Petrifying tome needs a buff

[Sinister_Fang]

Wickerbottom, and especially Maxwell, suffer heavily in the early stages of the forge because of this item. It's damage output is next to nothing and because you smack your enemies with the book (and while I admit, that it pretty funny...) it puts you in harms way.

So my suggestion to buff it would be to make petrified enemies take extra damage when hit, and to allow the book itself to petrify enemies after a couple hits. It would also be nice if Wickerbottom's perk would apply to this as well giving it's special a slightly larger AoE effect.

And as a side note: it would be nice if it was actually shown on the character when it's equipped. There were a couple of occasions people thought I dropped my weapon and wasn't contributing to the fight.

[The Curator]

The crowd control abilities are extreme when used efficiently, have seen groups go all through the grunt waves with a Wickerbottom that didn't even fight and just used Petrify and led mobs around. If you really want to get damage in, best thing to do is look for something that is already directly engaged in combat and hit it while it is distracted with another enemy. But regardless, if you use the tome to petrify mobs in groups, especially if they just spawned, and your team knows to leave them alone you can contribute just as much as any standard attacker.

[BiddoBams]

Petrifying seems pretty good when you have a coordinated team, since it can be used to completely split up waves into more easy to handle chunks. However,to make the petrifying effect a little more then a different healing staff aoe sleep (which is imo, better) is to make it so petrified enemies dont get unfrozen in 1 hit, make it like 3 or so! Its good for those times you accidentally hit a petrified goon or when you're already attacking something before it gets frozen.

They could also take more damage when in this state, like you suggested. (tho, surely an enemy would take less damage when covered in stone)

[Lumina]

Another option as i suggested in another post is allowing the skill to do some little damage, so even if someone attack the enemy right after, the use of book isn't useless.

[Pink_Infatuation]

petrifying is just barely Okay. her perk says "Hey! Go whack people!" but doesn't give you the tools to do so. My suggestion for buffing her is either ONE of the following:

1) like you said, make them take extra damage after being petrified (this get's rid of the "i'm petrifying- oops everyone just AOE'd them and that was a waste of cooldown")

2) more damage on the book

3) her next spell being extra powerful either A) Deals damage AND petrifies B) Petrifies in a bigger circle C) the circle lasts a few seconds longer (as it stands i think the next spell being powerful makes them petrified for twice as long which is okay but not rewarding enough to consistently go in and do 15 melee damage as a squishy)

[CarlZalph]

Or instead of having the book be melee make it do magic missile or something.

Nothing says "this is a bad idea" more than a 75hp character going up to slap some things.

[Lumina]

1 hour ago, CarlZalph said:

Or instead of having the book be melee make it do magic missile or something.

Sending little rocks, would fit the theme and look cool.

[WilliamGreywind]

Yeah, neither Maxwell or wickerbottom with the book really can utilize their perks effectively when forced into melee. Having the books provide a basic weak ranged attack can do wonders in helping their strengths be utilized more.

[Lumina]

Could be also a shorter ranged attack, making dart and staff still better, but book not as dangerous as now.

[Sinister_Fang]

8 hours ago, Ashkain said:

(tho, surely an enemy would take less damage when covered in stone)

I don't know. I think it would be fairly painful if chunks of stone stuck on you were forcibly ripped off.

[BiddoBams]

2 hours ago, Sinister_Fang said:

I don't know. I think it would be fairly painful if chunks of stone stuck on you were forcibly ripped off.

I've never had that happen to me believe it or not. I'm pretty sure that'd be relieving!

But nah, if their entire body was turned to stone then it would be easier to chip off chunks.

It was only a joke  

[axxel]

I thought the book is good as it is, but I would say it's somewhat op depending how the character is equipped: some of the lesser monster can be petrifyed right after the end of the effect if you wear the tiara+reed suit. I think the problem often lies on other team players who snatch the staves away (esp. Wilsons and Willows), restraining the full potential of Maxwell/Wickerbottom and makes you feel less useful because the book attack itself is terrible. 

I tested Maxwell quite a bit and I can say with the stone tome and fire staff and the right gear you can easily bring a group of 3 or 4 to the first gorilla. Switching to the fire staff until the cooldown of the book is over is a reliable strategy.