Skill Spotlight: Wigfrid and Willow (Available Now!)

[Lovens]

2 hours ago, finn from human said:

The ice island changes its location every time you defeat the boss, you'll have to check your map to find it again in a different spot when it spawns again. My advice would be to take note of the location it spawns before you head over there, and plan to do something else fun nearby the island like a waterlogged biome or salt shoal to get the most out of your trip!

 

39 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

The Mechanic will probably be the same as for Toadstool or Klaus, you can probably set a boat close but not exactly there with an occuvigil near the places it spawns until you know all the spawners, then you can just TP to your boat and row a little.

I think its engaging, specially considering that the reward of this boss lets everyone teleport their boat around.

Thanks for pointing this out. I didn't know the island respawns in a different place. Yeah, setting up boats with Ocuvigils is probably a good way of dealing with it, although it might be unnecessary - turf changes show up on a map as soon as they happen. When I just loaded my world after the update I found the location of the island right away, it just showed it to me on the map. It happened to be in the area I previously visited so I could see it right away:


I'm mostly concerned about placing teleports there. I could probably do it with an anchored boat nearby but it's hard to figure out where exactly to place it so that growing/shrinking island doesn't destroy it and the structures on it like it did with my lightning road. And I was so excited to get another ocean boss teleport marked with the new item that boss dropped, only to see the teleport turn absolutely useless seconds after I used it:

By any chance, do you know what happens if I leave a boat exactly in the place where island used to be? Will it still spawn there and move/destroy the boat, or will it work like blocking Klaus/Werepig spawners with structures on land?

[SpookyXy]

1 hour ago, ObsidianKing said:

Worst, you mean. Awful.

Couldn't disagree more, I love it so much.

[Hint]

6 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Hello,

First of all I just wanted to say that Webber's new Merrymaker skin artwork looks so good, but the model in-game is a bit disappointing in my opinion.

The fluffy red cheeks don't look as good on the in-game model as they do on the artwork.

Would be nice if it was improved, or just get rid of the red, it would look better than how it is right now.

Hope my feedback will be heard! Great update regardless.

[TrashLord]

Gonna start off being positive.

The new short is really, really, good! Definitely in my tops - maybe top 5 or even top 3. Everyone was acted so well, and the little interactions between everyone were so delightful. The bigger-on-the-inside Pig House jumpscare was great, too lol. The boss is really cool, too - no pun intended - and has a fun personality to boot. Speaking of boots, the new ocean fast travel is so so so useful, and I can't wait to see what crazy strats people come up with using them.

That said, it really feels like there were too many irons in the fire, and they all came out half finished for it.

This was supposed to be the Willow/Wigfrid(to be clear, not Willowfrid) update, but it doesn't feel like it at all. No skins, no short, not even a cameo in the short we got(again, I'd like to reiterate: it was such a good short!). Extra bells and whistles aside, half of the beta wasn't even playable for most of and/or the entirety of the beta, and besides crash fixes that caused other crashes it seemed like Wigfrid got more changes than Willow, even though the latter was the more contentious of the two; it really felt like people weren't being heard. If y'all wanted to "focus on Winter's Feast" that's fine - more than fine, even! But it sucks that Willow and Wigfrid got the shaft for it. I'm sure any reasonable person would have been okay with pushing the skill trees back into 2024 if it meant getting a more complete-feeling and functional update on par with the Wolfgang/Woodie/Wormwood update.

On the topic of Winter's Feast: this is admittedly me being pedantic, but the "Complete" Merrymaker set is still missing three characters: Wolfgang, Warly, and Wortox. If the Willow/Wigfrid skill trees had been pushed back I imagine more time could have been devoted to actually finishing the set.

There are a few other things that paint the picture of a spread-too-thin team, such as Frostjaw's unused follower dialogue(though I'm holding out for that being added to a later update), but I'm pretty tired after a busy day so I'll stop there. I don't know if there's some kind of quota or something behind the scenes, but crunch kills - both developers and players. I'd rather get fewer updates a year if it meant you good folks at Klei didn't feel pressured to meet arbitrary deadlines that cause unneeded stress.

[BB Marioni]

my game keeps crashing when Bernie transforms into Lunar BERNIE!

[GelatinousCube]

HANG ON! It isn't thursday?? Early release? WOOO!

Also I DEMAND to be let into pig houses now...

