Wanda's Magical Kit Split (read OP before voting pls)

[Yuuko]

This might be a tougher question to ask, but I'm gonna try.

Wanda's kit currently includes 2 primary focuses.  Combat and transport.

Combat relies on the Alarming clock weapon which has high damage and range.  Damage is effectively mighty Wolfgang damage when Wanda is in old age.  The range is enough to outrange many enemies, and provides some exploitive combat tactics.  Nightmare fuel recharges this weapon.  Crafting the Alarming clock requires tier 2 magic, and some clock pieces.  The backstep watch is also used in combat for a short hop with some iframes to dodge attacks.  Crafting the backstep requires a watch piece and gold.

Transport relies on the Backtrek watch which allows you to mark a space for instant warping.  The warping can cross between shards, so you could instantly go from the lunar island to the ruins.  You can slot a purple gem into the watch to open a rift for a few seconds that lets multiple people jump through.  Crafting the backtrek costs some watch pieces, gold, and a walrus tusk per watch.  You must reach each point manually to mark a watch, and each watch holds only 1 point.  Over time you can craft as many as you have walrus tusks for.

That said - the poll:

We're splitting Wanda's kit so that you must choose.  You are starting a new world and must pick either the Combat or Transport kit.  You will play this for the duration of your world, no kit or character swaps allowed.  All other qualities (aging, ageless watch, second chance) stay the same.  For this situation - we will ignore all rift / planar content since Wanda has no kit for this yet.

Which do you choose?  Or do you play her at all?

Note there are duplicate options to accommodate whether you currently play Wanda or not.  Please vote accordingly.

[Tranoze]

Farming and carry statues kits, ofcourse.

[Kwaik]

I'm gonna be honest 

 

Beefalo increased QoL over the years, and more recently frostjaw has made Wanda's teleporting not so valuable

When her skill tree comes, I think the teleporting stuff should get deferred to Wortox and find her value elsewhere 

 

Maybe on certain map layouts, or extra large maps she's more valuable 

 

But atm I'm not impressed by her teleporting 

Edited March 18 by Kwaik

[Gi-Go]

What is the purpose of this vote? I mean if I'm gonna rush bosses or something I'll go for the weapon. If I'm planning to stay for a while I'll take the teleport. 

1 hour ago, Tranoze said:

carry statues kits, ofcourse.

Wanda can instantly transport statues if she uses purple gem so this kit does exist. 

[Yuuko]

1 hour ago, Gi-Go said:

What is the purpose of this vote? I mean if I'm gonna rush bosses or something I'll go for the weapon. If I'm planning to stay for a while I'll take the teleport. 

 

The purpose of my polls is typically to find out what more people think.  Not everyone engages in discussion, and often we get wrapped up in what our own opinion is without really considering what other people at large are thinking.  Its great if someone wants to actually lay out their argument for me, but I think a poll typically captures more people than are willing to do that giving me a better sense of what popular opinion is - at least of forumites.

[prettynuggets]

tbh i only use wanda now if i want easy 10 times CC kill for my yearly farm. i found that fight with her is cheaper cus how easy it is to kite the phase 3, its faster and even no hit fight make me only spend few nm fuel just for her weapon.

i was main her for a long time but somehow her perks with backstep and alarming clock range make many fun fight like klaus and afw not so fun anymore lol..it nullify many fight mechanics.
so unless i really need farm more than one CC i would change to her solely to make the fight cheaper and faster.

 

[Cruvimaster]

Wanda's teleportation isn't a big deal these days.

Firstly, it is a time-consuming process to be able to teleport to various places (Walrus Tusk). Wortox is infinitely better for this due to freedom (any point on the map) and cost (just kill bees).

Secondly, Frostjaw gives the player up to 10 teleports in each fight. You can go to any island or even a corner very far from your mainland base. And no one goes to islands all the time.

To move around the continent, using beefalo with Glossamer Saddle is very efficient and fast. Teleporting with Wanda is cool, but it's far from essential and the time saved is small compared to traveling on the beefalo.

