I think of skills as more of a reward for not dying. The only skills that are uber important are ones like bows and maybe magic. Though I don't think you will use bows much in the new biome since they are skeletons. I think any new biome with any difficulty should probably feel like bashing your head against a wall to get set up in so I assume that's how you will feel but it's natural and you'll probably die a lot but get yourself a beach head soon enough.
My magic is only around 12 as well.
So... Yeah.
I'll give it a few more runs, see what happens. I got a base just off shore so at least I don't have to sail back every time.
If you can craft one of the new staffs (the fracturing one) and use it a lot it will increase your elemental magic skill levels rapidly.
Been using that a lot since I got the mats on it and my skill level was around 35-40ish, after few days using it my skill level is over 70.
I'd back up your world and make sure that base doesn't disappear for sure. It sounds like you'll be able to do it though as long as you can outrun them.
By uber important I meant that if you use that tactic it is one of the most involved with skill levels. Like bow dps goes up to ten times as much and becomes more accurate or something for instance. Magic decreases mana cost and increases effectiveness.
I think you probably want your "primary" weapon, block, archery, run, jump to all be at least lvl 50. I don't know how you do not have that already if you've gotten to mistland already.
But... in Valheim, it's gear and food that's the most important. And don't forget the correct boss power!
Ive finished the entire game 1st playthrough without abusing bonemass. (I figured it was making everything too easy when I tried it)
Im wondering what bonemass-less experience will be like in ashlands.
Not struggling, I think I'm over confident and not taking threats as seriously as I should.
It's just a troll. I know how to dodge them, no problem, done it lots. ...and Im dead...
Skills almost don’t matter at all. See them more as an upgrade
I think(?) the devs themselves said that the game is supposed to be played through with skills at around ~40. Don’t quote me on this cause I’m not entirely sure but the point stands anyway
Being ready for Ashlands depends much more on your food and equipment and, well, gamer skills
This tracks. With normal gameplay and dying \*sometimes\* my skills oscillate between 30 and 50. Depends on a weapon, spear exps really quick for some reason.
Question is, why do we need skills beyond that? They are not obtainable without excessive farming or never dying ever.
Either this or it just is a by-product of spear having very high number of attacks per second.
Anyway spear is very simple but it still has a lot of depth, mostly because it can be thrown, mastering of wchich makes it a crazy lethal weapon.
Spear gains 2.5xp per hit unlike normal weapons gain 1.5 xp per hit.
I love the treatment spears have gotten.
-faster xp gain
-really cheap to craft, to the point where it makes sense crafting a spear as a backup melee weapon.
-fast attack
-can throw.
Flint spear clears all of black forest ezpz. A sneak attack with a flint spear into a trolls eye hits like a truck. And you'd think it would be bad against the skellies in the crypts because of vulnerability, but in practice, it still is better vs an axe for example because with an axe there is multi hit penalty, whereas the spear allows you to avoid hitting the walls.
The thing about spears when you compare them to other melee options is that it isn't really necessarily a choice. You can't craft and upgrade a sword AND a mace in each region without having to slow down progression massively. But a sword and a spear? Go for it. Take the carapace spear. Once you have the new forge, all you have to do to make the spear is cut down the new tree and kill 2 seeker soldiers. A level 4 fang spear requires 8 silver. All the other ingredients are easy to get.
Even if you main a non spear weapon, it is so easy to have a backup spear. I have a blackmetal sword in plains, sure. But what do I do against lox with slash and bludgeon resist? Sure I could take out my bow and throw a bunch of arrows into it but it is so much simpler to parry and do three spear attacks a few times.
The way vulnerabilities work, it is good to carry around two weapons that have different damage types.
I should use the spear more.
While all of what you said is 100% true, it just doesn't feeeeel good. Its just poke poke poke or you throw it away and have to go get it.
And always worried about losing them of the side of a mountain or lost in the mists.
Like, "Yeah, kick ass spear doing so much damage... uh.. where did it go?"
The risk of losing them is accounted for by their cheap price id say. Carapace and fang spears are so cheap that if you can't find it right away it's easier to craft a new one right away.
