I'd like to share my thoughts on the skill tree (also known as Insight points).

[tanshenggang]

My previous post was written entirely in Chinese, but a fellow Chinese player told me the content appeared garbled. Perhaps it was due to machine translation issues, so I'm translating this post into English myself.

I'm a player from the Chinese region. I usually only come here to check what's new when a game update drops. Even though I don't visit the forums very often, I can still see some dissatisfaction regarding the skill trees. So I'd like to join the discussion and share my thoughts on the character changes.

Wendy is an extremely popular character, so her skill tree is often discussed. However, I think her skill tree is actually quite well done. It may feel somewhat restrained because the changes are all built around her existing mechanics. Let's take a look at her Insights and my opinions on them.

Pipspook Quest III – It yields 18–20 Mourning Glories and is very easy to find. If you try to help a Pipspook without unlocking this Insight, the Mourning Glory yield becomes very low and the search distance is 125 units (unlocking the Insight reduces it to 75 units). If you think this Insight is useless, I may not quite understand, because all the Ghostly Elixirs revolve around it. It saves us a lot of time that can be used for other things. If you don't need any of this at all, you're probably either a Wendy expert or a complete beginner. For an average player like me, it still serves its purpose.

Mourning Glory II – In my opinion, this is a great improvement. I can now use the Wraith's Wreath crafted from it to apply certain Ghostly Elixirs. Among them, Nightshade Nostrum is the one I use most often. Before obtaining the Enlightened Crown, I relied on it almost all the time. Apart from some boss fights, I didn't need any other light source, and I only completely abandoned it after getting the Celestial Jewel. Spectral Cure-All restores health very quickly and in large amounts. Vigor Mortis helps me transport statues. I also make a few Ghastly Experiences on the side; if a health penalty appears, I can use them to remove it.

Blessed Sisturn III – If you unlock this Insight, you can place Lune Tree Blossoms inside the Sisturn. When there is a Sisturn in the world filled with Lune Tree Blossoms, Abigail takes the same damage as the player when attacked by creatures with a damage multiplier against players, but healing received from Revenant Restorative and Spectral Cure-All is halved. Although I no longer use this Insight, if you struggle to protect Abigail in combat and haven't obtained a Lunar Affinity yet, it will be very useful to you, especially against the Spider Queen.

Team Spirit III – When the skill tree first came out, my friend told me that not picking this Insight would make the whole tree pointless. He has played for nearly 10,000 hours by now, and I think some of his understanding of the game is correct. I myself have spent around 300–500 hours playing Wendy, going from knowing nothing to independently defeating all the bosses. I feel what he said back then was absolutely right. When facing groups of enemies, the "Scare" ability allows her to take less damage, thereby defeating groups of creatures that would otherwise be impossible, such as Merms, Bunnymen, Spider Warriors, Pigs, Clockwork Bishops, and so on.

Lunar Sisterhood III – I almost never use this Insight, so I can't tell you about my experience with it. But I know it allows you to protect yourself very well in most boss fights, and its damage output is high.

Shadow Sisterhood III – I consider this Insight to provide the greatest combat enhancement for Wendy. 40 physical damage of your own + an additional 10 planar damage + 25 planar damage from murder, combined with the 1.54× physical damage multiplier when I'm riding a beefalo, feels like an absolutely explosive DPS output.

Some players feel that the developers don't listen to community feedback when designing the skill trees, but I don't think that's the case. Players who are absolutely obsessed with Wendy come up with many incredible suggestions, and it's impossible to satisfy everyone. I feel Wendy's skill tree just lacks innovation, but it isn't a failure. Perhaps her popularity also made it difficult for the developers to design more for her.

Before the skill trees were introduced, Willow was the "poster child for burning down bases," I very rarely saw Winona being played, Walter was complained about for his slow attack speed and fragility, my friend called Wortox a "good-for-nothing," and Wurt and Webber used to get kicked from public servers immediately. If these characters hadn't received major buffs and overhauls, I think they would still be as nonexistent as Webber.

As for Wilson and Wigfrid – Wilson being the starting point, in my eyes he's still quite a failure now. With Wigfrid, I just find her mediocre; I don't feel she's a major success or a failure. At least her two weapons and the beefalo taming are pretty handy.