Is the Cowardly trait free points?

[jamer]

Note that my character is combat oriented and I'm thinking more on the short term here, so panic reduction over the long term doesn't really apply.

Basically my character build has brawler, fast learner, and baseball player, so I can level long blunt to 4 relatively quickly. I also go with stout usually and athletic.

With this in mind, is the Cowardly trait free points? Will it affect my combat terribly if I ONLY use melee combat? My biggest worry is not being able to get as many critical hits with weapons because of the additional panic, but I'm also the type of person to face 10-20 zombies head on, so does it really matter?

[Silamon]

IIRC being panicked tires your character out faster. That won't matter as much if you use spears though.

Edit: from the wiki

Slight Panic
Do your best to remain calm.

1.3% decreased critical chance.
Panic
Accuracy reduced.

2.6% decreased critical chance.
Melee weapon damage reduced by 0.1.
The player will stand up faster from a sitting position.
Strong Panic
Accuracy severely reduced.

3.9% decreased critical chance. Melee weapon damage reduced by 0.2.
Guns deal 0.19 less damage. At aiming 6, this damage penalty is removed.
The player will stand up faster from a sitting position.
Extreme Panic
Accuracy and vision severely reduced.

5.2% decreased critical chance. Melee weapons damage reduced by 0.3.
Guns deal 0.25 less damage. At aiming 6, this damage penalty is removed.
The character will stand up faster from a sitting position, and their vision cone will become narrower.

So it does lower your damage and crit chance. With cowardly you will be panicked often even against a handful of zombies I don't think it's a good idea if you are building a fighter character.

[MeiaDúzia]

Well, a little bit of what panic causes to your character at the extreme, but it doesn't vary much less at other levels.

Extreme Panic
Accuracy and vision severely reduced.

5.2% decreased critical chance. Melee weapons damage reduced by 0.3.
Guns deal 0.25 less damage. At aiming 6, this damage penalty is removed.
The character will stand up faster from a sitting position, and their vision cone will become narrower.

Even playing brave, if I need to shoot I will always be using tranquilizers, after all, if I need to use a shotgun it is because there are a lot of zombies.

So as long as you don't care about damage reduction and crit on all weapons is a free point, just walk around with a tranquilizer and end of story

[inosk0pedjfk]

Anything above normal pop its free points since you get panicked easily anyways with 20-50 zombies at all times

[RDecline]

Originally posted by jamer:

Note that my character is combat oriented and I'm thinking more on the short term here, so panic reduction over the long term doesn't really apply.

Basically my character build has brawler, fast learner, and baseball player, so I can level long blunt to 4 relatively quickly. I also go with stout usually and athletic.

With this in mind, is the Cowardly trait free points? Will it affect my combat terribly if I ONLY use melee combat? My biggest worry is not being able to get as many critical hits with weapons because of the additional panic, but I'm also the type of person to face 10-20 zombies head on, so does it really matter?

Since it is short term, I'd take any of these before cowardly:
Sunday driver ...are you really going to go long enough to get a car running and then need to drive quickly?
Fear of Blood ...First aid on yourself causes panic. Not a huge deal. Can't perform it on others, not a big deal.
Slow Healer ...wound recovery time isn't a big deal either unless maybe it's something really severe but a hip or burn is going to take a long time anyway.

[Armagenesis]

I'd argue that while it's not exactly free points, it's very manageable. Especially if you are capable of surviving past the first 2 months, where your survivor will get naturally "desensitized". Beta blockers also help mitigating the trait to some extent.

[playing tf2 whilst driving]

Your panic reduction decreases massively over time, but your panic gain never does. So, a few months in, you will still reach max panic upon seeing a large group of zombies but it goes away very quickly. However, every time you discover them again you still gain panic, so if you're fighting a group and you turn your back on them to move away and create some distance, when you turn to face them again you will hit full panic and will have to wait for it to go again if you want to do maximum damage.

This can be negated by fighting smart and having a good nimble skill, basically never fully turning your back on the group so you don't keep rediscovering them. If you plan for this character survive a very long time and if you take gymnast, you could view cowardly as free points. However, it does permanently restrict how you can fight groups and what manoeuvres you can make, because that melee damage penalty from panic can mess with your ability to consistently one shot zombies late game.

I just take veteran... it's nice to never have to worry about it.

[Prowler™]

...Taking cowardly is one of the worst things you can do for melee combat in the game...its less of an issue for guns because you won't be up close to trigger high panic.

Desensitised and cowardly are really not worth the points outside role play or short games. Cowardly is a terrible pick in general as your combat skills are debuffed until panic status wears off and veteran is just too expensive for what little gives you. (seriously just take brave/police if you think vet is actually good for anything but roleplay lol)

Brave offers much more bang for the point costs. Swap vet for police+brave, you instantly have a MUCH stronger character for the same points In melee brave will negate all panic gained in a fraction of a second as it stacks with the passive panic recovery bonus over time.

