The Best Talents for Skald
 

Since most of the Skald talent line is meh I was thinking of making him more Viking based since I have already beat the game impossible mage no loss.

The only things that look nice from Mind is Power of Spirit,Jarl,Leadership,Edda,Tacitics, and maybe favorite of the gods.

Warriors of Vahalla seems kinda worthless since you don't take losses for most part if you play right.

This would leave lots of wiggle room for Rage focus. And then only need very minmal from magic.

What do you all think? Anyone playing their skald this way atm?

Or would it be better to go Viking route and just take the few Skald skills I need?

Anyone know the difference in leadership between Skald and Viking? Is it a huge amount?

Viking starts with 200 and Skald start with 250. Soothsayer 150. Viking makes lvl x 1.5 leadership and Skald lvl x 2, Soothsayer makes lvl x 1 ) So at lvl 30 for example, Viking does 450 while Skald 600 and Soothsayer 300. I hope this helps.

I like Skald more then Viking, mostly because I like to get Learning 3 and Scouting 3 fast. With higher leadership then Viking, I think Skald does overall more damage with his units anyways. The downside is that it takes much longer to get the good stuff from the Might Tree (bloodlust)

Thanks for the info do you know if the Skald has an advantage over the Viking for Mind runes on level up? Not sure if this is the same as in other KB games

I was leaning more towards warrior cause I wanna get more out of ranged units cause on the Soothsayer they seemed really worthless dps wise.

Viking makes like 7 red, 4 green and 1 blue.
Skald makes like 3 red 6 green and 3 blue.
Sooth makes like 2 red 3 green and 7 blue.

These are averages, the actual amount varies a little. This is the same in all KB games.

Thanks :]

Oratory is nice. Why limit your magic, though? You can find a very large number of Magic runes. Just focus on good spells that aren't Intellect-intensive like Pygmy and you should be fine.

Yea this time around I am looking for a super ATT/DEF build. Taking only magic that will Buff not any sort of focus towards direct damage.

The Rage on the Viking is so nice but I will say The amount of morale you can get with Edda and talents for skald does make up some very nice damage


I guess it comes down to if I want Edda vs spell damage reduction and Absolute rage. I wish I could see how Absolute Rage holds up

Also, a few thoughts on Skald:

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert at this game.

1.) Because of high Leadership and a good Intellect, the Skald can probably make the biggest Phantom stacks in the game.
2.) Because of high Leadership and not-so-difficult access to Creation/Creator, the Skald's summoner units (Dryads, Royal Thorns, et cetera) will make the largest summoned stacks in the game.
3.) Edda is not that great.
4.) With 3 Regalia slots and a Demon Tongue recipe, you can give Demons an extra 30% chance to crit, BEFORE taking into account their morale.
5.) I have often debated whether to pick up the Rage side of the Might tree or the Stats side. I wound up picking Rage because I wanted to see the Rage Skills, but there might be potential in granting stats to your massive army.

Well My first play through on the Soothsayer summoned units were just utter garbage compared to the last installment. So not so pumped about that idea.

I think I am gonna just go with the Viking and Pump the crap out of Def/Atk this turn. The difference between the Skald and Viking isn't that huge. And I am thinking with enough Attack Ranged units might actually be decent enough to bring this time. I really didnt bother with em last time because they damage for how squishy they are didnt seem worth it.

Mind True has a few very powerful skills
Level 1 Edda is very very good. Boosts to initiative or mana/rage production help quite a bit. Possibility for +1 Morale for the entire team is also very good.

Diversion skill is quite strong, as is sense weakness, and tactics. Some of the higher level skills aren't so generally good, but Oratory is at least worthwhile, and Persuasion can allow you to build some more interesting armies. Between Edda and Oratory and Persuasion, you can get most troop combos with +1 or +2 Morale.

Morale isn't THAT important. It's usually only about +1-2 att/def and +2% crit rate per level. It only boosts off of base stats, and for level 4/5 stacks often the boost doesn't even matter because you are already more than 60 above your enemies before the morale boost. All that really matters is keeping your morale out of the negatives, which hurts you a lot more than positive morale helps.

Sense Weakness, Power of Spirit, and lvl 1 Edda are the only Mind skills I would consider must have. Persuasion if you want to combine races that hate each other, because morale penalties HURT.

IMO, go for a mage-oriented Skald. I say this because mage spells are army-enhancers, and Skald has the army. Might is rage focused for the most part. Rage is nice, but it doesn't synergize with your large army. Also, other than Wisdom/Meditation mage spells require a lot of Might/Mind runes, so your Skald's good spread of runes works to your advantage. Plus, even with no rage abilities at all you'll still get to use rage skills fairly often, with no mage abilities you'll have practically no spells to use.

Which magic school to focus on will probably depend heavily on what spells you find. Distortion is the best early on if you can find stuff like Stone Skin/Magic Spring/Berserker/Target/Phantom. Much later in the game if you can reach Creation you'll be the most badass thing imaginable.

Nice info Loopy thanks that helped make life easier

True, but on the other hand, it also helps avoid dropping into negative morale. Nothing wrong with having a small bonus which is also protection from the morale penalty brought by negative effects. Morale is also a lot better on level 4/5 creatures.