Avowed - Skill Trees Breakdown

[@Not.A.Heretic]

i'm so excited to explore more of the world of areola

[@barnstar2077]

Iv'e explored some areola in my time, and never felt my time was wasted! ; )

[@Ser-me9wi]

Real classic rpg is incoming

[@Oroku_Sensei]

Ahhh areola. A fantastical land located at the center of the fabled Double Seas. Some folks claim that they're a place of myth, but a brave and lucky few swear they've been there. Who knows the truth?

[@deeznutz57]

The bigger aerola is the better

[@muhammadiskanderov8923]

Areola lmao

[@Dravakar]

I really don't get why they cut the Cipher. Imo, the Cipher always was the most fitting PoE class. Considering how much the story focuses around souls and Cipher is the soul manipulation class. And i think, a mind/soulbending class with a focus on damage over time would have fit perfectly in a game like this. I think the devs missed out here.

[@Quaranyr]

I heard somewhere that they wanted to (mostly?) limit skills to things one can learn. Ciphers are born, not made, so they don't fit.

[@dominikbehrendt1934]

While I'll also miss playing as a Cypher, I think it'd be hell to balance in an action game centered mainly on a single main character. Many Crowd Control abilities would probably either completely useless or overpowered (depending on the hit/miss system) while hit scan ranged attacks and DoT effects would either trivialize the game or be incredibly frustrating to play (i.e. apply DoT from stealth and run away/in a circle).

[@erictrinque6513]

my guess is, they believe that players in an action game would not really be interested in a crowd control class. It makes sense on paper but the cipher had some baller single target attacks and effects

[@LightningRaven42]

I think it was more of a technical compromise. Honestly, to play a Chanter, I think that they could've leaned really hard on a action-rhythm game like Hi-Fi Rush, Metal: Hellsinger or BPM. That could create a very fitting and unique experience, but I think it would demand too much from a game that's supposed to lean far more on the RPG side than action. Not to mention that these rhythm games often offer that as the main mechanic. It would be really sick, though.

[@gipsymelody1268]

More likely they minimized the cost to maximizing the income! 😁 They cut off most of the classes…

[@AmbigousInfluence]

One thing to note is how, outside of a few skills with links between them, the upgrades seem level based rather than tree based. This suggests that you can actually select skills very freely between the three trees in making you build, never really "locking in" to a path.

[@cardassa]

Having a third person pov considerably increases my inteterest in checking this game out. Curious to see how dual wield melee looks in the game.

[@faruqakmal1146]

The lack of ability variety of fighter and ranger could be improved by adding weapons with active skills. Pillars have them, I don't see avowed can't have them

[@Blasted2Oblivion]

I will absolutely ditch my spells and shells plan if the talking sword from poe2 pops back up. She was great.

[@ronuss]

there are weapons that have on effects. It has been said in interviews, weapons give new skills, so there might be something there for melee builds.

[@TheHeartThatRunsCold]

Effects, or active skills, because there's a big difference between those two things.

[@junkyChunk]

In the stream, they did say there is an item that boosts unarmed damage and can be upgraded. I guess unarmed will be viable somewhat, but may still need other range type solutions.

[@JR-rv8ww]

The skill tree doesn't seem very deep. That's disappointing

[@ExcessumGaming]

Im worried about that to

[@trevglorious4561]

Glad to hear positive news about the monk. I was worried there because the original pillars of Eternity is the whole reason I love unarmed fighting in every game I play.

[@DrChaos-jb3sp]

Its a shame theres no sort of rage mechanic thats implemented. Getting barbarian in there through a few nice talents would be sweet. Just add frenzy from Pillars to the Fighter tree and they're already 70% of the way there.

[@PandaStyle07]

5 skills each and only fire spells of the higher tier for wizards is kinda crazy, out of the box I think that's the first thing that needs improvement, idk how replayable the game will be otherwise

[@tmoon4596]

im thinking maybe more of the spells will just be locked behind grimoires.

[@cmike123]

@@tmoon4596 even so, unlocking a spell and having it in your grimoire will make it 1 level more powerful. Unless that specific skill is capped, it is automatically the highest level skill in the game (outside of the utility spell). That feels like an unforced error.