This short was absolutely incredible however a bit random given the update? Is there no cinematic for Wig and Willow?

Hang on... no console yet by the looks of things... booooo

Edited December 20, 2023 by GelatinousCube

[cookies53]

Merrymakers skins for Wolfgang, Warly and Wartox will not be available this year and we have to wait for the next one? and will there be skins for furniture?

[RetRunt]

Who even cares about Walter? Why isnt the short about Wigfrid and Willow?

Edited December 20, 2023 by RetRunt

[SlotMachineGun7]

Its quite sad to see klei THIS rushed to get something out. I dont think its very healthy. Id rather have a good quality update be delayed than a half baked update available instantly.

 

Klei if youre not doing ok, blink twice.

[Mike23Ua]

2 hours ago, GelatinousCube said:

HANG ON! It isn't thursday?? Early release? WOOO!

Also I DEMAND to be let into pig houses now...

This short was absolutely incredible however a bit random given the update? Is there no cinematic for Wig and Willow?

Hang on... no console yet by the looks of things... booooo

???? But the update is already out for consoles? (Wendy has her new skin) I just unfortunately only had time to log in long enough to get my daily skin & Twitch drops and check the store for the new skin, but not actually invest time into playing the game yet (I plan to before I go to bed tonight though!) 

Ive been super busy catching up my dad and my sisters limited time Christmas event stuff in other games like Fortnite, Fallguys, Disney Dreamlight, etc..

So ya know- Prioritize what has a Deadline to get done, come back to DST at any time later.  

[GelatinousCube]

34 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

???? But the update is already out for consoles? (Wendy has her new skin) I just unfortunately only had time to log in long enough to get my daily skin & Twitch drops and check the store for the new skin, but not actually invest time into playing the game yet (I plan to before I go to bed tonight though!) 

Ive been super busy catching up my dad and my sisters limited time Christmas event stuff in other games like Fortnite, Fallguys, Disney Dreamlight, etc..

So ya know- Prioritize what has a Deadline to get done, come back to DST at any time later.  

Oh dope! I didn't see the update on the ps forums so thought it wasn't out

[BezKa]

Look into my dreams
You know everything now...
Request for more if you want...
What shall burn now?
Just point it to me...
Choose wisely...
It's already smoldering.

[-Variant]

14 hours ago, Fuffles said:

Finally the skin the game needed, balding Wendy

I knew something was itching me! Her hairline is super high here!

[shaurun]

I was waiting for this release like a kid constantly checling steam) I wanted Willow skill tree so much! And I haven't play beta intentionally, however was watching youtubers who played. Yesterday I was able to unlock only 2 skillpoints for Willow and I put it into fire extinguisher and ember collectior perks.

So my first impression - it's pretty good. I was playig on public server with randoms, so now I see in Willow more untigrief potential since she can extinguish any unnecessary fire. Ember collection also is not boring at all since I wasn't doing it intentionally, just killing some spiders/bees for silk and needles and also used lighter so I have a stack of ember pretty easily. 

I think coop skillset is pretty different from solo, e.g. for Woodie joining on public servers especially during spring I would definetely pick goose waterproof and such. So far fire extinguish looks great, useful, very fun. I would rush to star collar spell to suppoer others)

I hesitate on burning skills yet such as making fire to not spread because I need a lot of charcoal. Maybe closer to late game these skills would be required, IDK. Also lighter radius when you have Wilson in team with his torch ia not attractive for now. I'd like to improve Bernie toughtness and regen, so it would fight longer and I would have free item slots (don't like to fill all my inventory with bernies and patches. Don't know if I need Bernie to become large when my sanity is high, will see. ATM I pretty like the skill tree, hope bugs will be fixed + klei will receive more feedback and probably will also create some patches but me personally don't have complains.

[BalkanCockroach]

2 hours ago, -Variant said:

I knew something was itching me! Her hairline is super high here!

Wendys head just grew bigger it happens, she's just growing.

[Just-guy]

3 hours ago, BalkanCockroach said:

Wendys head just grew bigger it happens, she's just growing.

It's something of the Carter Family

[BalkanCockroach]

3 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

It's something of the Carter Family

I know genetics doesn't work like this but i hope Wendys mother has a very small chin to negate the Carter chin curse.

[Sefoon]

Is this a bug?