Wanda's teleportation ends up being an illusion for those who don't play with the character and just know about the existence or even don't know about the beefalo/frostjaw's potential.

[00petar00]

Wanda isn't as strong as you make her to be that her kit can be split and for me to still play her as the player I am (since I choose only strong characters to play), I'd instantly move over to Maxwell which we can all agree is much stronger and I don't want to see any character nerfed in any way.

The main reason I play Wanda is for teleporting and because world gen can be terrible, I like to be efficient and I used to regen world 5+ times before choosing on one to play for thousands of days mostly for wormholes and big tentacles even though they are annoying and you have to kill them every time.

I can base anywhere on both caves and surface, whether it be archives or fuelweaver (I've made base there once) and there wouldn't be any problems if I have enough backtrek watches. That's why I like Wanda so much, recently I have only been basing in cave swamp and usually there is no cave exit close by but it is such a great spot to build because of the natural light you get.

I don't want to spend a lot of time gathering resources that I will spend fighting a boss whether it be armor, healing or sanity restoration. Wanda makes you want to practice fight so that you can kill bosses with only 2-3 ageless watches and if you can't do that it is on you to practice more. Armor is somewhat of an issue since night armor is the safest to use but more expensive compared to dreadstone but I have gotten quite good at killing bosses that I can kill most with dreadstone helm and I rush ruins, AG and Nightmare werepig at the start so I have it before winter starts easily.

Wanda is a perfectly fine character that doesn't need any nerfs, she isn't as easy to play as Wolfgang or Wendy (with beefalo) and she doesn't have the safety of high HP that they do compared to her 35 HP at old age.

One option on the poll is missing, I want to have access to both combat and teleportation and I don't care what anyone else thinks on how she is broken and not balanced when most people that make arguments for nerfs are the ones that don't even play her and know her watch names.

EDIT: I want to add that I do agree that she is one of the stronger characters but DST is a sandbox game and I'll keep repeating this, not every character needs to be as balanced as in any PVP game and it is actually even better if they are not as players can choose what they like and some like playing weaker characters.

Edited March 18 by 00petar00

[Cruvimaster]

Wanda's teleportation was expensive (in the sense that it takes time) as it is new to the game. After Wanda, Klei gave Wortox teleportation to any point on the map (before he was just "The Lazy Explorer"). And now Klei has made teleportation easier via Frostjaw. 

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

Wanda's teleportation isn't a big deal these days.

Firstly, it is a time-consuming process to be able to teleport to various places (Walrus Tusk). Wortox is infinitely better for this due to freedom (any point on the map) and cost (just kill bees).

Secondly, Frostjaw gives the player up to 10 teleports in each fight. You can go to any island or even a corner very far from your mainland base. And no one goes to islands all the time.

To move around the continent, using beefalo with Glossamer Saddle is very efficient and fast. Teleporting with Wanda is cool, but it's far from essential and the time saved is small compared to traveling on the beefalo.

Wanda's teleportation ends up being an illusion for those who don't play with the character and just know about the existence or even don't know about the beefalo/frostjaw's potential.

I mean it's not a perk for short term worlds but it's far more convenient than Wortox's or Frostjaw's as it requires no maintenance or resource cost beyond initial investment with a much bigger range of teleportation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again Wortox's teleportation isn't even that great specifically because of the amount of time you spend gathering souls for it each time with you even needing to hold a additional batch if you plan to teleport to a area with not as many opportunities to gather souls quickly.

[Cruvimaster]

7 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I mean it's not a perk for short term worlds but it's far more convenient than Wortox's or Frostjaw's as it requires no maintenance or resource cost beyond initial investment with a much bigger range of teleportation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again Wortox's teleportation isn't even that great specifically because of the amount of time you spend gathering souls for it each time with you even needing to hold a additional batch if you plan to teleport to a area with not as many opportunities to gather souls quickly.

