What was your skill build?

[Respec]

I have saved up about 12 ability points just cuz I'm not sure what would be the most helpful.

It was tempting to max combat first, but all the enemies are pretty easy. I'm not sure how helpful the mid tree will be since you can mostly find everything anyway just by poking around.

So at this point I'm thinking water breathing into triple jump? But is there really any need for it? Lol, it seems like the game gives you all the tools you need. And the abilities are just an added convenience factor.

[Evad]

That username and this question :)

You're right btw, it's there to make the game easier and more convenient. There's even an achievement for finishing the game without using any ability point, so yeah.

[Respec]

Haha yes I really hate locking in those ability points for good!

Is there any part in the game you can't get to without something like say triple jump or water breathing?

[Resident Asswhole]

From the short time I have played the game, I get the feeling you are able to unlock all the skills once you obtain the prerequesit abilities.

[Garudin]

You can get all the abilities in a single game fairly easily specially when you get close to the end and you're just going around collecting stuff you missed.

[Wezilla]

Huh do it full...

[Flo]

The green (defensive) tree is OP. Triple jump is game breaking.
Utility tree is needed if you want to 100% the game, and quick, before you get to the tree and can't return.
Combat tree is okay I guess, only the first few nodes are really necessary

[ByronFury]

I found a decent guide for all this stuff as to what skills you should prioritize etc.

http://geekgameguides.com/ori-and-the-blind-forest-abilities-a-complete-overview-and-guide-to-the-ability-tree

[Nuisance Bear]

Tbh, once I got the Bash skill, I very rarely even bothered with killing them with the spirit flame. Just throw them off to the side with Bash and run past, lol. My first playthrough I maxed the utility and defense trees before I touched combat, there are only a few times in the game where you absolutely NEED to pewpew things with the flame.

[mixttime]

As noted, the devs made sure it was possible to beat the game without any points, so there isn't really a bad build. I'm not sure if any side puzzles care though. Here's my quick thoughts on each ability tree (from right to left).

Combat - Didn't seem to help much for me, and it will be the last tree you can max because of gating with story skills. But if you want the combat done sooner so you can get back to platforming, you may like it more.

Utility - Map abilities are a completionists delight, but not much here in the way of changes to mechanics. Just pickup range and effiency.

Efficiency - Healing, swimming, tripple jump, defense boost; this tree certainly eases up the difficulty wherever you may find it (If by nothing else than more frequent checkpoints).

I have noticed a few cases where tripple jump in particular can give you alternate (*cough*breaking*cough*) solutions to puzzles, so late nodes in efficency you might want to just leave if you want to avoid feeling like you are cheesing the game.

[Contractk4]

It honestly doesn't really matter that much. I'd grab ultra spirit magnet fairly early on, but you won't find yourself incapable of doing anything by not grabbing certain skills. The right tree gives you the greatest chances of survival by allowing hp regen when using save points, giving you an extra jump, and cutting all damage taken by 50%. The middle tree is about discovering power ups and secrets, which could be useful for first timers. The left tree honestly is the least required; it just makes combat faster. Once you get used to the other skills in the game, you can basically stop spamming the normal attack while dodging and replace it with smart use of bash and a lot of stomp spamming. This is faster than using normal attacks and doesn't really require any skill points to do.

In the end, if you look around for all the collectable skill orbs, you'll have every skill by the end of the game. All that matters is what tree you want to max first.