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Greedfall II: The Dying Worldoffers players several different options at the start of the game, allowing you to customize your character and playstyle however you wish. With nine prebuilt starting loadouts and the ability to fully customize one of your own if none suit you, it can be tricky to decide what to pick at the start.
Greedfall 2: The Dying Worldhas six different skill trees, with each of the prebuilt loadouts utilizing two of them. This guide will break down what each of the skill trees offer, which skill trees your initial companions have access to, and offer suggestions of which skill trees will give the smoothest early-game experience for new players.
The Six Skill Trees
The Six Skill Trees Currently available in Early Accesscan be broadly separated into two categories: Paths and Weapons. Path Skill Trees are not connected to a specific weapon group and specialize in a general playstyle, such as Tanking, Dealing Damage, or Healing and Supporting. Each Path Skill Tree begins with a Posture Skill that can be toggled to gain benefits to that Path’s playstyle in exchange for penalties in other areas. Weapon Skill Trees are tied to a certain weapon category, such as blunt weapons, bows, or bracelets. They offer access to special skills when wielding the appropriate weapon, making those weapon types more effective.
The Six Skill Trees available in the Current Early Access build are:
Paths of Destruction
Paths of Destruction, serving as the Damage-Focused Path, grants you abilities that make you better at dishing out damage to the enemy, sometimes to the point of lowering your defensive stats to do so.
Prerequisites
Destroyer’s Stance
Increase Damage and Critical Chance, but Lower Physical and Magical Defense. You can only have one Posture skill active at a time.
None.
Reinforcement
Buffs the Caster with the “Mighty” effect, raising damage dealt. When Improved it also heals the Caster.
Roar of Death
Deals Damage to All Enemies in a Cone Area. This Damage ignores armour. When Improved it also applies the “Marked” effect to all enemies hit.
Advantageous Position
Adds a bonus to damage from backstabs or from elevated positions.
Thirst for Blood
The Character gains a Rage Effect whenever they inflict a killing blow on an enemy.
Paths of Protection
As the Defense and Tanking-Focused Path, Paths of Protection gives you abilities that allow you to draw aggro and strengthen your defensive abilities. Your offensive stats will sometimes suffer in exchange.
Protector’s Stance
Increases Armour and Life, but reduces damage inflicted. Only one Posture skill can be active at a time.
Taunt
Provokes Enemies in a Circular AOE. When Improved it also grants the Caster a Resilience Effect.
Hurtful Words
Afflicts the target with the Weakened Effect.When Improved it also reduces the target’s Action Points to zero.
Paths of Charity
The Healing and Buffing-Focused Path, Paths of Charity,offers abilities that help the user to heal and empower their allies.This sometimes comes at the cost of increasing damage taken, however.
Good Samaritan’s Stance
Reduces Cooldown Times for Healing Spells and Spells that grant Positive Effects to Allies, but Increases Damage taken by the Caster. Only one Posture skill can be active at a time.
First Aid
Allows you to Heal Yourself or an Ally in Range. When Improved, it also removes negative effects from the target.
Words of Support
Applies Mighty Effect to the Targeted Ally. When Improved, it also gives the target an Action Point.
Weapons of War
One of the broader weapon skill trees, Weapons of War provides skills and effects relating to one or two-handed maces and axes. These weapons (collectively called “Impact Weapons” by the game) tend to specialize in knocking enemies back, knocking them over, and generally interrupting enemy actions.
Mastery of Impact Weapons
Grants Access to Skills associated with One-Handed and Two-Handed Axes, and also One-Handed and Two-Handed Maces. Depending on the equipped weapon, grants: Brutal Impact, Iron Breaker, Destructive Blow, or Shockwave.
Violent Charge
Violently Charges an Enemy Target to Inflict Damage an Knock them Backwards. When Improved, it also inflicts Weakened on the Target.
Knockdown
Causes the Target to Fall, taking Damage. When Improved, it also causes the caster to gain the Retaliation Effect while using it.
Skilled Fighter
Recovers Armor Points for each strike landed on a foe with the Weakened Effect.
Gain Maximum Armor and Magic Deflection
Last Gasp
Sacrifices a portion of your life points to gain an Action Point.
