Thrall perks and customizable talents

[Guiltyspark]

Hello there !

The thrall perk system is really cool, it gives more customization when it comes to Thrall and i’m pretty sure every exile love this system. But as every system it’s not that perfect, let’s get into it

1 / It might be suggested already but having a Thrall with random non desired perks is quite recurrent.
There are tons of perks according to the wiki :

How many times your supposed best fighter thrall had an archer or survivalist perk and made him trash? This is annoying.

So what can make the player not suffering from that perk and instead be part of his special buffs? The choice !
Make him chose between several perks at lvl 10, 15 et 20 let’s say between 3 or 4 random perks and there we go, no more time wasted in a thrall that grew well before the perks came made him trashy.

2 / This option is still about the 1/ and can be an addition to the 1 suggestion or juste replace it. Another choice. We can’t choose perks, this T4 who supposed to be a beast got survival perks and lost strenght.
Sad, but what about an entire reset? It’s a trash lvl 20, let’s give him this lotus potion and boom, go back to lvl 1 and let’s have another try with this one just because we like him and have a bound with him.
It’s a more long process so it’s probably better to addition this solution with the 1/ one.

3 / Okay funcom, have some passive stats buff are fun but… What about a real customization? Thought about some talent tree since quite a time, with some buff interactions between the follower and the player, here are some ideas, hope you guys will think about it.

First, this is not so much to do, just add another page when the player comes and check the thrall stats. The real challenge is to balance it and apply the effect in real time i guess (good luck devs !)

Here are some exemples of a thrall’s talent tree could be. Of course these numbers are quite randomly balanced in like a day of work and thinking about these different things so it’s more about the ideas behind it. Heard Funcom wanted to change the combat system and put the player more in the bright, so it might be better to nerf thralls again a little bit first ^^’

You can chose 1 talent per line to go further (from top to bottom), maybe can add ranks to talents i don’t know yet.

Defensive tree

Offensive tree

Utility tree

Hope these ideas are cool, feel free to give some feedback !
See you around Exiles

[Sera67]

It feels like its 99% Surv perks… an 1% chance everything else for me. LOL.

[Cyryus]

@Guiltyspark

How many times your supposed best fighter thrall had an archer or survivalist perk and made him trash? This is annoying.

“Its Thrash because is not the best” is one of those gaming fallacies that annoys me most.
Yes, the RNG sucks, but its also useful to prevent meta builds. If the player had control over what the thralls can learn, there would be only one or a couple viable “best” builds that everybody would use.
I wouldn’t mind a “learning focus” so the RNG would choose only perks related to the selected focus (offense, defense, archery, etc. something like that) but i rather have RNG over player controlled thrall stats.

@Guiltyspark

but what about an entire reset?

That would be nice. though it would be another grinding mechanic towards the meta building.

@Guiltyspark

some passive stats buff are fun but… What about a real customization?

yeah, simple stat increase is not really something i would call a perk.

[Sera67]

Its to much RNG honestly… It takes what on average 50-60+ of same type of thrall to get a 70% in 1 of stats, let alone 2… Not even 88% one. =/

They could fix this abit, if food gave better odds and more Str/Vit foods were around. 14% is abit low.

Then your talking winning lotto twice on those counts… then you have win lotto again on 1st perk… let alone others. Granted, the bonuses are not breaking thrall by any means.
(ps4 anyway) getting +3 Surv over and over and over just feels broken.

Now add farming one of those 2% chance spawn t4’s who rolls 40% str 50+ times.

They could change food or how some of perks are earned. Just make better options for earning perks. (25% stat buff chance with higher cost then 14%. )
Heck, 14% should be minimum food buff. What is point of 3% spread food on 48%, 55% 40% thralls Or even 78/78/62% thrall.

Truthfully… even with Admin panel and nothing better to do… it can take 100’s of thralls to even get a “meh” stat one with 70%, I can’t even imagine legit getting one.

Thankful… a 2300hp thrall is fine with me. Never really had a need for 6-8k one with max str.