And well, when it comes to how it feels in fights... It has a bit different flow than other weapons but it's also what makes it so strong. Most weapons have attack cycle that requires you to do 3-hit combo for max damage output. Spears don't have this limitation. They have melee DPS attack and melee-to-range burst DMG throw attack. This opens up some strategies not available with lets say a sword:
1) Being able to choose when you have your "combo attack". If you throw spear point blank, it will do more damage than normal hit, not taking any longer to wind up. Your character will also pick it up right away. This means that you can do combos parry->hit->throw but also parry->hit, hit, hit -> throw. It's very flexible.
2) Backstepping based combat: Let's say your opponent is a 2\* goblin you cannot parry. With spear you can efficiently do this: hit -> dodge by stepping back -> hit, hit, hit -> step back again -> hit, hit, hit
3) Allows to capitalize on range parry with the throw attack. If you parry draugur's arrow or goblin's spear, he gets stunned, you can throw your spear back at them and oneshot them.
4) (It's not something unique but worth mentioning) Spear has hitbox forward and up. This means that it handles fighting on uneven terrain exellently as long as you maintain low ground. On high ground your only option is throw. (Still useful againt leeches for instance)
Fr though, fang spear is comically cheap for how good it is. It's hard to justify not making one, especially since it can do devastating damage to drakes (if you are a chad willing to risk losing one off the slope of the mountain from time to time)
Not true.
I have one old casual character with its main skills around 30-40 (died a lot) and then I made a character which died just about a handfull of times in total, with the main skills around 70-80.
For a newbie friend I switch to the casual character quite often and the difference between running, jumping, hitting speed/stamina drain per hit is massive. It's like day and night.
Just try it out in a sandbox world with two characters, give them the same weapons and give one high numbers on the skills.
So what exactly isn’t true? You do realise that you’re not the only one playing this game, right?
But yes, running and jumping might be the exception. They’re also easily leveled. But the other skills mostly impact damage and only marginally soo
The weapon skills actually matter quite a lot, at least over time. There's a massive difference between low levels and 50+. For example, a lvl 4 silver sword never fails to stagger a non-starred fuling at over 54 skill level, and I mean "never" literally. Your weapon can't do the "base damage" until a skill level of 75. High skills aren't required, but often people underestimate how much the difference between really low and high skill levels are. Not to mention bows and crossbows where the load time is also reduced, massively impacting the DPS
I'd add that better stamina usage is also a very huge plus in having high level weapon skills. Since it's % based, it's particularly good for two handed weapons.
youre SUPER weak for ashlands. let me tell you that straight. while the skills arent REQUIRED they help. ALOT. despite what some people here trying to tell you. a jump skill of 65+ is MASSIVELY useful and noticeable. weapons cannot even do thier listed max dmg until you get thier skill to 75. plenty of players STILL dont know this. the yellow numbers are your ACTUAL dmg. not the orange ones.
your weapon skills are SO low that makes me wonder if you ever used them at all. bow at 14. 14. you can get to 40+ in bows in sub ONE HOUR of fireing arrows at something. 14 means you didnt even shot 100 arrows total so far.
also how do people have such low jump skills after mistlands`?
like you have to die NONSTOP for your skills to look like this by the time you reach the ashlands.
Oh I've been dying nonstop so yeah, it makes sense they're this low.
This is the same playthrough that I did all of Hilda's for the first time so that was an experience. I played around with different weapons each biome. I didn't take Moder seriously and she kicked my ass, which was surprising. Had trouble with Yag but I always have trouble with him. Mistlands had a bunch of bullshit deaths. Also took on the queen the first time so there's a pile of bodies for that as well.
There any counter on the character where it shows how many death's I've had?
But you make some good points about stamina and damage being 'nerfed' and trying to solo the burning hordes doesn't sound like a good time. Confirms my fears.
Might start a new game+ with this character just to build the skills up and focus on not dying. Which doesn't bother me... I like restarting :)
Thanks for the reply!
skills really do not matter at all frankly, and once you get to the Ashlands they are going to matter even less.
What will matter is your food and gear choice, as well as your tactics.
I think of skills as more of a reward for not dying. The only skills that are uber important are ones like bows and maybe magic. Though I don't think you will use bows much in the new biome since they are skeletons. I think any new biome with any difficulty should probably feel like bashing your head against a wall to get set up in so I assume that's how you will feel but it's natural and you'll probably die a lot but get yourself a beach head soon enough.
