Maxwell Skill Tree Ideas

[TerryJerryLarry]

I'm a Maxwell main and I have some ideas for a Maxwell skill-tree.

Perks:

1.Shadow Proficiency: Increases efficiency of all shadow gear used by Maxwell. Higher Durability for all items and a damage bonus for the dark sword

2.Magician: Decreases the cast time and cost of all spells used by Maxwell. I've heard some people talking about buffing duelists but even a small +5 damage buff per duelist would increase DPS by like 30 given you are using all 6 duelists. Balancing would be a nightmare with a damage buff but a cast time and cost reduction would make the abilities more useful while not breaking the game.

3.Disappearing Act: A bonus you can get at the end of the magician line which allows you to teleport a short distance away from your current location

4.Magician's Secrets: Gives more exclusive crafting recipes to Maxwell. I personally was disappointed by the lack of exclusive recipes for the former king of the constant. He literally made most of the stuff we see in the Don't Starve world so its kind of sad he only has like 3 recipes to his name.

Shadow Alignment Bonus:

Shadow King: You are constantly insane but experience none of the negatives. The shadow creatures you see are tamable using 1 nightmare fuel for crawling horrors and 2 for terror beaks. There are no limits on the amount you can tame but if you have the amount of sanity monsters set to standard realistically you could find about 3 to 5 on the surface if you look for a bit.

[BB Marioni]

Maxwell is one of the characters who currently has quite a lot of perks in his Kit and is in a decent spot, so I would avoid adding skills in his tree that would increase his power too much. Instead, I would pick more options or other utilities for him. Ofcourse he still needs to be updated with planar damage to be on par with everyone on that stat.

My idea for planar was that his shadow affinity (he shoudlnt have lunar) will be that he can summon the big eating version of the inkblight. It is a tankier summon that deals planar damage, but as a downside, he wont be able to summon his other puppets. While inkblight is on the field, his max sanity will continuously get reduced and this cannot be recovered. When sanity reaches zero, the inkblight disappears and his max sanity returns to normal.

For exclusive crafts, Iwould give him a staff/ wand, coz it suits him. Maybe something that acts like the brightshade staff, but shadow. Or maybe it doesnt bounce but has higher dmg and has a small aoe instead. 

I would avoid giving planar dmg to the shadow puppets if he has the inkblight already as planar dmg option.

Maybe give him another type of shadow summon, but more utility. not a combatant, not sure yet what it could do. I also don't believe that he should be able to be insane without any consequences. Reducing his sanity in exchange for power should still remain as his main downside.

[Mysterious box]

I think Maxwell's skill tree should be more in line with Wolfgang's where he gets niche skills and planar upgrades just so he doesn't pull too much further ahead of the rest of the cast than he already is.

[arubaro]

he could get access to rowing and farmer shadows

[Mysterious box]

48 minutes ago, arubaro said:

he could get access to rowing and farmer shadows

I say yes on shadow farmers but shadow rowers might be too dangerous for dst sailing.

[Jakepeng99]

4 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

I think Maxwell's skill tree should be more in line with Wolfgang's where he gets niche skills and planar upgrades just so he doesn't pull too much further ahead of the rest of the cast than he already is.

Not too much like wolfgang though.

3 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

I say yes on shadow farmers but shadow rowers might be too dangerous for dst sailing.

Shadow rowers could instead be deployed in a certain direction, and then they will continously row in that direction. Maxwell can change their directions by rowing with an oar.

[Mysterious box]

8 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Not too much like wolfgang though.

Why not? If anything the way they handled Wolfgang's is the perfect way handle Maxwell's kit unless they decide to rip some of his base kit and feed it back as skills.

 

9 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Shadow rowers could instead be deployed in a certain direction, and then they will continously row in that direction. Maxwell can change their directions by rowing with an oar.

I'm not against the concept just feels like it'd be too easy to crash and even more of a hazard in a multiplayer boating experience.

[shaurun]

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

I'm a Maxwell main and I have some ideas for a Maxwell skill-tree.

Thank you for the thread! I'm also Maxwell main but I honestly don't want Maxwell update so much as you do. I'm just cuirios what he'll have for Lunar affinity mostly) But he works very good now even w/o skill tree so I don't expect his update soon. Anyway I want to admit that your perks names are awesome!

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

1.Shadow Proficiency: Increases efficiency of all shadow gear used by Maxwell. Higher Durability for all items and a damage bonus for the dark sword

Honestly to me Maxwell is already the only one shadow gear user. All other characters simply suffer using shadow gear because going insane is not overall good. Early game rush for darkswords. Late game shadow reaper - never breaks, buffs duelists. For headslot dreadstone armor helm since it restores itself using your sanity or bone helm for some bosses. And thus you're good. I don't see any need for better shadow gear. Maxwell is already encouraged to use it because it boosts his minions, so no need for skill tree.