Specifically regarding the time needed, Wanda only has the benefit of teleportation when winter begins. A standard world with just 01 Walrus Camp (without the triple biome) is unfeasible for anyone playing with this character. There is still the RNG factor to drop the item she wants.

Frostjaw can be defeated right at the beginning of the game, giving you 10 teleports free of other conditions.

Wanda's teleportation is not the wonder that many think.

When I play Wanda I have to plan the MacTusk N' Son hunt: 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33.

With other characters you will simply focus on other things like defeating the Celestial Champion or Ancient Fuelweaver in the first winter, giving your game a boost in progress.

Before Wolfgang received the rework and skill tree, I saw players with a base builder profile still playing with Wanda.

However, they never start with her world, but with Wolfgang. Wanda has slow development and Wofgang is full in the first few days of the game.

Today, as the new Wolfgang, they don't even play Wanda anymore, because they know that she is no longer useful in combat as Wolfgang's competitor.

Wanda was an alternative to Wolfgang, having since launch less DPS than him (which was always fair since she is a purchased character), but today she can no longer be considered even an alternative.

We all know that she will receive a skill tree, but the big fear is the famous community slogan that she doesn't need improvement and that Klei will do a bad job with her.

Now let's look at Wanda's support side.

Second Chance Watch is very good for this role in helping the team.

The Rift Watch is too expensive as it costs a purple gem. So, you rarely give Wanda this support.

If you can take everyone with 1 Bootleg Getaway, why the hell would you waste a purple gem for that?

[Mysterious box]

28 minutes ago, Cruvimaster said:

Specifically regarding the time needed, Wanda only has the benefit of teleportation when winter begins. A standard world with just 01 Walrus Camp (without the triple biome) is unfeasible for anyone playing with this character. There is still the RNG factor to drop the item she wants.

Frostjaw can be defeated right at the beginning of the game, giving you 10 teleports free of other conditions.

Wanda's teleportation is not the wonder that many think.

When I play Wanda I have to plan the MacTusk N' Son hunt: 21 / 24 / 27 / 30 / 33.

With other characters you will simply focus on other things like defeating the Celestial Champion or Ancient Fuelweaver in the first winter, giving your game a boost in progress.

Before Wolfgang received the rework and skill tree, I saw players with a base builder profile still playing with Wanda.

However, they never start with her world, but with Wolfgang. Wanda has slow development and Wofgang is full in the first few days of the game.

Today, as the new Wolfgang, they don't even play Wanda anymore, because they know that she is no longer useful in combat as Wolfgang's competitor.

Wanda was an alternative to Wolfgang, having since launch less DPS than him (which was always fair since she is a purchased character), but today she can no longer be considered even an alternative.

We all know that she will receive a skill tree, but the big fear is the famous community slogan that she doesn't need improvement and that Klei will do a bad job with her.

I'll say it again as I said above Wanda's perk is not a thing for short term worlds but if you've ever played a long term world you'll know just how good it is to have a zero time investment fast travel to anywhere on both shards it's honestly far superior to what most people give it credit for specifically because they mainly play on short term worlds.

It's completely irrelevant how fast you can get to frost jaw when you consider that in order to keep using it you need to keep repeating the process forever.

[00petar00]

29 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I'll say it again as I said above Wanda's perk is not a thing for short term worlds but if you've ever played a long term world you'll know just how good it is to have a zero time investment fast travel to anywhere on both shards it's honestly far superior to what most people give it credit for specifically because they mainly play on short term worlds.

It's completely irrelevant how fast you can get to frost jaw when you consider that in order to keep using it you need to keep repeating the process forever.

That's the whole point of a late game character that requires early game investment. I do think that you can make an argument that as soon as you get 1 backtrek watch you cut travel time to long distances by at least 40% because you will always be able to teleport back to base but day 1 Wanda is weaker than most characters (ones that have access to abilities from portal).

Depending on luck and number of players on the server, there can be a decent chance that you may not get 1 backtrek watch in the first winter if there is only one Walrus camp.