[@cmike123]

This was the first problem that I noticed. They should have some representation for all 4 elements in the top tier, or make all of the top tier spells utility.

[@tahnadana5435]

in deadfire, I did a playthrough of a wizard that could transform into a giant brute combine with a monk that do drug use to extend all buff points

[@derella]

The Cipher not being in the game is so disappointing. It's by far the most interesting class in the setting.

[@DarckaX]

Im pretty sure it has to be one of the most played after the fighter. To me the cipher is one of the classes that differentiate poe from other crpgs

[@carlosschlyter]

Cipher and Chanter missing is so sad!

[@TL582j]

Very disappointing. I didn't even think it was an option that Cipher wouldn't be included. Such a cool class.

[@Mushin-jq3vw]

I sure do hate little magic missile gun wands, but I sure do like grimoires

[@alexandrejesus8709]

Blood magic + thougness +constant recovery here I go

[@SyperDT]

My thoughts exactly.

[@alexandrejesus8709]

@SyperDT seems to be a good combo, but we will see, can we weild two grimoire? 🤣

[@ronuss]

I love that Avowed kinda uses the ideas of grimorie's from poe1 style. It will make finding new ones mix up ur build which is always nice, keeps things interesting. I think there gonna be some pretty cool builds you can come up with if you think more about having two weapon sets work together well. The obvious one is going to be melee and range build, but if you can use one to buff up ur other weapon set or debuff then swich to ur dps setup, should be some cool stuff to play around with.

[@grijnskat]

The spell names are missing certain, important parts. May Minoletta have mercy with you, Obsidian.

[@TheR6R6R]

Yeah. Going through the Wael DLC in PoE 2 made me appreciate the worldbuilding behind the spells, especially Tayn. Sad the names were cut.

[@TheArthek]

Thank you for the deep dive Looks disappointingly shallow Monk and Barbarian reduced to single perk picks in the fighter tree? I don't trust them to make it viable or meaningfully different, especially with how dull the combat in Outer Worlds was Maybe the action gameplay will compensate for the lack of depth but I'm not paying $70 on a bet like that

[@FieserMoep]

Never a fan of a skill system that differentiates so much between weapon types. "Oh, I found this cool epic Warhammer, well, respec and basically put all my points where they were before, just this damage boost now goes here." 2 Hours later. "Well, found this legendary one handed sword, guess I respec again to give it a try and put every point where it was, except the damage boost" 1 Hour later. "Damn, now they throw this legendary greatsword at me? Well, respec it is I guess."

[@rupertmcbutters1748]

It's kind of a weird shift for Pillars. For instance, one of my favorite Ranger abilities in Deadfire is Driving Flight, which bounces EVERY ranged attack whether it's from a bow, wand, or gun. Now Bounce is only for wands. There will probably be different weapons with similar bounce effects, but it was cool to bounce certain ranged weapons or add an additional bounce to those already-special weapons.

[@scalpingsnake]

Nice, they was surprisingly a lack of deep dives of what we have seen so far for this game. This is exactly what I wanted to see :D

[@cykablyat3680]

3 main skill trees is dissapointing, especially after having playied poe 2 wich had a lot of classes and subclasses

[@takkik282]

It would be fine... if the game was low price. It feel very low budget game. Sad to see what happened to Obsidian. They can't even bring back all poe classes. They took the 3 most generic classes.

[@53021417]

especially for 70 dollars game.

[@pendantblade6361]

Monkbros we lost ... But hey Fighter is there still.

[@brunonascimento3173]

Maybe they make a DLC with that class or a secret class How knows?

[@SentinelFury]

We all lost. Pretty disappointed in these skill trees.

[@bastiwen]

I'm sad they got rid of so many classes, many that were my favorites too. I hope the game is still good

[@NotMeButAnother]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but have you considered making videos about more general design topics? Skill trees are a personal focus of mine, and I'd be interested in what you as a specialist for CRPGs and TRPGs which tend to have fairly deep character building consider to be features of good skill trees/character building systems.

