Level 150 Roguery is actually really good. It makes it so if your balance of power is higher than any bandit party, they'll always join you. Unlimited men power.
@@theonordlund1823 there is a certain skill where you can turn looters into regular units, i'd say it's quite useful if you have that skill that I just mentioned combined with the roguery one.
Even better, if you have the perk but they outnumber you, you can pay them off and then immediately reengage them and they will offer to join! It is only disabled when they attack you, so any other dialogue option will let them join. So feel free to run around solo and look for the biggest group of bandits :D
Most of your D (and C) tier skills have a "hurdle" that they have to get over before they are useful or even really able to get XP. Scouting requires you to see the tracks before you get XP, so at level 1 you almost never get any XP (because you dont see tracks/hideouts) while when you are above 150 you can gain 1 level per day just by following your factions main army. Same kind of thing for engineering, as at low levels it takes forever to build even the siege camp, at high levels you can build trebs very quickly and spam out levels. Smithing is tough at the beginning since you know almost no parts, and you have shit stamina. Tactics and medicine both kind of force you to "lose" battles in order to gain their XP, but both end up being incredibly useful. I really hope that in the future that Taleworlds implement some sort of new system to either bridge these hurdles or give you legitimate ways to earn XP in the desired skills
once smithing is maxed as well, you can literally break the economy by selling high quality weapons. I do agree that smithing can be a bit tedious though. You can arguably always focus on the endurance tree in any playthrough, as riding, athletics and smithing are great skill trees to max. Smithing also has one of the few 'focus tree increase' levels. which is incredible.
Allow the PC to enlist one companion as a tutor or something, to slowly teach them a chosen skill at a rate determined by the companions skill level - realistically this is how you would get started.
There's one huge reason for taking Scouting on your main character, and it's Keen Sight. When paired up with Mounted Patrols from Riding skill tree, it allows you to bring enemy lord escape chance down to 0%, and I don't need to tell you how valuable that can be. And yes, it's for party leader, not for assigned scout. You can get the skill with only 3CNG and 5FP, and you will probably have more than enough, since the perk is way more valuable when death is disabled, and players will probably pick up higher ages in this mode. After that, you can still hire and level up a dedicated scout companion if you want to use Uncanny Insight on your armies.
Not anymore. Though 50 siege, 25 roguery and Mounted Patrols give - 95% reduction for prisoners escape in towns for a governor, which still is not 100%, but it's best it can get now
Smithing should allow you to improve/change existing weapon and armour stats, within reason obviously but for example improving cut damage etc perhaps another needs to drop as one increases. Likewise altering weight/protection on armoured pieces.
It would also be cool if as the Smith of your party, if you could cause all of your party to do a little bit more damage due to their weapons being well maintained.
@@ecargfosreya I could see damage and defense being increased but also morale- if your Smith makes sure all of your gear fits right, is sharpened and weighted properly etc, you're gonna be a hell of a lot more confident!
@@JB-xl2jc I kind of wish armor would act more like it doesn't mount and blade Viking conquest where heavy armor really increases some stats but then decreases your movement and so on whereas light armor the smaller improvement but doesn't decrease your speed of maneuverability
I haven't played the game in a while, but unless it's been changed, it is ridiculously easy to level up Roguery by doing jailbreaks for lords. It's ideal to do it early on before you swear fealty to a kingdom or make your own. Just go to the borders of two factions that are at war and see if they have anyone in a castle's dungeon. High Roguery works well in tandem with Leadership because you will eventually be able to recruit prisoners with no morale loss and you'll be able to promote bandit units into prestige units. Laugh at your enemy as you turn Forest Bandits into Battanian Fians and Mountain Bandits into Vlandian Banner Knights.
Renown is pretty hard to come by as a trader so that makes it so much easier. Can basically sit in a town while my workshops and caravans makes me around 500-1000 gold a day and gain renown as well. Trade is OP as fuck.
@@ivartheboneless5969 I am very late to the party, getting that caravan perk plus 5 loyalty and 5 security from other trees means you can actually "govern" a city while doing nothing. In campaign mode you can send your entire family caravaning, cheese the takeover of a town and be filthy rich after a few seasons without moving a finger. I just recall the wives for "private business" and there is a bun in the oven they get sent on their merry way to do more caravaning.
i agree with the list specially because, as you pointed out the skills in tier D and C are not there because they are bad, but because its so hard or tedious to level or lacking gameplay mechanichs to make them shine altough, i believe and hope those are things to come in the future! And i 100% think there should be more companions roles in the party and overall companions need a few more things added to them like for example when you use one as governor or caravan leader he wont take space in your clan so you can recruit others. Really enjoyed the vid stay safe brother!
I like crossbows for seiges. The ability to prep a shot under cover, then move out and fire can be key. Seige defense with ammunition barrels, in particular, offsets the quiver amount differential with longbows.
Honestly, the skill I cannot live without in Bannerlord are these: Smithing, Steward (party size and efficiency), Leadership (moral), Bow (long distance kills), Riding (mobility of army, I use mostly empire cavalry cataphracts and bucelaris), Polearm (melee cavalry buffs), Tactics (battle advantage) and than one handed and Trading at least at 125 (for workshop maintenance and melee efficiency). Other stuff can be countered with companions and even smithing can be done by companion but I like the buffs it gives for character development. :)
Well done on the disclaimer, put so well. This is great for discussion so people can talk about it and help people learn the game. Every comment here can help others know just a bit more so they can help know what they can do, Well done Sparty
I have characters that specialized in most things, but my most op character (in realistic) is a Battanian that focuses on tactics, blacksmithing, and scouting. Being able take on army size much bigger with auto resolve, this allows you to just recruit anything that comes your way without being limited to faction troops based on their strength. Crossbow has a perk deep in if you love ranged high tier army. Half price for ranged troop with half price from steward makes them free, stack more reduction and your units pays you to stay in your party. Scouting is extremely important, the final ultimate perk at 275 only works on the MC instead of companions, allowing your party to move 10% faster which is borderline broken. Smithing isn't only just for abusing money, I use smithing for every companion to abuse exp gain. You get a shit ton of exp to character level, allowing you and your companions to get attribute and focus points really quickly.
There is no slogging through early levels in smiting - skill gain directly corelates to money gain. If you are doing it efficiently (using companions to help, doing it in a town with abundant hardwood and picking right skills) it is the fastest skill line to level by far. If you are lucky to get good parts early, you can go from 0 to hero instantly.... and become filthy rich in same time... and use your products to bribe enemy lords in war. It is still S tie even after 1.7 nerf.
yeah i don't think he realizes you can pop a masterwork proc on a weapon and it ends up becoming a national treasure that lets you bankrupt a town in one sell button, and you can print 20 of them
I've gotten like 300k gold in 10-15 days focusing smithing, haha. This guy doesn't know~ I do consider it almost a form of cheating though, It's wayyyyy too OP and kinda robs some of the fun out of the game. Why do anything else?
re: Polearms being weak in sieges-- I find this is easily solvable by smithing a swing style polearm with short range that you only equip before siege or hideout battles. You can make the equivalent of a strong 2-hander and still keep your perk benefits.
@@eannane8712 Max length is great for horseback drive-by play but I find that a medium length, swing-style polearm is better even from horseback if you're getting in the thick of things and trying to kill more than 1 person per pass. -- If you're on foot, something around 120 or 125 is perfect. You still outrange a lot of common weapons but can swing fast (depending on your chosen head) and don't get caught on walls.
i really dont get it also, polearm range is awesome for killing ppl climbing ladders and hitting over your troops heads for insane damage. And youre right with short range polearms, theyre way underestimated, those things hit like a truck.
Even longer polearms work in sieges, depending on what you do. Personally I almost never get off my horse. I snipe the enemy archers on the walls when my troops are ramming the entrance and when the entrance is open I ride into the castle/town and just cause havoc in there on horseback. AI is pretty stupid in that most of the time they barely even react to me being there and I can just chop away
Selling prisoner’s in 1.7 allows you to increase rougery really fast! Once you’re in the mid game and your taking a lot of prisoners out you ransom them in the tavern you level it up pretty quick
About Smithing don't forget that smithing can give you 1 extra point in endurance and 1 extra point in either vigor or control. combined with the athletics tree that also gives you both those options you can get 4 atribute points which equates to(if memory serves) 16 levels atribute wise. Even if it can be tedious at times i love starting with as much endurance as i can(capping at 8) and then just level those 2 up so i don't need levels to get endurance to 10
I'm enjoying using throwing for my current run. I've decided to fully commit to an front-line infantry run. I think throwing makes sense if you do that since you can also hold a shield, and they're devastating at short range.
I am currently doing a mounted polearm build with throwing harpoons. I've had a blast! Next character is going to be an infantry commander with throwing weapons.