You can also just use beta blockers which are common drops from zombies or drink booze to negate panic and save points. One side effect of panic people forget is that it reduces your vision cone radius, this is very bad at night when its already reduced significantly by darkness.

Sadly traits and professions are poorly balanced in zomboid and are unlikely to get any dev love anytime soon. Mods dont really fix this as most are either jank broken or power trips haha.

The panic status isnt a bad thing. It can counter other negative status effects like boredom/depression and it also allows you a sense of the unseen danger around you. If you start to get panic/stress when you enter a large building...you are surrounded by ALOT of zombies that you cannot see over multiple floors and need to get out/keep silent. Veteran won't get this warning as they don't gain panic.

[Kaia]

I consider cowardly to be free points.

Panic can be fully mitigated with betablockers, or heavily mitigated by just living longer where the panic generation scales down dramatically.

In fact, i'd go so far as to say that all panic traits are free points, with the notable exception of fear of blood which is just tedium, unless you eventually become desensitized through mods.

Panic is a noob-trap because it's so easily mitigated/countered by a drug that is plentiful, and all it takes is just to take that drug before a big fight. For smaller fights, eventually you do not build enough panic for it to matter if you survive long enough.

The brave trait is also a noobtrap. Pay points, for not having to take beta blockers, essentially. Considering that as time passes, you will loot a ton of beta blockers off of zombies, and that your panic generation will be naturally lower compared to your panic reduction, it's essentially overpriced noob-friendly QoL.

[Animalman]

No its not free points and you should only take it really if its really pivotal to making the characters build substantially stronger in other area that don't contradict, like hunter contradicts a pro panic trait.
and just Beta Blockers can be found doesn't mean u will find them all the time.
And doesnt mean u won't run out. And the initial start up may not provide Beta Blocker for a while. But all depends on combat intentions. Beta block doesn't last very long either.
however
if u intend to use fire and are on high population settings u can panic as much as u want. Because even with beta blockers and brave you will still panic looking at that many zombies.

Regular
there is no benefit to being panicked.
Unless theres a shoving benefit..
but there is no strong benefit to being panicked.
So its like the last trait you could reasonably survive with
but its not a mindless trait dump
dump it in there and get the points
like slow reader

[Kaia]

Beta blockers, much like anti depressants end up being a bottle neck in the first week only. They become so common after a while that you will naturally accrue a surplus of them.
It's especially true if you play on a higher population count. I *always* take panic traits, and I *always* drown in beta blockers and anti depressants. This is due to them dropping on zombies often past day-x

[Animalman]

But Beta Blockers as the solution is not always true
otherwise Agoraphobic would be a good strong pick.
Claustro but they cause so many problems really.
Cowardly and Agora on Insane, using Fire its fine.
But on regular game its not entirely worth the 6 points.

[Kaia]

Nah, strong disagree...
As for agoraphobic, don't be a moron, pick claustrophobic.
Beta blocker are always the solution to panic.
6 points is huge. Fast learner is worth 6 points. dextrous+outdoorsman+wakeful = 6 points.

Panic mitigation is essentially a noobtrap skill check to see if you have the braincells to rub together to remember to take a pill before a fight. for 6 points that's a strong gimme.

[Animalman]

https://pzwiki.net/w/index.php?title=Panic&redirect=no

The player will stand up faster from a sitting position.
it would be possible to take advatnage of that being asthmatic
but is it free points + good idea?
Well PVP panic bad, any cause of panic is bad means u might not hit them.
I dont think its free like slow reader weak stomach

[Kaia]

I fail to see the synergy that panic traits have with Asthmatic.

Asthmatic is probably one of the very worse traits in the game currently, and it doesn't have interactions with panic or depression.

You do you, obviously you don't have to use panic traits. But you're missing out on character potential by just being unwilling to deal with having to take a pill before fights. /shrug.

Also in your arguments you fail to understand that the point of panic traits is to be countered by taking the pill, not just play with panic always on. So all the narrative about how it makes you hit less often or for less dmg has no leg to stand on.

[kasatov01]

coward is pretty bad, especially early game. Panic reduces damage and that means you have to swing more to kill and get weapon xp since it's tied to damage dealt. More swinging means that you get tiered faster, especially using long blunt weapons that are heavy. Slows down the game drastically.
Beta blockers aren't the holy grail either, they take 20+ min to start working and only last 30 min. It's not like you see large horde, take a pill and fast kill... no no no. It's take a pill wait and kill with more pill in between. With coward you need sedation for the whole day, no guarantee you find it in your starting house and then enough to keep going. As I said, slows down the game by a lot.
Manageable? Yes, but all negative perks are manageable, worth? it's a matter of preference. I would consider other options, especially with a character that is early game focused.