Hey there fatshark forums! I’ve had a lot of fun with the game with almost 500 h in the game so far, but after playing every single career and experimenting with hundreds of talent combinations, I think it’s fair to say that talents often don’t bring much in the way of interesting or meaningful choices. This is largely due to the fact that some talents completely outshine others, especially true of the level 20 and 25 talents across the board.
As a player who really enjoys the game and wants to see it shine, here are a few of my humble suggestions to buff a number of talents to be on par with some of their more popular alternatives. This is by no means a comprehensive overhaul, and admittedly includes a few potential changes to certain career skills. Being as far as we are from release, nerfs weren’t even a consideration. My aim is to rework these talents to be more noticeable, useful and exciting without being too disruptive; presenting players with tougher choices. I’m hoping this might spark some discussion on improving the talent system as it currently exists in the game. Note: These suggestions are mostly based around current Legend meta as of patch 1.1.
—Part One: The Obvious—
–Ironfeather Flights: From 30% to 100% ammunition restored, putting it on par with huntsman’s scavenger.
–Master Brewer: Add the potential to drop Concentration potions.
–Unstoppable: Change the name to “Unyielding”, since there’s already a talent named “Unstoppable!”.
—Part Two: Defensive Talents—
–Healing Talents (ie. Battle Scars, Apply Pressure, Cauterize Wounds): Increase healing bonus to 50%. Making them more viable when paired with a level 20 talent or necklace traits like Boon of Shallya. Change description to read “…all healing effects…”.
–Clear Wounds on Boss Kill (ie. Triumph of Cadai, Essence Siphon): Due to being very situational and largely uninteresting, change it to provide a base heal amount of 30% instead of converting temp hp, and have it affect the entire team rather than only the player with this talent, making it a great choice for players looking to create more of a support build.
–Disabler Talents (Hands Off!, Curl Up, Suffer No Heresy, Ellinill’s Venom): Especially in the case of Hands Off! and Ellinill’s Venom, damage dealt to and by disablers rarely comes into play, as disablers are more often killed very easily (due to being near your teammates) or impossible to kill due to your teammates being too occupied and / or dead. A situation where surviving a while longer against a disabler or being able to deal more damage to one making a decisive difference during a run is extremely situational at best.
A bit more controversial, but my suggestion would be to replace these with a talent which would allow you to outright free yourself from disablers, perhaps on a timer or by using the block button, balanced off with a cooldown of five minutes. Still situational, but more exciting, interactive, and could potentially be the difference between victory and defeat.
—Part Three: Level 20—
Temp HP on Crits: For those looking to gain reliable temp hp during boss fights or when fighting a group of elites rather than a horde, this seemed like a sensible option, but the small amount of temp hp gained makes temp hp on kills a better all around choice. My suggested change would be to increase the hp gain with crits significantly.
Regain Health on Boss Kills: Oh dear, not much we can do here. Perhaps increase healing received to 100% and change to include Lords. What are your thoughts?
—Part Four: Career Skills—
–Morale Boost: Gabbler cooldown bonus from 30% to 50%. Increase Inspirational temp HP bonus to provide maximum temp HP.
Disengage: Due to the overwhelming usefulness of Ranger’s Ambush being able to remain invisible outside of the initial radius, change the base skill to allow Bardin’s invisibility to last outside the radius as well. Forcing him to stay within the radius to maintain stealth is a major downside of an already lackluster career skill, and I find that it’s counter-intuitive to new players. Smoke bombs should be a viable means of escape.
Leap: Provide a damage reduction bonus alongside uninterruptible attacks while Unstoppable is active.
Dash: Due to the overwhelming usefulness of the 3s stealth provided by Gift of Ladrielle, change the base skill to provide 2 seconds of stealth, then have Gift of Ladrielle provide 2 additional seconds.
Infiltrate: Change Veilwalker to provide 5 seconds of stealth directly after performing an Infiltrate sneak attack, allowing a Shade to safely dispatch of chaos warriors or specials that are surrounded by hordes hit-and-run style.
Fire Walk / The Burning Head: Due to the overwhelming usefulness of the 100% overcharge vent provided by Burnout and Exhaust, change the base skills to vent 50% of Sienna’s overcharge.
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I’d like to hear what y’all have to say. Let me know which talents/skills you believe need rethinking, and tell me if you disagree or have any revisions for of my suggestions!