One advantage of throwing weapons is that you can get something for only one weapon slot. You need both a bow and arrows to do anything with bow or crossbow. Many reasons to want two different melee weapons and a shield. Can’t do that with a bow or crossbow.
I wish there was more synergy between the skills, for example tactics and roguery should allow you to attempt an ambush. Experience, knowledge and know-how can make numerical advantage nearly meaningless.
Horse archery I find to be the best way to level both skills fast and I mean really fast. Straight out of the beginning of the game I could increase both my archery from 30 all the way to 100 and riding from 10 to 70 in just an hour. I think it all has to do with the speed and momentum you hit your targets that increases it so fast. It's physics based.
Smithing is way more valuable on main character than companions for two reasons: 1) You can get way more value out of END stat than your companions. 2) You can get way more value out of two extra attribute points that come with smithing perk tree. All that on top of, you know, being THE money making skill in the game.
@@italianspartacus Yes, and still nothing in the game comes close in terms of 1) making quick money, 2) being an amazing source of SP because it's easy to level up, and 3) giving you two attribute points. Endurance is just whole another league of attribute, END skills are by far the best in every character build, even Riding that lets you get all the good perks with just 2 FP (3 if you go for Mounted Patrols) - when going for an optimized build, the only reason not to have 8-10 END on your character is if you want to go full Tactics and autoresolve every single battle.
@kenshi jin but trading doesnt give 2 attribute points, which is so important, once u reach lvl 28-30 those are hard to come by.. paired with athletics i believe u can get 4 free attribute points which makes that combo S tier
In my latest run through as a Forge Lord I can make halberds that are worth 31k each. As I understand it the price of the weapon is based on a certain base damage stat and if you hit the right damage values the money will come rolling in.
Interesting takes on the skill trees. I mostly agree, though I'd put Riding S-tier due to the party speed perks (sweeping wind, nomadic traditions, herding). Moving quick on the campaign map is easily as important as moving quick on foot in battles.
another reason ride is important is that its just raw exp. it helps you level, and you can level pretty fast using either xbow or bow and just sniping looters
Smithing is insanely hard, you will spend a few hours grinding but the reward is being able to turn 1k worth of scrap to a 20k weapon. Fills the coffers pretty nicely
A two handed axe is devastating in seiges since there is cleave damage (you strike trough multiple enemies). I get consistant 80+ kills in seiges with 400 defenders.
The final skill for scouting is a personal skill rather than a scout skill, so for the tedium of levelling it all the way to 300 yourself you get... 10% party speed.
Love all your videos bro ! I started playing Bannerlord maybe a month ago on console and it’s been a lot to take in lol. I’m obsessed with the game and trying to soak up all the info I can. I like some other creators who have videos on the game but yours are most helpful, thank you good sir!
Trade is easily s tier. Early game you can make the most money ingame, just getting outperformed lategame by smithing. But the best thing is the renown gain. No faster way then trading 175 (i think). Basicly for every profitable Workshop you get +1 renown per day. I forgot to mention that the Workshop production boost trade allows you to fill all your party slots with unlimited wages. For mor information just check doomtastic gaming yt guides in trading (and more)
I totally agree with you that Trade is very strong, but I think it comes down to how people play the game. A vast majority are going to go with combat and can't be bothered with trade - even though you don't really need to "TRADE" to increase it. It's why I think that Trade playthroughs are SO viable because you can just monopolize the game once you get high enough
@@italianspartacus So it's ranked lower because fewer people use it? Has that affected any other skills rankings? such as certain skills getting a boost because people use them more often and not because they're necessarily better?
Smithing is incredible to level early as well as incredibily easy to. Starting out with trade and smithing focused you can make a hardwood route to buy large quantities of hard wood. After you have about 1500-2000 wood you can then use it to refine into charcoal which can then be sold to southern kingdom/more southern cities with higher buy prices on coal and wood. This boosts your trade and smithing level to insane levels in early game (can easily hit 200+ trade and 150+ smithing within an hour good)
Every gameplay I start, i start with trad until 125. Then every Caravan u operate wich make profit gives u 1 Renown. So that means u get to clan level 6 very fast.
I think smithing should be higher, any perk tree that gives you 2 free attribute points and is that easy to level should be higher on the list.. combine smithing and athletics and I believe u will have 4 free attribute points, which is top tier. Great vid though 👍
Prison breaks are insane for leveling charm and roguery quickly, as well as getting a ton of relation with the lords you break out. I get around 30-40 relation per rescue.
Personally I think xbow/bow and 1h/2h are interchangeable. Since xbow troops are so powerful, the xbow tree gives a lot of improvements to them making them even stronger. I usually choose between bow or xbow based on what kind of ranged troops I plan to use for the playthrough.
Rogurey could be A or S tier if you could do more crime kinda like playing a merchant have your own hideouts hitting caravans and shaking down merchants, workshops and mucleing in on other crime bosses
I used to level up Steward on my main, but I've found that it really limited my build options, ever since then I always get it on companion until I can find a spouse, then get the spouse to be my quartermaster. A bonus from this is also that it allows you to have more children, since you are always together with your spouse.
Thanks for the video and the detailed explanation of the perks, though I personally think that trade is a perk worthy of A or even S class, remember that you use trade all the time when selling post battle loot, and, if done wisely, can boost your income from the very beginning. Very useful especially at early game.
I like the expanded companions. Plus cool if you have to choose and can give more credence to leadership. Add in other lords being able to recruit them or turn them, that would be dope
They should make a perk for roguery the turn bandit units to an elite version of the bandit unit only unlockable by the perk. Then you would have the option to either go roguery for elite bandits or leadership for elite noble troops
Hey, smithing is both fun and good, just indeed better on companions. It still gives a ton of money if you unlock good components (such as a spearshaft that has both couch lance and brace). It also ups the relations with the smithing missions in every city, so you unlock more troops to recruit. Also it's just fun to create a cool weapon for yourself. I'm currently playing with a 234 length polearm while it only has 18 swing speed, its amazing.
I find a 2 handed mace (aka "twomper") to be my favorite weapon. It is the only weapon I've seen that can hit multiple enemies in a single swing. If you ko an enemy, I believe the leftover damage from the swing is carried over to the next (and maybe next) enemy. This is particularly powerful on horseback.
i always did think smiths should be able to make armor or maybe you can also be a fletcher and make really cool and custom bows and crossbows with engravings and such etc etc
The weapons you can craft with smithing as early as the midgame can be so powerful they put standard game weapons to shame. Smithing can be a bit of a slog, but its definitely not a bottom tier perk by any means. Smithing perks also provide focus points to weapons as well as giving you stat points, which besides party size increasers are in my opinion the best perks in the game.
You nailed it. For me, the ability to smith Legendary or even Master weapons that just melt enemy ranks is too good to pass up. Every play thru I raise my smithing to max. The early grind raising my smithing levels and unlocking parts just makes my OP crafted weapons that much more enjoyable to use.
I usually start with high leadership, steward, charm and trade. I want to level those from the start of the game and all the way through. Weapons , horse, Athleticism skills you can easily level up during the gameplay with your party or just go to tournaments and arena fights. For companions I like to take strong scouts, medics. I have not played game for a long time, so maybe now things are a bit different, but I would still try something like that.
I have recently discovered the joys of javelins. I just wish they would let me level attributes more often because i am always spreading everything so thin.
just use them on valuable targets like the team captain. Ride up to him and snipe his head off with a javelin, it will always kill even if they are wearing the highest helmet in the game.
At this point, waiting for the full release feels like being a young man who has to wait for the wedding night. Just give it up already, damn it! I also have to say, now that we have a fancy new year and all, that I very much am looking forward to it on this channel. I also have to say that your content is always top notch when it comes to single player and history/lore, but on multiplayer content it always seems that your heart is not in it. Its always best to focus on what makes you passionate since that also conveys to the viewer. Just my two cents :)
Nothing beats crossbow leveling as it also helps athletics or riding skill (By the way, the crossbow is not funky at all, it's super accurate and stupid deadly even on horseback, light crossbow for early game horseback, and later when you get the perk to reload any crossbow on horseback just use the best available) And roguery has "Partners in crime" at 150 where bandit parties always offer to join you, literally infinite units around mid-late game as looter parties are huge (talking 30-150 size parties) I'm sorry but I just disagree with your entire tier list. Though you do mention all the ways to learn the skills correctly and most of the useful perks. Though the only part I agree with is the difficulty of leveling up the skills being tedious for most perks.
I think your points for Smithing are valid, but I'll personally diagree with them for one simple reason: For me, smithing is a super fun puzzle game. Especially with the crafting contracts for NPC's, I find it to be a very relaxing, interesting and fun way to earn monry in Bannerlord. Even though the days of tier 6 two handers selling for 200k+ denars are over, it is still very easy to earn good money by popping into the smithy every once in a while. Not to mention you get a much better return on investment from the weapons you loot from battles!
