Best/Worst Perks: Evaluation and Suggestions

[Elriadon]

So, there's a lot of bad perks and the perk system could in general use an overhaul. Also, there's two perks named Terror, one is in Two Handed tree, the other in Crossbow tree, two named Walk it Off (Athletics and Medicine) and two named Spartan (Athletics and Stewardship). So, here's my evaluation of the perks in the game, which one are the best, which are the worst and which choices between two perks are either so one sided it hurts or absolutely irrelevant:


Worst perks

Here are the perks I found to be particularly bad:

Governor perks on main character and probably also the designated heir (Only apply if you wait in a Town/castle you own that has no governor, maybe a Clan Leader could atleast apply a reduced version of their Governor perks to every fief they own? Could atleast make it useful for them.)

Minimal bonus perks (For example, Sharpened Edge: +2% damage to slashing damage on weapons you craft or Cavalry: +2% damage with Polearms while mounted, you won't even notice this, seriously, make these things actually meaningful)

Daily XP perks (From +1 to +4 XP per day, some are only limited to certain troop tiers. This doesn't matter, at all, and it's much more likely that the bonus XP from these perks will go to waste anyway.)

Captain Perks (These bonuses only apply if you are a "Captain" of a certain group in an army and due to how the game works, they hardly ever apply for your main character and even your clan members will hardly ever get to actually be a captain in an army, much less lead a formation that actually benefits from their perks. Most of these perks actually give only minimal bonuses anyway, like 4% less damage taken by units in Shield Wall formation. Feel free to ignore these bonuses)


Polearms:

Drills (Deserves a separate mention, requires 200 Polearm skill, gives only +1 XP per day to troops and has a 0.5 Militia per day as a weak governor bonus, not helped by the fact that the other perk you can choose is awesome. Seriously, why does this exist?)


Charm:

Ice Breaker (10% chance to gain +2 Relation when introducing yourself for the first time to lords, yeah, this would be terrible even if it was a guaranteed chance, but 10% chance for this? Might be the worst perk in the game)


Crossbow

Terror (Crossbow version) (Crossbow troops caus 25% more morale penalty with each enemy downed, but it's a Captain perk. If it was a Party Leader perk, it could be one of the strongest perks in the game)


Trade

Spring of Gold (0.1% interest rate on your gold, capped at 1000 gold per day, way too low for a 250 Trade skill perk even if gold wasn't that easy to come by, also, as a Clan Leader perk you can't even stack it)


Throwing

Well Prepared (+1 Throwing Amunition for you, 25% chance for troops under your command to get +1 Throwing amunition as a Party Leader perk, not really the worst, but seriously, why 25% chance and not just +1 throwing weapon to everyone? It wouldn't be op.)


Tactics

Small Unit Tactics (+1 unit to bandit hideout battles, +5% movement speed bonus to units under your command if there's less than 15 of them as a Captain bonus. Why does this exist?)

Gens d'armes (Cavalry in your formation deal 2% more damage to Infantry only as a Captain bonus. Also, +1 security to Town as a Governor bonus. Seriously, this Perk needs 250 Tactics, why?)


Roguery

Partners in Crime (+2% damage for bandit units in the formation you lead as a Captain bonus, yeah, this will never matter)

Fleet Footed (30% more escape chance from mobile parties, which is actually pretty good, but the personal bonus... +10% movement speed bonus if you have no weapons or shield, when would this ever come up? If you need to escape from battle, you have 1000 times better chance to flee if you just mount a nearby horse and ride away then to try to leg it and get skewered by an Elite Cataphract)


Worst choices between Perks

This category reflects the choices between two exclusive perks that are either one-sided or shouldn't be exclusive to begin with. Alternatively, both perks are so bad that the choice doesn't matter at all. When it comes to perks that buff you or your army, then they should imo either both buff you, both should buff your army or both should buff both. Also, Captain perks are worthless, but if you have to have them, then both choices should be either Party Leader or Captain, because at this point, Party Leader bonus is superior no matter what.


