Profession/Trait Discussion

[Tyken132]

I wanted to discuss and perhaps get some insight or opinions on the various traits and professions.

 

Professions:

Fire Officer: Faster axe swings and easier to break down a door. This profession rocks as soon as you get an axe but before you do, its useless. Me and others have gone weeks, if not monthes without finding one of these. Not horrible but not an amazing choice.

 

Police Officer: With the new update, this seems like a much more solid choice. Though, its biggest fault is that it focuses on guns and carries with it, the same problem all guns have. Limited ammo, loud noise, carrying ammo, etc. In attention, it has the same problem as the fire officer, making all perks useless untill you get a gun. Would not recommend.

 

Park Ranger: As it stands, the only trait this class has is the ability to basically never get sick, naturally. (I.E. Rain) Incredibly useful as you don't have to stop what you're doing and go inside as soon as it showers. Ontop of that, it also mentions that cold and heat don't have a prounced effect on you. I have no idea how true this is but overall this profession is solid on its own.

 

Construction Worker: Tough skin and fast Barricades. Tough skin alone makes this profession solid. Less of a chance to be bitten/scratched? Sign me up. As for the "Handy" perk, It says faster barracades, I'm not sure if it effects all construction or walls but I don't have details at the moment. Either way, Handy is incredibly useful for power leveling your carpentry.

 

Security Guard: Requres less sleep, and is more aware when sleeping. Being more aware is decent early game but i've never had a problem with a zombie sneaking up on me, as long as you take precautions. Less sleep is useful, though. Allows you to waste less time sleeping. However, its worst profession at the moment, avoid if possible.

 

Traits:

To start, the most popular traits i've seen include:

 

Athletic:  Whats not to love about this trait? Run faster, longer? Ideal for escaping hordes and amazing for traveling.

Stout: Almost as good as strong but cheaper. If you don't care about 2 extra carry and possible "unlisted" effects.

Strong:  More expensive version of stout, a bit extra carry (2) and i've heard rumors that it has other effects as well, but unconfirmed as of yet.

Graceful:  Great for avoiding a fight, though not always possible. Great to start with, becomes a bit less useful once you decide to go on a killing spree.

Lucky: I personally -really- like this trait. Less chance to be bitten/scratched combined with construction worker makes you very tough. Ontop of that, you tend to find more, and more rare things. Axes, shotguns, etc. Problem is, its a tad costly.

 

 

Brooding/ Short Tempered: These two have litte to no effects because of the lack of npcs, hence making them basically free points right now. Even when npcs are added, I would assume the ill effects would be minimal, even more so if you tend to be a loner. However, it'll be a wait and see sort of thing. Till then? Freebie.

 

Light Drinker: This trait doesn't really do much besides get you drunk easier. As it stands, there's very little reason to actually drink alcohal at all, besides roleplaying purposes or desprate times.

 

Cowardly: Panic can be a bit of an issue if you're using firearms, even more so in the lastest update (28), however, if you tend to stick with shotguns or melee weapons, it barely becomes an issue.

 

Other Traits:

 

Brave: As Konrad Knox stated below, its basically useless as you'll always panic near a horde and barely useful at all on smaller groups.

Eagle Eyed: Useful, if you want to be a sniper of sorts. Otherwise? I don't see it as being that useful.

Hardened Drinker: Three points for this?...Seems like a waste. Alcohal is never a concern. Plus, who doesn't want to get drunk?

Keen Hearing: Useful but..Do you really want to hear even more zombies groaning? As it stands, standard hearing is fine, unless you have a massive fort that you hate to patrol and are willing do hear zombies 3 blocks down banging on something else.

Light Eater: A great trait, if you can spare the 3 points. You need smaller farms, need to carry less food, get "well fed" easier, etc.

Patient: Currently useless. Even then, 4 points is a bit much for what it does, Pass.

Resilient: Love to eat raw food and run around in the rain (Without being a ranger?) Then this is probably good. Granted, not many people want to spare the points on it.