Best way to level up Charm is easily the prison escape scene. It's a tad expensive, and fighting in really close quarters (in civilian gear no less) is tough. But you get a ton of Charm and Roguery xp for doing it as well as a significant relation gain with the lord you rescued.
My tier list: S: Steward: Companion(s) can level this, lowering troop wages and allow you to challenge larger armies alone. You can't live without this one late game imo. Trading: Passive income+renown to solely support your army along with maxed steward, and money=power which allows you to buy fiefs) Medicine: Turn your army into a never-dying machine, great HP+ & can be equipped & maxed on a companion. Healing enemy troups will lower loot but give you massive amounts of prisoners with 100+ prisoners easily being sold for 20k+ gold latergame. Blacksmithing: Best melee weapons in the game, bonus perk points, & the best money maker aside from max loot campaigning) If you build OP weapons you honestly won't have to max out a melee weapon skill tree, and can focus on a ranged option etc. instead. A: Riding: The only way to survive on the battlefield without hiding behind your troops. If you build for charge damage you can do 40+ AOE damage to enemies. Leadership: More troops, enough really said here, though it takes too much investment thus it being lower than steward. Athletics: Bonus perk points, amazing HP+, and some great survivability for your troops even if you're riding a mount 80% of the game. Scouting: A great perk able to be put on your companion, being able to zoom around the map and spot dangerous armies is a huge boon. It does however take a while to level, so get this one on your sibling ASAP after you've gotten steward+medicine. B: Bow: Subjective, but arguably the best weapon in the game. Usable within sieges & the map. Noble longbow + at least 70 arrows = free kills at no risk to the player. Crossbow: Right below the bow due to a bit less versatility and QoL. Still great and can be used both in skirmishes and sieges. Pole-arms: ~200 slash damage on a well-built polearm with 200+ range, the best weapon for surviving on the map. During sieges you can honestly just sit behind an enemy position and 1-hit slash them slowly from behind at a safe range. 2h Axes: Great XP generator, and infantry cleaving weapons, can also use 2h maces for easy OHKOs, lacks in range for optimal safe killing distance. Sword & Shield: Great for tanking, but you want your troops to be doing that for you, however, another negative is that shields will eventually break and swords have lower range, which also take ammo from your range armaments. Overall all the melee weapon archetypes are close if you're smithing so go with what you personally like. Throwing: Can decimate shields, but the low velocity limits it in sieges, and the ammo capacity yields lower kills than an average bow. Charm: Important if you're planning to join a kingdom and make decisions, however, I find pillaging and destroying enemy troops a better and more engaging way to earn influence. C: Roguery: Bonus loot is great, if I ever have a few extra points I either put it here or tactics. I never use Bandit troops though, and unless one's doing a Bandit playthrough they're not going to beat simply trying to recruit hi-tier troops from villages. Tactics: Relying on auto-simulations except versus very weak troops is not a good idea, and will get your troops obliterated especially at higher difficulties. Engineering: I've never really needed it to take any castle/fief, troops & medicine matter far more, just ended up throwing it on a basic companion.
I really enjoy smithing, beutiful weapons, micro managing each part, then you get to use it. Then there's smelting and refining process, all very fulfilling.
You can sit at seonon early game, buy all the hardwood, make it efficiently into coal, and make bank selling charcoal in neighboring cities. From 12-20 denars for 2 hardwood to 3 coal worth 30+ apiece. Pretty cheesy I suppose... but if you're into that...
For smithing, my tactic is to just hold off until mid game when you can maybe spare the money to buy more expensive weapons and smelt those. If I smelt a a few 10k weapons I've probably unlocked enough parts to reliably just turn pugios into money.
Smithing bonus I discovered: tier 4 2h curved blades (the one that pierces shields) sell for 18-19k each, just max out the size on all pieces. I made my first $1mil before even getting an army. Got a bunch of followers leveled up along the way and we're all sporting beyond-top-tier weapons and I could afford to deck us all out in emperor-level gear. I'm not invincible, but sometimes I feel like I am. I'm sitting at 253 smithing and I'll never think about finances again. To be clear: when I swing my sword, people die. If they use their shield then it's destroyed, and then they die. I swing as fast as a 1h. It's crazy. .... that being said, I wish I'd just traded my way to victory first so I could buy a town.
First 20 days can still craft 30k swords if you get lucky with the part unlocks. Day one with smithing you can craft a better sword than what you start with.
Everything has a price perk has a really fun use case as a raider/bandit play through. I just raided Vlandia enough into giving me a castle for peace with my warband.
I consider Scouting to be absolutely essential and always spec into it on my main character. Maneuvering effectively in the overworld is one of the most important aspects of playing Bannerlord well, and given the wider sight range you get passively and the boosts to movement speed you can get from perks, Scouting is THE skill for it. Picking your fights intelligently is the difference between Napoleon and Custer. It is true that hiring a scout will get you these benefits faster, but it also effectively locks a companion out from being used for anything else unless you want to blind yourself. I'm also an idiot who has been known to send companions with roles off on jobs and then wonder why my party is crippled. As for the slow/tedious leveling, I just don't notice it. It's just something that runs in the background as I'm playing normally.
You might want to try a crossbow play. Just start with Vlandia or the empire (they get crossbow with surviving a siege origin) and start blasting. The first few perks are quite nice (20% cheaper archers and 2exp for all range units)
Thanks for the video.I still think They should have more incentive for capturing enemy Lords the ransom is useless people are just going to let them go. Thanks regards, Paras
The main reason, at least in Warband which had fewer lords, was to reduce the number of enemy parties on the map. This was especially important if you were trying to conquer all of Calradia - otherwise you consistently fought enemy armies of multiple thousands
I like to level smithing to 275+ for the ability to craft epic weapons that fit my needs perfectly. For example, if you're into ploearms you can craft something long and swingy for open battle and something short and choppy for sieges. That way you can concentrate your skill points without getting gimped in close quarters. Both versions hit like a truck. You can also craft crazy fast, compact, hard hitting 2-handers for prison breaks, then chop people in half before they have time to block. I also like smithing for the cash. I don't use ploearms and 2-habders to cheese a billion gold, but I'll gladly trade a half dozen nice swords for a top tier helmet. IMHO the armor prices are batcrap crazy, so that seems fair to me. The big thing to remember for leveling smithing is Aserai throwing knives. Pugios are cheaper, but they can be hard to find, especially in bulk. You can get a thousand+ Aserai knives in one pass through the desert, and they smelt into pretty much the same ingredients as pugios. IMHO, it's also fair to trade a dozen nice polearms for a boatload of throwing knives. If I could just buy fine steel I'd do that instead, but I can't.
Roguery is super easy to level, just stage prison breaks in every town and castle you can get to while being neutral. Powerlevels your charm aswell And the argument for bow > crossbow objectively, might be that you can get far more arrows/inv slot for using bows (theres quivers with 30+ almsot 40 arrows) wheras bolt stacks are lower iam sure. Aside from that, most factions dont use crossbows at all, so getting ammunition from pickups is very sporadic, if at all for the vast majority of battles.
The main benefit of the crossbow is that you can snipe people from outside of their detection range early on, which comes in handy when doing the bandit hideout raids and sieges but is less useful in open field combat.
Bit late too the party but smithing is excellent for 'my little warband' mod. Giving your troops custom weapons like a short but ultra fast 2h weapon is extremely satisfying.
You got the whole thing upside down bro. I just started a new campaign yesterday, 1.8 patch, for the first time I wanted to rush smithing without any cheese, just sold my starter gear for wood and grinded through it in 6 hours real time. After 6 hours, I was level 14 with 1.2million gold and had a tier 6 weapon with amazing stats. Bought myself the most expensive items from city vendors and headed into arenas, winning every tournament by a landslide and killing enemies 1v10 in battles. Realistic difficulty btw, first time I go with the hardest difficulty in a campaign btw. Blacksmithing was annoying to level, especially clicking your mouse like a madman to smelt/refine was really a hurdle. But in terms of outcome and giving you power in the game, I never had such a strong start. I have so much gold and so much gear that I snowballed into oblivion and right now, the second day of my playthrough, I have half of the map under control. Money is no issue whatsoever and I can pump out everything with gold its insane. 120k gold from a single smithing order, making 5m in 1 hour if not more as long as I want.
