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The single most useless talent in the game

1
AuthorMessage
Ensign
Mar 10, 2009
21
Two words: Return Fire. IMHO the single most useless talent in the game. Why? Simple: it's hard to dodge a bullet. This talent awards you a bonus attack if a ranged attacker misses you, which in 20 levels has never on ce happened. Ranged attackers have super high accuracy, so even if your companions dodge is high, the chances of return fire working are slim to none. What a shame, my sky owl and chicken ranger both came with it and its never happened. And I don't see it ever happening. I'm trying to save gold now to reset and get rid of this awful talent. Witch hunter is almost as bad, which I've also never seen. Bad call on this talent KI

Brody Ironside
Lvl 40 Musketeer
Ensign
Aug 23, 2009
6
return fire is not that bad. not nearly as bad a witch hunter
Ensign
Feb 07, 2009
4
Return fire worked a couple times for me. Witchhunter has never worked for me. I wouldn't get either one for my companions though.
Bosun
Sep 08, 2008
388
I would agree.

Here is an example of how hard it is to dodge shooty attacks. This comes from my 2 week long excursion fighting the Duck with no Name.

Before I stopped grinding that duck, my dodge was in the 100-110's. I *occasionally* dodged a shooty attack from a non-boss mob, but the Duck with no Name hit me 99% of the time (not counting his Blast shot power). And I was way overleveled at that point, keep that in mind.
Admiral
May 30, 2010
1221
Actually, I've seen return fire work and be quite useful. I've still not figured out what (if anything) is supposed to happen with witch hunter, though.
Ensign
Oct 01, 2010
41
So far, I haven't gotten or tought any of my Musketteer companions Return Fire. The only Musketteer companions i have so far are Bonnie Anne and a Water-mole Slingman. I'm soon to enter the world of Monquista and from the quest rewards list, I believe I'll be getting a Monquista Crossbows-man companion, which would give me 3 Musketteer companions. When Bonnie Anne promoted, I tought her Quick Draw and Burst Fire as her new talents, and they have been a big help in battle. As for Witch Hunter, idk about that one so far. Having only 1 Witchdoctor companion, Old Scratch, who hasn't promoted yet, I wouldn't know much about that talent.

See ye all in the Spiral and Skyways:
Pirate101: Humble Jack Jackson, now lvl 14 Buccaneer
Wizard101: Paul Legenddreamer, lvl 79 death
Jack Legenddreamer, lvl 53 balance
Aedan Legenddreamer, lvl 37 fire
Ensign
Dec 10, 2008
16
While it does seem useless, I'm sorry to tell you that you can't reset away the talent that a companion comes with. It's there to stay. Don't waste your gold/crowns trying.
Ensign
Mar 10, 2009
21
Thanks for the replies, as it turns out crossfire is almost equally as useless. I did some testing with it yesterday. Basically, the companion with this talent has to be flanking an enemy opposite another RANGED companion (or me since i'm a musketeer) Well this is a waste because why would i move to flank just to get crossfire, when ranged attackers cant move and attack at the same time. sigh... The Flanking talent is useful b/c 2 melee attackers can move to flank and also attack. Sad, another somewhat useless talent
Ensign
Oct 01, 2010
41
Buccaneer Jackson on Dec 12, 2012 wrote:
So far, I haven't gotten or tought any of my Musketteer companions Return Fire. The only Musketteer companions i have so far are Bonnie Anne and a Water-mole Slingman. I'm soon to enter the world of Monquista and from the quest rewards list, I believe I'll be getting a Monquista Crossbows-man companion, which would give me 3 Musketteer companions. When Bonnie Anne promoted, I tought her Quick Draw and Burst Fire as her new talents, and they have been a big help in battle. As for Witch Hunter, idk about that one so far. Having only 1 Witchdoctor companion, Old Scratch, who hasn't promoted yet, I wouldn't know much about that talent.

