Skill builds over time

Discussion in 'Skills and Combat' started by Osunn, Nov 17, 2020.

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  1. Osunn

    Osunn Avatar

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    I have a question about the number of skills I learn. I have bludgeon, shield and heavy armor. I supplement these with taming and ranged for specific fights. I've learned seventy eight skills to gm so far. Is it better to continue with new skills or slowly progress up my current skills ? I have good healing and buffs etc.
    I see people with 200 -300 skills and it may make you more flexible but is it really very valuable?
    Getting my skill levels much past 11o is going to take a long time, so which path is better more skills or fewer high level skills?
     
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  2. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I think for most with a lot of GMs, all the other skills come later. You reach a point where it takes as much xp to gain a single level in a high level skill as it does to take two or three new skills from 0 to 100. Concentrate on your combat skills and the supplemental skills you use often. They're what'll take you to a point where you can earn xp quickly enough to level other skills at will.

    Also, for people with a huge number of GMs, a good chunk of those are probably producer skills, which aren't taking away xp you'd put into combat skills.
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
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  3. Violet Ronso

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    Hey @Osunn !

    Cora is actually right, the best course of action is to focus on your main skills along with the skills that supplement your kit. Just to give you a general idea, you said you "main" Bludgeon, Shield and Heavy Armor. In that case, here is what I would generally recommend :

    Bludgeon :
    Bludgeon Combat : 140
    Crushing Blow/Whatever skill you use the most (your main one) : 120
    Innates that increase damage or strength : 120
    Everything else : 100

    Heavy Armor :
    Glancing Blow : 120
    Body Slam : 120
    Inner Strength : 120
    Passives : 120
    Everything else : 80 or 100 (I like to leave Knights Grace and the "take damage for an ally" skill at 80 max)

    Shield : I don't know, but focus on blocking power, everything else is meh most of the time

    Tactics :
    Berserker's/Defensive Stances :120
    Parry : 120
    Passives : 100
    (Leave offhand stuff at 0 if you don't use dual wield)

    Fire, Death, Air, Earth and Life attunements at 100 (attunement is the average of the top 10 skills/passives in that magic school, so 10 skills at 100 or a total of 1000 levels in 10 skills, divided how you want it)
    Remaining schools of magic attunements at 80

    These should be your goals. Once you hit these goals, you should be able to clear all the Episode 1 content and hold your own in most EP2 content, as long as your gear is worth it, and you know how to build your deck. I know most of these are high numbers, but basically these are long term goals, go at it at your own pace, and when you get there you should be able to get your hands on some decent gear!

    Some people have "having all skills GM" as a goal themselves, but no, having all skills GM will not necessarily help them, as having GM in all polearms skills won't help you ever if you never use a polearm, but some people took that as a goal, and can boast their achievement with their "300+ skills GM" tag beside their name, and honestly, those people put a lot of work into it, hopefully they started when they were settled with their build!
     
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  4. Osunn

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    Thanks Cora and violet your replies were what I was looking for.
     
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  5. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Nice backhand there... ;)
     
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  6. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I'd probably also add that unless you're heavily using spells, it'd probably be best to to only take magic skills you're leveling for attunement up to about 80 while you're leveling everything else. That'll still get you a decent amount of attunement, but still leaves most of your xp for getting your combat skills up. Once you start getting your combat skills (and any magic you actually use a lot in your build) into the 120s, then start raising the rest of your magic.
     
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  7. Lazlo

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    Generally agree with everything here, but after a certain point it really just comes down to making a bunch of individual comparisons based on how much you value every single skill. It's important to be familiar with xp costs of each skill to be able to make those comparisons (can just google sota experience tables if you haven't already looked at those). It's also very helpful to understand the rate of inflation of skills so that you can make more precise comparisons. The increase is 10% per level, and costs double in roughly 7 levels.

    Some skill comparisons are really easy. For example, there are multiple skills that only give +strength. It's just simple math to look at how much strength per level each of those kills give, how much experience per level those skills cost, and appropriate experience in a way that gives you as much strength as possible for that xp. OTOH, strength is more important for a melee than something like life attunement, but it's not clear exactly how much more important. Obviously 1 strength isn't as valuable as 100 life attunement, but where to draw the line is somewhat subjective. Given the exponentially increasing cost of skills, you kind of have to make these guesses though, otherwise you miss out on a lot of relatively free power ups.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2020
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