Reply To: Character and Company Strategies with the New Perks/System?
Here is what i do:
Student> because why not; youre not wasting anything, and you get the whole package sooner.
Head Hunter> because its a flat bonus, everything else is either meh or situational or too specific.
Brawny> because wearing bigger armor for same fatigue cost is great; it gives you more punching power in prolonged battle.
Axe Mastery> because axes deal a lot of damage, and there is a military grade war axe thats very good damage wise. Once you have 60+ melee skill, who cares about weapon hitting chance, youll hit double times 80+% of the time.
Footwork> because you might find yourself in a situation where that damned orc who is about to get the turn can 1 hit kill you, and why wouldnt you get out of his melee range.
Battle Forged> because taking less damage is good?
Fearsome> because when you face 12 orc warriors its to have half of them panic and flee couple of rounds of combat later.
At this point you have 3 remaining perks to further specialize your guy. I would say that pathfinder is a must; maybe one more weapon mastery; and either something rallylike or something damagewise.
Tier 1:
Fast Adaptation> entirely useless. You should be making characters who hit every time, not those with better chance to hit once they miss. Also 7% is nothing.
Crippling Strikes> theoretically useful, but its location on the tree makes it highly unlikely pick. And later on you just have access to so much better stuff.
Colossus> i know a lot of people like this, but i dont. I dont want more HP. If youre taking HP damage in the first place, it means youre doing something wrong. Look at that guy in the screenshot, he has 50 melee, and that will go even higher depending on rolls, maybe even into 60+. This guy doesnt get hit. He doesnt need more than 60-65 hp hell have once hes top tier.
Nine Lives> ok this is definitely useful, but im too stingy on a perk point for get it.
Bags and Belts> why bother when archery is messed up? Its just way more practical to have dedicated 1 handed + shield guys and dedicated 2 handed + crossbows guys. With the buff to durabilities i dont really have a need for secondary weapons either. Its just pointless.
Pathfinder> a very useful perk, i have a hard time not picking this.
Adrenaline> i could see this being useful, but personally id rather make characters who dont get hit, and thus can survive the normal turn order.
Recover> i could see this being useful, but meh, too stingy on a perk point. Also my guys RARELY get fatigued out, the way i gear them and use them.
Student> there is literally no need not to take this. Everything else is useful, this is a no brainer.
Tier 2:
Executioner> useful, but too situational.
Head Hunter> always useful for everyone.
Bullseye> sorry but with the archery nerf youve killed the ranged battle for me, i dont even bother with it anymore, except for orc Berskers.
Dodge> if we had more perks, id probably take this. I used to take it with my nimble builds.
Fortified Mind> This was nefed right? It used to make you immune to resolve damaging stuff? Well now that its not, its useless. I dont need a 25% modifier, if my resolve is shit, it wont do anything; i need something that makes me immune to orc Warlord thingie or to those ghosts thingie.
Quick Hands> this is just not worth it; getting this and bags used to be a significant investment that turned your guys into jacks of all trades, but now i just dont see the point.
Gifted> typical noob trap. So totally not worth the perk point. Instead of boosting a single character for like 13-14? skill points, just recruit one of the more expensive types and get that for free. No.
Tier 3:
Backstabber> i could see myself picking this. It would TOTALLY help with the likes of Orc Warriors whom i find myself surrounding completely quite often.
Underdog> so totally useful for first line melees, i totally want to take this between level 9 and top level.
Anticipation> so totally and utterly useless waste of a perk. Just put on a shield and youll be fine.
Shield Expert> i almost never use shield wall, as i would rather focus on killing the enemies before they get to do crazy amount of damage; the passive bonus to shields is so small that its almost negligible. For best shields youll get like +5, and for starting ones like +3. Not worth the perk. If it gave like 20 or 35% OR if it reduced the cost of shield wall by 50% or something, sure, i would use this. The shield damage reduction is also meh, as the OP enemies like orcs will smash your shields anyway.
Brawny> Yes please. Thats the shit at this tier.
Steel Brow> if max level was ever made higher, id totally take this some time after level 8.
Taunt> why bother? Just kill the enemies faster than they can get into a situation where you need to taunt them…
Tier 4:
-IMO if youre playing a different style compared to me, you could just take swords, as they are the sweet spot between extra hit chance and damage.
-If you know what youre doing you can also take maces, knock out is a wonderful skill thats only made crappy by the fact of how much it costs fatigue wise. 25% cheaper, and 100% stun chance? Hell i would use it a lot. The biggest problem with hammers however is that they just dont do enough damage. Take warhammer that everyone consider the ultimate anti armor weapon. With it Destroy Armor does 101-134 armor damage, and does 10 hp damage. Fighting axe, using normal attack, thats almost twice as cheap fatigue wise, does 45-71 damage, has a potential to ignore armor partially, can do a lot more hp damage AND has 50% damage increase on head hit. And you can do it twice for the same price as Destroy Armor.
-Axes. Man. Axes are crazy. My new favorite weapon. If you get the guy with that perk, whats it called, Iron Lungs? the one that gives +5 fatigue recovery / round, you just give that guy the orc Axe, head splitter and watch the heads roll. Its insane. Even with a bit pricey Fighting Axes, the damage output + fatigue cost decrease is just sweet. You just need people with high melee for axes, otherwise youll miss a lot.
-If you have dedicated ranged people, i would either take bow/crossbow mastery, or one of the two handed weapons type. I findmyself using polearms and stuff much more than ranged stuff due to nerfs, so i went with that.
Tier 5:
Reach Advantage> This could be useful with War Brand was it? I think thats 2 handed and can be used twice / round? If not, this is like useless. Youll get chopped to pieces before you can make any use of those stacks.
Hold Out> theoretically useful, but practically near useless. You should do everything in your power to NOT get hit, and thus this is obsolete. It needs to offer something more on top to make it worthwile.
Lone Wolf> too situational; you might have a dedicated roamer who goes around and hunts for ranged characters, and this could be useful in theory, but in practice such scenarios are very rare, as you still dont want 1 guy to run into a whole swarm of ranged characters. I cant justify to myself ever taking this, specially since there are just way more useful perks to be had.
Footwork> what is there to say, it lets you survive situations where you could likely die. Of everything on this tier, the most generally useful thing available.
Rally The Troops> i would take this between level 8 and max level on some characters.
Tier 6:
Berserk> Ability to dish out more damage, whats there not to like? Would take this between level 8 and max level.
Nimble> in my first beta playthrough, i took this, but its been nerfed/changed so much, that now its pointless for me. This is literally pointless now.
Battle Forged> This is wonderful for first line melees. There is literally nothing to not like about it (except that its near useless for people who arent built to use heaviest armors).
Rotation> good skill in theory, if it were available on previous tier, id take it instead of footwork, maybe. On this tier, nah.
Sergeant> I guess i would take 1 maybe 2 of these, but no more, and only between level 9 and max level.
Tier 7:
Fearsome> there is nothing to not like here. It can change the entire dynamic of a battle vs very tough enemies like orcs. One of my favorite picks.
Duelist> this is utterly useless. The damage bonus from having no shield does not justify not having the shield; it might be still useful for situations where you have your shield broken. Maybe a pick between 9 and max.
Killing Frenzy> again, 25% increase is just meh, considering that instead you can take stuff that greatly increase your survivability or hit chances and similar stuff.
Indominable> i dont know, ive never used this before, i have to try it. Of all listed benefits i only see the 50% damage reduction as something note worthy. Everything else is either so situational (being stunned) or can be circumvented by positioning (being pushed back).