These professions SUCK

[pooplicker]

WARNING: OPINIONS

These professions aren't very useful
I will try to explain why

Just for reference, I choose:

Tiller, Artisan
Geologist, Excavator
Gatherer, Botanist
Fisher, Pirate
Scout, Desperado

So keep in mind I haven't actually experienced any of these, and I'm just looking at them from an outsiders perspective


Shepard and Coopmaster

Please tell me why the professions that make you befriend animals quicker are at level 10 and not level 5? Befriending animals quicker at level 5 would actually be super helpful, but at level 10 your animals will all be at 4ish hearts anyway. Sheep producing wool faster isn't much of a bonus, it simply makes them viable, and double incubator speed doesn't matter that much, incubators don't take too long anyway

Compare both of these to Artisan, which makes animals twice as profitable as choosing either of these


Agriculturist

10%??? A little more than 10%, jeez. Especially compared to the consistency and diversity of Artisan, it's laughable


Proespector

The rush for coal significantly slows down when you reach mining level 10 (at least for me it did) Would do great as a level 5 perk, however


Blacksmith

Not sure why you'd ever want to turn selling bars into a source of money, considering an iridium bar only sells for 1,000 anyway

If i went and mined 50 iridium and turned it into bars and then sold it with blacksmith, I'd make only make 15k, which sounds pretty bad


Gemologist

I know it can be used for crystalariums, but I just can't see how anyone would choose this over excavator

Although I do think this could become a good profession if it was, say, 50% instead


Forester

Why would you want to ever sell wood? It's one of the most useful resources, you always need it. Besides, it sells for nothing in the first place, and this profession doesn't help


Tapper

Artisan goods:
One of the most common source of money making
"Let's add a profession that boosts it by 40%"

Tapping goods:
The most obscure source of money making
"Let's add a profession that boosts it by 25%"


Luremaster

You save 5 gold for every crab pot you have
Riveting

A lot of people that I've seen have chosen this one too, I know people like the trash for refined quartz and that, but especially if the added pain of having to avoid picking up crab pots, I don't know why you'd still go with luremaster


Defender

You'll have 155HP before you choose this, and will go up to 170HP afterwards
That's less than 10%

Compare this to Brute and it's 10x worse


If you choose these professions, tell me why you choose them and why I may be wrong
...or yell at me
either one

P.S
If you try to tell me scout desperado is useless, i will devote my time you tracking you down. thank you

[Pixel Peeper]

Scout/Desperado isn't useless, it's just a bit inconsistent.

But yes... either the bonuses are placeholders or the dev has no sense of balance.

[TheWashableBomb]

Obviously OP has min/maxed the game and should not be questioned.

[I Kinda Fail]

Shepherd:
1. Cows and goats are more likely to give "large" milk when their hearts are high. Ergo, raising hearts faster = less petting and faster profits.
2. With high hearts and Shepherd, sheep go from producing wool every 3 days, to daily. Triple the value.
3. Not positive, but I think pigs are more likely to dig up more truffles at high hearts, but it's still random.

Coopmaster:
1. Like Shepherd, chickens are more likely to lay big eggs, meaning more money, if you befriend them. Less petting involved too.
2. Half incubation time on ducks is nice for someone with a lot of ducks. Ducks cost 4k at Marnie's, so you'd save a bit of money if you incubate them, and this perk shaves 3(?) days off the incubation.
3. Not sure if rabbits produce wool faster with friendship. The rabbits are weird.

Prospector:
1. Coal is EXTREMELY necessary when making tons of beehives or preserve jars.
2. Coal is also needed for lots of smelting; better to have too much than not enough.

Blacksmith:
1. If you forage for mushrooms a lot, you'll easily get 500+ gold ore. Gold bars sell for 500 each. So 1 ore = 100g.
2. After a certain point, you run out of uses for bars. Some people just like exploring the mines. More money for them.

Gemologist:
1. Not everyone cares about mining. Gemologist increases profits from fishing caskets as well.
2. Niche runs where you focus on the mines, this is the best for making money.



The rest I either agree with you or don't have an opinion on

[I Kinda Fail]

My opinions for balancing and fixing the skills:


Farming:
Rancher: Increase animal product sell price to 25-30%.
Coopmaster: Chickens always lay large eggs. Rabbits produce wool more frequently. Keep existing perks.
Shepherd: Triple chance of barn animal pregnancy. Cows always give large milk. Goats give milk daily. Keep existing perks.
Agriculturalist: Get rid of the 10% speed increase. Increase chance of getting giant crops by 25%. Fully grown crops, such as blueberries or ancient fruit, will produce 10-20% faster after fully grown.

Foraging:
Forester: Get rid of 50% price increase, and change it to the player receiving 50% more wood from trees.
Lumberjack: Guarantee trees give at least 1 hardwood each. Add perk that charcoal kilns have a 10% chance to give double coal.
Tapper: Syrup worth 25% more and produced 33% faster.
Tracker: Keep the current arrow system, and add that foraged goods will always be silver quality or better.

Fishing:
Angler: Change the wording so that it's clear that the value is 50% of base price, not 25%+50%.
Luremaster: Keep current perk. Add chance of 2 fish in a trap. (5% chance.)
Mariner: Continue getting rid of junk; 5% chance that a junk trap will instead give a gem for extra money.
Pirate: Increase chance of finding artifacts you still need by 5%, on top of the current perk.

Mining:
Honestly, they're all perfect. Maybe have Excavator also help find artifacts?

Combat:
Defender: Reflect damage off a sword tripled. Enemies sent flying slightly further by a maul/club's special attack. +40 health
That's the only perk I'd change, but daggers in general need Crit Chance, not Crit Power. Crits should already hit very hard, but the chance of crits is kinda bad, even with Scout.

[carl8000]

^Are you positive that Forester doesn't already give you +50% wood? I took it on my first playthrough and I started getting 27 wood per tree instead of 18, seemed to check out.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by carl8000:

^Are you positive that Forester doesn't already give you +50% wood? I took it on my first playthrough and I started getting 27 wood per tree instead of 18, seemed to check out.

I honestly never even thought to test the amount of wood; it seems unlikely that the dev, bad as he may be at accurate descriptions, would straight-up forget to mention something as major as a +50% bonus to Wood dropped by trees as part of the skill. It would actually be a much better bonus than the +50% to value, so it would have been an extremely silly mistake to make.

Are you sure you just didn't eat a Luck item that day or something?

[carl8000]

When I picked it I decided that the description was vague enough that it might mean receiving +50% wood, and I did pay attention to it because I wasn't sure (and obviously it's easy to test it). I was always short on wood and made a point of counting how much I got from trees, seemed 100% consistent that it was 18 wood per tree pre-perk, 27 wood per tree post-perk.

That was on my first playthrough, which was right at launch (early 2016, maybe I'm flaking on the details?), so there were no guides and I didn't have any game experience telling me to take the foraging based perks, which are still better even with the +50% wood (on all subseqent rounds I went with foraging).