After @Graham-B graciously gave me a whirlwind tour of some places (and dropping me off in Eld and Lietty’s store) and some advice on skills and specializing in something you want to do, it made me wonder about my skills and what I want to do. So I wanted to ask everyone their advice on what skills they took and how they specialized their character/alts. I was thinking of my main toon Wolvy being a fighter/miner. I have played many years of World of Warcraft as a Tank/Dps/Gatherer so I am familiar with this. But what other specs, if you will, have folks taken and the skills involved? I also have two other slots for alts. I was thinking of fighter/farmer (or somthing else than my main toon), Crafter. Ideas/advice would be awesome on alts too. I am only level 16 at the moment and know there will be more skill points, but just trying to plan on the path I take.
I am guessing for fighter it would be health/power under attributes, slingbow under combat mastery, and health regen under undurance. What other skills would be useful? I was thinking jump and antagonize under abilities? I was thinking I should max health, power, health regen, and slingbow mastery. Anything else under endurance? Can we use an axe as a weapon also since we can wield two items or would something else in the left hand be better?
For miner, I was thinking hammer mastery under tool mastery, atleast expert tool and weapon recipes under equipment crafting. Anything else?
Did anyone take Creep until the five core skills? lol Should I invest one or two points in inventory space under exploration? Any other advice?
Note: I understand stamina is not used right now and that can change in the future so this may need to be revised once it is in the game.
Might I convey a word of caution when you are comparing the system here with WOW. They are very different systems. I find WOW’s skill system quite a bit more simpler than the one in Boundless at the moment. Also, bear in mind that while WOW is very level dependent (as in higher level does more dmg to lower level) its not the case in Boundless. Yes, you take more time to kill a higher level creature but only because they are more of a bullet sponge in comparison to dmg you can do at lower levels. Your damage goes up more with the more powerful weapon you can use, NOT so dependent on the skills pts you have. Use a iron slingshot with a max level toon; your stats tweaked to the specs for high dps or tank, and you still wouldn’t do well against a creature in the higher level worlds. Just something for you to think about.
Having said that, I think the skill systems is still very much a WIP atm. The devs are taking all our inputs in to polish it more to make it feel more manageable. Most of all, ,have fun number crunching, if that is something you like to do.
Thanks for the reply @knightsb!! Oh absolutely and I understand the difference between the two games. I was only referencing WoW as what I played mainly in the game and my experience and what I am used to doing. I also know that currently in this alpha build that skills and everything is a WIP and subject to change. I was only asking currently as I am still a green behind the ears player and getting used to things here. I wanted to get other people’s opinions on what they did with their toons, what skills they found useful, etc. I was a number cruncher (min/max) back in the day of raiding because it was expected. I don’t do that so much anymore. Nowadays, I just do just enough crunching to get to a comfortable spot (usually enough so I can solo around with minimal issues). Other times I just brute force it. LOL
The more skill pts you have in a particular tool, will allow you to be able to use the tool more effectively. Example, low skill pts in Slingshot will not benefit you from using a Gem Slingshot. If you rt click on a Gem Slingshot with 1pt or 2 pt or 0 pt in Slingshot it will show you what I mean. The same applies with the other tools.
I don’t think anyone has tested the difference in productivity yet when spending an additional pt in any of the attributes. I might be wrong, but do a search just to be safe :). (am just going off the top of my head of what I know)
There maybe some confusion with the item crafting and equipment crafting part. Even some vet players may get confused a little after they have not looked at it for a while. The confusion comes in when you are trying to figure out which one crafts what and what do you need to get if you want to be able to craft something.
There is not enough points for you to diversify too much. The decision (and hence part of the game play) is to decide what you want to do with your toon - Crafter or Hunter or Gatherer, etc. You can major in 1 and minor in some others, but that will take a little more planning and thinking.
Do not take it for granted that the simplest things are given to you. Example, sprinting and jump heights are skill you have to train in to run faster and jump higher; or even the swing speed of your tool, crit chance, how lucky you are to get awesome loot. Even having the radar to track mobs on your compass is a skill you need to train in.
Thats all I can think off at the moment. Good luck.