[@MortismalGaming]

Not currently, but never say never

[@yorgoskaleas2321]

I am drooling over this game!!! It's one, if not the most anticipated game of 2025

[@benshort9071]

This reminds me of KoA:Reckoning, which I liked! Never played PoE games, probably will get both and play through them before picking this up. Maybe that’ll change my perspective but as of now I’m pretty excited (to buy the game when it’s on sale lol $70-$90 is crazy for me).

[@TheR6R6R]

Ah! Kingdoms of Amalur. Now that's a title I haven't played in a long, long time. I wonder what became of the devs.

[@theobell2002]

@@TheR6R6R Well, the studio went bankrupt because of Curt Schilling's poor management. THQ Nordic bought the IP in 2018. It got a remaster with a brand new DLC called Fatesworn.

[@crimsonmememaster4382]

Thank you for showing off the skills. Already have build ideas floating about.

[@CookCaramier]

I wont be nitpicking. A well made 1ps action rpg game is an instant buy for me.

[@LemonGingerHoney]

Thank you for covering this game. I launched BNet recently and saw it available there. 69.99 money seems a bit too expensive. Maybe I'll wait for the discount. But it's really strange, when you mention that druid forms would be too expensive to animate and etc. The game costs a lot already and from listening to you, I get the vibe it's missing a quite a lot of core things from Pillars universe.

[@oourdumb]

it'll be on gamepass

[@lvsoad22]

@@oourdumbmost people would rather buy their games and play them whenever they want

[@LemonGingerHoney]

​@@oourdumb but it's a temporary thing, right? Like it will only be available "for free" for four or so months?

[@justablindman1443]

​@@LemonGingerHoneyno ms own obsidian so the game stays on gamepass for as long gamepass exists, so forever tbh

[@LemonGingerHoney]

@@justablindman1443 sounds nice.

[@Jasta85]

Just what I wanted to see, I'm a chanter lover and was sad when they said it would be out, but I've been curious about what would be in game. I'm usually a caster by default but if the melee combat feels good I might got for a hybrid build with heavy armor and the occasional high impact spell in between lots of melee attacks.

[@CaptainDarianFrey]

No chanter or cipher? Buhhhh….those were the most interesting Basically the just didd the boring warrior/rogue/mage trifecta…

[@primate90]

Just about to sleep. Opened bro's video. His voice is like a lullaby to my ears...

[@DarkbblueIntoDepth]

The numbers of skills in different trees seem not balanced... wired

[@Joe-qc7wt]

Damn, I knew they would cut monk heavily

[@uunikaulus]

Gotta say, the Ranger and Warrior skill trees are really disappointing. Very limited amount of choice and there's really no different builds. Sad to see this.

[@nessoak621]

Seems kind of similar to the recent Dragon Age game in that it's more of an "rpg-lite" type game. There's a few choices to make, but not very many.

[@bael5397]

Seems like I can essentially just build my Pillars wizards again. I was going to go wizard either way but this is great.

[@gesto211]

This game keeps looking better and better. I've gone from "eh... might check it out" passive interest to "I'm really looking forward to playing this!" in the past week.

[@lanthelancer]

I hope this game is available on Steam Deck.

[@laytonc1]

Everything I see about the game gives off the vibe off " Lets not be ambitious " out of all the marketing I have seen, I still don't see what the games things is lol. Like whats the big thing I should be excited for from this game

[@nessoak621]

Yeah it looks like another 7/10. I'll still play it, but it's clearly not as good as it could have been.

[@TheHeartThatRunsCold]

Which is the exact problem the outer worlds had. Beat for beat.

[@AlexConnor_]

Game Pass ftw.

[@seb24789]

I'd rather have a Tyranny 2 than Pillars 3. I tried playing Pillars a few times but it just won't click with me. But this one looks fun, so maybe it helps me getting into the series better.

[@beethovenlivesupstairs4182]

Tyranny ain't coming back.

[@rupertmcbutters1748]

Thanks! This is much nicer than spamming pause on other people's recorded footage.

[@Violinoknight]

They should have gone all more unique classes for something fresh. It'd be so nice to play chanter but I'll take what I can get I guess.

[@P_Taters]

Godlike? Finally a videogame that represents me.

