Passive vs. Active skills

[Gideon_Slack]

What is the general thinking on the value of passive vs. active skills?

For example, in tthe Archer evasion tree there is the active Dodge skill, and the passive Cat Reflexes . Both effect evasion chances: Dodge with a great percentage over a short period, and Cat Reflexes with a smaller, but constant boost.

Is it generally better to put points into the passive skills -- or go for a big temporary boost from active ones?

[Hydroxidee]

It is generally better to put points into passive skills imo and then into buffs becuz passive is always there. buffs not so much.

[Comp]

Originally Posted by Gideon_Slack

What is the general thinking on the value of passive vs. active skills?

For example, in tthe Archer evasion tree there is the active Dodge skill, and the passive Cat Reflexes . Both effect evasion chances: Dodge with a great percentage over a short period, and Cat Reflexes with a smaller, but constant boost.

Is it generally better to put points into the passive skills -- or go for a big temporary boost from active ones?

From an archer....here's what I think....

Dodge = Awesome skill and I keep mine at level 3...could not survive without it

Cat Reflexes = I wouldn't put points in this if my life depended on it...it doesn't seem to work and base evasions are too "willie-nillie"

You really need to make the judgement call on yourself...on on the test server and configure the passive and actives to find out which one is best.

[RegnumIrae]

Mmm...

Dodge gives u 25% of evading a skill/attack. The passive adds a 15% of evasion to ur base evasion. If u'd have 100 evasion points (impossible, but just an example), the passive would give u +15 evasion points (cos of the +15% evasion ), so u'd have 115 evasion points. Its much useful that 25% than the 115 evasion points.

The same happens with precise block and the block passive.. the block passive adds u +30% block points (if I use a +50 block shield, just get the 30% of 50 and those points will be added ), and precise block gives u 30% chances to block an attack/skill. So is much useful precise block.

Nice passives are, for example, the damage passive for the barb (+15% dmg), the dmg resistance passives in the warriors' weapons tree, etc etc.

Cu

[Anpu]

I d go for active skills and let passives be lvl 1, just to "be there". It costs mana, but better results.

[Mattdoesrock]

Passive skills don't cost mana, they don;t have a duration and they can;t be mind squashed, remember that.

But!! You can only rely on them so much. It all depends on the passive. In general active skills will be more useful; they'll be your key defenses / offensives, but passives, IMO, make up the backbone of your player.

[backe]

I agree with Anpu on this one. Passives are great for leveling because they make you more mana stable, but they lack flexibility and are typically weaker than actives. Usually, the only passives I put extra points in are the ones that modify a characters primary attribute.

[_dracus_]

I tend to disagree with what was previously said. Passive can be great, it just depends which ones. For example cat reflex doesn't look very appealing to me. However my barbarian has lots of points into passive ability (Strenght passive lvl 5, Resistance to piercing dmg lvl 5, Dmg increase lvl 5) and I'm pretty sure lots of Archers use the intelligence passive on 4 or 5 to have a better mana pool and mana regen.

[Comp]

Originally Posted by gph

I tend to disagree with what was previously said. Passive can be great, it just depends which ones. For example cat reflex doesn't look very appealing to me. However my barbarian has lots of points into passive ability (Strenght passive lvl 5, Resistance to piercing dmg lvl 5, Dmg increase lvl 5) and I'm pretty sure lots of Archers use the intelligence passive on 4 or 5 to have a better mana pool and mana regen.

I have tested the int passive and the regen differenece is minimum and the amount of mana you get for spending the points isn't worth it.