See ye all in the Spiral and Skyways:
Pirate101: Humble Jack Jackson, now lvl 14 Buccaneer
Wizard101: Paul Legenddreamer, lvl 79 death
Jack Legenddreamer, lvl 53 balance
Aedan Legenddreamer, lvl 37 fire
Update:
Got the new companion from Monquista yesterday. I was right of guessing that he's a Monquistan Crossbowman. He comes the with Return Fire ability. I have not used him in battle yet, but I'll see about giving feed back on it when I've experimented with him in battle with his Return Fire ability.
Bosun
Apr 26, 2009
303
Return fire isn't very great and i wish my companions would have come with something different too, but nothing can be done about that. Also, somebody said something about witch hunter? It's first strike for witches, the bison shaman/chiefs shouldn't have it, so i think it is bugged

Dead-eye Luke, Level 50
Lieutenant
Jun 16, 2009
133
My Valencian hermit crab companion has witch hunter, and it does work. Basically, it triggers when someone else uses magic against him. That doesn't happen very often, but it does happen. I have only ever seen return fire work once.
Ensign
Nov 10, 2012
12
Personally, I think Cheap Shot is pretty worthless. Lets think about it, They have both Repel Borders and Cheap Shot, which basically is the same talent. So, why do we need both? They both do exactly the same thing, but Repel Borders seems to work more. So, KI, why not replace Cheap Shot with a new talent of some sort. Also, I agree, Return Fire is pretty useless.

Daring Cody Young - Level 50 Swashbuckler
Gunner's Mate
Jan 06, 2011
228
Trey The Pirate34 on Jan 25, 2013 wrote:
Personally, I think Cheap Shot is pretty worthless. Lets think about it, They have both Repel Borders and Cheap Shot, which basically is the same talent. So, why do we need both? They both do exactly the same thing, but Repel Borders seems to work more. So, KI, why not replace Cheap Shot with a new talent of some sort. Also, I agree, Return Fire is pretty useless.

Daring Cody Young - Level 50 Swashbuckler
Cheap shot is nowhere near worthless and it works in an opposite way to Repel Boarders.
Community Leader
Trey The Pirate34 on Jan 25, 2013 wrote:
Personally, I think Cheap Shot is pretty worthless. Lets think about it, They have both Repel Borders and Cheap Shot, which basically is the same talent. So, why do we need both? They both do exactly the same thing, but Repel Borders seems to work more. So, KI, why not replace Cheap Shot with a new talent of some sort. Also, I agree, Return Fire is pretty useless.

Daring Cody Young - Level 50 Swashbuckler
Woah...
Repel Boarders, and Cheap Shot are very different.

Cheap Shot triggers when a mob moves away from the character.

Repel Boarders triggers when mobs move into the vacinity of a character.

They have 100% opposite functionality, nowhere near the same.

In regards to other comments... I dont disagree.
Most useful Muskateer talents seem to be: Burst Fire, and Double Tap.
Dr Zeppers (aka Silent Sam Stern)
Piratey parodies I like to make.
I be a crazy pirate for goodness sake!
Artist & Admin of Skull Island TV
Ensign
Dec 15, 2012
18
Dr Zeppers on Jan 25, 2013 wrote:
Woah...
Repel Boarders, and Cheap Shot are very different.

Cheap Shot triggers when a mob moves away from the character.

Repel Boarders triggers when mobs move into the vacinity of a character.

They have 100% opposite functionality, nowhere near the same.

In regards to other comments... I dont disagree.
Most useful Muskateer talents seem to be: Burst Fire, and Double Tap.
burst fire and double tap are the best talents ever
Admiral
Nov 23, 2011
1407
On my musketeer, I find that Return Fire is fairly useful; I tend to go for clothes, charms, etc. that emphasize Dodge over hit points, and he does dodge incoming fire moderately often - and when he does, he almost always shoots back. It isn't my favorite Talent, admittedly. My melee characters/crew with riposte use it far more often. For companions, Return Fire is a weak one since their Dodge, at any given level, seems to be too low to effectively dodge fire. My crazy Monquiston crossbowman has almost never dodged and returned fire (on the other hand, that crazy little guy never misses, so I guess fair's fair).

Withchunter, especially on a melee character, is only going to have infrequent chances to trigger, and in my experience rarely triggers when it could. In my experience, it is considerably weaker than Return Fire.

