My Thoughts on Skills.

[DragonDrago77]

I have posted this thread for various reasons. The first is I want to get an opinion on what people think are the best skills to invest in. An explanation as to why the skill is necessary or good to have would be good too. :) The second reason is I never knew what to dump skill points in for various classes. UMD and Jump were always dump skills for me.
Please don't say- "Oh, that skill is important, what are you talking about Choob Cake?" Constructive Criticism Please.

Well here it goes.
Balance-Very important- A lot of monsters in this game use Trip and Knockdown Tactics.
Bluff- Not very good- Only useful for certain NPC Dialogs.
Concentration- Extremely vital for Casters and Monks. Prevents Spell Failures due to enemies hitting you for casters.
Able to maintain more ki as a monk.
Disable Device- Useful for any trap monkey and no other class.
Haggle- Useless. I don't find this skill important to invest in at all.
Heal- Not really useful. Sure, people get more HP while resting, but you can easily heal(with a spell, that is) them too.
Hide- Good for people who use the sneak skill.
Intimidate-Good for intimitanks. :P I would say this is a great skill for builds such as an intimmitank.
Jump- Important. Allows you to reach places. A lot of the time, in my experience anyways, clerics die because they just can't make that jump.
Listen- Useless. Red Circles. Big Deal.
Move Silently- Good for people who use the sneak skill.
Open Lock- Good for trap monkeys.
Perform- Good for Bards.
Repair- Good for Warforged. I would invest in this skill as a Warforged somewhat.
Search-Good for trap monkeys really. Usually, this skill is used for secret doors and traps. A wizard just needs to use detect secret doors.
Spot- Useless. Everyone knows where the traps are, and if they don't someone always does.
Swim- Not important. Speed is not a big problem and the korthos ring should get you through any water obstacle.
Tumble- Not important. I wouldn't use this skill to avoid damage, I would just back up.
Use Magic Device- The Most Important. Everyone uses this skill, come on!

Any and all thoughts are welcome. :)

[BoBoDaClown]

Disagree on Haggle.

Haggle = money.

Some people actually level bards to have a 'haggle toon'.

Spot: I actually don't have any toons that have it, but I'm pretty sure it allows you to see sneaking enemies.

Tumble: 1 point is usually a worthwhile investments; opening up the ability to tumble, which adds maneuverabilty on the battlefield.

Repair: It's essentially the same skill as 'heal', so is as 'useful'. I guess it might be more useful if you around parties that can't top up a WF hp bar.


Rest looks alright :)

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I think its funny that you don't like heal and you do like repair, even then repair is less useful to WF than heal is to fleshies. Both skills are near useless after very low level.

Spot. Very useful - it lets you see your enemies sooner. That reduces your chance of being ambushed, lets you range from farther away, and helps any sneaky character stay at reasonable range from badguys.

Tumble - situationally useful, take 1 pt in Tumble to unlock the tumble ability.

Listen - helps with sneak (similar to spot). Not worth it except to those who really like to sneak with spare skill pts left over.

[infernalmagiks]

Was just about to go through the whole haggle - spot - repair/heal thing. Accidentally refreshed and saw they'd posted exactly what I was going to say.

So yeh, what they said.

[Bacab]

also to Warforged using a Docent of Defiance...once it procs...Tumble and Leap of Faith (and maybe Abundant Step) is the only way that Warforged moves. I am not sure if the MNK one works (have not leveled MNK yet).

Tumble is also a nice way to manuever around big/slow mobs. Like when an Ogre does its wind-up for the 3 swing combo...tumble back

Tumble is more for "twitchy" players. Some players stand and go toe-to-toe (read manasponge) and some are active in combat and take probably about 1/3 of the damage if not less.

Now to be honest, I am not sure it is a "tumble" skill or a "twitch" (player) skill that is more important. My FVS who has 1 in tumble sucks at "twitch" but I generally LoF and kite (I am a caster-type). While my Warchanter WF (greataxe user) tends to jump in and out of combat and I use tumble quite a bit on him (even when not using DoD).

