Wes Skill Tree

[hippie mix]

Hello Klei

Hello to Klei entertainment and all of the readers of this forum. I’ve heard rumors that a Wes rework is in the works. I wish I had posted my thoughts on this many times over the years but anyhow, here they are.

Wes has often been considered the challenge character. He is generally weak in all areas which makes him decent at flexing on other people who choose op characters. The problem that many Wes players have discovered is that Wes really just makes the game longer, not harder. There are other characters that have a higher skill cap in spite of them being generally easier to play. I am proposing a skill tree that enriches Wes’s original purpose of challenge character. The skill tree should add difficulty to the game while also creating opportunity for greater skill expression so that Wes players can flex on fools. While flexing can be done just by overcoming increased difficulty as some Wes mains have suggested, I believe that playing with greater skill should also be rewarded by the skill tree. For this reason I propose that the general format of the skill tree be two curses then one buff. The most important buff, “Balloon Armor”  can only be unlocked once the player has selected 10 curses. For those who prefer that playing Wes make the game harder, they can instead select the curse, “Pain” which requires selecting 14 curses to unlock. The general structure would be:

BALLOON ARMOR                        PAIN

CURSE  ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF  ->  CURSE LVL 2 ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF 

CURSE  ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF  ->  CURSE LVL 2 ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF 

CURSE  ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF  ->  CURSE LVL 2 ->  CURSE  ->  BUFF 

MOON’S CURSE                        CHARLIE’S CURSE

Each tree that I propose has internal synergy as well as unique gameplay mechanics but, before I get into those I must explain the skill which I have labeled, “Balloon Armor”. If a boss drop which can be equipped to the head or body enters Wes’s inventory, Wes will unlock the recipe to create a balloon version of that armor with just 1 durability. Crafted at the same sanity cost as his other balloons, this item will have all of the benefits of the boss drop including dmg reduction but can only be worn by Wes and will float away if placed on the ground or in any non player inventory such as chests or backpacks. The key characteristic of this armor which enriches the Wes gameplay experience is the fact that for 0.3 seconds after a balloon armor is equipped, Wes will deal full player damage instead of the 0.75 dmg that he normally does. This effect allows Wes to deal full damage when they are animation canceling their attacks. Animation canceling to get max attack speed is a core gameplay mechanic at this point. This mechanic is something that Wes players deserve to be rewarded for when doing correctly. Don't even worry about making a bunch of skins Klei, just give each type of balloon armor a new color and call it good.

I also suggest that we do away with the speed balloon. It was a decent place holder until we got here but now, Wes can instead gain a speed buff from his regular party balloons! Too op you say? Guess again, they only add 2.5% move speed. Too useless you say? Guess again. The new party balloons can be picked up by Wes and held in his inventory. They do not stack and won't go in backpacks. Other characters should be able to hold a party balloon but only in their hand slot and be given a 10% movespeed buff for their trouble. Giving Wes !0% ms from a balloon held in his hand may also be worth considering.

The way that these balloons can really help Wes is because when he is being slowed such that his movement speed is below 100% by, let's say a marble statue… then the ms buff doubles to 5%. This should negate 75% of the 85% ms reduction from statues if he has nothing except balloons in his inventory. This ms comes at the cost of inventory space and balloons float, it makes sense both thematically and in terms of gameplay mechanics. Taming a beefalo makes him too easy to play and won't be possible with one of his curses so this change gives him another reasonable way to move them.

Tree A:

Curse: Butter Fingers- When damaged from an attack, Wes has a 33% chance to drop the item in their hand slot, increasing with his wetness.
Curse: ???
Buff: Shock Pop- Wes gets a gap closer!  It sucks… After a two second animation of him blowing up a balloon ends with a pop, he gets knocked back a very short distance (too short to jump over terrain gaps). This jump has invulnerability frames but boy is that delay hard to use. After being knocked back by shock pop, the static charge gives Wes the electric damage modifier for one attack within the next 5 seconds.

Curse: Sweaty Palms- When attempting to pick up an item within 10 seconds of it being dropped by Butter Fingers, Wes has a 40% chance to drop the item again instead of equipping it to his hand. If an item is dropped by Sweaty Palms, then the chance for Sweaty Palms to drop it again increases by 20% up to a maximum of 100% with a 10 second timer before it resets. While this 10 second window is active, Wes’s unarmed punches apply wetness. These punches need to apply enough wetness quickly such that it makes up for the missed dps of not using a weapon. Crafting a party balloon while Sweaty Palms is active will create a water balloon instead. 
Curse: Planarly Painful- Wes takes 50% more planar damage
Buff: Pugilist- Wes’s unarmed punches gain 20 planar damage but only when hitting planar enemies.