[@043Tarzan]

I’m really bummed about the lack of Druid and Paladin. Fury Druid from POE2 was really unique and my favorite

[@princeniccolo8299]

Having all the most interesting POE class options not in this game is a massive buzz kill.

[@jesperburns]

I just learned this game wasn't made by Josh Sawyer (who made Pillars).

[@lostadventurer68]

The lack of cipher and chanter alongside taking the archmages names out of their spells makes me feel like they’ve lost some of that unique Pillars identity.

[@wolfhowllionheart9367]

Am okay with not massive skill tree like poe etc ,enough to play around with is good instead of being over blown

[@notCalle]

One of the things that got me hooked on CRPGs, playing the original Bard's Tale series way back when, was the sense of wonder I got from the names scattered across the spell lists. Those spells were not just game mechanic effect names, but invented by a named character in the world, fragments of a story about that person though the level progression of spells they invented. And by doing that lent a sense of wonder to all the just a game mechanic effect name spells --- who invented those, and why don't we remember? Pillars brought all that back, something I didn't know I had been missing. Sad to see those tiny details, that did so much heavy lifting for my imagination, stripped away. But it's fine, I'll still know their names, even if my Avowed characters will never.

[@Rhuowave]

Knowing that unarmed hasn’t been abandoned relieves a lot of my worries. I’ll still miss spiritshifting but I expected that to be to much resources to justify. Being able to go all in on the fighter tree making something like an unarmed barb fighter multiclass from deadfire will be perfectly fine for me.

[@Morden97]

Wizard looks like a lot of fun

[@tobiasL1991]

I am/was hoping for some chanter spells, as those could be just summons or buffs, and those shouldn't take more work other than just building the code...

[@sebastiang.5032]

I fear this game will tank brutally against the seemingly very strong lineup of games coming in February of 2025. But I'm very intrigued by it.

[@bosskey23]

I’m 50/50 on this game. The enemy types look boring. But I’ll still tryout the game.

[@MasoTrumoi]

I think if the skills really have a strong effect on the basic movement and attacking styles, similar to the one you mentioned where it adds a stomp to your jump, then this is more than enough. If by the end of it I can be a ranger darting around super fast, jumping and stomping and kicking people off cliffs, pulling off sweet tricks then I'll be satisfied.

[@Xxxkiller101]

they really did bring in some of the other class abilities into the 4 class available

[@nonexistent4177]

First can only choose the most generic of fantasy racial groups. Human, or human with pointy ears. Could have at least allowed for dwarf. Secondly, the class trees seem awful limiting and generic. No cipher, no paladin? Just basic wizard, archer, and burly guy with plank of wood and a metal pokey stick? Even the skills seem kinda generic. I think I will put this one on the "not interested until really big discount."

[@Ukayeah]

Damn, flurry of blows is in the ranger tree 😢, but i think I can build a stronk or something like this, the akimbo flurry will probably be the meta too, just like in Deadfire.

[@Kiboune_YT]

And this is why you are my favourite RPG reviewer!

[@Phantus00]

Looks a bit like that Tainted Grail game, just not as dark.

[@DaRatier]

Can say I am torn on why game style to play, though currently magic, ranged and stealth appeals a lot. Wonder if a mage gunslinger can be viable, yet the books and wands stand out for being truly unique too. Overall though this is a great breakdown on the skill trees which sounds far more interesting to how Skyrim did things. Most of these skills seem to reward proper abilities over pure numeral boosts to damage and the like. Can't wait to see more content though!

[@christianjacobs3090]

Of the 2 "melee classes, ranger definitely sounds like the more jack of all trades useful.

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Thank you for the coverage!

[@rephlax]

First person melee looks so clunky omg.

[@Blasted2Oblivion]

I don't know that I have ever played a first person game where the melee looked good. How it actually feels when using it matters a lot more in my opinion though.

[@benjaminrichard1979]

@@Blasted2Oblivion Vermintide series has the best feeling regarding melee combat in my experience.

