Talent trees and perks

[mindw0rk]

Is there a place where I can read every perk in every talents tree in english? If no, maybe our german friends could translate and publish this info? Would be nice to have it to decide on class before english version released.

[Wigbold]

As far as I know, there isn't even such a thing in german yet. I guess everyone is still busy playin the game. I actually was planning to make such an overview for the german wiki, but due to my broken pc I won't be able to play enderal this month, which means this has to wait. I'm sorry, but I guess you have to wait a bit, maybe even for the english launch for a detailed overview.

[badgesareus]

As I understand it (I am playing the German version but do not read German), you don't pick a class (I think everyone starts as an "adventurer"). At a certain point, you become a class based on the talents you have selected. Also some talents can be selected twice for a greater effect of that talent, so it becomes even more complicated. So it is a bit more involved than it appears, and hopefully the English version will have some tutorial to help. I also understand that SureAI has designed the talent tree system so that a bit of experimentation and cross-talents will be required. It is a very long game, so even after you have played for several hours you may find your talents aren't working out as expected and you may find the best course is to start over, with that experience to try something different.

That being said, I would like to see all the talent trees translated to English, but I think the real key is discovering synergistic effects which aren't readily apparent just from the brief talent descriptions.

[Wigbold]

Once you figured out that the standing stones are actually your skill trees, it's pretty self explanatory, I think. I guess it looks a lot more complicated to english speakers than it actually is because you can't read the skill descriptions, tool tips and the Hero panel.

I thought you were asking for the exact descriptions of every memory (skill) you can learn in Enderal, but if your also interested in some general information on the whole skill system, you should check out this dev-diary. It's a few years old and from early in development, which is why the graphics are different, but they did'nt change the general mechanic since then. Regarding your classes shown in the hero panel. Thats the two classes you invested the most memory points in and just cosmetic. But there are some special combinations that unlock a special "hidden" class that really offers some advantages. For example, if you put ten or more memory points into the elemental magic tree and the vandal warrior tree you will get the special class battle mage which gives some extra bonuses.

[badgesareus]

I think. I guess it looks a lot more complicated to english speakers than it actually is because you can't read the skill descriptions, tool tips and the Hero panel.

That is certainly the problem. I tried to translate a few things, but as you know, one word (in German or English) might have several different meanings, and choosing the wrong meaning could alter my understanding of whatever I am trying to translate. That is why it is probably best for English speakers to wait for the official English release. Hopefully, the translations will be consistent (i.e., "ausdauer" will always be "stamina" and never "endurance"), and the translations have been tested to be sure they lead to the correct understanding. So I'm sure there are many Germans who could prepare a literal translation of the talents, but there might be connotations that differ from the "official" translation by SureAI, and someone relying on them might have to "unlearn" some of them.

What I'm saying is that if I try to translate a few things for my own use (being impatient and struggling to play the German version), any mistakes will only be my problem, but I wouldn't want anyone else to rely on my translations where they might cause someone else problems. Of course, there may be some (you or others) who can translate with the proper connotations, or maybe the talent descriptions and tool tips are very direct and no translation problems would occur. Maybe I'm just too paranoid!

[Aesir]

Heya, german guy here.

Actually the class system is a big thing in the german part of this forum and I will tell you why in just a bit. Since you seem so eager to have some information about the different classes I decided to give you a quick overview without going into much detail to avoid most of the translation problems. So here we go:

I'm sure most of you saw how the skill menu looks in Enderal and if you didn't it is basically a place where you teleport yourself with 3 groups of stone pillars. Each group stands for a certain main class and those are usual stereotypes mage, warrior and rogue. I use these colors because the pillars ingame are also set apart in this way.

So each group of pillars consists of 3 pillars and the skilltrees are basically carved into the stone so if you want to activate a certain skill you walk up to the stone and activate it by spending on of your talentpoints (earned by leveling up). This of course means that all 3 main classes have 3 sub classes. I will try to translate them as best as I can but the names may be different in the english version. The descriptions should still fit of course.

Vandal: Typical warrior that uses two-handed weapons. Smash some heads!

Guardian: Typical defensive class that utilizes heavy armor and a shield. However, you are also capable of dealing damage by throwing damage you receive back to your enemies and the shield is optional since you can avoid skilling talents that benefit blocking or stuff like that most of the time. Great for combining with other classes.

