Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General POLL: Useless Skills

I found several useless and less useful skills in DD during my journey as a warrior:

- Evade Trap: I didn't see THAT many traps to waste skill point on those. And if I just stock potions, I can drink a potion after a trap. Plus the spider traps can be evaded, scorpions can be killed.
- Augment Damage: It might be of use earlier, but once you fight veteran orcs, 10 or 20 damage won't help you much, better use weapon masteries.
- Survivor's Instinct: It's simply too slow. Better drink a potion.
- Necroshift: When I tried that skill, I was surprised: I expected being able to posess an enemy and have his special abilities and spells but no, I just entered the enemy and everyone arround me was friendly. Better use a spider statue, no?
- Identify Monster: After I kill a monster I can see the information about him in my journal.

This poll has two reasons:
- To help newbies build a better character by avoiding less useful skills
- To point out the problems so that if Larian sees this topic they know what didn't work (even if RR will have another skill system).

I agree with man, i don't like to use these skills it's better put more points in strong skills.

I don't think Augment Damage is that useless
Bless is useless!

I put one point into Survivor's Instinct after it became available, and found it handy to top off my health whenever I went to trade or drop loot off at my base. It wasn't fast enough to encourage me to keep putting points into, until I reached the wastelands and had all kinds of spare skill points. I maxed Survivor's Instinct and that was just about the only healing I needed for the rest of the game.

Ranger Sight is useless compared to Elven Sight. The only reason you should put anything into Ranger Sight is if you want to clear the fog of war in areas you can not get to, and have already maxed (or plan to) Elven Sight.

True Shot is broken (as of v1.34 patch), so that counts as useless.

I'd rather use alchemy.

i'd say limbs of lead.

freeze to me is much more usefull spell. and though some monsters/creatures cannnot be frozen, well, if you can't freeze 'em, fry 'em. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

But Limbs of Lead works on higher level monsters! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/freak.gif" alt="" />

I can't believe no one has mentioned Wizard's Eye yet... or Feign Death.

Why would anyone even use feign death?! That seriously has the be the most useless skill there is. So you play dead and the enemy will just stand around waiting. I put one point in and regretted it the rest of the game.

Useless skills:

Boomerang
All forms of weapon mastery except Sword
Death Strike (Never works on anything useful)
All the elemental damage adds (Occur too infrequently, AND can be resisted)
Pick Pockets (Will work about once in the game)

And doubtless a lot I'm forgetting <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I would say that Augment Damage IS useful, though, and so is Survivor's Instinct - though only at level 5.

I think there are a couple of broken or useless skills--true shot, using the wrong sight skill--but most skills are a matter of what fits into your game. For example, I considered limbs of lead invaluable--it works on even the highest level monsters, and is perfect for the person who likes, or needs, to fight from a distance.

Someone else finds evade traps useless. Well if your hit points are low, traps are one of the only things in the game that can kill you outright. A valuable skill if you are trying to play for no reloads with a low hitpoint character.

Someone else find pickpocket useless. Almost, but there are two tasks that can only be completed with this skill. If you are an absolute completist, you need the skill.

I suspect most skills are a matter of how they fit your style, rather than being "useless". Of course the ultimate power gamer might find a set of most powerful skill combinations. But why be a powergamer in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" />? The game just isn't that hard, and can be won with an enormous variety of characters.

Feign death, drink a magic potion and cast spells. That's how I finished the demo: I entered the orc camp at early level, drank a mana potion and showered them with metheor strikes <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.