I love your build mate. Yet i have to say smithing could be very useful early - mid game in terms of making money. As you said it takes little time to improve it but there is little use if you are just gonna use it for making weapons. I totally agree but if you go to towns you may find thamaskene orders worth 100 k - 200 k once you upgrade your skill enough. So it is even more profitable than trading.I think if you are getting bored waiting perks to make real money and feed your campaign like me, it is like an "A" tier perk. Respect ✌
I never understood why people belittle skills because of struggle with it's leveling. Smiting is the only reliable source of custom weapons, which pushes throwing, one handed, two handed and polearms to completely another level. Smithing is also the way to gather huge amounts of gold, get some charm xp and it's much funnier to give person a masterpiece of a sword in exchange for his daughter's hand than some silly coins. I don't know much about leadership skill, but even only with ability to convert bandits into best types of soldiers you can get in the game this skill tree is definitely worth the time.
I made an engineer character who uses crossbows as his weapon. I rarely ever got to be an engineer but i had a lot of fun blasting people with the crossbow lol
Smithing gives your way more flexibility in play style than the base weapons. Every problem with polearm can be fixed through smithing which lets you make the strongest weapons in the game. Polearms are amazing in sieges if you craft a swing weapon that can reach over troops and hit enemies or knock them off siege towers. Throwing weapons are great if you want to play a mostly melee build and plan on being in close range all the time. You can have a shield up all the time allowing you to close in on enemies easy. Your throwing weapons benefit from your walking or riding momentum which can one shot anyone in the game no matter how heavy the armor is. Also it depends on what troops your leading because their are a ton of formation bonuses based on the weapon your using, Sturgia really benefits from throwing bonuses. You can craft throwing weapons that double as a very fast one handed weapon giving you a one handed weapon slot as long as you don't throw your last weapon. These being so low tier is totally based on play style. If you want to rush in and do damage and not circle around the enemy for an hour sniping polearm, smithing and throwing are some of the best skills in the game.
you can level engineering very fast if you are defending castle and have ballista you can just shoot it and in a single battle you can get even 100 points to engineering
I have always leveled up scouting (when I picked it anyway) just by traveling through the map. The higher the skill, the more trails you find, son it reaches a moment when you just level scouting so quick by doing literally nothing. And I´m talking about 160-175 level of scouting. But, yeah, if you dont want to invest in that skill and still get all the benefits, just hire a wanderer and make him the scout of your party. When it comes to smithing, almost all my playthroughs rely on smithing to make money xDDD
I know this sucks to hear, but your videos for whatever reason still rarely pop up on my feed since the algorithm change. I know you posted a video about that earlier and I'm sure it's super frustrating but we're here with you bud and it's frustrating to me as well. Anyway Liked, subscribed, notifications on keep up the cool vids.
With the correct bandit mods, Roguery is completely busted and super fun. Also if you want to have the most laid back easy campaign, just play with the Horse archer bros. They are just busted in general
Smithing and Athletics both give 2 attributes each, they pay for themselves. Any character intended to see combat must have high riding/athletics or both, smithing is just a synergistic bonus at that point.
I think all of the weapon skills belong in the B tier with throwing being the only exception of throwing being in C. All of them are situational because they assume that you're using said weapons frequently or as part of a build. There are only so many slots to go around, even with the civilian loadout. And no matter how good the perks themselves are, when you pick 2-4, you're getting rid of the rest, unless you Frankenstein your character.
I usually at least put a few points into smithing early game as it can help fund my army, really helpful when working towards buying a caravan/workshop
I'd say Riding is an S-Tier Skill, just because it's literally essential to most of the game. Whether fighting or traveling, generally better off on horse. Athletics has some nice perks, but your character can almost become "too fast" as you get past 100. I've had 200+ Athletics on Battanian Berserker character, and in the heaviest armor I can almost keep up with horsemen at times. Without armor in towns I move so fast it's almost difficult to control my movement.
Smithing should definitely be S tier since while it has an initial hurdle, the kind of money you can make while also improving charm and relations with notables after fulfillling orders encourages players to travel all over the map to find different weapons they can smelt for better components for regions asking for weapons orders which may be difficult at first while at the same time gives a solid alternative to scrapping trash weapons which bring little to no gold when selling them off.
Throwing is a blast. Level it up a little and every single javelin hit is a guaranteed kill. You barely need to aim, and headshots are a fun bonus - not a necessity. The limited ammo isn't really an issue since you can just swap to melee form when you're down to one and pick up fresh ammo. IMO the only real downside to throwing is the relatively short range and high weight. And if your javelins are long enough they can block your vision when you're trying to aim. Which is really annoying, and they need to either be repositioned or go transparent when you zoom.
A reason that I use javelins on horse is to quickly take out mounted commanders. It’s pretty easy to take out their horse out from under them, and then stab them with a 2h sword. That’s how I quickly demoralize enemy, go hunt and kill commanders and then butcher stuff with 2h
i always build up my smithing so i can make weapons that i want my companions to use. custom weapons are always better at how you want to fight or how you want your companions to fight over stock stuff (as it should be). of course you can build up a companion's skill, but it is with riding and athletics, and since you need to max out the attributes for them to get them to the highest levels smithing is cheaper in the long run than most other skills. trade and engineering are like that as well, but leveling those skills are pretty hit and miss (late in the game when you can buy a bunch and sell a bunch the trade skill goes up pretty slowly, and you want to be focused on leading armies and fighting at that point, and giving loot to your troops with the stewardship perk can turn peasants into tier 6 masters right when you hire them making it maybe the best perks in the game, means that you won't be selling as much loot late game). the loot leveling for your troops makes Steward S tier on its own, the Medicine and Engineering skills are nice as well, but if they don't level it isn't that big of a deal. that being said you should max out Intelligence and the focus points are cheap enough to spend on both of those skills so that you can have good leveling in them without focusing on them or grinding them (i never grind since it is boring anyway). basically max out the attributes of Int, Soc, and End then put focus into one ranged weapon, one melee weapon, riding, athletics, charm, leadership, and steward in the order to keep them leveling as you level. when you get extra focus points after this put them into medicine, trade, smithing, and engineering due to the maxed out attributes, and then into a second melee weapon, and either throwing or bow if you already maxed throwing for the utility (throwing is good for sieges via dropping rocks or operating catapults, and bow is good for the ballista), scouting and tactics can also be good, but at this point you probably won't be leveling to get more focus points very much.
Tactics is S tier mate. Being able to defeat an army of 2500 with an army of 1300 isn't matched by anything else in the game, it makes destroying entire kingdoms easy.
As my surgeon companion skills are, max points in throwing medicine and one hand 😂. Mans a menace on the infantry line and the carry for them. If you see a medic just run at you I would personally run away
You can cheese the game the most if you only level your social and passive skills...try max charm, trade, tactics. You may autoresolve every battle with like no losses
Level 150 Roguery is actually really good. It makes it so if your balance of power is higher than any bandit party, they'll always join you. Unlimited men power.
Whoa, nice one, time for another playrhrough then
Very useful, just go in front of them and you immediately get 5-40 men for free instead of going from village to village.
@@randomcommenter5266 but they do be kinda shit
@@theonordlund1823 there is a certain skill where you can turn looters into regular units, i'd say it's quite useful if you have that skill that I just mentioned combined with the roguery one.
Even better, if you have the perk but they outnumber you, you can pay them off and then immediately reengage them and they will offer to join! It is only disabled when they attack you, so any other dialogue option will let them join. So feel free to run around solo and look for the biggest group of bandits :D
Most of your D (and C) tier skills have a "hurdle" that they have to get over before they are useful or even really able to get XP. Scouting requires you to see the tracks before you get XP, so at level 1 you almost never get any XP (because you dont see tracks/hideouts) while when you are above 150 you can gain 1 level per day just by following your factions main army. Same kind of thing for engineering, as at low levels it takes forever to build even the siege camp, at high levels you can build trebs very quickly and spam out levels. Smithing is tough at the beginning since you know almost no parts, and you have shit stamina. Tactics and medicine both kind of force you to "lose" battles in order to gain their XP, but both end up being incredibly useful.
I really hope that in the future that Taleworlds implement some sort of new system to either bridge these hurdles or give you legitimate ways to earn XP in the desired skills
once smithing is maxed as well, you can literally break the economy by selling high quality weapons. I do agree that smithing can be a bit tedious though. You can arguably always focus on the endurance tree in any playthrough, as riding, athletics and smithing are great skill trees to max. Smithing also has one of the few 'focus tree increase' levels. which is incredible.
Allow the PC to enlist one companion as a tutor or something, to slowly teach them a chosen skill at a rate determined by the companions skill level - realistically this is how you would get started.
Scouting and medicine both need some skills in order for you to gain more skills. That's why it's better to get them at character creation
It turns out the siege stuff gets built faster the more troops in the party. So call up an army of 1500-2k. But wall give no xp.
@@Drahnier123 the last game had books you could read to raise skills while letting the army heal up.
There's one huge reason for taking Scouting on your main character, and it's Keen Sight. When paired up with Mounted Patrols from Riding skill tree, it allows you to bring enemy lord escape chance down to 0%, and I don't need to tell you how valuable that can be. And yes, it's for party leader, not for assigned scout.