Increases the Damage Dealt when life drops below 75%
Teer Fradeean Bracelets
The Teer Fradeean Bracelets are the only Spellcasting Weapon available in the current Early Access Build, offering a mix of offensive and defensive spells to help them aid the party.
Bracelet Mastery
Grants Access to Skills Associated with the Use of Bracelets and Unlocks the Skills Breath of Life and Toxic Bloom.
Healing Wave
Heals the life points of all targets in an area. When Improved, it heals 1.5x the usual amount when a target’s life is under 25%.
Bramble Shackles
Brambles Grow in the Target Area, preventing movement and dealing damage. When Improved, these Brambles will also poison targets in the area.
Blessings of the Earth
Devastating Throw
Consume a Vial to Throw it at a target, inflicting a negative effect.
Increases Resistance to Corrosion, Poison, Bleed, Burn, and Curse Effects.
Bows
As the only Ranged Weapon that has a skill tree in the current Early Access Build, Bows provide a mix of damaging and debuffing skills.
Power Shot
Fires a Powerful Shot that deals huge amounts of Physical Damage on Impact.
None
Double Arrow
Fires two arrows at the target in quick succession, applying Marked on the first shot. If Improved, this skill deals critical damage when hitting the target from behind.
Coated Arrow
Alternates between applying a Poison or Flaming Coating to the Arrow before firing. Inflicts damage and applies an effect based on the current coating. When Improved, this attack deals additional damage when the target is both burning and poisoned.
Ambushing Archer
Increases Extra Damage caused by height bonuses when the shooter is wielding a bow.
Subtle Archer
Increases the Critical Hit Rate of Archery Skills used in combat.
Friendly Throw
Consume a Vial to Throw it at a Friendly Target and apply a Positive Effect.
Increases Poison and Burn Resistance when wielding a Bow.
Best Early-Game Build
Considering the skills we’ve talked about, let’s put together a build that complements the two party members we get at the start of the game and remains useful as the game continues.Our two initial Party Membersare Nilan and Sheda. Nilan is an Archer who uses the Paths of Charity skill tree, and his unique skill tree allows him to cast several healing spells despite wielding a bow. Sheda, on the other hand, wields weapons of war and uses the Paths of Protection skill tree, focusing on defending Nilan and the protagonist by drawing enemy attention and tanking their attacks.
With this in mind, there are a few strategies we could employ. For the purposes of this Early-Game Build guide, we’ll be recommending a Paths of Destruction Character using the Teer Fradeean Bracelets as their weapon, providing this party with a powerful damage-focused spellcaster. (If you want to use a prebuilt class that fits this niche, pick the Spell Caster.)
Attributes
The most important Attribute for this build is Will, followed by Focus and Perception. If you want some extra security in case an enemy gets past Sheda to attack you, it might be worth trading a point or two of Focus or perception for a couple extra points of Endurance (Though the build we’ve provided assumes you’ll be keeping Sheda between you and the enemy whenever possible.)
2
1
6
8
Focus
The Will stat affects the damage dealt by Bracelets, which will be your weapon of choice with this build. Perception increases Crit Rate, while Focus is both the stat used by light and medium armor and also reduces skill cooldowns. It also increases your maximum action points, which is important for reliably throwing out your damaging spells and providing some emergency healing. Endurance gives you a boost to Maximum Health, but ideally you’ll be staying behind tankier teammates most of the time, and Strength boosts Critical Damage so it is helpful to invest a little into it.
Skills
We’ll be choosing the skill “Destroyer’s Stance” from the Paths of Destruction Skill Tree to amplify our damage, then adding Bracelet Mastery and Bramble Shackles from the Teer Fradeean Bracelets Skill Tree to give us access to some powerful offensive skills and a way to keep enemies from reaching us.
verify Sheda unlocks Taunt as soon as she reaches level 2, to help take pressure off you and Nilan in combat.
Combat Strategy
In combat, you’ll want to trap enemies using Bramble Shackles so they can’t get close to you, while Sheda draws aggro and Nilan provides additional damage and healing. Once enemies are trapped, you can use Toxic Bloom to keep dealing damage to them over time and make use of Breath of Life to help Nilan and Sheda stay healthy when necessary. After leveling up, you can grab Reinforcement from the Paths of War skill tree to apply a Mighty Buff and amplify your damage, or Devastating Throw to toss out vials and inflict more negative status effects.