 

Agoraphobic: In my opinion, this is both a good and a bad trait to take. On one hand..you're almost constantly be in a state of panic. If you stay indoors most of the time, something is wrong. As discribed above, panic doesn't have that big of a negitive impact unless you're using accuracy dependant weapons, which unless future updates effect melee weapons, its hardly a problem. However, being in a constant state of panic can get annoying, fast.

Claustrophobic: Practially free points in my opinion. Later game, you almost never have to spend time in doors. Though, as I already mentioned. Panic can be quite annoying to deal with constantly in non-combat situations.

Clumsy: More noise when moving. I would personally avoid this trait unless you -really- need the 1 point. Sneaking is useful, even if you love to run into the fray of things and this skill makes it much harder to survive with minimal benifit.

Feeble: No, Absolutely not. Less knock back hurts a bit but not as much as the decrease in carry cap. Plus I belive its intended to make breaking doors and opening windows, harder.

Hard of Hearing: With this perk, i've noticed zombies sneak up on me more. As long as you pay attention to your surroundings more, then this is easily one of the better "negitive" perks.

Hearty Appetite: I'd...advise against this. Food is rarely an issue once you have a farm but even then, its very tedious to both carry and consume more food.

Hypochondriac: Can be very bothersome, even more so if it goes past just quesy. Not worth it, Imo.

Overweight: Not horrible..however, you'll hate youre life if you like to travel. Not recommended in the least.

Prone to Illness: If you tend to eat rotten food or stand in the rain for long periods of time, this is a horrible trait. However..if you're a Park Ranger and you're careful with what you eat? Free points!

Short Sighted: This, combined with one of the panic perks makes seeing a lot harder. Its a bit of an annoyance for only 2 points.

Unlucky: I say avoid at all costs..Even if you're incredibly careful in combat, the fact remains that you get even less rare loot. Only advised for sadists or challenge seekers.

Weak: If you think feeble was bad, this is worse. Avoid at all costs unless you like being encumbered by a bag of crips (Only slightly exaggerating)

 

So thats a list of all my thoughts, views, and experience in the matter. Feel free to offer your own thoughts or insight on the matter and list your favorite builds. (As well as why, so newbies can learn!)

[_Gold_]

My personal perk layout is:

 

Construction Worker

 

Stout

Lucky

Short Tempered

Brooding

Light Drinker

Short Sighted

 

I also feel that you should put the lucky trait with the most popular traits 

[Konrad Knox]

I play Multiplayer as main focus.

 

Security guard and police officer are useless.

 

Fireman - meh.

 

Construction worker and ranger are pretty much the win, getting you the most points.

 

 

I'm of firm belief in superiority of Park Ranger, due to the amount of points you can rack up for free. The OP summarized it very well, and I only disagree on a few things.
 

My build:

 

Park Ranger

 

Strong - see OP.
Lucky - see OP.

Athletic - see OP.

Light Eater - see OP.

 

Short Tempered 
Brooding

 

Cowardly - in my opinion Brave is useless, since in single zombie combat accuracy doesn't matter, and in a horde, you panic anyway.

 

Claustrophobic

 

Prone to Illness - free points for Park Ranger. Just avoid bites (lucky helps) and don't eat junk. (still can survive btw)

 

Hard of Hearing - an awesome trait. This only helps me. It narrows your sound range, so that you don't get sound spam from a block away. I only care to hear my immediate surroundings.

 

Light Drinker - free points.

 

 

I think this is the most optimal offensive build.

 

---

 

The tankiest build is to stack Lucky on top of Construction worker, to get double protection from bites.

Also, construction worker pretty much NEEDS Resilient, so you can't milk Prone to Illness free points.

Which usually means construction workers don't take either athletic or strong or lucky. Too much to sacrifice.