Tree B

Curse: Rissless- Pearl well.. you make her want to stay a hermit, do 15 tasks instead of 10. Beefaloo always treat Wes as if they were in mating season (this is probably hard to code into a public server so just make it so that if he does the 10th task then she wont drop the pearl until he has done 5 more tasks or someone else does 1?).
Curse: ???

Buff: ???
Curse: Rissless 2- Neutral mobs aggro Wes similar to the way they aggro Wortox. Beefaloo now have so much fuzzy fury that they will aggro Wes even if he is wearing a beefaloo hat.
Curse ???
Buff: Vengeance- Wes deals 25% more damage to a mob for 1 second after the mob attacks. it may be a good idea to scale that time frame down below 1 second vs non boss mobs or even make it not work on small mobs all together for balance reasons. You could also let it apply only on missed attacks so that Wes doesn't need to animation cancel on spiders to get reg player damage when he kites effectively.

Tree C

Curse: Crow- Wes is constantly and forever being chased by a crow. This crow will land about half a screen away and hop toward him like one of those lunar birds. If Wes gets a full screen away, the crow will fly up and land either a half screen from him or less. When the crow reaches Wes it will attempt to take a seed from his inventory, if no seeds are present then the crow will peck Wes for 5 dmg (this could be used with butter fingers to get Sweaty Palms up to 100% without risking much dmg). These crows are invincible and hitting them makes them hop backward. They could also do things like knock grass and trigs from his inventory while looking for seeds or pop his party balloons, slow him when in melee range, scare rabbits he's trying to capture, drop poop on his head that spoils food if it lands, etc. 
There are balance options in where the crow chooses to land. Landing at the closest point within half of a screen sounds like a good option because it is predictable which makes the gameplay more consistent despite the added challenge but having it land randomly would make the player focus on it more which is good and bad. Seeds in Wes’s inventory can satiate his tormenters but i think dropping some or even a stack on the ground should be able to satiate them while Wes fights a boss. Scarecrows should also deter crows. Before hopping toward Wes they should check to see if they are within range of a scarecrow. If they are, then they should hop directly away from it instead of toward Wes. The next time they would check, they instead make the “Kawh Kawh” animation then the next attempt after that, they would try to follow Wes.

Curse ???
Buff  ???

Crows- Two crows seek his tender mime flesh.
Curse: Truly Silent- Wes cannot use panflutes.
Buff ??? idk maybe he can craft a nest at the cost of 80 twigs and when he sits in it the crows just chill and lay an egg a day lol?

When  it comes to “Pain” I'm something of an expert due to my enthusiastic affinity for goth girls and all of their kind. The satanic princesses of darkness and despair have advised me to tell you that the simple route of flatly increasing damage taken by a percentage, is a fruitless escapade. To really make every instance of damage hurt these degenerate and masochistic Wes mains, one must make those instances not hurt in the moment, but instead make them hurt forever. Pain will indeed make Wes hurt more every time they take damage but that is only the start, because the pain skill will make it so that every single time Wes takes damage, they will take one more damage every time they take damage in the future stacking infinitely. Hahaha let them suffer.

The dream combo is to use 100% pugilist and water balloons (which wes should be able to craft infinitely at a water source using his balloons and the standard balloon crafting sanity cost) to get and maintain maximum wetness. Next dodge a boss attack with shock pop, equip balloon armor and strike with vengeance, to get an unreduced damage attack times an electric modifier on a wet target with the 25% vengeance damage buff. That's a lot of damage in one hit but it would require that the player prepare Sweaty Palms, get the target wet, dodge an attack with invulnerability frames on a significant delay then very rapidly equip armor and attack. If the player pulls this off repeatedly in a boss fight, that’s what I call skill expression and gdam if thats not a big flex.

While it is unfortunate that I don't yet have a good recommendation for the moon’s and charlie’s curses, I heard that a Wes rework is in the works and I felt the need to share the ideas that I, a fan since 2016 with more than 6k hrs of gameplay, have been pondering for years. Combining the speed balloon with the party balloon simplifies things while the skill tree is complicating them. Letting people hold them only in their hand means teammates can hold a balloon… come’n man let them! It's fine if they only get the 2.5% ms buff because it's cute! While these ideas are all individually interesting, none of them can reinforce the basis of Wes’s purpose in the game more than a method which allows Wes to deal standard damage while animation canceling. Animation canceling is the most fundamental skill for high level play and a skill tree that rewards players for doing it is the only way to truly honor the role of challenge character.

PS: if you could make wes’s green balloon be in the shape of a little dinosaur that looks like jakeyasuarus’s logo, I think that would be a great nod to the fans. With much love to Klei’s little game, thanks for reading!