Power for miner defo and swing speed to mine faster and since you might be travelling to ring worlds fir mining duties you should get some vitality and maybe tiny bit of health regen so you don’t drop dead from one shot of a spitter etc. I added silver bow mastery for my miner too to be able to fight decently with mobs up to lvl 3. But that’s a choice for later levels. Can be more needed when new creatures come in and start roaming theories.
Defensive skills for fighter are a must. Give yourself a chance to deflect some of the damage going your way. They are expensive skills though so it doesn’t happen overnight and you get there a bit later.
From the core skills you are better missing on the block placing than creeping although one can argue.
Thanks a lot for the advice @knightsb! When you discuss sprinting, are you talking about increased movement speed under agility? Or am I missing in one of the tabs? And having not enough points to really diversify is why i wanted to get some opinions on how to spread out the points. May have to use some of my cleanse points to move points around.
Hi @boundmore, thanks for the reply and advice! I see there is knietic and impulse defence. Is there someplace to read on which is what? I need to put a few more in swing speed. May have to allocate some future points there. I had points in all 5 of the core skills but then thought I haven’t really used creep that much. You bring up a good point about block placement though. I went down to health and power bonus VI so far. Is that too far? I also have five pts in agility for some movement speed, three pts in Dexterity, 1 pt in Intelligence, and 2 pts in luck bonus. Although the 3 pts in the last 2 are debateable I imagine? As for the silver slingbow, are you talking about the common weapon recipes in order to craft them? I picked both that and the common tools one from equipment crafting. Also, Does the item durability bonus help with items not decaying as fast when used?
I also understand that people will pick different skills for they believe works best for them. I enjoy seeing the different ideas and opinions people have.
impulse is against all shooting mobs and kinetic against melee (so wildstock ramming)
also defence is like a shield that takes some damage away while resistance is a percentage chance of deflecting all damage from a single attack
I cant say from memory what level of what attributes gives what kind of speed etc so its a bit of a feel factor for you and sure you will most likely find yourself changing things in future (use cleanse points to remove a learnt skill and get invested skill points back).
If you are creating a character who can craft a fe things that complicates the built a bit as that takes some points away and you have to decide if you want that crafting first or the actual skills for hunt/mining. I have 3 alts and only one is a crafter (have all skills available and can craft everything there currently is to craft in game). The other two have no crafting skills apart from the basic thats in core skills section.
Take notice that no crafting makes truly sense if you dont learn at least bulk crafting, otherwise you’ll be wastefull when crafting more items. Best option is to be able to mass craft of course.
Things will definitely change in future as for how many skills there are and what amount of points we can have to spend, but it looks like there is an effort to create a skill cap that ensures people cant afford everything thats important. That way we have to make decisions what we find more important to be a good hunter or miner etc and then we can see and enjoy differently built characters in game. Diversity is good here.
Thanks for the info on the defensive terms and what they do! Iam gguessing it might be better to invest in defence while putting a few in resistance. I am only planning on this main toon for hunting and mining. I only took the took common recipes (tools and weapons) to be able to craft better items using silver and such. I plan on another toon being my full blown crafter and the other a full blown gatherer for everything else. When you mention silver bow mastery, I was taking you meant crafting them. my apology. Were you meaning the slingbow mastery skill? As mentioned before, we will probably be only able to major in one and minor in another. It’s always interesting to see what people come up with for their builds. One skill someone doesn’t really like will be another player’s treasure on how they use it.
just imagine when reviving comes in and stamina starts working and lances and bombs are introduced - more and more skills to decide upon
yeah I was talking mastery as in having ability to use better slings than copper and iron, even if you are not a hunter you might face some mobs sometime
LOL I saw the lance and bombs and wondered if they were as I haven’t seen any yet. I have one tier in slingbow mastery at the moment but also plan on going down the skill tree. For any toon right now, skill or two in slingbow wouldn’t hurt at all. lol
Uhmmm… according to @virresss, he said that max resistance gives you -50% dmg from mobs.
Regarding what to take, this is my opinion, if you are NOT meteor hunting, chances of getting rammed is small (not non existence tho). Its fairly easy to dodge the ramming, even with lag (I play with between 100-280ping on US servers, MORE on EU servers). But, you will always encounter those annoying shooters. And, keep in mind that its for this current release on live server ONLY. If you ever try to hunt/defend the Cuttletrunks or Spitters, they can kill you in I spread hit on Munteen/Nasharil/Alturnik with 1 point in vitality. With 2 pts, you will barely survive. This is without any form of healing or defense pts. Still, with them firing like machine guns at you, not much of a prayer to survive on your end with those 2 pts. Just to give you an idea.