Polearms:

Drills vs Generous Rations (Drills: +1 XP per day to all of your troops and +0.5 militia as a Governor perk VS Generous Rations: +5 HP to all of your troops and infantry are 20% cheaper to recruit, I don't have to explain why Generous rations is better, do I? And even disregarding that, Drills is a 200 skill perk worse than a 25 skill perk Combat Tips from Leadership)

Cavalry vs Pikeman (Cavalry: Increases your damage with Polearms while mounted by 2% VS Increases your damage with Polearms probably always, also the same as a Captain perk for either Cavalry or Infantry, putting aside the fact that this is a minimal bonus and a really boring choice, if Pikeman increases your damage even while mounted, then what's the point)


Charm:

Adventure Stories vs Show Your Scars (+1 renown when you complete a quest vs +20% renown from battles, you know, even if you actually solve quests, I'm pretty sure Show Your Scars will get you much renown then the +1 from Adventure Stories)

Champion vs Respectful Opposition (Champion: +10 Influence from winning tournaments vs Respectful Opposition: 30% to negate relationship decrease from Kingdom decisions, once you are a king, the second will become much more important than 10 influence from at that point worthless tournaments)



One Handed:

Deadly Purpose vs Unwavering Defense (Deadly Purpose: +5% one handed melee damage for you only, +10% melee damage for infantry in the formation you are leading as a Captain perk, Unwavering defense: +5 HP fo you, +10 HP for infantry troops in your party as a Party Leader perk, seriously, why aren't both Party Leader perks)

*Censored* in the Armor vs Prestige (*Censored* in the Armor: Ignore 10% armor with your one handed melee attacks, Infantry are 20% cheaper to recruit, Prestige: +15 Party Size limit, your one handed melee attacks do +50% damage against shields, why would you ever choose the first one) EDIT: Apparently the first perk's name is censored for some reason.


Bow:

Merry Men vs Mounted Archery (Merry Men: +5 Party Size, Mounted Archery: -30% Mounted Archery penalty while using a bow, this choice shouldn't exist, one buffs your army while the other buffs only you, also it only buffs you in a certain playstyle, this should be a choice between two perks that buff you only)

Deep Quivers vs Horse Master (Deep Quivers: +3 Arrows per quiver to you, +1 Arrow per quiver to your troops as a Party Leader perk, Horse Master: Able to use all bows on horseback, +30 Bow skill to Mounted Archers only as a Captain perk, why not lower the bonus skill and change it to Party Leader perk too?)


Riding:

Sagittarius vs Sweeping Wind (Sagittarius: 15% less accuracy penalty while mounted, 15% less accuracy penalty to mounted troops as a Captain bonus, Sweeping Wind: +5% top mount speed for you, +2% Party Speed at world Map, much like Merry Men vs Mounted Archery, but not as bad, one choice buffs you if you use Horse Archery, the other buffs your campaign speed, which is actually a decent buff. If the Captain bonus was changed to Party Leader bonus, it would actually be a good choice.


Smithing:

Sharpened Edge vs Sharpened Tip (Both 250 Smithing perks, both increase either Slash or Thrust damage of crafted weapons by 2%, who really cares?)


Scouting:

Mounted Scouts vs Patrols (Mounted Scouts: 10% sight range bonus if 50% or more cavalry, +5 Party Size bonus, Patrols: Some inconsequential bonuses when fighting Bandits, seriously, despite the Rock memes, bandits stop being a threat to you early on and this won't save you from looter rock memes anyway)


Tactics:

Horde Leader vs Small Unit Tactics (Horde Leader: +10 Party Size, Army loses cohesion 5% slower, Small Unit Tactics: +1 unit to bandit hideout battles, +5% movement speed bonus to units under your command if there's less than 15 of them as a Captain bonus. Do I really need to explain? Also, if you can't finish a bandit hideout with 9 troops, 1 more won't save you. Seriously, why does Small Unit Tactics even exist?)

Coaching vs Law Keepers: (+3% damage in simulations and as a captain bonus against every troop VS a bigger bonus, but only limited to Bandit troops, so, the choice is clear.)


Leadership:

Talent Magnet vs We Pledge Our Swords (I don't think there's even a comparison between +1 Clan Party of Talent Magnet vs +1 Companion of We Pledge Our Swords, family members are better anyway)


Athletics:

Morning Excercise vs Well Built (Morning Excercise: +3% movement speed to you, +5% movement speed to troops in your formation as a Captain bonus, Well Built: You and your troops gain +5 HP as a Party Leader bonus, yeah, change the first one to party leader bonus too and it's ok)

Having Going vs Stamina (Having Going: Increases persuasion chance and gives you +5 Party Size, Stamina: Crafting Stamina recovery rate +50%, +5 Prisoner Limit and prisoner escape chance reduced by 10%, yeah, unless you are a hardcore smith I don't see why you would choose the second one)


Strongest Perks

Here are the perks that particularly stand out.

Anything that gives you increased Party Size (Authority, Mounted Scouts, Merry Men, Hope, Prestige etc.)

Party Speed perks (Day Traveler etc.)

Perks that give you a chance to knock an opponent down if you deal more than 25% of their HP in damage to them in one attack (Show of Strength, Hard Knock etc.)