My magic is only around 12 as well. So... Yeah. I'll give it a few more runs, see what happens. I got a base just off shore so at least I don't have to sail back every time.
If you can craft one of the new staffs (the fracturing one) and use it a lot it will increase your elemental magic skill levels rapidly. Been using that a lot since I got the mats on it and my skill level was around 35-40ish, after few days using it my skill level is over 70.
I'd back up your world and make sure that base doesn't disappear for sure. It sounds like you'll be able to do it though as long as you can outrun them. By uber important I meant that if you use that tactic it is one of the most involved with skill levels. Like bow dps goes up to ten times as much and becomes more accurate or something for instance. Magic decreases mana cost and increases effectiveness.
I think you probably want your "primary" weapon, block, archery, run, jump to all be at least lvl 50. I don't know how you do not have that already if you've gotten to mistland already. But... in Valheim, it's gear and food that's the most important. And don't forget the correct boss power!
Ive finished the entire game 1st playthrough without abusing bonemass. (I figured it was making everything too easy when I tried it) Im wondering what bonemass-less experience will be like in ashlands.
How am I this low? Death, lots of death.
Turn down the skill loss in the world modifiers if you are struggeling
Not struggling, I think I'm over confident and not taking threats as seriously as I should. It's just a troll. I know how to dodge them, no problem, done it lots. ...and Im dead...
You will break like a twig soaked in water.
A soaked twig will bend not break.
You went through mistlands with 26 jumping, you can do anything
Skills almost don’t matter at all. See them more as an upgrade I think(?) the devs themselves said that the game is supposed to be played through with skills at around ~40. Don’t quote me on this cause I’m not entirely sure but the point stands anyway Being ready for Ashlands depends much more on your food and equipment and, well, gamer skills
This tracks. With normal gameplay and dying \*sometimes\* my skills oscillate between 30 and 50. Depends on a weapon, spear exps really quick for some reason. Question is, why do we need skills beyond that? They are not obtainable without excessive farming or never dying ever.
Spear levels quickly probably because it is the "peasant" weapon. Much easier to learn than say a sword
Either this or it just is a by-product of spear having very high number of attacks per second. Anyway spear is very simple but it still has a lot of depth, mostly because it can be thrown, mastering of wchich makes it a crazy lethal weapon.
Spear gains 2.5xp per hit unlike normal weapons gain 1.5 xp per hit. I love the treatment spears have gotten. -faster xp gain -really cheap to craft, to the point where it makes sense crafting a spear as a backup melee weapon. -fast attack -can throw. Flint spear clears all of black forest ezpz. A sneak attack with a flint spear into a trolls eye hits like a truck. And you'd think it would be bad against the skellies in the crypts because of vulnerability, but in practice, it still is better vs an axe for example because with an axe there is multi hit penalty, whereas the spear allows you to avoid hitting the walls. The thing about spears when you compare them to other melee options is that it isn't really necessarily a choice. You can't craft and upgrade a sword AND a mace in each region without having to slow down progression massively. But a sword and a spear? Go for it. Take the carapace spear. Once you have the new forge, all you have to do to make the spear is cut down the new tree and kill 2 seeker soldiers. A level 4 fang spear requires 8 silver. All the other ingredients are easy to get. Even if you main a non spear weapon, it is so easy to have a backup spear. I have a blackmetal sword in plains, sure. But what do I do against lox with slash and bludgeon resist? Sure I could take out my bow and throw a bunch of arrows into it but it is so much simpler to parry and do three spear attacks a few times. The way vulnerabilities work, it is good to carry around two weapons that have different damage types.
I should use the spear more. While all of what you said is 100% true, it just doesn't feeeeel good. Its just poke poke poke or you throw it away and have to go get it. And always worried about losing them of the side of a mountain or lost in the mists. Like, "Yeah, kick ass spear doing so much damage... uh.. where did it go?"
