Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General The most useless skill

I feel like that kind of perspective is completely out of place here; it has its application in a TCG, especially one with formats based around constructing decks from drafted or random cards, but not a cRPG, especially not one where the majority of content is based around creatively and tactically applying the same toolkit repeatedly.

Almost all of the 'useless' spells have a clear intended purpose, it's largely their execution or place in the flawed or supportive systems that makes them a mockery. Even skills that aren't 'useless' are largely overshadowed or undesirable because of bad implementation or poor supporting systems.

That said, my vote is for Smoke Cover because it isn't just bad, it's almost always actively harmful.

Probably not most useless (it was probably actually the most used in EA), but I never found myself ever being able to incorporate Skin Graft. I get why it should be great, but I just never felt like spending the source in it compared to simply using a bigger source spell. Otherwise, the enemies would be dead anyway without it.

Assassinate gets my vote though for one of the least useful skills. The AP cost for the damage, on top of the other requirement to actually get any bonus damage from it is just terrible.

I feel Smoke Cover could be useful in a glass-canon rogue build but the 2AP cost makes it ultimately bad.

No one talk about Taunt? No one? And most combine skill book also.
But provoke(taunt) is the most useless skill I've seen. Not use it = good, player use it = try to hurt themselves.
They can't taunt through my pant!

Well, I'm an elf, so casting Blood Rain for an incarnate is redundant. Rain is better, because it immediately procs a stun when they're shocked and can stunlock them as the water is shocked too. I see some mentioning of Necro synergy, yeah, sure, I guess. Still bad.

Terrain Transmutation for cursed surfaces is whatever. I've beaten the game twice now and am going for an honour mode completion and the only time that it MIGHT have been useful, is with the bugged(?) flaming revenants in Arx's Lizard embassy and even then, doesn't really matter. AP is so scarce and memory taxation is awful; don't really feel the need to waste it on this.

Luckmann, you're being pretty silly about some of the justification of some skills. Aportation? Really? You're gonna pay extra attribute tax and use a memory slot on that? Right.

If you want to know what skills are considered bad by the community, you can have a summary of a survey rating all the skills HERE. There are already over 174 answers.

If you take the survey, you will be able to see even more interesting data

Interesting.

There are a few that surprise me, though not many.

Corrupted Blade is actually a favorite of mine, even at 3 AP.

Vampiric Hunger would be broken in the original game, and sure it's situational if you run multiple armor restoration spells on multiple characters (which you honestly should), but there have been a few encounters where I was outmatched, and vampiric hunger saved my day. It does require a high amount of CON to take advantage of though.

I also kinda like Thick of the Fight. Again, depends pretty heavily on the encounter, but there are some where it's worth it.

Other than that, this list pretty much sums up my own experience as well.

You should make one for source skills, from skillbooks alone - I would be interested in that one for sure.

If you have a google account, I encourage you to fill the survey. You will be able to see the rating of each skills, especially the skills you are looking for.

Thick of the Fight is actually underrated, it does have a place in solo lonewolf spellcaster builds, since it is multiplicative on spells and doesn't require you to get on low life to take advantage of it. The general strategy for using it is port yourself into a pack of mobs then nuke everything. It is better than death wish since when you plan to kill everything on turn 1, you won't be on low hp.

I think that people are more extreme when they rate a source skill or a buff that costs 2AP. And this spell has both.

If it costs 2AP 1SP, it costs one attack (100% damage) + 1SP. It is hard to be profitable damage wise with this spell but it is not impossible.

EDIT : And a melee character will probably prefer using "Overpower" which has the exact same cost and which is really powerful.

I ignore the source point cost of skills, since Apotheosis exists.

Not everyone uses Apotheosis. It may not be relevant for you but it is not the same for other people.
In fact, "at least" 47,5% of the players answering this survey never used it.

I honestly disregarded Apotheosis at first glance too (since Overpower is so broken that I honestly wanted to use my source for that alone), but then again the tooltip doesn't tell you that it actually also increases all of your attributes by 5, something I hadn't noticed until I accidentally clicked the buff icon.

I find Bleed Fire to be very nice when your enemies are already on fire. It makes that burning damage burn harder. I use it with Fane/Beast being spider-legged, web-tossing, cc powerhouses who keep the enemies in check, while the necro flames are working. 1 ap cost is fine for the skill(my Sebil usually has 1 spare ap most of the time). The effect may not seem like much, but I like using it and its one of those skills that works in a niche. -1 ap tea, +1 max ap tea, demon form, haste. Next turn apotheosis, meteor shower skill, adrenaline, skin graft, adrenaline, meteor shower skill, epidemic of fire. Follow up with Bleed fire and the stragglers just die. It seems like win more, but it actually helps with the final few ounces of health. This is when you burst hard. The same thing works when you're burning enemies through ordinary fire spells. And to be honest, it feels nicer to burn the enemies with ordinary fire spells ;D.