You can get the skill with only 3CNG and 5FP, and you will probably have more than enough, since the perk is way more valuable when death is disabled, and players will probably pick up higher ages in this mode. After that, you can still hire and level up a dedicated scout companion if you want to use Uncanny Insight on your armies.
Not anymore. Though 50 siege, 25 roguery and Mounted Patrols give - 95% reduction for prisoners escape in towns for a governor, which still is not 100%, but it's best it can get now
uncanny insight only works for party leader, though
@@areyoufcknkiddinme This is correct, my bad.
Smithing should allow you to improve/change existing weapon and armour stats, within reason obviously but for example improving cut damage etc perhaps another needs to drop as one increases. Likewise altering weight/protection on armoured pieces.
I LOVE that idea!!
It would also be cool if as the Smith of your party, if you could cause all of your party to do a little bit more damage due to their weapons being well maintained.
If you decrease armour weight, its protective stats decrease also, what with you removing mass between you and an incoming blow. So, yes to that.
@@ecargfosreya I could see damage and defense being increased but also morale- if your Smith makes sure all of your gear fits right, is sharpened and weighted properly etc, you're gonna be a hell of a lot more confident!
@@JB-xl2jc I kind of wish armor would act more like it doesn't mount and blade Viking conquest where heavy armor really increases some stats but then decreases your movement and so on whereas light armor the smaller improvement but doesn't decrease your speed of maneuverability
I haven't played the game in a while, but unless it's been changed, it is ridiculously easy to level up Roguery by doing jailbreaks for lords.
It's ideal to do it early on before you swear fealty to a kingdom or make your own. Just go to the borders of two factions that are at war and see if they have anyone in a castle's dungeon.
High Roguery works well in tandem with Leadership because you will eventually be able to recruit prisoners with no morale loss and you'll be able to promote bandit units into prestige units. Laugh at your enemy as you turn Forest Bandits into Battanian Fians and Mountain Bandits into Vlandian Banner Knights.
How can you not mention Trade 125, wich makes every workshop give you 1 renown per day. This farms your clan to level 6 so easily.
because i TOTALLY forgot about it, I'm so sorry man - that's a stupid strong perk!
Renown is pretty hard to come by as a trader so that makes it so much easier. Can basically sit in a town while my workshops and caravans makes me around 500-1000 gold a day and gain renown as well. Trade is OP as fuck.
@@ivartheboneless5969 I am very late to the party, getting that caravan perk plus 5 loyalty and 5 security from other trees means you can actually "govern" a city while doing nothing. In campaign mode you can send your entire family caravaning, cheese the takeover of a town and be filthy rich after a few seasons without moving a finger.
I just recall the wives for "private business" and there is a bun in the oven they get sent on their merry way to do more caravaning.
i agree with the list specially because, as you pointed out the skills in tier D and C are not there because they are bad, but because its so hard or tedious to level or lacking gameplay mechanichs to make them shine altough, i believe and hope those are things to come in the future! And i 100% think there should be more companions roles in the party and overall companions need a few more things added to them like for example when you use one as governor or caravan leader he wont take space in your clan so you can recruit others. Really enjoyed the vid stay safe brother!
Very thorough video as always, thank you Sparty! Hopefully we still see you in Bannerlord once WH3 comes out.
Hahah christ who knows. It'll be a lot to juggle
I like crossbows for seiges.
The ability to prep a shot under cover, then move out and fire can be key.
Seige defense with ammunition barrels, in particular, offsets the quiver amount differential with longbows.
Wait, you can pick up bolts in siege defence? I thought the barrels were for arrows only.
Honestly, the skill I cannot live without in Bannerlord are these: Smithing, Steward (party size and efficiency), Leadership (moral), Bow (long distance kills), Riding (mobility of army, I use mostly empire cavalry cataphracts and bucelaris), Polearm (melee cavalry buffs), Tactics (battle advantage) and than one handed and Trading at least at 125 (for workshop maintenance and melee efficiency). Other stuff can be countered with companions and even smithing can be done by companion but I like the buffs it gives for character development. :)
Mine are medicine, riding, leadership + Steward, polearm for horseback, twohanded for sieges, everything else is a bonus
Well done on the disclaimer, put so well. This is great for discussion so people can talk about it and help people learn the game. Every comment here can help others know just a bit more so they can help know what they can do, Well done Sparty
I have characters that specialized in most things, but my most op character (in realistic) is a Battanian that focuses on tactics, blacksmithing, and scouting. Being able take on army size much bigger with auto resolve, this allows you to just recruit anything that comes your way without being limited to faction troops based on their strength.
Crossbow has a perk deep in if you love ranged high tier army. Half price for ranged troop with half price from steward makes them free, stack more reduction and your units pays you to stay in your party.
Scouting is extremely important, the final ultimate perk at 275 only works on the MC instead of companions, allowing your party to move 10% faster which is borderline broken.
Smithing isn't only just for abusing money, I use smithing for every companion to abuse exp gain. You get a shit ton of exp to character level, allowing you and your companions to get attribute and focus points really quickly.
How do companions use smithing?
There is no slogging through early levels in smiting - skill gain directly corelates to money gain. If you are doing it efficiently (using companions to help, doing it in a town with abundant hardwood and picking right skills) it is the fastest skill line to level by far. If you are lucky to get good parts early, you can go from 0 to hero instantly.... and become filthy rich in same time... and use your products to bribe enemy lords in war. It is still S tie even after 1.7 nerf.
yeah i don't think he realizes you can pop a masterwork proc on a weapon and it ends up becoming a national treasure that lets you bankrupt a town in one sell button, and you can print 20 of them
I've gotten like 300k gold in 10-15 days focusing smithing, haha. This guy doesn't know~
I do consider it almost a form of cheating though, It's wayyyyy too OP and kinda robs some of the fun out of the game. Why do anything else?
Fr it took a while to unlock all the pieces but i can make 25-30k per 2 handed sword
re: Polearms being weak in sieges-- I find this is easily solvable by smithing a swing style polearm with short range that you only equip before siege or hideout battles. You can make the equivalent of a strong 2-hander and still keep your perk benefits.
Good tips, sound sdumb, but I never thing to make short pole arms, im always going for max length
@@eannane8712 Max length is great for horseback drive-by play but I find that a medium length, swing-style polearm is better even from horseback if you're getting in the thick of things and trying to kill more than 1 person per pass. -- If you're on foot, something around 120 or 125 is perfect. You still outrange a lot of common weapons but can swing fast (depending on your chosen head) and don't get caught on walls.
i really dont get it also, polearm range is awesome for killing ppl climbing ladders and hitting over your troops heads for insane damage. And youre right with short range polearms, theyre way underestimated, those things hit like a truck.
Even longer polearms work in sieges, depending on what you do. Personally I almost never get off my horse. I snipe the enemy archers on the walls when my troops are ramming the entrance and when the entrance is open I ride into the castle/town and just cause havoc in there on horseback. AI is pretty stupid in that most of the time they barely even react to me being there and I can just chop away
@@TzeiEm Athletics tree is so good though, just from extra hit points, extra stats, etc. That alone is worth going on foot sometimes.
Selling prisoner’s in 1.7 allows you to increase rougery really fast! Once you’re in the mid game and your taking a lot of prisoners out you ransom them in the tavern you level it up pretty quick
You can easy do it also early game. All you need is to save some cash for 100 sledgehammer.
About Smithing don't forget that smithing can give you 1 extra point in endurance and 1 extra point in either vigor or control. combined with the athletics tree that also gives you both those options you can get 4 atribute points which equates to(if memory serves) 16 levels atribute wise. Even if it can be tedious at times i love starting with as much endurance as i can(capping at 8) and then just level those 2 up so i don't need levels to get endurance to 10
I'm enjoying using throwing for my current run. I've decided to fully commit to an front-line infantry run. I think throwing makes sense if you do that since you can also hold a shield, and they're devastating at short range.
I am currently doing a mounted polearm build with throwing harpoons. I've had a blast! Next character is going to be an infantry commander with throwing weapons.
@Grey Philosopher I may try that
One advantage of throwing weapons is that you can get something for only one weapon slot. You need both a bow and arrows to do anything with bow or crossbow. Many reasons to want two different melee weapons and a shield. Can’t do that with a bow or crossbow.
I wish there was more synergy between the skills, for example tactics and roguery should allow you to attempt an ambush. Experience, knowledge and know-how can make numerical advantage nearly meaningless.
Horse archery I find to be the best way to level both skills fast and I mean really fast. Straight out of the beginning of the game I could increase both my archery from 30 all the way to 100 and riding from 10 to 70 in just an hour. I think it all has to do with the speed and momentum you hit your targets that increases it so fast. It's physics based.
