Recommended Skills
Abilities
RECOMMENDED FIRST UPGRADES | |
1ST UPGRADE | Raise Dead (Will) |
2ND UPGRADE | Dextrous Styles (Skill) |
3RD UPGRADE | Brutal Styles (Strength) |
4TH UPGRADE | Shock (Will) |
5TH UPGRADE | Shock Level 2 (Will) |
Strength
Brutal Styles
The first level of the Brutal Styles ability gives you the option to block incoming attacks. Blocking is very effective when you get surrounded (which is often), but blocking alone can get you into trouble. In addition to blocking, you can really benefit from the roll ability that you earn by upgrading the Dextrous Styles. Block incoming attacks and then roll out of the way to avoid getting surrounded with no way out.
- RECOMMENDED? Yes, but upgrade Dextrous Styles first.
Physique
Quite simply increases the amount of damage you do with weapons. It's useful for sure, but adding real skills is more important.
- RECOMMENDED? Sure, but worry about real skills first.
Toughness
Essentially doubles the length of your health bar (the first level of Toughness, anyway), which is pretty huge. However, later upgrades offer diminishing returns. Still effective, but dying isn't too much a problem in the game so spend your experience elsewhere.
- RECOMMENDED? First level, sure, eventually you'll want to upgrade. No rush.
Skill
Dextrous Styles
The first Dextrous Styles upgrade gives you the simple ability to roll during combat. Maybe that sounds a bit lame, but know this: rolling is key to getting through fights with multiple enemies and for taking on baddies that just won't stun. Use the roll to avoid getting surrounded and try to keep all enemies on one side of you. The next stage of the upgrade lets you aim your long range attack, which makes it much easier to toggle between targets. Definitely helpful if you're a fan of guns.
- RECOMMENDED? First two levels, definitely.
Accuracy
Very simply adds to the damage dealt by your range attacks. If you're a big fan of guns and crossbows and favor them in combat, this is a solid upgrade, though the damage multiplier isn't particularly strong—the first level of Accuracy boosts your damage by merely 25%.
- RECOMMENDED? We wouldn't rush to upgrade this.
Speed
Speed affects how quickly you reload weapons as well as how speedy you launch melee attacks, making it a bonus to your all-around offense. It's a solid upgrade if you rely more on physical attacks rather than Will magic attacks.
- RECOMMENDED? Don't waste too much on Speed upgrades, but they are good.
Will
Shock
The Shock attack can be used both as a radius attack and as a projectile. Simply tapping the magic button will send a short shockwave around your character, temporarily stunning most enemies that it hits (the stun is ineffective against powerful enemies). When the range of the radius attack isn't enough, point toward your target as you press the magic attack for a long-range blast. The range isn't as long as a typical gun blast, but it will let you keep your enemies at bay. Use the Shock to stun enemies so that you can focus on fighting others.
- RECOMMENDED? Yep!
Inferno
Want a solidly fast projectile with decent knockback effect? The Inferno offers that, and adds to that description "looks real pretty!" Inferno acts somewhere between the Shock and Force Push abilities.
- RECOMMENDED? We say Shock is better, but this is prettier.
Time Control
The only "control" you get with Time Control is the ability to slow time temporarily by tapping the Will attack. This is effective for letting you charge up other magic attacks or line up pinpoint shots with your long range weapon of choice. You can also effectively warp around by spamming the Time Control while moving forward. You can use this quick warp to move behind opponents and attack 'em, safe from a counter. Warp, strike, warp, strike—with this pattern, you can sort of use the Time Control as an alternative to the roll maneuver you get with the Dextrous Styles ability.
- RECOMMENDED? Mos' def', at least the first level.
Blades
Blades gives you a decently damaging projectile, but not much else. The attacks don't stun enemies, so there's nothing keeping them from advancing toward you while you unleash the blades. They essentially don't do anything your gun won't do, and your guns are capable of much more.
- RECOMMENDED? Not worth it. Not a bad upgrade, just not real helpful.
Vortex
Can possibly knock opponent down so your dog can attack them? Sounds promising, letting you essentially fight two enemies at once, but in practice it's just about useless. Scratch that, it is straight up useless.
- RECOMMENDED? Probably the worst purchase you can make.
Chaos
Like in basically every other game with a similar effect, Chaos in Fable II is pretty worthless. It's supposed to distract enemies from fighting you, causing them to fight each other or take part in some other nonsense. Problem is, there's only a chance that the enemy will be distracted and the duration of the effect is pretty minimal.
- RECOMMENDED? Not even kinda!
Force Push
The radius effect of the Force Push is pretty effective at clearing enemies away from you when you get surrounded. The range version of the Will power is effectively the same as shooting someone with a gun—they take some damage and get knocked back a bit. It's not a bad skill, and the radius attack is actually pretty solid, but there are other ways to get basically the same effects with more useful skills.
- RECOMMENDED? Not really. Could choose worse, but not by much.
Raise Dead
We're pretty surprised that this skill is actually very useful. It's surprising 'cause similar skills in other games (and even Fable II's Chaos skill) are generally rubbish. What makes the Raise Dead Will ability pretty strong is that you don't actually have to kill anyone before it'll work—the skill will find dead souls previously lurking about. You can't expect these awakened spooks to do the heavy lifting for you in battle, but they will effectively distract enemies, letting you pull away from the thick of the fight to safely take shots with projectiles. The first level of the skill lasts long enough, so there's no real need to upgrade.
- RECOMMENDED? Absolutely no...er, actually, yeah!