any list of perks to always take? always avoid?

[nvmvoidrays]

title.

some are obvious, such as the XP Bonus, but some other ones seem like they could b egood, but are actually huge traps. any updated tier lists of what perks are great/good/bad would also be neat.

[Ginn]

Anything increase XP is broken, either perks or items, because you can get 2-3 levels more and that may give you stats far more the raw stats perks you choose, and even some additions. So i value the perks that unlock unique abilities like Volatile'reaction or Critical Master etc...because they will grow with you. You can't believe how 12 chains lighting can kill mobs in a flash or 8 chains poison that jump only on 2 elites can kill them in 1 or 2 turns. So never underestimate XP gain. And in high apocalypse, defense perks and stats are trash, because if you happen stand in the last turn in range of a new-spawned elite, they can kill you with 1 hit. That's how powerful they become. So the best defense is max offense, and don't get hit at all.

[BadEvilWrong]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Galenwolf:

Defensive Training is broken. 100% XP from Ballista kills - this is NOT split, each hero gets the full exp.

Roll all your heroes until they have that and then add in the perk that increases Ballista power when a hero is near and you can literally sit behind a wall of Ballista and have each hero get 3 level ups per night.

I'm watching a streamer right now with level 15 heroes on night 4 on the last level.

This was patched two updates ago.

[свалов семен]

In contrary to other ppl I'd suggest to you one way to take Crippling Punch perk. This way is taking omen for it + omen for Overload perk. These two perks remove themselves from common perks' pool so you guaranteed receive must-take +15% crit and +25% exp alongside with pretty useful Nimbleness.

In any other situation you'd never want to take it, alright)

[desaunay2]

Here's is my list of the perks' potential
How often you are likely to take them is a whole different list, since some have a guaranteed value and some other are very situational (but can also scale more).
A lot of perks are unranked because I haven't tested them enough / at all.
Congrats to the devs for offering so many different builds !

Line 1
S : -
A : Fatality, Harvester
B : Sprint, Mana growth, Cherry picking, Potion throw
C : Steady aim, Cheer, quick reload
D : Perseverance, Back protection
unranked : Septic shock, Stunning, Coagulation, Leapfrog

Harvester is ~10 mana regen / night, worth 2-3 secondary attributes
Cherry picking : with a Tome of secrets for example, it adds 8% damage on isolated units, which works on bosses.

Line 2 :
S : Critical rune
A : Body Builder, Avid learner, Glass canon, Overload, Nimbleness
B : Magic fuel, Third eye, First blood
C : Mark, Contamination
D : Crippling punch
unranked : Spiky counter, Poisonous, Defensive training, Resupply

Critical rune gives a potential 30+% crit, making it one of the strongest nodes
Avid learner, with no other XP bonuses, gives 2 extra levels at level 10, which is a net 1 perk point ans 2+2 attributes. Shrinks when heros already have ~150% XP due to meta progression, gear etc. Long-term investment, worse on shorter levels.
Nimbleness gives +2 movement and +15 dodge given that you are not wounded (one blood drop icon), which is worth ~1.5 primary + 1 secondary attributes.

Line 3 :
S : Runic Gift, Initiator
A : Thrifty, Sadist
B : Energized, Shorter weapons, Longer weapons, Quantity vs quality
C : Relentless, One by one, Lone wolf
D : -
unranked : Vampire, Toxic leech, Blood magic

Runic gift is worth... all the stats you have on your second trinket, bonus mana on top. Not an automatic pick though, since heros can't reach full gear on many maps/difficulties.
Initiator requires a little micro-management but is worth +66% damage on the Skewer Spear attack, f or example. Also double potential damage on the base 1h-crossbow attack.
Thrifty : gives an average 1/3 mana reduction, or 20-50% depending on the build. Mana is damage.

Line 4 :
S : Critical master, Volatile reaction
A : Blink, Bully, Flexibility
B : Field study, Epidemic, Human ballista, Specialist
C : Explosive essence
D : -
unranked : Organic armor, Head on, Proximity shot, Mana shield, Inertia

Critical master can reach ~ +100% critical damage with some builds, making crits do x3 instead of x2. Doable with 1h-crossbows, propagation builds, large AOE etc.
Volatile reaction is the only propagation manipulation currently available (I think they should add more!). Funny thing is that diagonales can actually backfire in some patterns, making it not too OP.
Blink is a huge +12 movement / turn, mobility being key for bosses. Not all heros can afford the mana cost though.
Bully can easily guarantee crits on bosses (2-3 alterations) and is also a top choice with power staff, druidic staff, 1h axe (12 out of 20 weapons in the game have either poison or debuff).
Human ballista is an (almost guaranteed) ~250 dmg/turn but falls short on stronger monsters and is straight up useless on bosses. Limited potential.

Line 5 :
S : Sheer power, Mana collector, Exploit weakness, Legendary assassin, Big Game Hunter
A : BOOM !, Surgical strike, Potent toxins
C : Night owl
D : -
unranked : Berserk, Hex, Fortress master, Don't panic, Adrenaline rush, Blessing

A lot of OP stuff in line 5, like it should be ! Just keep in mind that at this stage, only killing the boss matters. It is often tempting to increase your wombos combos even more, but if it doesn't help killing the boss, you might struggle after killing the regular mobs. BOOM ! is a good example of this, being completely useless against bosses. For this reason, Big game hunter is guaranteed value on ANY hero, unless you really need something else.
Legendary assassin combined with diagonale propagation and/or large multi-hits can grant you more AP than the cost (I've already ended a turn at 10/10 AP this way).

____

And here's the tier list of how likely you are to pick the perk, that is going from a perk that gives value on any character to a perk that requires a big commitment.

Line 1 :
Guaranteed value : Harvester, Mana growth, Cherry picking, Cheer
Build-dependent : Fatality, Sprint, Steady aim, Potion throw
Specific / big commitment : Perseverance, Septic shock, stunning, Coagulation, Quick reload
unranked : Leapfrog

Line 2 :
Guaranteed value : Magic fuel, Avid learner, Glass canon, Nimbleness
Build-dependent : Bodybuilder, Critical runes, Mark, Third eye, Poisonous, First blood, Overload
Specific / big commitment : Spiky counter, contamination, Crippling punch

Line 3 :
Guaranteed value : Thrifty, Energized, Lone wold
Build-dependant : Shorter weapons, Longer weapons, Sadist, Runic Gift, Initiator
Specific / big commitment : Vampire, Toxic leech, One by One, Quantity vs quality, Blood magic
unranked : Relentless

Line 4 :
Guaranteed value : Blink, Human Balista
Build-specific : Head-on, Epidemic, Bully, Critical master, Volatile reaction, Specialist
Specific / big commitment : Explosive essence, Proximity shot, Field study, Inertia, Flexibility
unranked : Organic armor, Mana shield

Line 5 :
Guaranteed value : Sheer power, Exploit weakness, Legendary assassin, Night owl, Big Game Hunter
Build-specific : Berserk, BOOM !, Mana collector, Surgical strike, Potent toxins, Hex, Fortress Master, Blessing
Specific / big commitment : Adrenaline Rush