[@markt7177]

You have me excited for it. I didn’t want fallout to change to action but it turned out great I hope this does too. 🎉

[@niklasberggren4919]

It's kinda sad to see them do to PoE what Bethesda did to Fallout, more or less just turning a fantastic RPG into an FPS. I'm still mildly positive though as they're not calling this PoE3, leaving a smidgeon of a possibility to see it in the future and Sawyer has expressed interest in making it.

[@theobell2002]

The issue isn't that Fallout was turned into an "FPS". The issue is that they dumbed down the writing and RPG elements.

[@harktischris]

my hope is that for potential DLC they also unlock a new tree. it would be great to get new content that also adds a cipher tree, for example.

[@kaidorade1317]

Oh man the more I see this game the more I want to play it

[@jaihynds1095]

I really hope the world building, story and writing is good in this because the combat seems very average from what we have seen

[@Wesleyy-87]

I have to make a choice between Avowed and Kingdom Come deliverance 2 in February. Tough choice.

[@ael4n]

Aww, it looks like they don't put an Archmage's name on some of the spells they authored anymore. I really like the flavor that came with that.

[@acolyte1951]

Imagine seeing a *Dwarf Chanter* or an *Orlan Paladin* in the Living Lands while being limited to a Godlike human/elf fighter/wizard o_o

[@weslawrence888]

Not having Cipher and chanter is enough for me to give a skip. Not big on first/third person games like this to begin with, and not having my favorite classes from PoE just doesn't make me excited at all

[@bobrown4609]

I suspect they wanted this to be the “wizard” game, but didn’t want to put people off by saying so. Seems much of the depth is is mixing wizard with other things, and not choosing one tree. I’m happy with that.

[@GabrielMaciel-tr9kl]

Great video.

[@randyb4191]

I think I'm gonna play KCD 2 this February and wait on a avowed, I'm entirely sold on it yet.

[@SaintxNio]

Is the Avowed the only game(currently?) that lets you hold a wand in one hand and a blicky in the other? 😅

[@MortismalGaming]

afaik lol

[@Blasted2Oblivion]

I find myself wondering how much of the skill trees we can actually unlock. If there is a level cap or a max amount of skill points or something that prevents unlocking everything.

[@MortismalGaming]

Devs said you can't unlock everything but I wasn't given a specific max level

[@jepeman]

A lot of the skills don't seem to have a pre-requisite besides char level, as such, could you just pick wizard skills 1-14 and then at level 15 pick up bear from ranger tree? Regarding respec, I assume the game still tracks the level of skill points gained, so you can't just respec at level 20 and then spend all your points exclusively on level 20 skills?

[@MortismalGaming]

As far as I am aware, yes

[@drkmgic]

im so excited for this game

[@ryanpereslugoffdekojary5953]

You're spoiling us

[@el8901]

I loved a mage ranger arcane shadow archer let gooo

[@intogrey2038]

Monk does not even look like and option just unarmed…

[@hammermandan8264]

I’m probably gonna spec entirely into wizard

[@derxilian1186]

Honestly, I was really sad after hearing the names of the Wizardspells. In Pillars 1+2 they had this nice idea of naming the spells after those archmages who invented it. We had Concelhaut, Minoletta and so on. It did not have any deeper meaning, it was just a nice little piece of lore, which they easily could have kept in Avowed. But NO. They just had to streamline it. Because casual gamers could be confused a single second before reading the description. Meh.

[@kingjabon]

I want this game to succeed. I really do, but it looks so bland. I've found myself having no excitement for it. I wish they would have made a pillars 3

[@clifcorcoran9917]

Skilled KZbin Jazz 🎶

[@FirstLast-ks6vm]

Real shame there is no paladin anything at all, I was very much looking forward to making a Bleak Walker.

[@foureyeddragon9376]

As a wizard main, it's bit disappointing by the limited amount of spells you have. Half of them are just elemental attacks. No Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage, no Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, no Ironskin etc. I hope that you can get unique grimoires with equally unique spells to help spice things up in the magic department.

[@bakuiel1901]

I would also have preferred POE3 but this is the next best thing, at least something in the IP and it looks to be fun so far

[@Leviticus_Cornw4ll]

Going to have to resist the urge to not play as a stealth archer again

[@Wombats555]

If the game is going to be this dense it's better to get it right for 4 classes than half arsing it for...11? If we actually but their game this time we can have more :)

[@annmester2740]

Really sad at the loss of cypher and enchanter, but the other skills will be fun

[@ARAFELI]

What the max lvl? At lvl 15 we get the ability to summon a bear...