Edited March 18 by 00petar00

[ShadowDuelist]

Even though I agree with what most people said about teleports, I just want to point out that the main thing Wanda is better at than the bootlegs or Wortox is all cave related teleports: you can move in and out of cave specific resources instantly and effortlessly. Telelocators also don’t work in caves, thus making teleports in caves even more restrictive. But it’s true that her teleport network is a very late game thing and up until that point she will take the role of a secondary Wolfgang. This is specially true in multiplayer, when all the first tusks your team gets will most likely end up being canes, and getting a cane for everyone can sometimes take more than one winter.

But overall yeah, an efficient wortox can hop across the map, have auto farms of souls in different places to resupply, and even teleport everyone to any place given cheaply: he can craft a lazy deserter at any summon location, summon everyone, then hammer it down having a cost of just 3 rocks to precraft it again. He’s a very cheap uber since at least the first summer, and not RNG dependent. 

When I compare the two deciding what character to pick, the first thing that usually comes to my mind for Wortox is fast movement across the map, and Wanda for huge damage and easy dodging. 

I think Wanda could get some more crowd control or utility tools when her tree comes, for a time manipulating lady she doesn't seem to affect time around her that much.

[Cheggf]

Wanda suxxxx. With FOUR x's (three is naughty but two is too little to convey how boring she is). She doesn't have fun downsides, she doesn't have fun upsides, she doesn't have powerful upsides, she is just BORING and BAD all around. Wolfgang & Maxwell both have more damage than her while also having some other stuff like being good at gathering for Wolfgang or being the best at everything for Maxwell. The one single thing that Wanda has over other characters is being able to teleport around, but teleporting around is ridiculously expensive and a huge waste of time unless you're going to day ten billion at which point it's worthless because you've already done everything a thousand times anyways. The time she saves is so little compared to the time she loses by gathering the stuff to make the Rift Watches + not saving time by being someone else who's better at more stuff than just making teleport watches. To suggest splitting Wanda makes as much sense as to suggest splitting Wigfrid into a character with +25% damage & vampirism, and a character who makes hats/spears/songs.

Also, Wanda's combat is so boring because her alarming clock has more range and a bad attack animation for some reason but it's a lot cheaper than dark swords so you're really encouraged to use it.

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, 00petar00 said:

That's the whole point of a late game character that requires early game investment. I do think that you can make an argument that as soon as you get 1 backtrek watch you cut travel time to long distances by at least 40% because you will always be able to teleport back to base but day 1 Wanda is weaker than most characters (ones that have access to abilities from portal).

Depending on luck and number of players on the server, there can be a decent chance that you may not get 1 backtrek watch in the first winter if there is only one Walrus camp.

I mean that's more or less what I said not for short term worlds. That being said I disagree with the weaker than most out the portal part as I wouldn't say most characters spawn in with powerful abilities only outliers atm like Maxwell, Wolfgang, Wigfrid, and maybe afew more that escape my thoughts atm. Even Wanda isn't bad out of spawn considering unlike most characters she starts with healing due to the downside of her hp system which also shouldn't be taken lightly.

Wanda's hp downside while undoubtedly a downside is also somewhat of a upside if you squint which is something that interestingly applies to Wormwood as well to a lesser degree.

[00petar00]

43 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I mean that's more or less what I said not for short term worlds. That being said I disagree with the weaker than most out the portal part as I wouldn't say most characters spawn in with powerful abilities only outliers atm like Maxwell, Wolfgang, Wigfrid, and maybe afew more that escape my thoughts atm. Even Wanda isn't bad out of spawn considering unlike most characters she starts with healing due to the downside of her hp system which also shouldn't be taken lightly.

Wanda's hp downside while undoubtedly a downside is also somewhat of a upside if you squint which is something that interestingly applies to Wormwood as well to a lesser degree.

Most characters spawn with some abilities and they don't need to be that powerful but they will still have something when Wanda doesn't have almost anything as she only spawns with ageless watch and 3 time pieces.