I have a new hunter I am making and this was the results. With 1 pts in defence and 3 pts in Vitality, you can stand toe to toe with any spitter with a stone hammer and still kill it without breaking a sweat, on any starter world. On a second level world, don’t try it; you might still come out tops but you’d probably be stressed about over it while its happening.
I appreciate your opinion and advice @knightsb! Ahh the joys of early access, everything is subject to change at times. And I am okay with that.
Holy cow, that is a bit of dmg reduction at max. Yeah, I figured the dodging of the ramming out but those pesky shooters. And I have been on the receiving end on Muleen when graham-b was showing me around. That was a lot of cattletrunks. I currently am up to Vitality and Power VI, might be a tad overkill. LOL I haven’t put anything in impulse defence but will put atleast a pt or two in it. I haven’t been to any of the other planets yet, not ready to venture out all that much and far yet.
I apologize for any confusion on my side that mastery may increase dmg (context is not my best form )
The only thing mastery does… for sling bows (as far as i am aware) - anyone at any level can use a diamond sling/hammer etc - but the bow mastery comes into play when you are talking about the effeectivness with the diamond compared to iron bow, as an example… at a level 1 bow mastery you will be able to use the diamond, but you will not achieve the status effect that the diamond is producing what you want to increase your dmg is (afair) the power skill
This!
My beleif is that all crafting skills inc equiptment crafting should come under a single skill tree - i will try to explain…
Ok so someone wants to be able to make gem weapons/tools for this you need to be able to make a spark core… Machines and everything that goes with the gem creation…
Why not then put crafting equiptment/tolls under one tree? this way it will
after reading @boundmore reply, i realise that although Power does increase dmg output to blocks and creatures you also need to spec for Crit i cant remember where that is but am sure its next to agility
Howdy @Graham-B! Crit is under agility, along with movement speed increase. I think I am getting the idea now. Power increases the dmg you do with a slingbow, slingbow mastery increases how effective you are with the slingbow. So in effect, you can put pts in power to raise the dmg but unless you put pts in slingbow mastery, then that dmg is not all that high. You become more effective and more dmg with mastery? Now that is what I got from the diamond-iron slingbow comparison.
I can see your point on crafting. lol I have only picked the common ones to make my own silver, etc. weapons/tools. I don’t plan on the whole crafting thing for a while on an alt. Hunting with a little mining on this one is good for now until I get more used to things on this build.
That is an interesting idea about moving the crafting trees around to possibly streamline it.
Thank you for the reply and info @virresss! I was looking through a lot of the defense skills and there are quite a few of them. I will put a few points there to at least minimize a little of the dmg. I am guessing that threat increase and decrease comes into play when in a hunting party.
sorry again i forget how new you are… so et me try with mastery once again
Mastery is 0 dmg increase as @knightsb says… (i always beleived it gave the smallest dmg tick myself per mastery - guess i have been wrong on that for some time? )
WHat is meant exactly by mastery is - try to see it this way… different bows (and even tools) have different effects… for example a Diamond Hammer? (or one of the others) can break multiple blocks at the exact same time… but… to be able to use the diamond hammer to that effect, you need hammer mastery at 4 or 5… anything lower and it will still only break a single block…
So sling bows… also have their individual effects - using the Diamond bow’s spread charged shot as the example… you will always achieve the spread shot at any level of bow mastery… you will however be unable to Charge the shot, until you have the appropriate mastery etc
Right click a tool or a weapon and in the info it say what mastery you need for it to function at max, if you have lower mastery you get a penalty to it, showed in purple text.
But what other specs, if you will, have folks taken and the skills involved? I also have two other slots for alts. I was thinking of fighter/farmer (or somthing else than my main toon), Crafter. Ideas/advice would be awesome on alts too. I am only level 16 at the moment and know there will be more skill points, but just trying to plan on the path I take.
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what you want to increase your dmg is (afair) the power skill