Smithing is way more valuable on main character than companions for two reasons:
1) You can get way more value out of END stat than your companions.
2) You can get way more value out of two extra attribute points that come with smithing perk tree.
All that on top of, you know, being THE money making skill in the game.
It was just nerfed as far as money making capability this last patch :(
@@italianspartacus Yes, and still nothing in the game comes close in terms of 1) making quick money, 2) being an amazing source of SP because it's easy to level up, and 3) giving you two attribute points. Endurance is just whole another league of attribute, END skills are by far the best in every character build, even Riding that lets you get all the good perks with just 2 FP (3 if you go for Mounted Patrols) - when going for an optimized build, the only reason not to have 8-10 END on your character is if you want to go full Tactics and autoresolve every single battle.
@kenshi jin but trading doesnt give 2 attribute points, which is so important, once u reach lvl 28-30 those are hard to come by.. paired with athletics i believe u can get 4 free attribute points which makes that combo S tier
In my latest run through as a Forge Lord I can make halberds that are worth 31k each. As I understand it the price of the weapon is based on a certain base damage stat and if you hit the right damage values the money will come rolling in.
Homestly just kicking lords ass and taking loot makes sooo much money, easily can make 100k within a few fights
Interesting takes on the skill trees. I mostly agree, though I'd put Riding S-tier due to the party speed perks (sweeping wind, nomadic traditions, herding). Moving quick on the campaign map is easily as important as moving quick on foot in battles.
another reason ride is important is that its just raw exp. it helps you level, and you can level pretty fast using either xbow or bow and just sniping looters
Smithing is insanely hard, you will spend a few hours grinding but the reward is being able to turn 1k worth of scrap to a 20k weapon. Fills the coffers pretty nicely
A two handed axe is devastating in seiges since there is cleave damage (you strike trough multiple enemies). I get consistant 80+ kills in seiges with 400 defenders.
I with the cleaver sword could too.
@@DIEGhostfish swords dont cleave actually, not even cleavers lol
The final skill for scouting is a personal skill rather than a scout skill, so for the tedium of levelling it all the way to 300 yourself you get... 10% party speed.
Some things need only a small percent to make big differences
10% party speed is HUGE
Love all your videos bro ! I started playing Bannerlord maybe a month ago on console and it’s been a lot to take in lol. I’m obsessed with the game and trying to soak up all the info I can. I like some other creators who have videos on the game but yours are most helpful, thank you good sir!
Trade is easily s tier. Early game you can make the most money ingame, just getting outperformed lategame by smithing. But the best thing is the renown gain. No faster way then trading 175 (i think). Basicly for every profitable Workshop you get +1 renown per day.
I forgot to mention that the Workshop production boost trade allows you to fill all your party slots with unlimited wages.
For mor information just check doomtastic gaming yt guides in trading (and more)
It's Trade 125
Thanks bro
I totally agree with you that Trade is very strong, but I think it comes down to how people play the game. A vast majority are going to go with combat and can't be bothered with trade - even though you don't really need to "TRADE" to increase it. It's why I think that Trade playthroughs are SO viable because you can just monopolize the game once you get high enough
@@italianspartacus So it's ranked lower because fewer people use it? Has that affected any other skills rankings? such as certain skills getting a boost because people use them more often and not because they're necessarily better?
Nope, I didn't rank it lower because I don't like it. I ranked it lower because of accessibility and application to all aspects of the game ;)
Smithing is incredible to level early as well as incredibily easy to. Starting out with trade and smithing focused you can make a hardwood route to buy large quantities of hard wood. After you have about 1500-2000 wood you can then use it to refine into charcoal which can then be sold to southern kingdom/more southern cities with higher buy prices on coal and wood.
This boosts your trade and smithing level to insane levels in early game (can easily hit 200+ trade and 150+ smithing within an hour good)
Every gameplay I start, i start with trad until 125. Then every Caravan u operate wich make profit gives u 1 Renown. So that means u get to clan level 6 very fast.
I think smithing should be higher, any perk tree that gives you 2 free attribute points and is that easy to level should be higher on the list.. combine smithing and athletics and I believe u will have 4 free attribute points, which is top tier. Great vid though 👍
"One handed is the king of melee combat"
Two handed with cleaving and block breaking: am I a joke to you?
Deflecting arrows
@@strafniki1080 isn't that just for greatswords?
Prison breaks are insane for leveling charm and roguery quickly, as well as getting a ton of relation with the lords you break out. I get around 30-40 relation per rescue.
Personally I think xbow/bow and 1h/2h are interchangeable. Since xbow troops are so powerful, the xbow tree gives a lot of improvements to them making them even stronger. I usually choose between bow or xbow based on what kind of ranged troops I plan to use for the playthrough.
Smithing would be great if you could bring your own weapon into a tourney
Rogurey could be A or S tier if you could do more crime kinda like playing a merchant have your own hideouts hitting caravans and shaking down merchants, workshops and mucleing in on other crime bosses
That could be really cool, let's hope that they flesh that out.
Check out the mod Fourberie, its made a roguery playthrough possible.
I used to level up Steward on my main, but I've found that it really limited my build options, ever since then I always get it on companion until I can find a spouse, then get the spouse to be my quartermaster. A bonus from this is also that it allows you to have more children, since you are always together with your spouse.
Thanks for the video and the detailed explanation of the perks, though I personally think that trade is a perk worthy of A or even S class, remember that you use trade all the time when selling post battle loot, and, if done wisely, can boost your income from the very beginning. Very useful especially at early game.
I like the expanded companions. Plus cool if you have to choose and can give more credence to leadership. Add in other lords being able to recruit them or turn them, that would be dope
They should make a perk for roguery the turn bandit units to an elite version of the bandit unit only unlockable by the perk. Then you would have the option to either go roguery for elite bandits or leadership for elite noble troops
Hey, smithing is both fun and good, just indeed better on companions. It still gives a ton of money if you unlock good components (such as a spearshaft that has both couch lance and brace). It also ups the relations with the smithing missions in every city, so you unlock more troops to recruit. Also it's just fun to create a cool weapon for yourself. I'm currently playing with a 234 length polearm while it only has 18 swing speed, its amazing.
dont tell him, let him underestimate it
I find a 2 handed mace (aka "twomper") to be my favorite weapon.
It is the only weapon I've seen that can hit multiple enemies in a single swing. If you ko an enemy, I believe the leftover damage from the swing is carried over to the next (and maybe next) enemy. This is particularly powerful on horseback.
@@rhoetusochten4211 Two handed axes do that too
@@rhoetusochten4211 2handed axe on horseback, minmax for charge damage, you can deal like 1000+ damage per charge lol, feels great
This game is shaping up to be one of the GreatestsI Of All Time
i always did think smiths should be able to make armor or maybe you can also be a fletcher and make really cool and custom bows and crossbows with engravings and such etc etc
The weapons you can craft with smithing as early as the midgame can be so powerful they put standard game weapons to shame. Smithing can be a bit of a slog, but its definitely not a bottom tier perk by any means. Smithing perks also provide focus points to weapons as well as giving you stat points, which besides party size increasers are in my opinion the best perks in the game.
You nailed it. For me, the ability to smith Legendary or even Master weapons that just melt enemy ranks is too good to pass up. Every play thru I raise my smithing to max. The early grind raising my smithing levels and unlocking parts just makes my OP crafted weapons that much more enjoyable to use.
I usually start with high leadership, steward, charm and trade. I want to level those from the start of the game and all the way through. Weapons , horse, Athleticism skills you can easily level up during the gameplay with your party or just go to tournaments and arena fights. For companions I like to take strong scouts, medics. I have not played game for a long time, so maybe now things are a bit different, but I would still try something like that.
I have recently discovered the joys of javelins. I just wish they would let me level attributes more often because i am always spreading everything so thin.
just use them on valuable targets like the team captain. Ride up to him and snipe his head off with a javelin, it will always kill even if they are wearing the highest helmet in the game.
At this point, waiting for the full release feels like being a young man who has to wait for the wedding night. Just give it up already, damn it!
I also have to say, now that we have a fancy new year and all, that I very much am looking forward to it on this channel. I also have to say that your content is always top notch when it comes to single player and history/lore, but on multiplayer content it always seems that your heart is not in it. Its always best to focus on what makes you passionate since that also conveys to the viewer. Just my two cents :)
Nothing beats crossbow leveling as it also helps athletics or riding skill (By the way, the crossbow is not funky at all, it's super accurate and stupid deadly even on horseback, light crossbow for early game horseback, and later when you get the perk to reload any crossbow on horseback just use the best available)
And roguery has "Partners in crime" at 150 where bandit parties always offer to join you, literally infinite units around mid-late game as looter parties are huge (talking 30-150 size parties)
I'm sorry but I just disagree with your entire tier list. Though you do mention all the ways to learn the skills correctly and most of the useful perks.