Bladedancer: Uses one-handed weapons which also includes dual wielding. This however is optional, just as the shield of the guardian.

Elementalist: Want to be an elemental mage throwing out fire, ice and lightning? This is your place.

Thaumaturge: Uses light magic and mentalism which basically means you have a ton of utility like seeing in the dark, detect live or healing yourself. But there are also damage spells to absorb enemy hp for example. Best comparison I got is a priest.

Sinistrop: I don't know how to translate this, so the name is the german one in this case. What you are is basically a dark mage. In terms of gameplay you get all the summoning spells (those include creatues and weapons) and also stuff like mind control and the good old "I hurt you and myself!" kind of spell.

Infiltrator: Be sneaky and stab or shoot people in the back. You even get neat talents that allow you to teleport behind them.

Vagabond: This is the usual tricky rogue. It focuses on light armor and alchemy so your potions and poisons are more effective but you also get some tricks like throwing oil on the ground to let enemies slip.

Rascal: Usual archer class but with some pretty cool talents like arrows that explode! Also, unlike in skyrim, once you put some skill points in here you will most likely never use melee weapons again. Archer purists rejoice!

So that's that! But there is still something that I have to mention and this is also the reason why the class system gets discussed so heavily in the german community right now. Class combinations. The way this works is pretty simple, once you reach level 21 and have at least 10 points in two different skilltrees then those two subclasses will form an entirely new class. You won't get a new skilltree but you will get a bonus specific to this class. However the game won't just simply tell you which two classes are even compatible for this and no not all of them are. But just to be clear in terms of balancing it is in no way needed to get one of these combinations. You can be just as mighty without one but if you get one... you feel pretty cool though!

But this is the point where I will stop explaining how all of this works because finding out which classes can be used for a combination is part of the gameplay. You may find books that give you a hint or meet people that tell you a story of someone with remarkable combat skills. In the german community we are just in the process to collect all these combinations and I will not take that away from you! So anyway... hope this helped and have fun with Enderal once you can play it! It's a blast!

[Fjodik]

Hey Aesir, many thanks for the summary, really appreciated. Yesterday, I installed the Skyrim and eagerly waiting for the release of ENG version. Give me your first impressions, how the game looks like? My main complaints about vanilla game were (i) empty world, (ii) not very interesting story, (iii) level scaling, (iv) not very well placed loot and (v) pretty easy combat. Those who have played Gothic know what I mean

[Aesir]

I guess this goes a bit offtopic in terms of this thread but since you ask here is my opinion on the points you mentioned.

The world is beautiful and has a lot of detail if you pay attention, mainly because of really well written books or messages that you can find. At least for me all the exploring feels better than in skyrim because most of the places on the map have some kind of backstory to them that you can finde. The quality varies of course and it is nowhere close to a Witcher 3 for example but still pretty damn good.

The story of the game is where it really shines. Not even because it has the most exciting plot or the most badass events but because it deals with a lot of social and philosophical topics that are represented by well written characters and awesome dialogs. The german voiceovers are awesome, hope the english are too.

No level scaling in Enderal. Thank god for that.

I don't really know what you mean by badly placed loot but I myself enjoy finding stuff in Enderal, especially since there are set items!

Enderal is harder than Skyrim but not only because of the combat which is still pretty managable depending on your class of course. Money is scarce and you need money to level up your skills but also to get better equipment or spells. There is a lot of decision making involved in this and since you can't really be the "Master of everything"-Dragonborn here, these decisions really do matter and impact your gameplay.

Since you are a gothic fan, just like myself, you will love Enderal. It feels like they took a lot of inspiration from the old Gothics and even improved what they took.

However, back to topic! Didn't want to take over the thread!

[badgesareus]

Regarding combat, occasionally there will be an enemy that is much stronger than most for the area. Enemy AI seems to vary, even within one type of enemy. For example, one troll might just stand still and pound his chest while you shoot arrows at him, another troll will charge you rapidly. And many will pursue you a long distance so running away often won't work:

[+]

while exploring at random I went to the southern desert Myraden station (fast travel site) and entered the nearest dungeon. I knew it would be way over my level, so I thought to grab a fast treasure and run out the exit. It was filled with glowing skeletons, ghosts, etc. Well, they pursued me right out of the dungeon, chased me a long distance and finally surrounded me. I wasn't expecting that!