Wanda naturally ages and 1 ageless watch isn't enough when you don't have 90% or 95% armor at the start so just because you can heal it doesn't mean that you have benefit over other characters and there are a number of early game healing options. 

[Mysterious box]

20 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

Most characters spawn with some abilities and they don't need to be that powerful but they will still have something when Wanda doesn't have almost anything as she only spawns with ageless watch and 3 time pieces.

Wanda naturally ages and 1 ageless watch isn't enough when you don't have 90% or 95% armor at the start so just because you can heal it doesn't mean that you have benefit over other characters and there are a number of early game healing options. 

There are indeed a bunch of early game healing items however the difference is her healing item doesn't use up time to gather the benefit is she quite in theme saves time. Most characters do have some abilities when they spawn but not many are immediately useful  very few have abilities that are useful straight off of spawn.

Also you don't need 90 percent damage reduction at the start even a log suit is good enough with 1 watch unless your planning to rush a boss day 1 or the first 5 days for some reason even then if you rush magic can be up in 5 days or less..

Edited March 18 by Mysterious box

[Mike23Ua]

Let me just be the voice of reason in this thread lmao.. Wolfgang was Nerfed by having his movement speed removed from the game, only to later give that back to him through a skill tree point investment. 

Wanda was only OP because Klei didn’t have a skill tree you needed to Invest within, so all her perks were all just core parts of playing as her and that was that..

I won’t be surprised at all when they remove Maxwells ability to read Wickers ENTIRE ABILITY COLLECTION, only to give him skill points he can invest into getting them back later.

So yeah your girl Wanda? Expect some heavy and to be quite honest justified nerfs for her (that you’ll be able to sorta balance back out with skill tree investment)

Just spitting out the facts here 

 

[Maxil20]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Wolfgang was Nerfed by having his movement speed removed from the game, only to later give that back to him through a skill tree point investment. 

Wolfgang got nerfed a few months after Wanda was released. Why would they go back to nerf a character that was introduced around the time they were already considering nerfs for Wolf when he was “too strong”? Let alone the discourse that occurred when they originally nerfed Wolfgang…

I feel Wanda will likely receive a similar treatment to Wolf in terms of a skill tree, where she gets a few adjustments/additions to her kit, but not full blown adjustments like what Woodie/Willow got, at least apart from maybe the alignment perks. Her identity will likely be kept the same, just having some tweaks to keep her in check in a post rift world.

[The Starver]

4 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

day 1 Wanda is weaker than most characters

I like that about her. Because she's weaker, you have to be in it for the long game, which makes you not try to rush it. Rushing isn't my favorite playstyle, 'cause you don't have time to smell the roses, build fun structures like Gramophones and Fences, or do much else other than runrunrunfightfightfightrushrushrush.

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I won’t be surprised at all when they remove Maxwells ability to read Wickers ENTIRE ABILITY COLLECTION, only to give him skill points he can invest into getting them back later.

Personally I feel like it would make more sense to lock his other abilities behind the skill tree not including the servants, duelists, and the magician's tophat it simply makes more sense for him to learn those additional abilities over time than start with the ability to bind bosses and morph mobs into their shadow variants.

[00petar00]

15 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

There are indeed a bunch of early game healing items however the difference is her healing item doesn't use up time to gather the benefit is she quite in theme saves time. Most characters do have some abilities when they spawn but not many are immediately useful  very few have abilities that are useful straight off of spawn.

She is limited and isn't saving much time for the early game healing because of her aging downside. Any player can kill a few butterflies and get more healing when they need to heal but she is limited to 1 ageless clock in the early game or 2 if you find marble and red gem until you need to deconstruct the second one to make alarming clock.

You can't really say that it is a net benefit from "free" healing when it is the only healing she has, it may be a net benefit if you don't fight much until you realize that 1 ageless clock is not enough for majority of players.

