Obviously, everyone loves the trace charm. But what other nodes and skills have you fallen in love with?
And are there any that you see as a bit pointless?
Has the tree helped you understand how everything fits together, as was advertised by the HPWU team?
Comments
Obviously I love the trace charm. The bonus xp from chests is pretty amazing as well, it adds up quickly.
You can see a few things if you think of the SOS tree as a step in the bigger plan rather than a stand-alone addition to the game. First, wit sharpening potions will be more useful in the future, and their use will be connected to earning more dada books. There's no other reason for all of the nodes to improve them that cost so many dada books. My money is on boss battles, similar to Pokemon Go raids. Also, red books will be useful again in the future. The devs know that more and more players have maxed out at least one profession, and that the Knight Bus makes it relatively easy to get more red books. So the number of skills designed to help earn more red books must mean that there will be a need for more at some point, probably more profession lessons that will need even more red books than the first ones did.
I like Departure Denial. But I'm not 100% sure if having 1 out all departure denial nodes versus having all - does it make a huge difference? In terms of probability i didn't notice any difference in the departure denial rates. So not sure what % means!
The trace charm obviously is really a game changer, love that one. Increasing the efficiency of Buffing Baruffios and the exstimulo potions is nice and makes even the standard one very useful. Not enough that I would invest DADA books, but nice nonetheless.
Generally, I try to improve on spell power and departure denial, obviously (preferably the general nodes rather than specific ones).
Everything else I feel is mostly pointless and I will only skill those if I need to to get down a branch.
Greenhouse charm is pretty pointless (like greenhouses in general). I rarely need ingredients anyways, and I find it hard to believe that it would get something I would find useful .
Inn's charm: I rarely have energy problems and then the Inn charm gives too little for what it costs. Not totally pointless, but reeally low on the list of priorities.
Any other potions outside of BB and EP: Mostly pointless. I don't need healing potions or any of the other ones (yeah, ok, I might use invigoration potions once a week, but that is about it). So, I don't expect a positive return of investement there.
Brew time reduction: Pretty meh. I do see the brew time as a bottle neck in the game, but again the skills seem to expensive for what they provide.
Present improvements: Totally pointless. Just this morning I had to tech three to get to a skill that I actually wanted, that hurt... Luckily there is one branch which only contains present improvements, that certainly will be the very last thing that I will unlock (unless I have nothing else to spend stuff on while waiting for DADA books).
Chest improvements: Sort of meh... I skilled some of the extra XP ones (and the one with a chance for the trace charm of course), but red books? a) I don't need any currently, and then you get a chance to get one for a specific family... Again, sounds too underwhelming to invest into.
Still not certain what to invest the first DADA books on....
And I have no idea how this is supposed to help me to "understand how everything fits together". The distribution of element across trees seems kinda random, so...
That said, I love the addition; the game was getting kind of stale after maxing out the profession tree; with this you can play some time and at the end of the day buy a new skill, so you have the feeling of progress. The downside with this is that they doubled down on the overall pretty terribad system around how to return foundables, so...
@Magpie31
Totally agree, the Pario Vesigus and it's related buffs are awesome. Though it seems like there are limits to how many traces I can return before the timers start to expire, :)
The XP buffs are nice. Except for bragging rites XP isn't very useful. Feeling i am missing the point
The Estimulo and Spell Mastery enhancements are my favorite.
For me, Departure Denial nodes are the least useful. Am treating them as necessary to unlock other skills on a branch
As for enabling a better understanding?!? Have to say, yes. Though, now there are more questions than before.
Love this game and the SOS skills are definitely a welcomed refresh. Am a little irritated that Spell Mastery was nerfed as part of the SOS roll-out. Have yet to recover fully.
spa
Thanks all for really interesting replies.
@Spahz XP levels you up, which gets levelling up reqards including easier return rates every 5 levels, and unlocked nodes on the skill trees. So very useful.
Keep in mind that XP boosts are the only skill that has a shelf life.
If they keep the level 60 cap, eventually... it's useless.
So imo, in the long run, you'll get far more bang for the buck with virtually anything else.
I look at it in terms of energy efficiency. I want to one shot as many traces as possible, so I focus on...
All those skills (which require DADA books) that give Spellbooks imply that they will be a critical resource in a future updates for Combat Training or ???
@Magpie31 I don't know about the easier return rate every 5 levels. I just leveled up to lvl 40 but I didn't see the message 'Foundables will be easier to return'. Perhaps I missed it? But I also don't see that I do more damage to oddities. It was 94 per spell when I was on level 39 and it still is 94 per spell. I was rather disappointed.
Personally, I love trace charm obviously. Who doesn't? I also love that you somehow get two traces for each trace you return when using trace charm. And that the charm will also make foundables appear of the same threat level.
Other than that, I'm still not sure where to put my priorities. Field guides and ministry manuals are easy enough to get so I will buy the nodes that only take those and I'm simply going top down. I'm saving up on RS and DADA books until I've made up my mind on what I want. There are so many different things...
@Zuzanna93 Your oddity damage is linked to your profession, so levelling up won't change that. The levelling up message didn't come through for me at 45 either, so I am wondering if the SOS node has replaced that mastery upgrade? Maybe @HPWUblue or @hpwulola could confirm?
@Magpie31 loving the reduced brew times and additional charges to potions.
Keeps my potion box fuller and allows me to use them more often.
As for how i am using the new tree:
I let the books/guides etc. collect over the week and upgrade every sunday.
Fantastic summary of the best nodes @Niff1erTick1er - thank you so much for that!!🙌✌️🤩
[SOS, Nodes] Denial, potions, spell mastery, trunks
Gryphonkit, my wife, likes Spell mastery and potion brew time reduction.
We never have enough Dawdle Draughts and Exstimulos potions since the Trace field charm was added. Brew time helps.
Spell master helps catch them before Dawdle Draught runs out.
Gryphonknight ( me ) likes general departure denial ( 14% almost ready to unlock 28% ) since it works on Brilliant traces. If it will stay around, I will eventually catch it.
Extended potion charges ( Strong Exstimulos, Potent Exstimulos, Dawdle Draught ) because of trace field charm and many potions work on traces and foes in fortresses.
Improved potion effects ( Strong Exstimulos, Potent Exstimulos, Strong Invigoration) because fortress is timed ( Charm all the teammates. Hex all the foes. **** foes faster ) and trace field charm ( so many Emergencies)
Field charm trunk recharges. ( more field charms ).
Greenhouse charm. So far, if you cast a Greenhouse charm, it produces whatever was grown there 6 hours ago. So if you plant Toadstools, or Baneberries, you can get extra when you pick them up by casting the Greenhouse charm.
i finally managed to get one of those nodes that give you books from treasure chests, but every time i level up that class (hogwarts in my case) it gives always the same stuff. I levelled maybe 5 times and never got a book. i am doing something wrong?
@XpanderFX from what others have said the chance of getting a book is pretty small. It's not surprising that it would take more than 5 chests to receive one.
Ooohhh @Magpie31 fun question!!!
Departure denial! I love and squueee out loud with every departure denied!
Potions Love the lower brew times and buffed uses. BBE is 8h 24m before master notes! Saving to unlock strong invigoration draugh.
Gift nodes better chances to get great gifts to send.
Be safe be well and
Happy Pottering