When the character is not riding and is holding something in their hand, right-click can return normally

When the character is riding, they are holding something in their hand but cannot return by right clicking

[Wonz]

Klei really cashed out on this animation

[Paxtonnnn]

4 hours ago, BalkanCockroach said:

I know genetics doesn't work like this but i hope Wendys mother has a very small chin to negate the Carter chin curse.

I’m afraid it’s already too late.

[BalkanCockroach]

2 minutes ago, Paxtonnnn said:

I’m afraid it’s already too late.

Oh no

[shaurun]

18 hours ago, shaurun said:

 

Continuing share my Willow skills impression.

Controlled Burning is SOOOO GOOOD! Actually it solves A LOT for Willow. With it you ignite enemies with a single strike so fighting horde of bees/spiders will create you tons of loot + embers and you can scare hounds easily. Also with it I'm able to set on fire almost everything, e.g. shadow manipulator just for the light -  it won't spread and I'll extinguish it later. I did that it was very fun.

Also really fighting bees = tons of ember.

You know what, I don't really need fire spread. I love how it works now. I was afraid it would be bad because fire spreading is useful... I was wrong. You put armor on, drop backpack - it catches on fire when you fight with a torch, you don't see it because all enemies are on fire - that what it was BEFORE that skil introducedl. Also it was much more difficult to set enemies on fire.

Conclusion: control burning is must have. Very cool.

Burn Duration I wasn't paying attention, picked it just to have 7 fire skills

Fire Fighter same, can't tell yet if it's good)

Ember Tender a few words to add here. It has a single spell to create fire. Actually it's very good to lend a strike on Coalefant or Volt Goat. Cheap and useful.

Spontaneous Combustion It's cool to scare enemies but not effective for cave worms. I  love it when surrounded with lots of hounds. However not mandatory to have as to me. Helps collecting embers faster.

Fire Ball it's moderate good because it becomes situational. With longer fire duration and possibility to extinguish fire you can burn surroundings for light. But when I had hound attack or when I am in rocky biome, it plays pretty well. New players seem to not understand what's that and keep adding fuel to firepit. Also seems I have more "don't stay, go" playstyle. So it was fun, now it's okay. Still good skill, deserves a skillpoint.

I haven't tried burning frenzy at all, I assume it would be good but don't do bosses yet.

 

For Bernie, I picked Bearly Sane I only. I moved to fire branch because I want to have moon fire and it requires 7 skills in fire branch. I don't think bearly sane is really required skill since Willow with darksword + dark armor goes insane fast but I've tried Dragonfly and retreated since I had no Dark swords/armor yet and upon eating I became totally sane and bernie wasn't fighting. So after that I thought I might need it. However now I think it's not really so, just need to have no sanity restoring food on boss fights. 

Anyway Bernie is wery good w/o skills even, he tanks a lot for me and for other players and since I definetely fight spiders for embers I also have silk for patches so his skill tree shines less. But I still want  to check it and It doesn't look useless. 

 

So far, I'm still happy with the skill tree .

Edited December 21, 2023 by shaurun

[Sapientis]

If it's of any use I too feel like Willow is undercooked a little. There's some skills that don't work with each other while they should to make a good combo (and thus bring some fire to weaker skills).

On 12/14/2023 at 4:04 AM, Sapientis said:

There should be more synergies Between Bernie and other Willow Perks:

• Burn Duration should increase Burning Bernie fire time
• Fire Fighter should increase Burning Bernie damage
• Flame Cast should be a possible way to activate Burning Bernie (just like Combustion is)
• Combustion should be able to be casted targeting Burning Bernie as a center of the Combustion Blast
• Burning Frenzy should be able to target Burning Bernie as well, increasing his attacks frequency 

And lastly, Burning Bernie requirement of 8 Bernie skills is ridiculous. 6 is enough, 7 is far-fetched. I'd say 7 is rational if Hot-Headed was any good, ex. make him prioritize attacking over that stupid "taunt' animation or make him attack a little faster (btw Accelerant could do that as well).

You see, Hot-Headed is actually a good skill now, probably better than Patch Up II or Tough Stuffing II (because Sewing Kits are so cheap). Still Burning Bernie should require 7 Bernie skills at most. I don't understand the reasoning to lock it behind 8 skills. I see it doesn't allow to take any Affinity skills, but they're locked behind defeating an end game boss enemy and they are better than Burning Bernie anyway! It seems to be an artificial barrier just to force players to take Accelerant skills (which are useless most of the time).
 

