Best use for a book of skill mastery?

[Caridor]

So I found one of these and a lot of the upgrades look extremely powerful.
I'm really not sure which way to go.

Do people have any recommendations? My party is currently levels 5-6 and it might be a good idea to wait on it but it's very tempting.

[pd28]

If you have a sentinel in you group (axe man in heavy armour) use it on him/her straight away. The upgraded skill gives you Inspiration ie double movement for your whole group. When I first discovered this it changed my life It's so good I'd even recommend recruiting a new axe guy just to use it

[Teddy]

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

[Gregorovitch]

I spend quite a lot of money on skill mastery books. I think as you progress through the game the general idea is to upgrade every skill on every merc - they are all worth it. Some are going to be worth a bit more than others but I think that is going to depend largely on your personal play style, what you most heavily lean into.

So I would just go through you mercs one at a time and see which skills the book can upgrade leap out at you as strong. Buy another book when you can, rinse and repeat. All the upgrades are strong in one context or another.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by pd28:

If you have a sentinel in you group (axe man in heavy armour) use it on him/her straight away. The upgraded skill gives you Inspiration ie double movement for your whole group. When I first discovered this it changed my life It's so good I'd even recommend recruiting a new axe guy just to use it

Yep, I'd agree that that's the best use of it. Turns an ok ability into easily the most powerful in the entire game.

Originally posted by Teddy:

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

Is that the one where dagger-throw-after-using-a-skill get's upgraded to also reset movement? Because that one also completely changes how a rogue works.

I'd add spear wall as the next tier of priority for skill mastery. It's already a fantastic skill, doubling it's power makes it an absolute beast.

But yeah, in the long run, you want to buy out/steal all the mastery books from the brotherhood until you've upgraded all the skills. Doing that around level 5 after giving everyone ghost gear and are no longer struggling with survival/money issues is easy enough.

[Artful Dodger]

Originally posted by Teddy:

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

Cuttthroats are indeed ace, but if you have more than one be sure to convert one to Assassin when you unlock it.

[Teddy]

Originally posted by Artful Dodger:

Originally posted by Teddy:

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

Cuttthroats are indeed ace, but if you have more than one be sure to convert one to Assassin when you unlock it.

Oh I didn't know I could convert, that's awesome. Yeah I have two already.

Originally posted by Olleus:

Originally posted by Teddy:

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

Is that the one where dagger-throw-after-using-a-skill get's upgraded to also reset movement? Because that one also completely changes how a rogue works.

I'd add spear wall as the next tier of priority for skill mastery. It's already a fantastic skill, doubling it's power makes it an absolute beast.

But yeah, in the long run, you want to buy out/steal all the mastery books from the brotherhood until you've upgraded all the skills. Doing that around level 5 after giving everyone ghost gear and are no longer struggling with survival/money issues is easy enough.

It's the frenzy build I'm thinking about, it relies on you being behind a target that is already engaged, and you do 3 attacks in a row on that target. If you upgrade this skill you can use it two times in a row, it absolutely crushes enemies. Typically you would use this unit at the end of the round ones you have set up your other units to be engaged in combat, then you let the rogues run around and do stabby stabby.

https://wartales.wiki/data/companions/ranger.html

[SJD]

Just steal those books all and test it out.

Whatever you steal, you consume it all then it's just 20 coins.

[Stone]

I suppose the cheap getaway for using the books have to go eventually, it's lame to just be able to upgrade for free. I do it though :)

[funkmonster7]

Originally posted by Artful Dodger:

Originally posted by Teddy:

I love it on my cutthroats, they are absolutely insane killing machines. But I'm only on lvl 6, I don't know how things turn out in end game. It might be different lol

Cuttthroats are indeed ace, but if you have more than one be sure to convert one to Assassin when you unlock it.

Convert them all to Assassins. Assassins are most deadly when paired with someone who can cause bleed (which includes one of their own), since the class skill damage is doubled on bleeding targets.