Medicine (Really great perks all around):

Walk it Off (+15% recovery rate when mobile, character heals 10 HP after each offensive battle)

Sledges (Half speed penalty for Wounded, +15 HP for all mounts in your army)

Siege Medic (50% chance siege bombardment will only wound your units, +30% chance of recovering leathally wounded units in offensive siege battles)

Health Advice OR Perfect Health (Health Advice: Clan members live longer, Perfect Health: Increase recovery rate by 5% per food variety point, up to 45%)

Physician of People (+1 Loyalty per day, great Governor Perk if your governor can get it, also 30% more chance to save low tier units)

Cheat Death (Your character lives longer and heroes have a 50% lower chance to die in battles)

Helping Hands (+2% Recovery Rate per 10 troops in your party)

Minister of Health (+1 HP to all of your troops per each 2 points of Medicine above 200, with a skill cap of 330, that's up to +65 HP to everyone, a really great bonus)


Charm:

Respectful Opposition (30% to negate relationship decrease from Kingdom decisions)

Parade (When you visit a town under your control, they gain +5 loyalty bonus for a day, can prevent a rebelion)

Immortal Charm (+1 influence gain for each 5 points of charm after 250, so up to +13 with 330 Charm)


Trade:

Everything Has a Price (You can buy fiefs and pretty much buy the whole map without conquest, but you need to somehow get to 250 Trade, which is pretty much impossible unless you dedicate your whole playthrough to that. Also, this really shouldn't be locked behind a perk, atleast some kind of Fief trading should exist as a baseline ability)


Leadership:

Veteran's Respect (Can convert bandit units to regular units, including noble line, pretty much a must have)

Uplifting Spirit (+10 Party Size and +10 Morale during sieges)

Talent Magnet (+1 Clan Party, +3 Focus points to 3 random Clan members. Mostly for the extra clan party, which is an awesome bonus. The Clan Members that get those 3 bonus Focus Points should really be able to be chosen.)

Ultimate Leader (+1 Party size for each Leadership skill point after 250, up to +80 at 330)


Two Handed:

Hope (+5 Party Size Limit, enemies you defeat have +30% higher effect on friendly morale)

Thick Hides (You and all of your troops gain +5 HP)


Polearm:

Phalanx (+30 Melee Weapon skill to units in Shield Wall formation as a Party Leader bonus, meaning that it's actually useful)

Generous Rations (+5 HP to all of your troops and infantry are 20% cheaper to recruit)


Crossbow:

Fletcher (+4 stack size for quivers for you, +2 bolts per quiver for crossbow troops as a Party Leader perk)

Picked Shots (+5 HP to ranged troops as a party leader perk, -50% upkeep of high tier Ranged troops)


One Handed:

Prestige (Deserves a special mention, since it increases Party Size by 15, no contest)


Riding:

Well Strapped (+20% HP to your mount, +10% HP to the mounts of your troops)

Sweeping Wind (+5% top Mount speed for you, +2% Party Speed at World Map)

Cavalry Tactics (+30% volunteering rate for mounted troops in your clans towns as a Clan Leader perk)


Scouting:

Uncanny Insight (+0.1% map movement speed per Scouting skill point past 200, +13% at 330 skill)


Tactics:

On the March (20% less fortification bonus for enemies in simulated sieges, if you rely on Tactics, this will decrease casualties dramatically)

Pre Battle Maneuvers (+25% Influence gain from Field Battles, gain a proportional bonus in simulations if your Tactics skill is greater than the enemy's)

Tactical Mastery (+1% damage in Simulated battles per Tactics skill point above 200, so +130% at 330 skill, +75% when you first get this perk. At this point, there's really no need to actually play the battles)


Steward:

Sweatshops (20% increased production for Workshops you own and also +20% faster Siege construction, you can thus siege towns and castles faster, and yes, it also counts when building a siege camp)

Paid in Promise (Can donate armor to troops for XP, much better than those daily XP perks)

Giving Hands (Like Paid in Promise, but for weapons)

Gourmet (Double morale bonus from food variety)

Forced Labor (Prisoners provide Carry Capacity)


Athletics:

Well Built (You and your foot troops gain +5 HP)

Having Going (Increases persuasion chance and gives you +5 Party Size, not sure why this is in Athletics of all places, but ok)

Walk it Off (Athletics version) (Like the Medicine one, +10% recovery rate while traveling and +3 XP to foot troops per day while traveling)

[Hurkaleez]

Great post!

[Temuling]

+++1000

[Katsu]

Most perks feel very useless, I hope a modder will make better perks because the devs clearly don't know how to do it.

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by Hurkaleez:

Great post!