On the other hand there's a problem with Fire Fighter, where "Your fires" are only those casted using Embers, but not Willow's Lighter or any other fire weapon. At LEAST Willow's Lighter should benefit from this skill.
 

Regarding Burning Frenzy, it's quite a huge buff to just straight up double the duration with the same cost as before. I think it could cost more (like 3 I guess?) but I don't complain about it. One thing I'd like to point out is that the buff VFX is pretty hard to see under certain conditions like snow and insanity/lunacy. Maybe it could be made more vibrant, or surround Willow in fires visually (like Burning Bernie is) or maybe add a special sound effect when the effect expires?

 

[NeckbeardMan]

can the Lunar-Flame be aimed per Mouse please? I´d rather not move at all than risk missing my target by a few inches because WASD doesn´t allow for nice aiming and im not perfectly on a 45° angle to my target. I alos think that the Targeting of the Shadow Flame is a bit weird. I can almost never make all 5 Tendrills hit my target when im standing right next to it.

[shaurun]

On 12/21/2023 at 2:35 AM, shaurun said:

 

Continuing share my Willow skills impression part 3.

 

I've tried Bernie tree and got actually disappointed with it.

Patch Up I, Patch Up II - results with 1 hp regen per second. It works but not in boss fights. Even with Tough Stuffing. So you would still need to have multiple Bernies / patch Bernie. The worst thing is you HAVE TO use this skill or accelerate one in order to unlock other Bernie skills. 

Also the big problem with it is that you have to travel with Bernie running around while Bernie is actually very stupid follower. People use boars between 2 land branches, Bernie can't cross such a boat bariiers: he jumps on the boat, but won't follow if you jump to the land from the other side. Instead if jumps off the boat to the initial side of the land. He can even try to cross the land by foot and eventually deactivate. Also he doesn't follow you into worm hole. Small Bernie is not likely have his regen and no regen while in inventory. So small Bernie will still fight creatures losing hp and has no way to restore it, the skill simply won't work withoput Bearly Sane, but Bearly Sane forces Bernie to fight a lot nullifying his patch skills.

I have managed to make 20% Bernie to 50% Bernie but it required much more efford than creating 1 real patch for 5 100% Bernies. Absolutely bad skill. Ah, also I was annoyed traveling around bees at spring with active Bernie, When you just want to pass it through... you have to fight bees.

Accelerant I, Accelerant II - you MUST choose either that or Patch Up in order to proceed with skill tree, I haven't noticed what it actually accelerates. Attack speed? Seems not. Real speed? ...I don't think I had any issues with Bernie speed before, maybe I need to have speed boost so I'd see that Bernie stops following... I think follow mechanics should be quiality of life update, not a skill. I described the major promblems with Bernie follower. For current gameplay, I have to keep Bernie inside my inventory unless I forsee a fight. So accelerate is bad. What is good is that Bernie can be calmed and picked freely, no skill needed.

Bearly Sane I, Bearly Sane II - among all starting Bearnie skills it's the best.Despite I prefer to be insane as Willow and I think being insane is part of her actual gameplay, this actually helps to keep some level of sanity in order to make patch up work at least at some level, + yes it works, he grows earlies and he helps earlier. Good skills.

Hot-Headed - yes but Benie will die a lot. So again inventory Bernie strategy to preserve it.

Tough Stuffing I, Tough Stuffing II - those are good skills at to me. Since patches restore 100% of Bernie, simple health pool increase it very good. However you need to have 4 bernie skills in order to unlokc this. THis restriction should be removed I think, since patch up and accelerate are useless.

Burning Bernie - haven't tried honestly. 8  skills to unclock is a punishment.

Among 15 skills, you need 6 bernie skills to unlock affinity benie and 7 lighter skills to unlock affinity fire spell.

6+1+7+1=15 (accurate). So if I'd like to have burning bernie, I have to forget  about Fire-Raiser. It's okay since that a choice. But gameplay wise, it's much more interesting to use firespells than hide behind urning Bernie and patch it constantly. If I'd like to forget about Lunar/Shadow Bernie and pick Burning Bernie, I still have to forget about Fire-Raiser. Why? Is it OP?