Skills 2.0 - Good or Bad?

[TrueEvil]

I'm seeing a lot of mixed feelings here on the Discussions. I'd like to see where the majority lies.

https://www.strawpoll.me/18657350

I do not like this update. Here's why:

-I disagree with requiring challenges in order to unlock the new skills.
-Many of the skills are essentially rehashed versions of the original ones.
-Many of the skills are not good.
-I feel that some of the challenges are too hard.
-Health regeneration felt abysmal to me already- and now it is only 40% of what it was before. This is exacerbated by the fact that items such as monster tooth and medkit still scale miserably.
-This update did not address many of the issues with certain items. For example, items such as Happiest Mask and Frost Relic are arguably less useful than many Common items, despite the fact that they are Rare.
-I do not think that Artificer should receive nearly no benefit from increased attack speed. I hoped that this update would increase the effectiveness of her Special ability, like they did with Commando (thanks to Hopoo for changing Commando's Special though, I did want to see that too)
-The unlockable colors of several survivors are eyesores.

However, I do really like the new environment and the new items. I think they're great.

[Bejo]

The majority is just upset because they need to do hard challenges to unlock it, so I believe a lot of people haven't tried the new skills except those that perserve or cheating it in

I'm still trying to unlock rex though, so I too can't comment on the new skills

[[C62] zook]

In the end i can say, its a content update. at least i dont cry about more stuff , if i dont like the new skills i dont use them, thats it.

i can understand that the most player are upset because they read about new skills, want to test it and find out that the skills are behind a big wall of challanges, but thats still no reason to be a cry baby.
so in that regard, im happy with this, would love to see more skills to choose from

[TrueEvil]

Originally posted by Bejo:

The majority is just upset because they need to do hard challenges to unlock it, so I believe a lot of people haven't tried the new skills except those that perserve or cheating it in

I'm still trying to unlock rex though, so I too can't comment on the new skills

Originally posted by C62 zook:

In the end i can say, its a content update. at least i dont cry about more stuff , if i dont like the new skills i dont use them, thats it.

i can understand that the most player are upset because they read about new skills, want to test it and find out that the skills are behind a big wall of challanges, but thats still no reason to be a cry baby.
so in that regard, im happy with this, would love to see more skills to choose from

I think that the challenges would be less of a problem to everyone if they were good. But it seems like a lot of the new skills are quite bad, even though some people spent hours to get them.

[Slidius]

playing merc on this patch is suffering even u when u an alright build going u just die like that it's depressing

[[Meow] Meow]

Originally posted by HollowBoy:

playing merc on this patch is suffering even u when u an alright build going u just die like that it's depressing

I dunno man, I've been playing him all day with no problems, honestly considering upping difficulty because drizzle was too easy.
MY issue, however, is that the "no damage" challenge for merc seems bugged, I've completed the challenge twice and it hasn't given it to me, and other people are having a similar problem with the huntress.

My opinion on whether this patch is good or bad, though: on a scale of 1 to 5, one being bad and 5 being great, I give it a 3.5 star rating. The new additions such as being able to pick the next stage in lunar shops and the new level are neat, the Loader, though they feel relatively weak outside of their shift skill, are super fun to just go Bionic Commando and grapple arm everywhere. Character-specific challenges are also welcomed, but the challenges seem to be a bit of a mixed bag of "this is so doable I frequently do this without trying in runs" to "why the heck would you make us do a no-damage run in a chaotic game like this". So basically, the challenges are all over the place. I'm told they unlock skills and skins, but the only one I've actually been trying for seems bugged. I might just move on and get everything else and hopefully it's patched or someone can find out if the description is just stupidly poor/vague as things seem to often be in this game as I do not want to cheat to get anything in this game, but if it's the only way it'll work like the first game then so be it. The devs have been doing a more solid job this time around anyways, so I'm hoping a hot fix comes soon.

[Vaaluin]

I love this update. The challenges are intense but I'm having a great time with them. I love that there are rewards that you get for completing challenging things. It's annoying that they release content for folks of a certain type and then immediately the more casual audience throws a fit for having to apply themselves. Most of the challenges are easy, the rest are a bit more time consuming. None are impossible or anywhere close to it.

[Shandamon]

Few of the challenges are okay, some of them are really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. For example, the Mercenary: Ethereal one. I managed to get it just now after hours of grinding but man, that was such a terribly designed challenge. I don't know if it was worth it or not to get the new skill after.

But other than that, I'm enjoying the update a lot.

[[Meow] Meow]

Originally posted by Shandamon:

Few of the challenges are okay, some of them are really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. For example, the Mercenary: Ethereal one. I managed to get it just now after hours of grinding but man, that was such a terribly designed challenge. I don't know if it was worth it or not to get the new skill after.

But other than that, I'm enjoying the update a lot.

please divulge me your secrets, oh master of the ethereal, for I have been trying and failing with no explaination why

[Shandamon]

Originally posted by Meow Meow:

Originally posted by Shandamon:

Few of the challenges are okay, some of them are really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. For example, the Mercenary: Ethereal one. I managed to get it just now after hours of grinding but man, that was such a terribly designed challenge. I don't know if it was worth it or not to get the new skill after.

But other than that, I'm enjoying the update a lot.

please divulge me your secrets, oh master of the ethereal, for I have been trying and failing with no explaination why

Well I basically just followed a specific route which I found from another thread but i can explain how i did it slightly differently.