Originally posted by Reddiant:

+++1000

Thanks, hope it was useful! Anything you think should be added to the list?

[Edmund Greyfox]

What, you mean that the perk system that they've played around with for over a year now might have shortcomings? Surely not! :)

I agree with most of your post, and the couple places i disagree are more a matter of personal preference. What gets me is that they've spent so much time working on this and came up with a system where half your perks are useless to either you or your companions the majority of the time.

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by Edmund Greyfox:

What, you mean that the perk system that they've played around with for over a year now might have shortcomings? Surely not! :)

I agree with most of your post, and the couple places i disagree are more a matter of personal preference. What gets me is that they've spent so much time working on this and came up with a system where half your perks are useless to either you or your companions the majority of the time.

Yeah, the perk system has a lot of problems, but I think it could be salvageable with some changes. It's still in EA, so who knows.

Just out of curiosity, which perks do you disagree on?

[Hoady]

Getting the Renown needed to get to the next Clan Tier is a pain in the neck. here are the best perks to help build renown:
A very strong Trade Perk is "Artisan Community" achieved at level 125. It gives +1 renown per day per profitable workshop. If you have 6 workshops, this stacks up very quickly to get you to your next clan level with little effort.
The "Duelist" One-handed perk gives you double renown from Tournaments.

[Elriadon]

Best way to gain renown is through battles imo, you can eventually get up to 60 renown per battle.

[Hurkaleez]

Originally posted by Darel:

Thanks, hope it was useful! Anything you think should be added to the list?

3 suggestions:

• Make this a guide (please add date so people know when it was made/updated)
  
  
• Perks which party members should/can get so your burden is not as much
  
  
• Any way to collapse the list and expand it with Steam formatting?

[Temuling]

Originally posted by Darel:

Originally posted by Hurkaleez:

Great post!

Originally posted by Reddiant:

+++1000

Thanks, hope it was useful! Anything you think should be added to the list?

If anyone who needs list of perks to make suggestion based on 1.6.0

Link is below:
https://www.bannerlordperks.com/perk

I will make my suggestions later today. Thx!

[Clovis Sangrail]

Originally posted by Hurkaleez:

3 suggestions:

• Make this a guide (please add date so people know when it was made/updated)
  
  
• Perks which party members should/can get so your burden is not as much
  
  
• Any way to collapse the list and expand it with Steam formatting?

One more thing, especially if you make this a guide -- Double check your numbers. For example, Everything Has Its Price in Trade requires Trade 300, not 250.

[Elriadon]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Originally posted by Hurkaleez:

3 suggestions:

• Make this a guide (please add date so people know when it was made/updated)
  
  
• Perks which party members should/can get so your burden is not as much
  
  
• Any way to collapse the list and expand it with Steam formatting?

One more thing, especially if you make this a guide -- Double check your numbers. For example, Everything Has Its Price in Trade requires Trade 300, not 250.

You are right, I confused the skill requirement with Spring of Gold. All that means though is that it's even more unattainable.

[Tempered]

The perk system just sucks all around. They should have made separate perk lines for player, npc lords and wanderers. They could have also broken it down into separate paths such as leader perks, combat perks, diplomacy perks, etc.

[Edmund Greyfox]

Originally posted by Darel:

Originally posted by Edmund Greyfox:

What, you mean that the perk system that they've played around with for over a year now might have shortcomings? Surely not! :)

I agree with most of your post, and the couple places i disagree are more a matter of personal preference. What gets me is that they've spent so much time working on this and came up with a system where half your perks are useless to either you or your companions the majority of the time.

Yeah, the perk system has a lot of problems, but I think it could be salvageable with some changes. It's still in EA, so who knows.

Just out of curiosity, which perks do you disagree on?

I personally prefer stamina to having going, both because i smith and because i like the lowered chance for prisoners to escape. In the later part of the game I've gotten all the charm and relations bonus i'm going to get from playing catch and release, so at some point I start holding onto lords instead of letting them go. My usual late game practice is to sweep through, capture everyone i can, and only then start the siege. Having it take them longer to escape makes the whole end game grind go a bit quicker.

[Temuling]

Smithing shouldn't be a perk instead a game feature which introduces a NPC called 'Blacksmith' and relation gains with a Blacksmith in a khuzait city should enable Khuzait weapon parts for example. This makes more sense to me.

Now replace smithy in Endurance perk tree with something relevant like to enhance player, companions or AI lord's combat ability such as 'Shield' perk since the game doesn't have one already.

Weapon dmg types such as Blunt, slash and pierce needs to be properly implemented. Right now Idk how the dmg types work do correct me on this.

Thanks!