering I was still being hit when I was trying it out and I dashed through single bosses.

You can only get better at it. I also main Woodie, and I've charged at spiders in ways that have killed me. I have to watch Moose for 30 seconds get chewed up. It's a lesson that sinks in. 

Risk it for the biscuit. charging into hoardes has a method. It' works well if you get your angles correct and it's really rewarding to get right. 

 

I've soloed lunar frog rains with the spear. I think you'd be hopeless with a brightshade sword in the same circumstance.

[NoodlemanNed]

5 minutes ago, CuteC said:

then I wanted to check against planar by building all 3 dummies

i tested against brightshades and inkblights specifically because dummies werent reliable earlier in the beta (they showed the shield parry giving a damage buff when it actually didnt). perhaps i will properly test this later but maybe this difference alone is because dummies and real mobs take damage differently for some reason.

[CuteC]

16 hours ago, NoodlemanNed said:

i tested against brightshades and inkblights specifically because dummies werent reliable earlier in the beta (they showed the shield parry giving a damage buff when it actually didnt). perhaps i will properly test this later but maybe this difference alone is because dummies and real mobs take damage differently for some reason.

Wow that's just dumb, why in the world would dummies take damage differently? Either way I stand on the charged spear being upgraded with post-rift materials as well so it is on par with the other weapons, same for the helmet cuz it kind of just sucks.