I think Archon has most of my never-used abilities.

I do share the same line of thought but specially towards staticlord. I do use archon a lot because of word of trust and word of productivity, so i would say its a must although i would spend more than 3-4 points in that skill tree. Blinding pulse and word of pain are also very useful.

Now staticlord is pretty niche. Since it doesnt out damage neither Fire nor Ice, there is no reason to use it other than to stuns mechanoids. I would use it more often if the offensive skills were also capable of stunning creatures instead of just using EMP strikes (Since lighting can lead to temporary paralyzes) as well as Increased damage-sensitivity scaling for skills like thunderbolt.

I like using prisoners to level up social skill, so I never use Word of Trust. What do you mainly use Word of Productivity for? I used to using Blinding Pulse a lot before this mod came out, but now other skills just seem better / more useful. I haven't directly compared them, though. My go-to attack skills are Berserk Pulse and Haywire.

I am going to hard disagree. Both these schools are pretty amazing. The issue is that Staticlord's best spell is Chain Lightning, which is found very early in the tree, and you are really underselling its ability to hit groups and stun them. Thunderbolt is pretty clutch for stunning huge groups of mechs as well. Bolt breaks shields for a VERY low cost. Ball Lightning is also fairly strong. Vortex could be better, but its alright to set down at a checkpoint or killbox opening. Its capstones are really weak though. Flashstorm seems unchanged, and it was pretty underwhelming in the vanilla experience. The times you want to use Hurricane the most also happen to be the times when you would affect your own pawns, so its worthless.

Archon's Group Link is amazing. Got a bunch of pawns down with the plague? Group Link and Word of Immunity will get as many people as you can huddle together back on their feet again in a day. Word of Protection hitting a whole group is equally good during a fight. Word of Trust hits a whole prison. Word of Inspiration hitting the entire colony is actually fantastic.

As for the rest of its spells, Word of Protection is good, as I mentioned. Word of Pain is good for stopping rebellions or prison breaks without killing anyone. Blinding pulse has always been a little meh, imo. 50% sight is still 50% too much. Word of Productivity is another one of those things that is nice when combined with Group Link, meh otherwise. Finally, of the ones I've used, Mass Hallucination is a godsend in the early game. Free wondrously impressive dining rooms, bedrooms, and recreation rooms can save your colony during a difficult period before you are truly stable.

I didn't say they are bad.. just that I don't like or use them much. I appreciate you going through the list and suggesting how I might benefit from the spells. I tried using Group Link with Word of Inspiration a few months ago, and it didn't work at all. Maybe they fixed the issue since then.

Group Link is a bit weird. You have to hit the person casting the Link with the Word you want, so it takes two people to properly set it up. You can't target just anyone within the link, it has to be the person who initiated the link. Had that issue trying to hit some plague victims with Word of Immunity. I might be overstating the Static Lord as well, since I play with a bunch of mods that make mechs and spacers more difficult, including combat extended.

I definitely like Chain Lightning.. But I use Haywire and Berserk Pulse (with invisibility) to weaken them before they fully engage.. Then I use Chain Lightning. I will try your method for Group Link. I think I did the same thing as you mentioned and that's why it did nothing.

I just tried it again. I have someone cast Group Link and stand in a bunch of people.. then I have someone else cast Word of Productivity on the person casting Group Link.. and it just affects the Group Linking person.. Not sure what I'm doing wrong..

I tried a bunch of combinations and none of them work. I have never had Group Link work properly.. No errors in my log either. Just acts like group link wasn't cast.

I am having a similar issue with Guardian Skipbarrier. It's supposed to stop all incoming projectiles, but it is currently blocking nothing. Group Link is working for me though, so, trade? I'd rather not get shot than word of productivity the group.

Vortex ruins Mechanoids completely, including the Ultras. They get stunned for the entire duration and you can murk them with a crew of unga bungas.

Staticlord is quite usefull in crowd control. Chain bolt works well on anyone regardless of armor. Stunning them and setting them on fire. There is low cd and low heat from that. Quite usefull. On mechs Static Aura quite usefull for while. Before they actually "adapt". Thunderbolt can stun mechs for quite long time if you use it before any other EMP. And Ball lighting is actually a good way(thank to its range) how to disable low and high shields and also personal shields. So I see no problem in this tree. But I do not reccomend going for Vortex +. Just waste of talents.

staticlord and archon are my favourites after chronomancer. staticlord allows you to quickly stun and burn enemies. archon is just useful for group link, word of alliance (sometimes) and mind break, which gives a pawn +100 mood and gets rid of food need for a cost of pawn becoming incapable of skilled labor. yes, this is usually bad, but i sometimes use it on my fighters and psycasters, especially if they are melancholics.

If you ever feel like it, do a pure staticlord. Get it up to ca lvl 20-30. Stat upgrades aplenty. Some heat reduction focused gear. Toss out a Flashstorm and vortex preemptively, put Ball Lightning, Thunderbolt, Chain bolt and Bolt on autocast. Stand on the opposite end of the zones ya put up, get a cup of tea and enjoy the mayhem. They are insane mass murderers. And it works on everything. Mechs, high tech raiders, whatevs. Had a lvl 60 one at some point and literally nothing could touch her by just letting those 4 be on auto. xD

Originally posted by ermantizeal1:

I am going to hard disagree. Both these schools are pretty amazing. The issue is that Staticlord's best spell is Chain Lightning, which is found very early in the tree, and you are really underselling its ability to hit groups and stun them. Thunderbolt is pretty clutch for stunning huge groups of mechs as well. Bolt breaks shields for a VERY low cost. Ball Lightning is also fairly strong. Vortex could be better, but its alright to set down at a checkpoint or killbox opening. Its capstones are really weak though. Flashstorm seems unchanged, and it was pretty underwhelming in the vanilla experience. The times you want to use Hurricane the most also happen to be the times when you would affect your own pawns, so its worthless.

Archon's Group Link is amazing. Got a bunch of pawns down with the plague? Group Link and Word of Immunity will get as many people as you can huddle together back on their feet again in a day. Word of Protection hitting a whole group is equally good during a fight. Word of Trust hits a whole prison. Word of Inspiration hitting the entire colony is actually fantastic.

As for the rest of its spells, Word of Protection is good, as I mentioned. Word of Pain is good for stopping rebellions or prison breaks without killing anyone. Blinding pulse has always been a little meh, imo. 50% sight is still 50% too much. Word of Productivity is another one of those things that is nice when combined with Group Link, meh otherwise. Finally, of the ones I've used, Mass Hallucination is a godsend in the early game. Free wondrously impressive dining rooms, bedrooms, and recreation rooms can save your colony during a difficult period before you are truly stable.

I do agree that ball of lightning is a good attack, although its speed is very, very slow, which makes me often only use it in killboxes, being quite bad in assault scenarios.
As you've said it yourself, flashstorm is by default, overwhelming, and overall a bad skill.
I think that the psypath is bad because out of it i could only find use for Chain lightning, thunderbolt and ball of lightning, the rest of the abilities either apply the same effect as chain lightning and thunderbolt but not as effectively or do not do enough damage.