I would like some input on this. Is the tumble necessary for twitch?

~Bacab

[gott_ist_tot]

Spot Required skill for ninjas - shadow mages and other sneaky types. Some take it just for fun.
UMD Most of the time only worth investing if you can get it to the max or to 20.
Tumble One point is a must. Sometimes you're crippled (at times deliberately by yourself - Docent of Defiance), and tumbling allows you to move faster.

Also, Diplomacy is not on the list. For some builds an useful tool to shed aggro.

[Eladiun]

Tumble: It also reduces the amount of damage taken when falling with a high tumble you can accidentally run off a lot of ledges without taking damage.

[Hecore]

Partly agree. Changes or additions below -

Concentration- Incredibly important for Monks, pretty important for other casters. Also helps with reading scrolls.

Haggle- Decent. Moneys not a major issue at high levels, but more of it is always nice. Only worth throwing points into if you've maxed the other stuff first, though.

Heal- Worthless. Heals a teeny amount.

Hide- Not great. Only worthwhile with Move Silently ranks.

Move Silently- Not great. Only worthwhile with Hide ranks.

Open Lock- Good skill. 4 ranks + item + buffs means you can get most of the locks in the game.

Repair- Worthless. Heals a teeny amount.

Search- Only good for trap monkeys, period. True seeing items, secret door clickies for everyone else.

Spot- Good skill. The ability to see hidden enemies is nice, as True Seeing only gets the invisible ones. Trap, DM text, and Secret door warnings are gravy.

Tumble- Always worth a rank. Tumbling is faster then running when under some spell effects (ala Slow). Lets you move at a regular speed in defensive stance.

[LunaCee]

Tumble is always good if you have the points for it... my wizard between skill ranks, item, and spells has ~40 Tumble. I can literally jump from the highest point in Meridia back down to the ground and take 2-3 damage tops.

Its a very important skill to invest in for melee. Super massive negative ranks in it from armor and shields can result in you taking damage every time you fall a mere two inches without featherfall on. And it can get one around crippling effects that dramatically slow your movement. Slow, Hamstrung, DoD proc, etc.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Bluff has more uses.

Spot allows you to see things before they beat on you.

1 pt in Tumble is nice IMO. Some people can do great things with a high Tumble.

More people should use sneak skills.

UMD can be used for self curing. Seems everyone thinks UMD is the most important skill but carries nothing to fix their own ills with..... Someday I'll make sense of that.

[Eladiun]

UMD can be used for self curing. Seems everyone thinks UMD is the most important skill but carries nothing to fix their own ills with..... Someday I'll make sense of that.

I also suspect that it's going to get nerfed again...it's to throw off class differentiation again.

[DragonDrago77]

Some pretty good thoughts on skills :)

My point of view on Tumble is that it is good for getting away from mobs as some people said. I find Tumble useless in terms of falling damage, though.
Falling damage is easily corrected by Feather Falling boots. I would take a few ranks in this skill, but not a lot.

Eladiun: Yes, I forgot Diplomacy. :(
To me, that is a great skill for a rouge or someone who wants to lose aggro for a bit. Good Skill.

Bacab: What do you mean by a twitchy player?

Lorien: I chose Repair over Heal because Warforged get very little HP from a shrine and fleshies get decent HP from a shrine.

[BoBoDaClown]

Some pretty good thoughts on skills :)

My point of view on Tumble is that it is good for getting away from mobs as some people said. I find Tumble useless in terms of falling damage, though.
Falling damage is easily corrected by Feather Falling boots. I would take a few ranks in this skill, but not a lot.

Eladiun: Yes, I forgot Diplomacy. :(
To me, that is a great skill for a rouge or someone who wants to lose aggro for a bit. Good Skill.

Bacab: What do you mean by a twitchy player?

Lorien: I chose Repair over Heal because Warforged get very little HP from a shrine and fleshies get decent HP from a shrine.

Tumble is also good due to the fact that sometimes you have conditions that stop you from moving freely - yet you can still tumble, such as chains in VOD and Stalwart Defender.