Blood magic grind

[Yes, I have a Mic.]

I tried other methods but I settled on a greydwarf farm with a sort of firing range and two skeleton archers and went AFK for 24 hours.
Its been 24 hours of constant shooting, the skill has gone from 62 to 77.
I'm not complaining because I know how powerful this skill is at 100 but jesus. Thats insane. Its probably going to take at least two more days.
I don't think there is actually any way someone could max it just through gameplay, it would take literally forever.
I'm terrified of getting killed after this.

EDIT:
I reached 100 and after field testing it I understand the grind now.
I went toe to toe with some of the worst in the Mistlands wearing fenris armour, two etir foods and one stamina food. I probably could have gotten away with one etir food, the etir cost was that low. I used a mediocre weapon; the fenris claws. For gjall I used my draugr bow.
I never felt threatened. On the rare occasions my shield went down in combat I jumped away, replenished it mid-air and finished the job.
The skeletons couldn't really keep up and when they could they were useful as buffers/distractions. They did fair damage but not enough to justify the grind, they won't be taking seeker soldiers by themselves.

The real joy of the staff of protection isn't just its an extra 700 hp, its an extra 700 hp whenever you recast it. For you and everyone around you. You can set an enemy back to square one after it takes down your shield with a click of a button. By which point your health has already regenerated.

TL;DR version.
Blood magic 100 skeletons are useful bodyguards, not attackers. Not worth the grind.
Blood magic 100 staff of protection definitely is. I ran through Mistlands with minimal health and never came close to dying. Speed was on my side and safety was always a click away.
If you use this in a group, that group will live.

[OctoberSky]

Nice. I assume you did this without the rest-bump? If so your army accumulated something like 14577 hits to get level 77. Level 100 is an insane 27698.

[Yes, I have a Mic.]

Originally posted by OctoberSky:

Nice. I assume you did this without the rest-bump? If so your army accumulated something like 14577 hits to get level 77. Level 100 is an insane 27698.

Thanks. Nope. Right next to a campfire. Yeah. lol Its a pretty crazy jump.
I used the stone it got me to build a massive parameter that I'll keep expanding with a goal to building a black marble highrise ontop of it in the distant future. The spawner will be level B-1; Training Area.
Its a ridiculously unobtainable goal but I have to focus on something leading to the next update.

[Damnion]

Drauger spawn faster than dwarves. Might be faster to set up the same type of farm only using a spawner from a meadows village. Hmm, though 2 starred archers would probably wipe out your skeletons.

[Yes, I have a Mic.]

Its up to 96. They haven't stopped shooting... for about 70 hours.
Guys, hot take here but I think a new way to level blood magic needs to be added.

[Eightball]

The question is how does the 96 skill level equate to actual effectiveness.

I have seen posts that state a skill level in the mid 30s is very noticeable as to effectiveness so have you 'field tested' you 96 skill?

[Ataxio]

Skill gains across the board need a look at. It becomes so grindy its just not fun. Half the problem is a distinct lack of things to fight consistantly to raise the skills. Cheeseing a spawner is the "quickest" way but is entirely unfun.

But I agree, anything to increase gains esp with blood magic would help. I'm done at 64, it took nearly an hour to raise it 1 point.

[Faceplant]

At 64 you're already 75% to max. Is the extra 25% really going to make that much difference?

[Lil brekky]

RPG numbers that increase in response to player activities are a direct incentive to engagement, especially in a game with a largely empty/copypasta world. with nothing better to do, players are going to want to interact with those RPG numbers simply because they are there.

if the last 25% skill isn't "really going to make that much difference" then might as well turn the current 75 into 100. otherwise devs should take responsibility for a half-baked system and make it more meaningful, rewarding, integrated, etc, or just scrap the skill system altogether.

[Ataxio]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

At 64 you're already 75% to max. Is the extra 25% really going to make that much difference?

Yes, currently I get 520hp. The max is 700. That's worth it, but it's not worth the grind to me.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Lil brekky:

RPG numbers that increase in response to player activities are a direct incentive to engagement, especially in a game with a largely empty/copypasta world. with nothing better to do, players are going to want to interact with those RPG numbers simply because they are there.

if the last 25% skill isn't "really going to make that much difference" then might as well turn the current 75 into 100. otherwise devs should take responsibility for a half-baked system and make it more meaningful, rewarding, integrated, etc, or just scrap the skill system altogether.

That seems like a rather knee-jerky reaction.

Also, a 25% difference in any system is going to be 25%. Unless we change statistics, there's nothing the devs can do to make it more meaningful or rewarding.

[baerra]

Hot take: If you're going to make AFK farms and spend all that time leveling something to get stronger, you should just use console commands at set it at a reasonable skill level.

[Ataxio]

Originally posted by baerra:

Hot take: If you're going to make AFK farms and spend all that time leveling something to get stronger, you should just use console commands at set it at a reasonable skill level.

Kinda where I'm at.. but I really don't wana just cheat. At least grinding a spawner is gameplay, albeit stale gameplay.

[Yes, I have a Mic.]

Originally posted by Eightball:

The question is how does the 96 skill level equate to actual effectiveness.

I have seen posts that state a skill level in the mid 30s is very noticeable as to effectiveness so have you 'field tested' you 96 skill?

Not yet but I should be at 100 tomorrow. I'll field test it then. I have field tested it at 60.

My impressions from the numbers I'm seeing at the farm is that the skeletons now do damage between the 73 - 83 range. This is against greylings and greydwarfs, the weakest enemy in the game.
The main draw is definitely the staff of protection. At 100 you see a increase in effectiveness of 250% compared to 0 and it even costs less etir than summoning.

The skeletons start out as costly distractions that can do alittle damage and end as cheap distractions that can do mediocre damage. Quite useful but only comes into its own when coupled with the staff of protection as it can apply the barrier to all friendlies within the radius of casting.

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

At 64 you're already 75% to max. Is the extra 25% really going to make that much difference?

The barrier starts out as having 200 hp and ends as having 700 hp.
How many times would an extra 125 hp have saved you from dying? How many skill points did you lose? How much time was wasted getting them back?

[qwerm]

Originally posted by baerra:

Hot take: If you're going to make AFK farms and spend all that time leveling something to get stronger, you should just use console commands at set it at a reasonable skill level.

That's a pretty good point, though I'm kind favouring "earning" my shenanigans by way of achieving milestones within the game cycle.

Each time I've been through the game loop so far, I add more non vanilla QoL things to make re-doing things less tedious; after the first loop, I've started using a map generator, and after this latest loop, I'm pondering allowing myself access to the devcommands for the sake of building a nice base, or maybe utilising the multiple world portal method of moving metals from source to forge( I hate boating, I find it stressful and tedious).

Maybe once the game reaches it's full release(eventually) I'll start using mods; had my eye on farming grid mods for a little while now.

As for the skill progression, I really feel if the game is going to penalise you for dying by taking away some of your skill progress, it should take away from the total exp progression rather than the total level progression, especially since at about level 75 in a skill, you're still at only at about 9943 exp out of 20300 exp total for lvl 100 in a given skill, the game should only penalise you up to 5% of that total 20300 instead, which would lessen the overal impact at higher levels.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Yes, I have a Mic.:

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

At 64 you're already 75% to max. Is the extra 25% really going to make that much difference?

The barrier starts out as having 200 hp and ends as having 700 hp.
How many times would an extra 125 hp have saved you from dying? How many skill points did you lose? How much time was wasted getting them back?

How many times? Likely 0, but the point is that it's only 25% more of a bonus and much less of your total HP when health and armor are taken into account for days of AFKing.