Skill Balance: PvE vs PvP

[morrokain10587]

Just to be clear, I'm still fairly new to the game and I don't typically play 3rd person arena brawlers so I suck right now. I'm only gear lv 48 and just beat Tristan the Vampire Hunter as my latest boss kill- so this is mostly just on the skills available below that point.

It seems like skills are heavily balanced around PvP which makes sense, but I was wondering if skills like Ward of the Damned are a bit too good for PvE? Its hard to justify another ward when the skeletons summoned hit pretty hard and distract even bosses very well - freeing up a lot of the pressure I'd normally feel when fighting them. This is especially true when using Veil of Chaos for increased movement capability. I can fairly easily regroup this way. I've tried almost all the other skills in various combination, but I just keep coming back to those two. I alternate my third skill between Corpse Explosion and Chaos Volley - though some bosses really needed Frost Bat for its short cast time and double projectile.

Blood as a whole in particular seems a bit on the weak side for PvE imo.

Just some early and likely misguided thoughts. Ward of the Damned might be a useless skill at endgame idk.

[Smug Kot]

if you remove the skeleton aggro then is useless in PvE and its already useless in PvP since the skeleton are no a threat at all.

[morrokain10587]

Първоначално публикувано от Smug Kot:

if you remove the skeleton aggro then is useless in PvE and its already useless in PvP since the skeleton are no a threat at all.

Oh yeah I'm sure its awful in PvP as the skeletons wouldn't pose much of a threat. It just seems like the aggro is very powerful compared to other similar skill benefits for PvE. It feels like THE PvE skill right now for where I am at in the game. Though again it could just be in this one part and not throughout.

[>//The_FALCON]

no, the skeletons get oneshot by bosses, they have no use in pve

[Smug Kot]

Първоначално публикувано от >//The_FALCON:

no, the skeletons get oneshot by bosses, they have no use in pve

lol, easy they tank at least 2-3 hits, makes the fight vs the behemoth a lot easier since it eats most of the dashes.

[Murhk]

Първоначално публикувано от >//The_FALCON:

no, the skeletons get oneshot by bosses, they have no use in pve

…have you even played the game?

It’s a very useful skill in boss fights.

[MaDion]

For some bosses some skills can be better than others the skeletons you mention for example can be very convenient against the terramance for example but useles against other bosses like say the werewolf.

[RiziN]

The best skill for me is the first boss one, the berserk I think. Extra gathering speed is just *chefs kiss*

[Smug Kot]

Първоначално публикувано от RiziN:

The best skill for me is the first boss one, the berserk I think. Extra gathering speed is just *chefs kiss*

power surge.

[Mercurial]

Ward of the Damned is a bit overrated.

Yes, it's good for PvE; but so is Blood Rite Counter for sustain and Power Surge for defense+damage (+resource gathering +travel speed).

Typically, if the boss is focusing a skeleton, it's with an attack that could be easily dodged anyway. The more dangerous attacks, a skeleton isn't going to do much; like, say, Octavian's Here's An Old Trick, or Solarus' holy beams.

People count on the skeleton to tank things that are easy for them to avoid anyway, and then think the skeleton is saving their life by eating the smallest, most telegraphed attack ever.

[theworld]

Първоначално публикувано от MaDion:

For some bosses some skills can be better than others the skeletons you mention for example can be very convenient against the terramance for example but useles against other bosses like say the werewolf.

LOL. Skeletons are the best exactly vs Werewolf. If you know what you're doing you can abuse them to skip his last phase ENTIRELY, making this fight extremely easy.

[Bing Bong]

The skeleton guard is hilarious in multi projectile, multi hit fights.

In Solarus its funny as hell getting 8+ skeletons up.

[Falaris]

It's early access, guys, that makes discussions like this rather useful. What works, what don't.

Can you make a 'tier list' of skills? It's a bit of work, and I can't make one as I can't run the game right now, but I suspect that could be interesting. Also, to see the differences between them. How situational is each skill?

[morrokain10587]

Първоначално публикувано от Mercurial:

Ward of the Damned is a bit overrated.

Yes, it's good for PvE; but so is Blood Rite Counter for sustain and Power Surge for defense+damage (+resource gathering +travel speed).

Typically, if the boss is focusing a skeleton, it's with an attack that could be easily dodged anyway. The more dangerous attacks, a skeleton isn't going to do much; like, say, Octavian's Here's An Old Trick, or Solarus' holy beams.

People count on the skeleton to tank things that are easy for them to avoid anyway, and then think the skeleton is saving their life by eating the smallest, most telegraphed attack ever.

I'd say this is likely true considering my current skill level at best and worst as sometimes it seems like I can avoid all the damage a boss tries to throw at me and sometimes I make a couple of mistakes and half of my health is gone in seconds.

In my early example, a skeleton does practically nothing against Tristan's bomb attack per se, but it can ease the pressure off of me when an immediate dodge roll to spear leap combo is incoming - if I'm far away and use a ranged spell to trigger it. That's already good. THEN the skeleton will tank another basic sword attack. So, its an early-ish boss and I've heard that the endgame bosses take a lot more skill, and that is why I could see this skill falling off, but with the above in mind it is far more powerful than Blood Rite even with the healing component. It's a lot easier to time for me, can mitigate more, and has a chance for a small amount of damage if the skeleton hits.

So if the endgame bosses make this less appealing, then the feedback I'd propose is that skills seem to sort of scale in usefulness depending upon your stage in the game in some cases. While understandable, I'd certainly not say that its ideal. Then again, gaining power as you progress in level and unlock things could feel nice - with the downside of less overall availability of what would be considered optimal skills for character builds depending upon the skill gate of the boss you are facing.

To put it another way, even if the skeleton does little to nothing against a big boss attack, are there skills of a similar nature that actually do? Or is the matter of mitigating those attacks simply based off of player skill and knowledge of the combat system? If the latter, then isolating the skill to only compare to similar roles would make it better in that controlled scenario over others. Er, sorry this is getting a little too involved but I hope I am making sense.

[Smug Kot]

Първоначално публикувано от morrokain10587:

endgame bosses

Skeleton works wells vs behemoth they eat a lot of those dashes.