Wigfrid's "Rider" Skilltree Branch Swap

[JimmCee]

After a year, i'm back to the forums for a recap on some insatisfaction with Wigfrid's skilltree. Since 2023 we've seen some content being added to the game aswell as some new characters skilltrees. Considering both Winona and Wurt and recently Wendy, Wortox and Walter, i think it's time to talk about the effectiveness of skills and their potential on early-mid-late game times.

Wigfrid has a total of 23 different skills. They go for HEADLINER, ARSENAL, RIDER, AFFINITY and the 'Mystic Resilience' branches. With 15 insight points to spend, most of the combinations will rely on the Elding Spear and it's Charged version, one point for the Affinity and usually the points for the Beefalo (3 to reach Nouble Mount III). For Wigfrid specially, the Battle Saddle and the Battle Call Canister are both craft-and-swap skills, which is fine since it lets you redistribute the points into other skills. But this is the exact thought that makes me think... Where else to spend insight?

• Starting with the ARSENAL:

I've tried to consider the Battle Rönd a good weapon, specially for it's damage compared to the normal Battle Spear and it's unique and fun block mechanic. It's somewhat useful to equip while mounted since you get some protection against projectile mobs, but can be overcome by the Commander's Helm that even repairs itself. It's damage after the block (considering you have the skill unlocked) is okay, but situational. Now why would you go for the shield if you can have a Ham Bat or even a normal Elding Spear? It's (kinda) cheap, (kinda) good damage, fun but not worth it after Celestial Champion (or Hardmode). At all.
Not gonna complaint about the Commander's Helm since i've been playing some Wigfrid and it's great! The protection, the fact you can give it to your friends, the lifesteal and no knockback. It's even worth to consider it a niche equip to fight Bee Queen (@Ameslarii). Only thing is that once you have the Enlightened Crown it gets obsolete, thanks to the 42 damage you get from each little gestalt that synergizes with Wigfrid's natural sanity leech mechanic, making the crown her "max potential".

• Now for RIDER:

My take here is simple, Nouble Mount I and Nouble Mount II are quite problematic. I can tame one or two beefs and actually make good use of these skills, but in a post-rift scenario why would i ever need 15% faster domestication or 30% more ride time? To get Nouble Mount III? I'd say SWAP the skills like i did in the image and you have a way more intelligent branch. First you get your inspiration, THEN you get the domestication skills. This brings us to the big checkmate of this topic. Once i have the skills flipped, there are even MORE insight points left to spend... Maybe get Fighting Words and some of the arsenal upgrades. I'll finish with some possible builds to reinforce my perspective.

Edit: the Battle Saddle is not the best, and it's certainly worse than the hardmode Nightmare Saddle, but makes the beef an extension of Wigfrid's "press F" gameplay and works as a charm for some damage buffer when a fight starts. Since it's a craft-and-swap i don't ask for any changes here, really. Also i'd like to express the urge to change the crafting recipe for the Fireproof Falsetto Battle Song. There is just NO WAY i'm gonna fish for a Spitterfish to grant me FIRE IMMUNITY during a fight.

[Well-met]

wigfrid doesn't need an unbalanced skill tree because she was always very solid and a fan favorite in the first place.

[Baark0]

tldr pls thats a lot of words and the pictures dont really make sense at a glance

[Swiyss]

8 minutes ago, Well-met said:

wigfrid doesn't need an unbalanced skill tree because she was always very solid and a fan favorite in the first place.

Look, I quite understand that Wigfrid is in quite a strong place already, but that doesn't change the fact that half of her skills are basically fillers.

[JimmCee]

Just now, Well-met said:

wigfrid doesn't need an unbalanced skill tree because she was always very solid and a fan favorite in the first place.

It's not unbalanced at all! As i said, most of the skills in the set don't make it past hardmode. Giving the two points from the Rider branch would be simply for fun and polishing the full Wigfrid experience.

[GimplyGoose]

22 hours ago, JimmCee said:

It's not unbalanced at all! As i said, most of the skills in the set don't make it past hardmode. Giving the two points from the Rider branch would be simply for fun and polishing the full Wigfrid experience.

I don't think Wigfrid's skills need to have additional post-rift perks. As is, she is already a strong post-rifts character. Her +5 planar defense skill stacks with armor and the 25% damage reduction and 200 HP health pool make her quite resilient against planar enemies.

Noble Mount III is a powerful skill and it should have prerequisite skills, so I don't think it should be able to be unlocked before the Beefalo training perks.

The charged elding spear still has utility as a general purpose weapon post-rifts even if it isn't the best weapon to take down the post-rift bosses.

The one criticism that I agree with is that it is a shame the Noble Mount I and II perks essentially stop doing anything after you have fully tamed your beef. They could have a small beneficial effect that only applies to fully tamed beefalos to feel less like nothing perks. Maybe that would make them too wordy, though...

[Violet Desiree]

beefalos are fun i dont accept this slander her personal sadle is a jack of all trades

[JimmCee]

2 hours ago, GimplyGoose said:

I don't think Wigfrid's skills need to have additional post-rift perks. As is, she is already a strong post-rifts character. Her +5 planar defense skill stacks with armor and the 25% damage reduction and 200 HP health pool make her quite resilient against planar enemies.

Noble Mount III is a powerful skill and it should have prerequisite skills, so I don't think it should be able to be unlocked before the Beefalo training perks.

The charged elding spear still has utility as a general purpose weapon post-rifts even if it isn't the best weapon to take down the post-rift bosses.

The one criticism that I agree with is that it is a shame the Noble Mount I and II perks essentially stop doing anything after you have fully tamed your beef. They could have a small beneficial effect that only applies to fully tamed beefalos to feel less like nothing perks. Maybe that would make them too wordy, though...

Now compare the post-rift life of a Wigfrid and a post-rift life of Winona, for example. Besides the Charged Elding Spear and the Planar Defense, basically nothing else on the skilltree is useful. And about Nouble Mount III being powerful, it helps you mantain inspiration to start any fight with Battle Songs then what? It sucks to spend 3 points for that...

[GimplyGoose]

1 hour ago, JimmCee said:

Now compare the post-rift life of a Wigfrid and a post-rift life of Winona, for example. Besides the Charged Elding Spear and the Planar Defense, basically nothing else on the skilltree is useful. And about Nouble Mount III being powerful, it helps you mantain inspiration to start any fight with Battle Songs then what? It sucks to spend 3 points for that...

Winona was a character that wasn't played much and Klei wanted to use her skill tree to make her more appealing. Wigfrid is a strong character even without her skill tree.

Noble Mount III basically means you get to start almost every boss fight with 2 out of 3 songs active. In my opinion, that is a powerful effect regardless of being associated with a Beefalo...