Picked up goat hoof at spawn, then to bridge for topaz brooch. Next, ran into unlocked cave and buy the 2nd topaz brooch from store and destroy crystal. Destroyed more crystals outside of cave . Got gunner drone near cliffside. Got chest near teleporter that contains berserker pauldron. started boss and focused on gaining shield from brooch while also fighting boss.

In the next map, there is a topaz printer in the cave entrance closer to the cliff side. go there and on the way open chests for printer food. print the brooches. go for preon in timed chest and also get fuel cell in chest up the spiral pillar behind. stall for 2nd charge of preon and also build up the shield. spawn boss, shoot preons, boss almost dead. your topaz brooches should be able to tank the rest of his damage. if not then go for other easy kills while fighting. and well, yeah that's how i did it, took me alot of tries though.

[[Meow] Meow]

Originally posted by Shandamon:

Originally posted by Meow Meow:

please divulge me your secrets, oh master of the ethereal, for I have been trying and failing with no explaination why

Well I basically just followed a specific route which I found from another thread but i can explain how i did it slightly differently.

Picked up goat hoof at spawn, then to bridge for topaz brooch. Next, ran into unlocked cave and buy the 2nd topaz brooch from store and destroy crystal. Destroyed more crystals outside of cave . Got gunner drone near cliffside. Got chest near teleporter that contains berserker pauldron. started boss and focused on gaining shield from brooch while also fighting boss.

In the next map, there is a topaz printer in the cave entrance closer to the cliff side. go there and on the way open chests for printer food. print the brooches. go for preon in timed chest and also get fuel cell in chest up the spiral pillar behind. stall for 2nd charge of preon and also build up the shield. spawn boss, shoot preons, boss almost dead. your topaz brooches should be able to tank the rest of his damage. if not then go for other easy kills while fighting.

I see I see, I am trying this strat now. The way I was doing it before was ...well, pretty much the first stage was spot on, but I nabbed teh blue orb as well to go to the shop, then got transendence from the store and went along my merry way. I guess that doesn't count.

[Cynnabon]

This patch regarding the commando ability just to unlock is to do "20 ROUNDS in a SINGLE run" which really made me upset and how upsetting it was to waste 2 - 3 hours just to get a grenade that does nothing.

[-Golden Armor-]

im pretty happy with it, i though the game was waaaay to easy and too forgiving in comparison to the original Risk of Rain.

[TrustfulPlayer]

The new content is great, regarding maps and items. The skills 2.0 however.... needs work in all honesty. The challenges are manageable, but it is NOT easy for new players to achieve. To make things even worse, some of the skills are just NOT WORTH IT.

-(Commando)20 stages in a single run for a grenade that only does 175 dmg, and the 4x extra damage won't even work bc the grenade just bounces off the enemies.
-(Engineer)Easy challenges, but the skills just seem useless. A slow walking turret that does little damage and removes the best factor in engineers—BUSTLING FUNGUS. They don't have late game at that point bc turrets will just die too quickly, especially if they can't even heal themselves with fungus.
-(MUL-T)New options are fun on Drizzle/Rainstorm, but the Saw forces you to go into melee range—death for monsoon. Scrap launcher just doesn't have enough proc coefficient to even be matched with the nail gun.
-(Artificer)Ion Surge was a huge disappointment, but hey if you like flying then that's cool too. The flamethrower is better in every way other than a small boost in mobility. Her new primary is weaker than her first. Trades in all the ignite damage for a small splash radius. Just running her old primary and getting items such as wisp or ukulele will basically add up to her new primary.
-(Mercenary)These skills have good trade offs. You can sacrifice invincibility frames for range or you can go for an uppercut that gives a bit more damage and vertical mobility. I expected new skills to be like this. To have downsides to switching, but an actual good reason to switch.

Compared to the huntress and the loader for example, every other skills just do something worst than its original while the huntress and the loader get IMPROVED versions of their current abilities. Even rex got an improved version of his old ability. There doesn't seem to be logical trade offs. It seems like the huntress, loader, and rex got huge buffs with little downsides.

No hate on new content or the difficulty of the game itself. The devs had a great idea with the skills 2.0 and it does give new options to play the same game over and over. Yet, when looking at long runs on monsoon difficulties, most of the old skills will work better than the new ones. Maybe we just need to play more drizzle now, or maybe I'm just bad ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Great work staying on track with the updates and providing us with new content. Looking forward to seeing new skills and content!

[Omega]

So far I feel that half of the skills are alright; either a decent trade off or a fun alternate, but the other half is meh. Artificer's alternate primary is a joke, the fireball is better in every way and having just some extra AoE is not enough to justify using the alternate. Loader's alternate is disappointing cause it really is just a better version of the default skill and the alternate skills should not be that at all. But the game is still in early access so I'm not doom and gloom about it, I'm sure they will make adjustments.

The biggest problem at the moment is the unlocks. I think they should be unlocks, but some of the requirements are a bit much. They range from pretty straight forward to either time consuming or just plain difficult (or both.) Doing a Prismatic as Mercenary without taking health damage just sounds awful.

[Nasty Peep]

I like the changes. The skills are not meant to be better, far as I can tell, just different. Something to keep things from being too stale, and mix up the possible strategies and synergies you can put together. Obviously not everyone will love each skill, just as not everyone loves all the vanilla skills. Not every skill is going to be perfect for you.

The challenges required to unlock skills feels true to the Risk of Rain series, reminds me of the first game, in a great way.

Remember, if the challenges are too hard for you, you can always play on