 

---

 

I tried the opposite build. Made all the good mental health choices. Patient, brave, resilient, but sacrificed strength, luck, and speed.
It totally failed.

 

 

[Tyken132]

My personal perk layout is:

 

Construction Worker

 

Stout

Lucky

Short Tempered

Brooding

Light Drinker

Short Sighted

 

I also feel that you should put the lucky trait with the most popular traits 

 

I would have added lucky to popular but I haven't honestly seen many people post it in their builds. I may be wrong but I can always switch it out.

[Tyken132]

I play Multiplayer as main focus.

 

Security guard and police officer are useless.

 

Fireman - meh.

 

Construction worker and ranger are pretty much the win, getting you the most points.

 

 

I'm of firm belief in superiority of Park Ranger, due to the amount of points you can rack up for free. The OP summarized it very well, and I only disagree on a few things.

 

My build:

 

Park Ranger

 

Strong - see OP.

Lucky - see OP.

Athletic - see OP.

Light Eater - see OP.

 

Short Tempered 

Brooding

 

Cowardly - in my opinion Brave is useless, since in single zombie combat accuracy doesn't matter, and in a horde, you panic anyway.

 

Claustrophobic

 

Prone to Illness - free points for Park Ranger. Just avoid bites (lucky helps) and don't eat junk. (still can survive btw)

 

Hard of Hearing - an awesome trait. This only helps me. It narrows your sound range, so that you don't get sound spam from a block away. I only care to hear my immediate surroundings.

 

Light Drinker - free points.

 

 

I think this is the most optimal offensive build.

 

---

 

The tankiest build is to stack Lucky on top of Construction worker, to get double protection from bites.

Also, construction worker pretty much NEEDS Resilient, so you can't milk Prone to Illness free points.

Which usually means construction workers don't take either athletic or strong or lucky. Too much to sacrifice.

 

---

 

I tried the opposite build. Made all the good mental health choices. Patient, brave, resilient, but sacrificed strength, luck, and speed.

It totally failed.

 

What, in your opinion, makes strong better than stout? Is 2 extra carry worth the 2 extra points? Or is it better in a more subtle way that isn't listed in the wiki?

 

Also, great point on Brave. I personally don't use guns often for the reasons listed, so I figured it would be a good perk for gun users, in theory.

 

As for hard of hearing, I only play tested it slightly. Does it really not effect your hearing that badly? One of my biggest concerns was having a zombie or two, knocking away at one of your walls/barricades and not knowing about it. Do they eventually give up or is your hearing still good enough to hear from a good distance?

 

Lastly, I think I'd agree with your ranger and construction worker statements.

 

[Konrad Knox]

Strong vs. Stout

 

Here are the reasons why Strong fits my playing style better than Stout.

 

1. I am a pack rat. More carry capacity not only lets you loot more and have more productive supply runs, but it incrementally optimizes pretty much every single thing in the game. You can carry more wood, which means you can build faster, you need fewer supply runs, you can stay in combat for longer, you can carry more water, which means you can wander further into the wild, you can catch more fish, which means you can cook more food. It's quite literally an optimizer for a lot of gameplay.

 

2. Related to carry capacity. A Strong character will not break their back when at Extreme Encumbrance. Every other character, Stout included, will get back injury if trying to run and climb with an Extemely Heavy Load. I happen to run when overloaded a lot, and a Strong character has never suffered injury.

 

3. Knockback in combat. I need it. It lets me clear mini-hordes of 10-12 zeds with a melee weapon by simply standing my ground.

 

4. Strong decreases the time you need to open windows significantly, and makes not just most, but EVERY window easy to open. And that's important to me. Sometimes I don't have time to try all the windows around the house, sometimes I just need to get in or get out.

 

5. Breaking down doors. God, what would I do without strong! Any door in just a few hits.

 

Hard of Hearing

 

Hard of hearing still lets you hear most things around your safehouse's walls. I am assuming that a normal hearing character lets you hear quite a bit. Too much. A character with normal hearing can hear a zombie knocking on a door of the neighbor's house. I don't care about that. It's a filter that limits my danger perception to just the immediate surroundings, so I don't have to jump when I hear a knock that is actually a house away from me.