-Michael
Admiral
May 30, 2010
1221
OK, having seen all other talents actually work, I have to go with Witchdoctor as the single most useless (and utterly worthless) talent in the spiral. It has never triggered, whether my monquistor is directly next to the spell caster who is actually casting something on him, or a few squares away. Has anyone seen it on their side and do they know what if anything is supposed to happen?

Once I saw it used by an opponent. Somehow that seemed triply annoying for some reason, when it never ever triggers for Bernardo.
Community Leader
Fiorenza Rosanante... on Jan 26, 2013 wrote:
OK, having seen all other talents actually work, I have to go with Witchdoctor as the single most useless (and utterly worthless) talent in the spiral. It has never triggered, whether my monquistor is directly next to the spell caster who is actually casting something on him, or a few squares away. Has anyone seen it on their side and do they know what if anything is supposed to happen?

Once I saw it used by an opponent. Somehow that seemed triply annoying for some reason, when it never ever triggers for Bernardo.
I assume you mean "Witch Hunter" and I will say I've never seen this one proc in my favor. I've seen enemies who activate this one against me, though.
Host of the Talkin' the Plank Podcast, where we talk about Pirate 101 every Friday!
Ensign
Oct 14, 2012
10
Here's my opinion about return fire:

I see return fire almost everyday! The weird thing is, with my luck, my Musketeer companions with return fire almost never do it. I've seen it two or three times (not counting when my enemies do it) and almost every time it misses.

I've noticed that enemies with return fire are always dodging my Musketeer companions' attacks, and they almost always succeed with it. I guess it's helpful for their side, but I seriously think that KingsIsle should change this.

Cassandra Quinn, Level 25 Swashbuckler
Community Leader
Counterspell, the witchdoctors equivalent to Return Fire, is far more worthless, lol.

I have taken several pirates through the game so far (closed beta and live), and have yet to see it trigger... a single time.
Dr Zeppers (aka Silent Sam Stern)
Piratey parodies I like to make.
I be a crazy pirate for goodness sake!
Artist & Admin of Skull Island TV
Admiral
Nov 23, 2011
1407
I am not sure I have ever seen any of my lot cast it. Not that the companions that have it are in my front ranks, of course.
Petty Officer
Jun 29, 2011
50
gtippett on Dec 9, 2012 wrote:
Two words: Return Fire. IMHO the single most useless talent in the game. Why? Simple: it's hard to dodge a bullet. This talent awards you a bonus attack if a ranged attacker misses you, which in 20 levels has never on ce happened. Ranged attackers have super high accuracy, so even if your companions dodge is high, the chances of return fire working are slim to none. What a shame, my sky owl and chicken ranger both came with it and its never happened. And I don't see it ever happening. I'm trying to save gold now to reset and get rid of this awful talent. Witch hunter is almost as bad, which I've also never seen. Bad call on this talent KI

Brody Ironside
Lvl 40 Musketeer
Um my emmet gets hit in PVP by Bonnie Anne, when she uses Burst Fire she hits again, (I got my Emmet 2 True Grits) and when she uses her second Burst Fire, she misses. So, if she was doing that because of quick draw, Emmet does his originally planned attack, True Grit, True Grit again, then he uses Return Fire. SO, it does work. Plus, I've seen Old Scratch in the Hoodoo Cave or whatever it's called keep using that Witch Hunter.
Ensign
Nov 10, 2012
12
KiwiChickenz on Jan 25, 2013 wrote:
Cheap shot is nowhere near worthless and it works in an opposite way to Repel Boarders.
Well, for me, Cheap Shot never works. I would replace it for my companions, if I could. The only one i gave Cheap Shot to was Subodai, and I regret doing that. But, I do realize it is different from Repel Boarders in the fact that Cheap Shot is for when someone leaves, and Repel Boarders is coming in.
Ensign
Jun 06, 2009
16
I think the most useless talent is immbolized. I still don't understand what it does. I never see it used and when it is used, it doesn't do anything but say imbollized.
Admiral
Nov 23, 2011
1407
While cheap shot is not one of the better ones, I do see it trigger moderately often.

Although, now that I think about it, I usually see it when playing my Witchdoctor, who always runs with a Privateer, so it may come up more because there twice as many of us and twice as many of the baddies, so there is a lot more running around from target to target, which means more chances for cheap shot to trigger.

-Michael
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