Talk:Battleworn Skills/@comment-93.100.52.231-20140521022635

Since lag only knows when Divine Inspiration and Battle Standard are going to be fixed, I was thinking about how to replace them. DI is a hard choice, going to Mending Blow/Zealot, depending on your gems, but as for Battle Standard - I see myself using it less and less since I got Cyclone.

It's still a good tool in co-op, lasting long and good and giving those dipshit static sentinels both protection and DPS, but in solo - the damage reduction is pointless(within foreseeable game), as long as you have lifesteal, the attack speed works only for your normal attacks, forcing you to keep swinging for effect. It's a good boost, but Cyclone(rank 1) does 2x67% damage at roughly the time it would take you to land one hit. Basically, instead of doing one hit - you do 1.5. Or what you'd do by spamming attack under the Standard(rank 20). Besides, Cyclone provides knockback immunity and can be used on the move, which pretty much obliterates the limitations presented by the Standard.

In short, for people who are fresh doing their Battleworn and think from the comments that BS is a great thing - think twice. Investing a Soul charm and points into Zealot and maybe only ~5 points into Cyclone will net you same damage, with more manacost, but a lot more possibilities.

If you'd ask why even choose out of the two, that'd be because I consider at least Tremor to be a mandatory skill, basically a oneshotter for any incoming waves, and a tool to blast ranged enemies, if you can't get close(especially blinkers). And third skill must be something about movement - that has to be Jump Attack. Dash is somewhat more reliable to kill many targets on the way ASAP, and Jump Attack is prone to lag and just jump in one place without detecting a movement control. But a level 20 Jump Attack is 440% damage on demand. That's almost a Spirit Spell. Whether to open hard in a boss fight(especially Blood Match) or to take out key targets(elites/dragons) - it can find its use. For co-op, where everyone has to do something - jumping around might be not as beneficial as placing a banner, so whichever skill you do first - is up to your playstyle.

I'd recommend to use the skill points the following way: you get last unlock at 78, so let's  take 80 as 80 skillpoints, disregarding possible obtained books and rank 1 being free(so technically only 19 points invested.

Skilled Veteran and Rage must be maxed ASAP, because they are almost direct damage multipliers, so somewhere past 40 - you won't be spending any more points.

What to do before 40? Max out Benediction and Zealot/Mending Blow. Put leftover points/book points only in Tremor/Cyclone/Jump Attack. The bad trick about Battle Standard - is that when I compared it, I compared it at rank 20. Anything below that is much less useful. Maybe some day past 80, as you get more books and levels - you will invest into this co-op tool, but for single player - try to stick with skills that contribute to you gameplay the most.

Even if Battle Standard was fixed and would work with 90% uptime - it still would lose in damage, compared to a properly leveld Cyclone with mana management, because BS has range, Cyclone hits on the move, BS punishes you for swinging, because you can be knocked down, while chaining Cyclone almost makes you immune to any knockdown. Before Cyclone is available, you might consider using Tremor>Jump Attack>Standard rank 1 for 30% damage reduction if you need, or for mild attack speed, since you have no alternative. But don't invest all your points, you might be disappointed later.