Skills: Best to generalize and let companions specialize?

[PugPug]

Since specializing is so expensive?

Are there any you should just skip taking, maybe Stealth?

[AndreaColombo]

There are skills that are not worth pushing past 3-4 points on each companion, like Stealth or Athletics. The benefits you get from investing more than 3-4 points are too small compared to the cost.

 

Lore is good for some conversation options, but less than you would think. Other than that, I would have 1 or 2 party members pump it to 10 so they can use all scrolls; it is not necessary for the rest of your party to invest in it (but you can have a 3rd party member with some Lore so they can use some scrolls in case the 10-lore guys are knocked out or otherwise unavailable for using scrolls.)

 

Likewise, you only need one party member with high Mechanics (at least 10); it is not necessary for the others to have it.

 

Survival is generally considered a bad/useless skill but I beg to differ. Like Lore, it offers some conversation options (not many) but what I like it for is the increase in duration of the one potion that can make your DPS skyrocket: Deleterious Alacrity of Motion. I always have at least 10 ranks on my main, and some ranks on the rest of my party as well. It also increases the duration of food, which I make ample use of.

Edited October 28, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[PugPug]

Are scrolls really something you get much use out of? I'm used to Baldur's Gate, where they mainly exist to teach spells to your wizards.

 

Should I make my main (Cipher gets +1, and I could still reroll a background with +1) the one who specializes in Mechanics, or should I retrain a companion? I don't have the expansion yet, so no rogue companion, and I'm planning on only playing with story companions.

[AndreaColombo]

In PoE you can only learn spells from grimoires. Most scrolls mimic Wizard, Druid, or Priest spells that you may want other characters to be able to cast, or you may want to be able to cast them from scrolls instead of having them use up a slot in your Wizards' grimoire; however there are some that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Notably Scroll of Valor, Scroll of Defense, Scroll Paralysis and Scroll of Maelstrom are four otherwise unavailable spells that are good to have (though honestly I find Scroll of Paralysis to be rather overrated; I haven't really been using it for the past two play throughs and I never use Scroll of Maelstrom.) Scroll of Valor and Scroll of Defense, on the other hand, I make use of in copious amounts.

 

As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

[Nobear]

As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

 

It's popular to make your mechanic one of your front-row or at least second-row characters, so they can detect traps before someone else in your party trips them! Do this, and/or use the option to auto pause when detecting hidden objects, to help avoid tripping traps.

 

If you detect a trap that you can't disarm, either leave and come back at a higher level, or send your party back and have your tankiest character set it off.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Nobear

[Renal Bloodscalp]

 

As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

 

It's popular to make your mechanic one of your front-row or at least second-row characters, so they can detect traps before someone else in your party trips them! Do this, and/or use the option to auto pause when detecting hidden objects, to help avoid tripping traps.

 

If you detect a trap that you can't disarm, either leave and come back at a higher level, or send your party back and have your tankiest character set it off.

 

Removing all those traps is great experience and money.  i'm not one to set traps.  anyone out there finding any usefulness in doing so?

[Crucis]

 

As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

 

It's popular to make your mechanic one of your front-row or at least second-row characters, so they can detect traps before someone else in your party trips them! Do this, and/or use the option to auto pause when detecting hidden objects, to help avoid tripping traps.

 

If you detect a trap that you can't disarm, either leave and come back at a higher level, or send your party back and have your tankiest character set it off.

 

 

 

Call me old fashioned, but I like to have a Rogue be my traps and locks master.  And in addition to that, any skill points left over, I put into Stealth, so that my Rogue can be the party's scout who looks for both traps and bad guys.

 

 

[Crucis]

In PoE you can only learn spells from grimoires. Most scrolls mimic Wizard, Druid, or Priest spells that you may want other characters to be able to cast, or you may want to be able to cast them from scrolls instead of having them use up a slot in your Wizards' grimoire; however there are some that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Notably Scroll of Valor, Scroll of Defense, Scroll Paralysis and Scroll of Maelstrom are four otherwise unavailable spells that are good to have (though honestly I find Scroll of Paralysis to be rather overrated; I haven't really been using it for the past two play throughs and I never use Scroll of Maelstrom.) Scroll of Valor and Scroll of Defense, on the other hand, I make use of in copious amounts.

 

As for Mechanics, it really doesn't make that much of a difference who has it; I wouldn't have it on my main, though, as it doesn't open up any conversation options and has no use in combat.

 

I think that it depends on what class your PC is.  If you're playing a Rogue PC, to me, it makes perfect sense for him or her to be he traps and locks specialist (as well as having lots of stealth).  Of course, you're not wrong that those skills don't affect any dialogs.  So if that matters to you, arguably that's a reason to not have a Rogue PC.  Also, if you're looking for a PC that's good for dialogs, you may end up having to divert a fair amount of stat points away from more combat useful stats, which can weaken the combat ability of a Rogue ... which arguably is another good reason to avoid a Rogue PC.   I suspect that the most effective combat rogues would be NPC, whether it's the Devil of Caroc or a mercenary Rogue.  A merc rogue's stats can be designed with the knowledge that it won't need any stats for dialogs, only combat, thus allowing you to create a more combat effective Rogue.

[Crucis]

Since specializing is so expensive?

 

Are there any you should just skip taking, maybe Stealth?

 

I think that it depends entirely on what class your PC is.  Some classes should really specialize in certain skills.  Wizards, for example, really should go all-in on Lore.  Rogues should go all-in on Mechanics.  OTOH, a Fighter PC is likely to be a good example of a generalist in skills, since they're not really defined by their skills anyways.

[Vorad]

I run 2 stealth 3 athletics 10 lore the rest in survival in all my party members appart from my mechanic guy/girl(usually defense chanter or a cipher) who runs 12 mechanics and 4 lore instead of 10 lore + 7-8 survival like the rest. That way you are able to use all the useful scrolls in the game irregardeless of class. As mentioned above Scroll of Valor, Scroll of Defense, Scroll Paralysis and Scroll of Maelstrom I would also add Scroll of Protection are realy nice to have and can be very useful in boss fights especially if you play with the companions instead of custom npc.

 

edit: There are upcoming changes on the skills however so we have yet to see how the distribution will be affected.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Vorad