I need 2 to be able to manage her old age efficiently, counter her downside of aging and heal enough to kill most bosses and I have thousands of hours of playtime. I am not saying that I am one of the best players that can do everything with minimal resource investment but I try and I am well above average player in skill and knowledge.

16 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

Also you don't need 90 percent damage reduction at the start even a log suit is good enough with 1 watch unless your planning to rush a boss day 1 or the first 5 days for some reason even then if you rush magic can be up in 5 days or less..

First autumn is the best time to kill bosses as you don't need to care about seasonal temperature/rain. Most characters can kill bosses much easier than Wanda at the start of a world. 2 ageless watches aren't as good as healing food, especially when you don't have 90%+ armor, so I am encouraged to rush ruins for thulecite, kill AG in case of lazy explorer and for the really good loot and to kill nightmare werepig because dreadstone helm is so good on Wanda and almost whole first autumn is used on that.

That is the optimal path for Wanda in the early game and you don't really have much of a choice compared to other characters, that's why a lot of players find her boring as she is so formulaic but I guess a lot of Wanda mains don't mind because we play her for late game and we invest early game to get to her strengths. I think this is one of the big reasons she isn't more popular besides being a locked character.

13 hours ago, The Starver said:

I like that about her. Because she's weaker, you have to be in it for the long game, which makes you not try to rush it. Rushing isn't my favorite playstyle, 'cause you don't have time to smell the roses, build fun structures like Gramophones and Fences, or do much else other than runrunrunfightfightfightrushrushrush.

I am the opposite, I rush ruins and nightmare werepig. I go out before winter starts with alarming clock,dreadstone helm and ruins loot. The faster you snowball on her the better you are off, it is much easier for me to be "lazy" as any other character.

13 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

Personally I feel like it would make more sense to lock his other abilities behind the skill tree not including the servants, duelists, and the magician's tophat it simply makes more sense for him to learn those additional abilities over time than start with the ability to bind bosses and morph mobs into their shadow variants.

Everyone would be disappointed with a skill tree of a character that simply locks all his abilities without almost any new additions. Why are other characters more deserving of a skill tree compared to Maxwell? Strength has nothing to do with it, it would be much better if he kept all his current abilities and got a skill tree that doesn't give him much more power but is interesting.

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

She is limited and isn't saving much time for the early game healing because of her aging downside. Any player can kill a few butterflies and get more healing when they need to heal but she is limited to 1 ageless clock in the early game or 2 if you find marble and red gem until you need to deconstruct the second one to make alarming clock.

You can't really say that it is a net benefit from "free" healing when it is the only healing she has, it may be a net benefit if you don't fight much until you realize that 1 ageless clock is not enough for majority of players.

I need 2 to be able to manage her old age efficiently, counter her downside of aging and heal enough to kill most bosses and I have thousands of hours of playtime. I am not saying that I am one of the best players that can do everything with minimal resource investment but I try and I am well above average player in skill and knowledge.

You can very much call it a benefit because even killing butterflies takes time out of your day whereas she can keep going. One ageless clock is completely fine as you should have 2 or 3 ageless clocks within the first 3 days.

2 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

First autumn is the best time to kill bosses as you don't need to care about seasonal temperature/rain. Most characters can kill bosses much easier than Wanda at the start of a world. 2 ageless watches aren't as good as healing food, especially when you don't have 90%+ armor, so I am encouraged to rush ruins for thulecite, kill AG in case of lazy explorer and for the really good loot and to kill nightmare werepig because dreadstone helm is so good on Wanda and almost whole first autumn is used on that.

That is the optimal path for Wanda in the early game and you don't really have much of a choice compared to other characters, that's why a lot of players find her boring as she is so formulaic but I guess a lot of Wanda mains don't mind because we play her for late game and we invest early game to get to her strengths. I think this is one of the big reasons she isn't more popular besides being a locked character.

No that's just a standard you've placed on yourself she doesn't need to do any of this to play properly you're choosing to limit yourself to this single strategy. It's like saying Woodie has to rush as many idols as he can carry to play optimally or Wurt needs to rush the merm king in the first autumn, and so on. There's nothing stopping you from taking different routes to your end goal or even delaying somethings to prioritize others.