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

2.Magician: Decreases the cast time and cost of all spells used by Maxwell. I've heard some people talking about buffing duelists but even a small +5 damage buff per duelist would increase DPS by like 30 given you are using all 6 duelists. Balancing would be a nightmare with a damage buff but a cast time and cost reduction would make the abilities more useful while not breaking the game.

This one is pretty interesting. Decrease cast time or allow interrupt casting is good.Maybe also make shadow sneak affect bosses (but not likely they'll do that, can't imagine this in gameplay really... constantly running feulweaver is stupid).

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

3.Disappearing Act: A bonus you can get at the end of the magician line which allows you to teleport a short distance away from your current location

Don't know about that. It looks like Wortox ability so what reason to play Wortox if Maxwell can do same? Also Wanda has her watches to avoid damage that way... Plus we have option to craft lazy explorer which is magic tool suitable for mage. 

I would rather have bossiblity to travel by his magician hat to closes shadow storage. Would be fun.

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

4.Magician's Secrets: Gives more exclusive crafting recipes to Maxwell. I personally was disappointed by the lack of exclusive recipes for the former king of the constant. He literally made most of the stuff we see in the Don't Starve world so its kind of sad he only has like 3 recipes to his name.

People already mentioned Maxwell has a lot of mechanics so adding new would be overwhelming and I agree. But maybe you have any specific ideas? I love his 3 crafts I think he doesn't need more. To me he's sort of inventor of magic craft stations already. Maybe addong possiblity for him to craft his dark sword/dark armor without proper station would be fine early game but idk, seems unneeded late game then.

However I wonder about crafts aroung clockworks/chess. He seem to like the game and he was sorta developer of clockworks. So maybe he can craft spmething or mind-control clockworks.

On 12/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, TerryJerryLarry said:

Shadow King: You are constantly insane but experience none of the negatives. The shadow creatures you see are tamable using 1 nightmare fuel for crawling horrors and 2 for terror beaks. There are no limits on the amount you can tame but if you have the amount of sanity monsters set to standard realistically you could find about 3 to 5 on the surface if you look for a bit.

Oh no I totally dislike it. This way bone helm has no point to wear, and also insane encironment I don't like to play with. Horrors should not be tamed I think. However making insanity safer for Maxwell looks good, I don't think it makes much sense going this route since he's rarely insane in my hands.

22 hours ago, BB Marioni said:

My idea for planar was that his shadow affinity (he shoudlnt have lunar) will be that he can summon the big eating version of the inkblight. It is a tankier summon that deals planar damage, but as a downside, he wont be able to summon his other puppets. While inkblight is on the field, his max sanity will continuously get reduced and this cannot be recovered. When sanity reaches zero, the inkblight disappears and his max sanity returns to normal.

 i don't like inkblights. Also too many summoners plus I love duelists so maybe we can buff them/ buff shadow prison and that's it.  

What I also want to say, is that Maxwell actually might want to become lunar aligned in order to 1) receive new knowledge 2) oppose Charlie. So I think it should be an option.

[shaurun]

Since the author raised this topic I've started to think about lunar affinity more... And I think maybe it would be good to see Maxwell "team contribution perks" more. He is solid in solo but what he can give to society besides basic resources gathering?

I Think it would be nice if he could craft improved version of top hat for others with higher sanity gain/ Or he could perform some short ritual of playing chess with other players to create sothing like +20 max sanity for 2 days. He could also craft small shess figures maybe which would be of his affinity color. White could boost max sanity while black provide single strike protection each and be destoyed then, like bone armor but single use.

[Mr Giggio]

Its overtuned tbh

Hes a lil bit spicy already dont think the skill tree should buff in any type of way

But then u ask me how it could be polished without straight up being stronger?

Welp:

 Puppetmaster path:

A better caster I: Maxwell has a new icon in the middle of the spell wheel that can reagroup all the current spawned shadows by one click in a scout mode to aggro and reposition mobs withouth them interrupting similar to what /dance emote does
A better caster II: Maxwell can make the shadow servants dismiss clicking with right button of the mouse in the same icon that left click spawns them to a faster and effective despawn 
A better caster III: Maxwell can despawn shadow duelists using right click in the same icon left click spawns them

____________ Shadow alignment ____________

Pure power I:  codex umbra if refueled with pure horror the duelists can ignore planar defense darkness for 30 seconds. He can now prison and sneak infused shadelings.
Pure power II: it lasts 1 min
Pure power III: It lasts 1 min 30 s
Pure power IV: It lasts 2 mins
Pure power V: It lasts 3 min

____________Shadow alignment II__________

All of the bonus damage that Maxwell offers to the duelists from what's he's wearing is planar darkness instead of regular damage

 

[Danila6300]

I think Maxwell and his clones should just become immortal.

I'm a Maxwell Mainer 

[loopuleasa]

Anything on maxwell needs to focus on his character: a lazy egomaniac that wants everything done for him automatically

I also miss the old "follower" puppets, they were efficient and convenient