dead raiser skeletons useless against seeker soldier (and starred others)

[eazytom]

they die fast does no meaningful damage, and hit slow, so seekers always hit first, they feel like a practical joke for lesser biomes use only.
the only good thing about them, you can fish in lesser biomes without interruption (exept mistlans of course).
maybe they eat fish?

[John]

After leveling blood magic to 50 (even with a farm, it took like 15 minutes from 49 to 50) i have come to some conclusions. Blood magic kinda sucks and is rather buggy.

Skeletons: Too little health, too little damage, they are capable of doing the mountains, after that they are complete garbage. They also have too much knockback, if one hits an enemy, they knock it so far back they other just misses. They attack rather slow, it's like having a meadows viking in your team with no experience.

The shield: It works quite well but instead of getting experience if the bubble breaks it should give you exp if it simply gets damaged. Refreshing it also works strange, not sure if it's a bug or meant to function like this but it's the reason i hate it the most. Recasting the shield while it's still active, doesn't replenish the shield itself, only the timer. So if you are 2 hits away, 1 skeleton 1 hit away and another skeleton no shield, you might cast it 3 times in a row for no reason while 1 cast should have done it.

I tried to like it, it just sucks, shield is useful for a mage but they need to change the refresh. Also, summoning skeletons should cost far less health and they need to be far more effective.

[mattyb0201]

would be amazing to have the ability to cast healing magic just like the dvergr do

[jonnin]

Expectations...
a soldier hit with the freeze staff and busy chasing skeletons is quite vulnerable to being stabbed from behind with a good weapon, or shot with the crossbow. The crossbow does 200-300 damage from behind to these guys, so any distraction that can let you get a few hits that way has earned its pay. Even if it kills them, they have done their job.
The skeletons are a buff game: you pretty much need to spray cold and shield them up before big fights so they can act as a distraction (and doing not insignificant damage) which buffs your own attacks. It all works together quite well.
Their ability to keep up with you (its probably cheated in) is also not to be understated. You can hop up the highest mountain and poof, there they are, watching your back.

If you expect to just summon them and watch them kill everything, no, that won't happen after the mountain. Supporting them works in plains and mistlands, usually, but their true value is simply distraction and tanking.

[FissionChips]

I found they couldn't keep up on just average gradients in the plains 🤷🏻‍♂️.

[DeMasked]

Originally posted by FissionChips:

I found they couldn't keep up on just average gradients in the plains 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Yea kinda pointless to summon them and then run off. I usually find it better to summon them when I need to and have some health potions on hand - as I usually don't play with health potions for some odd reason lol.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by jonnin:

Expectations...
a soldier hit with the freeze staff and busy chasing skeletons is quite vulnerable to being stabbed from behind with a good weapon, or shot with the crossbow. The crossbow does 200-300 damage from behind to these guys, so any distraction that can let you get a few hits that way has earned its pay. Even if it kills them, they have done their job.
The skeletons are a buff game: you pretty much need to spray cold and shield them up before big fights so they can act as a distraction (and doing not insignificant damage) which buffs your own attacks. It all works together quite well.
Their ability to keep up with you (its probably cheated in) is also not to be understated. You can hop up the highest mountain and poof, there they are, watching your back.

If you expect to just summon them and watch them kill everything, no, that won't happen after the mountain. Supporting them works in plains and mistlands, usually, but their true value is simply distraction and tanking.

I'm trying to decide if I want to try out the magic items, or, maybe even try a playthrough using all light armor, since I've never done that before, certainly not since the new armor has been introduced (I've used troll armor, of course).

The problem is, that, it seems like (at least in this case), you're trying to justify the benefit of using skeletons to distract the soldier so that you can melee it from behind, presumably because you don't have the health or armor to take it on head-on.

The alternative is to just have the armor and health to take it on head-on and have it over in seconds without all the gyrations.

Is there something that I'm overlooking?

I suppose there's some fun in figuring out these techniques, which is why I'm considering trying a complete playthough, but I really find plunking mobs with bow to be incredibly boring, so I don't know if I can go the full distance. Maybe I'll try daggers and such? That could be exciting.

[jonnin]

presumably because you don't have the health or armor to take it on head-on.

they take extra damage from behind. My crossbow hits for like 80 to the face, and 200-250 or more from behind. It has around 2000 health, since sneak shots with the xbow do 800+ and only seem to take off about 1/3. They are not worth fighting from the front with anything other than staves which ignore armor best I can tell.

you are not missing much. The fire staff is solid damage in an aoe. The ice staff slows enemy but so do ice weapons like mistwalker. The ice is more damage per eitr and it also does extra on wet enemy if you can force them to swim at you its all over.

Here is where I am with it all:
the magic using warrior. I tried full magic and its very dangerous (low health, low armor is a bad combination) and it works great until you get a big group or tight quarters where you take a hit or two no matter how you try. Mines are deadly for the idea.
so what I am doing is 2 high health foods and the stuff mushroom. I can use the shield staff now and then, I can use ice or fire as well, but I lost my skellys. Wearing normal armor, I can now use a mix of melee, crossbow, and magic to kill stuff where both magic and the crossbow do NOT need stamina. Its a very solid mix and works well, and what I gave up is the big stamina pool which is a small loss given that it comes back at the same rate regardless of the pool size. I beat the queen like this, and multiple starred soldiers and starred seekers, etc. Its worked well on everything.

the skeleton tactics work, but you have to give up a second food slot to get them out, even if you wear armor as above, its a little rough to drop that much health esp in the mines. Outside them, its nearly an equally valid setup.

all I can say at this point is that full mage, partial mage, and full warrior are all pretty viable builds if you can handle the full mage problems against hordes. I appreciate the ability to have valid choices.

mistwalker, both damage staves, the crossbow are all very effective in different fights. I can use them all in my setup, and if I want, dead raiser as well.