2 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

Everyone would be disappointed with a skill tree of a character that simply locks all his abilities without almost any new additions. Why are other characters more deserving of a skill tree compared to Maxwell? Strength has nothing to do with it, it would be much better if he kept all his current abilities and got a skill tree that doesn't give him much more power but is interesting.

I didn't say he shouldn't get new abilities it's just that a fair bit of what he starts with feels like post skill tree skills so it makes the most sense for the additions to be placed behind skills with some new additions. I know you don't care about game balance but without it a game can get boring fast and lead to a cycle of endless reworks. I'm not saying every character needs to be equal but when one character is so blatantly far ahead of the rest that needs to be addressed if he's set to receive even more buffs.

[00petar00]

4 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

You can very much call it a benefit because even killing butterflies takes time out of your day whereas she can keep going. One ageless clock is completely fine as you should have 2 or 3 ageless clocks within the first 3 days.

That's assuming you aren't going to use the 3 time pieces on alarming clock, you can craft ageless watch and deconstruct it when you get materials for alarming clock but you'll be back at 1 either way until you go to ruins or archives.

7 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

No that's just a standard you've placed on yourself she doesn't need to do any of this to play properly you're choosing to limit yourself to this single strategy. It's like saying Woodie has to rush as many idols as he can carry to play optimally or Wurt needs to rush the merm king in the first autumn, and so on. There's nothing stopping you from taking different routes to your end goal or even delaying somethings to prioritize others.

Because time pieces are important and good armor is equally important. Rushing ruins and killing nightmare werepig. If I don't rush ruins I probably wouldn't craft alarming clock first because one ageless watch just isn't enough and not having alarming clock cuts a large part of her power and you are playing on a handicap without it.

It is a standard I placed on myself but it is pretty much a given for Wanda playstyle, If I want to have access to character abilities at spawn I'd pick almost any other character.

Woodie has access to his powers quite easily and you don't need  to have too many idols, they are easily craftable. Wurt on the other hand doesn't need to have king but that character only comes to full power after first year and she has to get both scorching sunfish and ice bream, the important one is scorching sunfish as you will be able to use it during winter and spring without a need for rain protection. In addition you need to build merm houses and king. 

The difference between Wurt and Wanda is that as Wanda you can gather time pieces before getting tusks so that you can make backtrek watches as soon as winter starts and that is the only part of her kit that is time gated, requires a limited resource that is quite important to every character and depends on luck. Wurt on the other hand a big part of her strength comes from scorching sunfish but you can start with building merms from the get go.

21 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I didn't say he shouldn't get new abilities it's just that a fair bit of what he starts with feels like post skill tree skills so it makes the most sense for the additions to be placed behind skills with some new additions. I know you don't care about game balance but without it a game can get boring fast and lead to a cycle of endless reworks. I'm not saying every character needs to be equal but when one character is so blatantly far ahead of the rest that needs to be addressed if he's set to receive even more buffs.

Abilities that already exist can't be removed unless the character is refreshed, it doesn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth and perception matters. Wolfgang players have complained about his skill tree and there is nothing wrong with that, he has been done dirty and has always been a pretty boring and simple but powerful character. Just because a character is powerful it doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve to get the attention while characters that are weak should get more attention but it shouldn't be such a big difference like Wolfgang and Woodie skill tree.

Reworks/refreshes have never stopped and are still happening (skill trees), who is to say that after skill trees are done we won't have anything more to do with characters?

Like I said, I didn't say that Maxwell needs to get too many buffs but there can be unique skill tree abilities that don't give him much power but are interesting and have a use case and obviously some parts of his skill tree will need to be buffs or there would be no point to him having a skill tree.

Also players that like to play powerful characters have that option, why do their characters need to be nerfed? I am playing the game and enjoying it and If you think that it is boring, play a different character.