[@MortismalGaming]

Not sure, they were a little noncommittal about it, just said you wouldn't be able to get everything

[@ARAFELI]

@MortismalGaming what is your thoughts about the lvling? Does it feel like we will get new skills and lvl fast or it's a slow burner like bg3 or older pillars?

[@MortismalGaming]

@@ARAFELI I only played the first area so I wouldn't really know

[@ydenko]

guys i'm feeling hype, please be good game

[@johnsnow5125]

as far as I'm concerned, it can only be better than Veilguard. Even if it just ends up being fantasy Outer MehWorlds

[@neondystopian]

I'm not trusting this game. I don't know what it is, but I will certainly feel better after you have played through the entire thing, just to be sure.

[@DrukenReaps]

Not having anything of Cipher and Chanter feels like they did themselves a disservice by not having 2 of the most unique ideas presented in the classes of Pillars... The chosen design path seems good but nothing unique to the setting.

[@nwahally]

That is a a bit of a shame. My "canonial" MC in Pillars is a Cipher and I always felt that this class and its lore had a special connection to the fabric of what made the world of Eora stick out from stereotypical fantasy. Still reasonably excited for Avowed, but that feels like an enormous amount of wasted potential.

[@MaximilianBrosche]

I Just Hope it will Work well with UEVR

[@coconutologist]

Thanks for the video. Comment is unrelated. I recently learned about "Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven" are you tracking that, or planning a First Impression? Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.

[@MortismalGaming]

No current plans, I'm too busy as it is

[@rupertmcbutters1748]

Tons of speculation cuz I'm lonely: I'm curious how Flurry of Blows works. Is "maximum attack speed" the fastest for that weapon type, or is it just making a greathammer swing as quickly as the fastest weapon? I guess greathammers wouldn't be optimal for someone so heavily invested into Ranger anyways, but hopefully I'm wrong since the two-handed melee damage perk is only in the first tier of the Fighter tree. With so much verticality in exploration, I hope there are many opportunities to knock enemies off tall ledges with Grimoire Slam or Shield Bash. The inclusion of Power Jump is giving me hope. Though I'll be looking for cool stat synergies between "classes," I may do a simple build for throwing enemies around and awing over their ragdoll physics. How does the game define "non-lethal fall damage" for Power Jump? is such a height the same for all characters, or is it based on whether the fall would have done enough damage to your health bar to kill you? It'd be funny for Toughness and other health buffs to improve the distance you can fall without damage. I wonder if accumulations scale with their activating abilities' damage or criticals. Would Bleeding Cut be nastier on a Ranger/Fighter with high crit dmg and crit chance, or would it be a quantity over quality thing for applying stacks? If I felt like maximizing my stun for Parasitic Staff and wand blasts, would I prioritize Might or Dex? Oh, and regarding the Bounce passive, do wands' stuns count as "elemental accumulation?" 19:48 Holy crap, a Paladin ability! XD Overall, I'm a little disappointed over the depth for the RPG side of combat, but the action half looks better every time. I'm just glad they retained speech checks regarding attributes and backgrounds. I may not always feel like using a spreadsheet for combat, but I'll always be in the mood for a story with player agency and strong roleplay. I'll probably play a Wizard who black holes people before slapping them with blast wands or an explosive staff/pike, a mostly pacifistic stealth ranger with high mental attributes for speech checks, or a Fighter with an addiction to spartan kicking people off ledges.

[@ReasonbyNight]

So sad about the pricing. This is my most awaited release 2025 next to Bloodlines 2, but its just too expensive.

[@EmperorDxD]

That's the average price for game's

[@johannesschmitz6370]

these are release prices. Btw dont hold high hopes for Bloodlines 2. It will be nothing like 1

[@ReasonbyNight]

@@EmperorDxD Aha.

[@BirdieDev]

It's on game pass

[@ReasonbyNight]

@BirdieDev And what does that change?