Though the only part I agree with is the difficulty of leveling up the skills being tedious for most perks.
I think your points for Smithing are valid, but I'll personally diagree with them for one simple reason: For me, smithing is a super fun puzzle game. Especially with the crafting contracts for NPC's, I find it to be a very relaxing, interesting and fun way to earn monry in Bannerlord. Even though the days of tier 6 two handers selling for 200k+ denars are over, it is still very easy to earn good money by popping into the smithy every once in a while. Not to mention you get a much better return on investment from the weapons you loot from battles!
Best way to level up Charm is easily the prison escape scene. It's a tad expensive, and fighting in really close quarters (in civilian gear no less) is tough. But you get a ton of Charm and Roguery xp for doing it as well as a significant relation gain with the lord you rescued.
The bonus headshot damage in throwing makes throwing knives fantastic once you get there.
I've never tried this but I'd imagine you also get a relationship loss with Lords that imprisoned them ?
My tier list:
S:
Steward: Companion(s) can level this, lowering troop wages and allow you to challenge larger armies alone. You can't live without this one late game imo.
Trading: Passive income+renown to solely support your army along with maxed steward, and money=power which allows you to buy fiefs)
Medicine: Turn your army into a never-dying machine, great HP+ & can be equipped & maxed on a companion. Healing enemy troups will lower loot but give you massive amounts of prisoners with 100+ prisoners easily being sold for 20k+ gold latergame.
Blacksmithing: Best melee weapons in the game, bonus perk points, & the best money maker aside from max loot campaigning) If you build OP weapons you honestly won't have to max out a melee weapon skill tree, and can focus on a ranged option etc. instead.
A:
Riding: The only way to survive on the battlefield without hiding behind your troops. If you build for charge damage you can do 40+ AOE damage to enemies.
Leadership: More troops, enough really said here, though it takes too much investment thus it being lower than steward.
Athletics: Bonus perk points, amazing HP+, and some great survivability for your troops even if you're riding a mount 80% of the game.
Scouting: A great perk able to be put on your companion, being able to zoom around the map and spot dangerous armies is a huge boon. It does however take a while to level, so get this one on your sibling ASAP after you've gotten steward+medicine.
B:
Bow: Subjective, but arguably the best weapon in the game. Usable within sieges & the map. Noble longbow + at least 70 arrows = free kills at no risk to the player.
Crossbow: Right below the bow due to a bit less versatility and QoL. Still great and can be used both in skirmishes and sieges.
Pole-arms: ~200 slash damage on a well-built polearm with 200+ range, the best weapon for surviving on the map. During sieges you can honestly just sit behind an enemy position and 1-hit slash them slowly from behind at a safe range.
2h Axes: Great XP generator, and infantry cleaving weapons, can also use 2h maces for easy OHKOs, lacks in range for optimal safe killing distance.
Sword & Shield: Great for tanking, but you want your troops to be doing that for you, however, another negative is that shields will eventually break and swords have lower range, which also take ammo from your range armaments. Overall all the melee weapon archetypes are close if you're smithing so go with what you personally like.
Throwing: Can decimate shields, but the low velocity limits it in sieges, and the ammo capacity yields lower kills than an average bow.
Charm: Important if you're planning to join a kingdom and make decisions, however, I find pillaging and destroying enemy troops a better and more engaging way to earn influence.
C:
Roguery: Bonus loot is great, if I ever have a few extra points I either put it here or tactics. I never use Bandit troops though, and unless one's doing a Bandit playthrough they're not going to beat simply trying to recruit hi-tier troops from villages.
Tactics: Relying on auto-simulations except versus very weak troops is not a good idea, and will get your troops obliterated especially at higher difficulties.
Engineering: I've never really needed it to take any castle/fief, troops & medicine matter far more, just ended up throwing it on a basic companion.
I was shocked to see Smithing so low, but I ultimately agree. Appreciate the guide.
I really enjoy smithing, beutiful weapons, micro managing each part, then you get to use it. Then there's smelting and refining process, all very fulfilling.
You can sit at seonon early game, buy all the hardwood, make it efficiently into coal, and make bank selling charcoal in neighboring cities. From 12-20 denars for 2 hardwood to 3 coal worth 30+ apiece. Pretty cheesy I suppose... but if you're into that...
For smithing, my tactic is to just hold off until mid game when you can maybe spare the money to buy more expensive weapons and smelt those. If I smelt a a few 10k weapons I've probably unlocked enough parts to reliably just turn pugios into money.
Smithing bonus I discovered: tier 4 2h curved blades (the one that pierces shields) sell for 18-19k each, just max out the size on all pieces. I made my first $1mil before even getting an army. Got a bunch of followers leveled up along the way and we're all sporting beyond-top-tier weapons and I could afford to deck us all out in emperor-level gear.
I'm not invincible, but sometimes I feel like I am.
I'm sitting at 253 smithing and I'll never think about finances again.
To be clear: when I swing my sword, people die. If they use their shield then it's destroyed, and then they die. I swing as fast as a 1h. It's crazy.
.... that being said, I wish I'd just traded my way to victory first so I could buy a town.
First 20 days can still craft 30k swords if you get lucky with the part unlocks. Day one with smithing you can craft a better sword than what you start with.
Everything has a price perk has a really fun use case as a raider/bandit play through. I just raided Vlandia enough into giving me a castle for peace with my warband.
I consider Scouting to be absolutely essential and always spec into it on my main character. Maneuvering effectively in the overworld is one of the most important aspects of playing Bannerlord well, and given the wider sight range you get passively and the boosts to movement speed you can get from perks, Scouting is THE skill for it. Picking your fights intelligently is the difference between Napoleon and Custer.
It is true that hiring a scout will get you these benefits faster, but it also effectively locks a companion out from being used for anything else unless you want to blind yourself. I'm also an idiot who has been known to send companions with roles off on jobs and then wonder why my party is crippled. As for the slow/tedious leveling, I just don't notice it. It's just something that runs in the background as I'm playing normally.
You might want to try a crossbow play.
Just start with Vlandia or the empire (they get crossbow with surviving a siege origin) and start blasting.
The first few perks are quite nice (20% cheaper archers and 2exp for all range units)
Thanks for the video.I still think They should have more incentive for capturing enemy Lords the ransom is useless people are just going to let them go. Thanks regards, Paras
Agreed! It should hold diplomatic sway
The main reason, at least in Warband which had fewer lords, was to reduce the number of enemy parties on the map. This was especially important if you were trying to conquer all of Calradia - otherwise you consistently fought enemy armies of multiple thousands
I like to level smithing to 275+ for the ability to craft epic weapons that fit my needs perfectly.
For example, if you're into ploearms you can craft something long and swingy for open battle and something short and choppy for sieges. That way you can concentrate your skill points without getting gimped in close quarters. Both versions hit like a truck.
You can also craft crazy fast, compact, hard hitting 2-handers for prison breaks, then chop people in half before they have time to block.
I also like smithing for the cash. I don't use ploearms and 2-habders to cheese a billion gold, but I'll gladly trade a half dozen nice swords for a top tier helmet. IMHO the armor prices are batcrap crazy, so that seems fair to me.
The big thing to remember for leveling smithing is Aserai throwing knives. Pugios are cheaper, but they can be hard to find, especially in bulk. You can get a thousand+ Aserai knives in one pass through the desert, and they smelt into pretty much the same ingredients as pugios. IMHO, it's also fair to trade a dozen nice polearms for a boatload of throwing knives. If I could just buy fine steel I'd do that instead, but I can't.
Roguery is super easy to level, just stage prison breaks in every town and castle you can get to while being neutral.
Powerlevels your charm aswell
And the argument for bow > crossbow objectively, might be that you can get far more arrows/inv slot for using bows (theres quivers with 30+ almsot 40 arrows) wheras bolt stacks are lower iam sure.
Aside from that, most factions dont use crossbows at all, so getting ammunition from pickups is very sporadic, if at all for the vast majority of battles.
The main benefit of the crossbow is that you can snipe people from outside of their detection range early on, which comes in handy when doing the bandit hideout raids and sieges but is less useful in open field combat.
@@shigerufan1 can do the same with bows
@@shigerufan1 I'd say the main benefit from crossbow's is the 50% upkeep reduction on tier 4-6 ranged units. Which you cannot get in bow I believe.
Bit late too the party but smithing is excellent for 'my little warband' mod. Giving your troops custom weapons like a short but ultra fast 2h weapon is extremely satisfying.
Roguery now has the Fourberie mod to explore, sounds so interesting!
You got the whole thing upside down bro.