 

Also, I often play without sound, just by visual clues, so hearing is wasted on me.

[Tyken132]

1.Hmm, I can certaintly understand being a pack rat but is the 2 cap really worth the 2 extra points?

Also, I thought the max weight possible was 50, reguardless of carry cap. I could only ever carry 5 logs at a time.

 

2.As for encumbrance, I may just be lucky but with stout, i've never had a back injury while carrying or running. Granted, I do run out of breath fast.

 

3. They both say extra knock back, is it the same amount? or do you actually get more?

 

4. Forcing windows open is nice if you care about stealth at the moment, but its just as easy to break down a window or door. Most causes, I simiply kill everything around, break a window, and get to work looting.

 

5. I'm not sure how much faster it is with strong vs stout, but I break down doors in 5-6 hits (I've counted), Problem is, its not very often that I -have- to break a door down.

 

If all those things really do make a difference and its not just an extra 2 carry cap? It might actually be worth the 2 points. However, you could also use those 2 extra points, elsewhere.

 

 

Lastly, on hard of hearing. I've never had the problem of hearing too much. Granted, I lived in two semi-isolated locations (Large warehouse and Motel) so its hardly been an issue. I suppose in the end you're not giving up anything if you play with the sound off, but why give up a handy survival tool if you don't have to otherwise?

[Konrad Knox]

Well. Because Light Eater is worth it.
When all the crops rot, and when you are out of fishing line, the game will become about who needs to eat less frequently.
The difference between being out of potato chips and not - may be the difference between winning that survival contest and dying of hunger.

[Tyken132]

Well. Because Light Eater is worth it.

When all the crops rot, and when you are out of fishing line, the game will become about who needs to eat less frequently.

The difference between being out of potato chips and not - may be the difference between winning that survival contest and dying of hunger.

 

Well, I completely agree with you in some reguard. Food is very important and you could easily get his with diseased crops or any number of this. However, as I said in my own personal experience, it was never an issue. I always had more than enough food with even a tiny farm (4 cabbage, potato, tomato, broc) and could have possibly made it even smaller.

[Footmuffin]

Prone to Illness: If you tend to eat rotten food or stand in the rain for long periods of time, this is a horrible trait. However..combine it with safe eating and Park Ranger? Free points!

Actually, player's aren't allowed to take Prone to Illness with Resilient. <3 ~sorry~ <3

[Tyken132]

 

Prone to Illness: If you tend to eat rotten food or stand in the rain for long periods of time, this is a horrible trait. However..combine it with safe eating and Park Ranger? Free points!

Actually, player's aren't allowed to take Prone to Illness with Resilient. <3 ~sorry~ <3

 

I believe you misunderstand. The ranger perk basically makes you damn near immune to getting sick, except from zombies or rotten food.

[Footmuffin]

 

 

Prone to Illness: If you tend to eat rotten food or stand in the rain for long periods of time, this is a horrible trait. However..combine it with safe eating and Park Ranger? Free points!

Actually, player's aren't allowed to take Prone to Illness with Resilient. <3 ~sorry~ <3

 

I believe you misunderstand. The ranger perk basically makes you damn near immune to getting sick, except from zombies or rotten food.

 

And I wasn't debating that. I said Resilient, the one with the loopyloops, conflicts with Prone to Illness.

[Tyken132]

 

 

 

Prone to Illness: If you tend to eat rotten food or stand in the rain for long periods of time, this is a horrible trait. However..combine it with safe eating and Park Ranger? Free points!

Actually, player's aren't allowed to take Prone to Illness with Resilient. <3 ~sorry~ <3

 

I believe you misunderstand. The ranger perk basically makes you damn near immune to getting sick, except from zombies or rotten food.