I do think Perk system could use a tweak. Again… the +3 bonus isnt all that game changing or deal breaking… but we seek it out. At same time… if its such low gain, then why have it so hidden with crap % to even get them. =/

I’m not after the god roll thrall, i’m not even after near prefect thralls… I just want a above average one. -_-’ And thats what kinda ruins whole set up.

[Guiltyspark]

I never said “it’s trash because it’s not the best”, i just said it’s too much RNG in other words.

I’m pretty sure to have taimed near to a thousand Lian these last mounth and never had one close to perfection 70 str base stat with 20 to 30 more from perks + stuff. Got an entire googledoc on stat growth on the best ones, but it’s close to 55-60 str base stats, and for the best grown on str stat they have quite trashy perks. And i’m pretty sure to no be alone trying to find and grow up the best thrall i could in such time before Siptah came.

I just suggested to have 3 or 4 perks choice at lvl 10, 15 and 20. There are 37 perks for human thrall, in the best case scenario where the game doesn’t bring the same choice twice, you only see 9 to 12 perks over 37, that’s not player control like you said, that’s a little compromise with RNG lol

The meta for thrall is simple. In the past they had no stats, we just looked for that OP tankiest thrall ever, since they revamped it you just want strenght for PvE, and probably a mix with strenght & vitality for Pvp i guess. Others stats are quite trash to be honnest.

For the reset, yes if it still remain the same system than now it’s just another grind, that’s why i prefer couple the reset option with the perk’s choice option. And even like this it’s not control, it still a huge gamble.

[Kanza1]

Another option could also be , that fighter that got 3 perks for archery , let him act perfectly with a bow , this archer that gained 3 perks in strengh but has 0 in accuracy , let him be a proud fighter that swings his sword ( or any other melee weapon ) , and let us feel more like the actual perks they got are meaningfull instead of a small increase in their base stats !

don’t get me wrong here , I would love if not the case to have a way to reset to lvl 0 or a choice in the perks .

I get that the system of thralls from tier 1 to named thralls , we must feel an increase in overall stats at the base level ( since T4 can be hard to obtain , I don’t mean in the following to make them weaker and getting too low stat that leveling a lvl 0 T4 is too hard in the early stages ( since they tend to need more XP to level ) ) but what if they had a bit of a flatter stats to begin with ( archers / fighters made almost equal in ranged / melee ) , and make the perks a much bigger impact on these stats .

what i mean is , at the moment in game , a specific thrall has let say a 1.5 dmg multplier , the way it works now if i remember corectly is that if he is using a 100 dmg weapon , he will make 150 , then you had the strengh bonus of his perks of 0,20 times the number of strengh points he got ( a very good dmg thrall will be around 50 strengh ) this will add 10 dmg , so your thralls does 160 of dmg per hit ( armor penetration ect set aside )

what if instead a T4 would get a lot more than 0,20 times the number of strengh points added , and less in the damage multiplier part ( to be noted that ranged dmg would act the same of course )

also to balance the fact that lvl 0 T4 would be harder to level , just make the fact that their starter stats reflects their tier better ( it is already the case i know that nordheimers start with 30 strgh , ect ) but I mean some T4 fighters does start with a 0 points in strengh from base value and this is a bit weird in my opinion ( though I understand why each factions (nordheimer to darfari) would have their specialties )

anyway , I hope Funcom will hear us

[Masmassu]

The trall perks have to be random, to just pick them is a game killer!!!

But to give them proper armor and tools you shud be able to modofy whit + and - on the roll.

[Sera67]

Or remove stat growth, and base it on a 1 to 10 system.

Str 1 to 10, Each point is 10% this way all thralls (via tier) have cap on damage/health/agi etc.

T1 could roll 1-5 (cap at7)
T2 3-6 (cap at 8)
T3 5-7 (cap at 9)
T4 5-10 (cap at 10)

Every “?” levels, You get a stat point to toss around as you wish. This way every thrall can reach its cap for its tier. End game wise there all same, And getting one with boost in stats early on would be good part.

There should be able a way to get perk or 2 you want. You already won lotto twice… asking for it happen 3 more times…
The perks should be randomish… you should be able to 70-80% chance one of them via food or potion.