I just started a new campaign yesterday, 1.8 patch, for the first time I wanted to rush smithing without any cheese, just sold my starter gear for wood and grinded through it in 6 hours real time. After 6 hours, I was level 14 with 1.2million gold and had a tier 6 weapon with amazing stats. Bought myself the most expensive items from city vendors and headed into arenas, winning every tournament by a landslide and killing enemies 1v10 in battles. Realistic difficulty btw, first time I go with the hardest difficulty in a campaign btw.
Blacksmithing was annoying to level, especially clicking your mouse like a madman to smelt/refine was really a hurdle. But in terms of outcome and giving you power in the game, I never had such a strong start. I have so much gold and so much gear that I snowballed into oblivion and right now, the second day of my playthrough, I have half of the map under control. Money is no issue whatsoever and I can pump out everything with gold its insane. 120k gold from a single smithing order, making 5m in 1 hour if not more as long as I want.
thanks.. love this new version of M&B but unlike the old ones, there is SO much to do.
Your timing is perfect, just about to start a new campaign!
I have a "Starter Build" video coming out soon :)
Thank you for making this guide!
I love your build mate. Yet i have to say smithing could be very useful early - mid game in terms of making money. As you said it takes little time to improve it but there is little use if you are just gonna use it for making weapons. I totally agree but if you go to towns you may find thamaskene orders worth 100 k - 200 k once you upgrade your skill enough. So it is even more profitable than trading.I think if you are getting bored waiting perks to make real money and feed your campaign like me, it is like an "A" tier perk. Respect ✌
I never understood why people belittle skills because of struggle with it's leveling. Smiting is the only reliable source of custom weapons, which pushes throwing, one handed, two handed and polearms to completely another level. Smithing is also the way to gather huge amounts of gold, get some charm xp and it's much funnier to give person a masterpiece of a sword in exchange for his daughter's hand than some silly coins.
I don't know much about leadership skill, but even only with ability to convert bandits into best types of soldiers you can get in the game this skill tree is definitely worth the time.
I made an engineer character who uses crossbows as his weapon. I rarely ever got to be an engineer but i had a lot of fun blasting people with the crossbow lol
Smithing gives your way more flexibility in play style than the base weapons. Every problem with polearm can be fixed through smithing which lets you make the strongest weapons in the game. Polearms are amazing in sieges if you craft a swing weapon that can reach over troops and hit enemies or knock them off siege towers. Throwing weapons are great if you want to play a mostly melee build and plan on being in close range all the time. You can have a shield up all the time allowing you to close in on enemies easy. Your throwing weapons benefit from your walking or riding momentum which can one shot anyone in the game no matter how heavy the armor is. Also it depends on what troops your leading because their are a ton of formation bonuses based on the weapon your using, Sturgia really benefits from throwing bonuses. You can craft throwing weapons that double as a very fast one handed weapon giving you a one handed weapon slot as long as you don't throw your last weapon. These being so low tier is totally based on play style. If you want to rush in and do damage and not circle around the enemy for an hour sniping polearm, smithing and throwing are some of the best skills in the game.
you can level engineering very fast if you are defending castle and have ballista you can just shoot it and in a single battle you can get even 100 points to engineering
2:08 "Even though I got rougery in the d tier here, you can still abso-LOOTLY play it"
I have always leveled up scouting (when I picked it anyway) just by traveling through the map. The higher the skill, the more trails you find, son it reaches a moment when you just level scouting so quick by doing literally nothing. And I´m talking about 160-175 level of scouting. But, yeah, if you dont want to invest in that skill and still get all the benefits, just hire a wanderer and make him the scout of your party.
When it comes to smithing, almost all my playthroughs rely on smithing to make money xDDD
I know this sucks to hear, but your videos for whatever reason still rarely pop up on my feed since the algorithm change. I know you posted a video about that earlier and I'm sure it's super frustrating but we're here with you bud and it's frustrating to me as well.
Anyway Liked, subscribed, notifications on keep up the cool vids.
Thank you brother! I'm not sure what will change or fix that to be honest :/
Great video man
I'm doing a 2H/bow on foot Battanian play thru right now and it is a BLAST.
hey spartacus, strat gaming has done most of those guides and pretty in depth
That's okay :) we all can have repeat guides with varying opinions. There's plenty of ways to approach things in this game
With the correct bandit mods, Roguery is completely busted and super fun. Also if you want to have the most laid back easy campaign, just play with the Horse archer bros. They are just busted in general
Smithing and Athletics both give 2 attributes each, they pay for themselves. Any character intended to see combat must have high riding/athletics or both, smithing is just a synergistic bonus at that point.
I think all of the weapon skills belong in the B tier with throwing being the only exception of throwing being in C. All of them are situational because they assume that you're using said weapons frequently or as part of a build. There are only so many slots to go around, even with the civilian loadout. And no matter how good the perks themselves are, when you pick 2-4, you're getting rid of the rest, unless you Frankenstein your character.
I like using throwing to break enemy lines without getting caught by spear wielders
That's great inspiration, my next character will be as d tier as possible.
I usually at least put a few points into smithing early game as it can help fund my army, really helpful when working towards buying a caravan/workshop
I'd say Riding is an S-Tier Skill, just because it's literally essential to most of the game. Whether fighting or traveling, generally better off on horse. Athletics has some nice perks, but your character can almost become "too fast" as you get past 100. I've had 200+ Athletics on Battanian Berserker character, and in the heaviest armor I can almost keep up with horsemen at times. Without armor in towns I move so fast it's almost difficult to control my movement.
Really useful info. Thanks!
Great review, I've learned a few things.
Crossbow and engineering synergy is pretty nice
Smithing should definitely be S tier since while it has an initial hurdle, the kind of money you can make while also improving charm and relations with notables after fulfillling orders encourages players to travel all over the map to find different weapons they can smelt for better components for regions asking for weapons orders which may be difficult at first while at the same time gives a solid alternative to scrapping trash weapons which bring little to no gold when selling them off.
I'm fairly certain roguery can be gained by selling prisoners to a random broker. Though I dont know of my mods had any impact on it
great video bro loved it!
Throwing is a blast. Level it up a little and every single javelin hit is a guaranteed kill. You barely need to aim, and headshots are a fun bonus - not a necessity. The limited ammo isn't really an issue since you can just swap to melee form when you're down to one and pick up fresh ammo.
IMO the only real downside to throwing is the relatively short range and high weight. And if your javelins are long enough they can block your vision when you're trying to aim. Which is really annoying, and they need to either be repositioned or go transparent when you zoom.
A reason that I use javelins on horse is to quickly take out mounted commanders. It’s pretty easy to take out their horse out from under them, and then stab them with a 2h sword.
That’s how I quickly demoralize enemy, go hunt and kill commanders and then butcher stuff with 2h
And the crafted 2h have CRAZY range and can butcher multiple troops in 1 swing
My current playthrough is a mercenary with a mercenary army. The fun part is that i dont pay my men, instead they pay me.
i always build up my smithing so i can make weapons that i want my companions to use. custom weapons are always better at how you want to fight or how you want your companions to fight over stock stuff (as it should be). of course you can build up a companion's skill, but it is with riding and athletics, and since you need to max out the attributes for them to get them to the highest levels smithing is cheaper in the long run than most other skills. trade and engineering are like that as well, but leveling those skills are pretty hit and miss (late in the game when you can buy a bunch and sell a bunch the trade skill goes up pretty slowly, and you want to be focused on leading armies and fighting at that point, and giving loot to your troops with the stewardship perk can turn peasants into tier 6 masters right when you hire them making it maybe the best perks in the game, means that you won't be selling as much loot late game). the loot leveling for your troops makes Steward S tier on its own, the Medicine and Engineering skills are nice as well, but if they don't level it isn't that big of a deal. that being said you should max out Intelligence and the focus points are cheap enough to spend on both of those skills so that you can have good leveling in them without focusing on them or grinding them (i never grind since it is boring anyway). basically max out the attributes of Int, Soc, and End then put focus into one ranged weapon, one melee weapon, riding, athletics, charm, leadership, and steward in the order to keep them leveling as you level. when you get extra focus points after this put them into medicine, trade, smithing, and engineering due to the maxed out attributes, and then into a second melee weapon, and either throwing or bow if you already maxed throwing for the utility (throwing is good for sieges via dropping rocks or operating catapults, and bow is good for the ballista), scouting and tactics can also be good, but at this point you probably won't be leveling to get more focus points very much.
Tactics is S tier mate. Being able to defeat an army of 2500 with an army of 1300 isn't matched by anything else in the game, it makes destroying entire kingdoms easy.
i found out you can gain engineering exp by building traps at hideouts to bait out the bandits
As my surgeon companion skills are, max points in throwing medicine and one hand 😂. Mans a menace on the infantry line and the carry for them. If you see a medic just run at you I would personally run away
I'd really like to see an update to the unit guide as well.
You can cheese the game the most if you only level your social and passive skills...try max charm, trade, tactics. You may autoresolve every battle with like no losses