[Sayumé]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Originally posted by Artful Dodger:

Convert them all to Assassins. Assassins are most deadly when paired with someone who can cause bleed (which includes one of their own), since the class skill damage is doubled on bleeding targets.

use the left hand bomb with high crit rate as possible. When crit it make targets bleeding. With the three trhows yellow dagger it's insane, with the +%crit on bleeding trinket.

[Caridor]

Originally posted by pd28:

If you have a sentinel in you group (axe man in heavy armour) use it on him/her straight away. The upgraded skill gives you Inspiration ie double movement for your whole group. When I first discovered this it changed my life It's so good I'd even recommend recruiting a new axe guy just to use it

Is it that much better than the pony ability?

[Stardustfire]

no idea what the pony ability does (never wasted a pony as warpony) but one axeman with the upgraded shout makes a big impact:
all engaged units of you get riposte until there next turn in the basic version, thats helpful but not great, but the upgrade gives all not engaged units double there movement until there next turn on top (both effects are excluded from the shouter itself btw) .
Torus is my Shouter for this if i need that movespeed (he is my only axeswinger and only in the team because of this shout)

equial to that is indeed speerwall upgrade, being able to stop 2 attackers in there tracks instead of one helps alot and makes it much more cost effient.

after that its the infantery archers barrage, again because more cost efficency, 4 instead of 3 overwatch shoots.

[Caridor]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

no idea what the pony ability does (never wasted a pony as warpony) but one axeman with the upgraded shout makes a big impact:
all engaged units of you get riposte until there next turn in the basic version, thats helpful but not great, but the upgrade gives all not engaged units double there movement until there next turn on top (both effects are excluded from the shouter itself btw) .
Torus is my Shouter for this if i need that movespeed (he is my only axeswinger and only in the team because of this shout)

equial to that is indeed speerwall upgrade, being able to stop 2 attackers in there tracks instead of one helps alot and makes it much more cost effient.

after that its the infantery archers barrage, again because more cost efficency, 4 instead of 3 overwatch shoots.

The pony gives everyone within 4m inspiration (double move) and it doesn't cost valor points

[pd28]

Originally posted by Caridor:

Originally posted by pd28:

If you have a sentinel in you group (axe man in heavy armour) use it on him/her straight away. The upgraded skill gives you Inspiration ie double movement for your whole group. When I first discovered this it changed my life It's so good I'd even recommend recruiting a new axe guy just to use it

Is it that much better than the pony ability?

In my opinion it's way better - I am biased because I've never seen any attraction in war ponies.

Yes, it costs you two points with the sentinel but it's not range limited - your whole party benefits. In effect it only costs one point because of course your sentinel can then go and regain a point by engaging one enemy or taking a swipe at two, depending on how you set them up. My current one has a two-handed axe so I kick off most fights by him running to the two nearest enemies, giving them a good smack and them letting out his mighty roar - he's also got the level 5 "recklessness" skill which means he does 100% extra damage on his first swing in each fight (this can be upgraded later to 150%) so he does some serious damage early doors.

As Stardustfire pointed out the sentinel's shout inspires others but does nothing for him so I always pump a few points into movement so he can keep up with his buds for the further carnage

[Caridor]

Originally posted by pd28:

Originally posted by Caridor:

Is it that much better than the pony ability?

In my opinion it's way better - I am biased because I've never seen any attraction in war ponies.

Yes, it costs you two points with the sentinel but it's not range limited - your whole party benefits. In effect it only costs one point because of course your sentinel can then go and regain a point by engaging one enemy or taking a swipe at two, depending on how you set them up. My current one has a two-handed axe so I kick off most fights by him running to the two nearest enemies, giving them a good smack and them letting out his mighty roar - he's also got the level 5 "recklessness" skill which means he does 100% extra damage on his first swing in each fight (this can be upgraded later to 150%) so he does some serious damage early doors.

As Stardustfire pointed out the sentinel's shout inspires others but does nothing for him so I always pump a few points into movement so he can keep up with his buds for the further carnage

The fact it gives the whole party that buff matters a whole lot! I think I'm going to hire one just for this.