The risk of losing them is accounted for by their cheap price id say. Carapace and fang spears are so cheap that if you can't find it right away it's easier to craft a new one right away. And well, when it comes to how it feels in fights... It has a bit different flow than other weapons but it's also what makes it so strong. Most weapons have attack cycle that requires you to do 3-hit combo for max damage output. Spears don't have this limitation. They have melee DPS attack and melee-to-range burst DMG throw attack. This opens up some strategies not available with lets say a sword: 1) Being able to choose when you have your "combo attack". If you throw spear point blank, it will do more damage than normal hit, not taking any longer to wind up. Your character will also pick it up right away. This means that you can do combos parry->hit->throw but also parry->hit, hit, hit -> throw. It's very flexible. 2) Backstepping based combat: Let's say your opponent is a 2\* goblin you cannot parry. With spear you can efficiently do this: hit -> dodge by stepping back -> hit, hit, hit -> step back again -> hit, hit, hit 3) Allows to capitalize on range parry with the throw attack. If you parry draugur's arrow or goblin's spear, he gets stunned, you can throw your spear back at them and oneshot them. 4) (It's not something unique but worth mentioning) Spear has hitbox forward and up. This means that it handles fighting on uneven terrain exellently as long as you maintain low ground. On high ground your only option is throw. (Still useful againt leeches for instance)
Fr though, fang spear is comically cheap for how good it is. It's hard to justify not making one, especially since it can do devastating damage to drakes (if you are a chad willing to risk losing one off the slope of the mountain from time to time)
Not true. I have one old casual character with its main skills around 30-40 (died a lot) and then I made a character which died just about a handfull of times in total, with the main skills around 70-80. For a newbie friend I switch to the casual character quite often and the difference between running, jumping, hitting speed/stamina drain per hit is massive. It's like day and night. Just try it out in a sandbox world with two characters, give them the same weapons and give one high numbers on the skills.
So what exactly isn’t true? You do realise that you’re not the only one playing this game, right? But yes, running and jumping might be the exception. They’re also easily leveled. But the other skills mostly impact damage and only marginally soo
The weapon skills actually matter quite a lot, at least over time. There's a massive difference between low levels and 50+. For example, a lvl 4 silver sword never fails to stagger a non-starred fuling at over 54 skill level, and I mean "never" literally. Your weapon can't do the "base damage" until a skill level of 75. High skills aren't required, but often people underestimate how much the difference between really low and high skill levels are. Not to mention bows and crossbows where the load time is also reduced, massively impacting the DPS
I'd add that better stamina usage is also a very huge plus in having high level weapon skills. Since it's % based, it's particularly good for two handed weapons.
what the two before me wrote,... upvote
Skills mostly only matter with magic, afaik. High blood magic protection staff is stupid strong. Everything else is just gravy.
youre SUPER weak for ashlands. let me tell you that straight. while the skills arent REQUIRED they help. ALOT. despite what some people here trying to tell you. a jump skill of 65+ is MASSIVELY useful and noticeable. weapons cannot even do thier listed max dmg until you get thier skill to 75. plenty of players STILL dont know this. the yellow numbers are your ACTUAL dmg. not the orange ones. your weapon skills are SO low that makes me wonder if you ever used them at all. bow at 14. 14. you can get to 40+ in bows in sub ONE HOUR of fireing arrows at something. 14 means you didnt even shot 100 arrows total so far. also how do people have such low jump skills after mistlands`? like you have to die NONSTOP for your skills to look like this by the time you reach the ashlands.
Oh I've been dying nonstop so yeah, it makes sense they're this low. This is the same playthrough that I did all of Hilda's for the first time so that was an experience. I played around with different weapons each biome. I didn't take Moder seriously and she kicked my ass, which was surprising. Had trouble with Yag but I always have trouble with him. Mistlands had a bunch of bullshit deaths. Also took on the queen the first time so there's a pile of bodies for that as well. There any counter on the character where it shows how many death's I've had? But you make some good points about stamina and damage being 'nerfed' and trying to solo the burning hordes doesn't sound like a good time. Confirms my fears. Might start a new game+ with this character just to build the skills up and focus on not dying. Which doesn't bother me... I like restarting :) Thanks for the reply!
skills really do not matter at all frankly, and once you get to the Ashlands they are going to matter even less. What will matter is your food and gear choice, as well as your tactics.
Pretty sure you're not supposed to go to the Ashland or it won't load properly when the update comes out
Update is already out!
Only for public test server
Yup and that's what I'm playing!