 

And I wasn't debating that. I said Resilient, the one with the loopyloops, conflicts with Prone to Illness.

 

I never said you can take resilient and prone to illness, did I?

[EnigmaGrey]

There's no such thing as a "safe eating" trait, either. Park Ranger only gives you a skill that benefits you from getting sick from the rain, which itself isn't fatal and only a minor nuisance.

Construction worker and prone to illness would probably be a better pairing, as you get the zombie-virus defying powers of thick skinned, that could just nullify any benefits, all to earn a few extra points . . . Perhaps you meant hypochondriac? With reliant and thick skin, you could more or less ignore (at your own peril) any indication of illness. Then, yay, "free" points.

[Tyken132]

There's no such thing as a "safe eating" trait, either. Park Ranger only gives you a skill that benefits you from getting sick from the rain, which itself isn't fatal and only a minor nuisance.

Construction worker and prone to illness would probably be a better pairing, as you get the zombie-virus defying powers of thick skinned, that could just nullify any benefits, all to earn a few extra points . . . Perhaps you meant hypochondriac? With reliant and thick skin, you could more or less ignore (at your own peril) any indication of illness. Then, yay, "free" points.

Oh! I see where the confusion is. I meant take the trait and eat safely, not an "Eat safely trait"

[plekpot]

Hmm, learned a lot in this thread. I usually go with brooding, light drinker and short tempered <--> stout and lucky. Would it be possible to change the traits of your character mid game? I already spent 20 hours making a massive fort and building skybridges and don't want to start all over.

[Tyken132]

Hmm, learned a lot in this thread. I usually go with brooding, light drinker and short tempered <--> stout and lucky. Would it be possible to change the traits of your character mid game? I already spent 20 hours making a massive fort and building skybridges and don't want to start all over.

Not traditionally, perhaps there's a mod or save editor out there that'll allow you to do that.

[plekpot]

 

Hmm, learned a lot in this thread. I usually go with brooding, light drinker and short tempered <--> stout and lucky. Would it be possible to change the traits of your character mid game? I already spent 20 hours making a massive fort and building skybridges and don't want to start all over.

Not traditionally, perhaps there's a mod or save editor out there that'll allow you to do that.

 

There isn't. There is one for world settings, but not character settings.

[feral_donkey]

In this new version an eagle eyed cop might be fun.   Get a rifle and you can really thin them out at range.

 

The only trait that matters to me is Strong    It just makes everything easier.   Hit hard,  carry more, open windows faster.    Playing without it would just make looting inefficient.   I can fully load two big packpacks and carry one in my left hand.     As far as classes nothing beats Construction worker's thick skin.   That will be a hard one for other classes in future to match.   The lucky scratch or bite is just too dangerous.

 

Maybe thick skin should be an expensive trait rather than class related.

[HauntedQuiche]

 

 

Brooding/ Short Tempered: These two have litte to no effects because of the lack of npcs, hence making them basically free points right now. Even when npcs are added, I would assume the ill effects would be minimal, even more so if you tend to be a loner.

 

 

The thing about the ill-effects being minimal... I actually sorta doubt that will be the case. If you're a loner, yes, but I believe the final plans are for Loner-ing to be a lot more deadly because of the risks of...well...loneliness.

 

And if you are intereacting with an NPC group then those traits are just going to make everybody hate you, which could potentially be fatal. "Not quite enough food for everyone? Ah well, Mr RageMood, better luck tomorrow..."

[Tyken132]

The thing about the ill-effects being minimal... I actually sorta doubt that will be the case. If you're a loner, yes, but I believe the final plans are for Loner-ing to be a lot more deadly because of the risks of...well...loneliness.

 

And if you are intereacting with an NPC group then those traits are just going to make everybody hate you, which could potentially be fatal. "Not quite enough food for everyone? Ah well, Mr RageMood, better luck tomorrow..."

 

Its going to have to be one of those wait and see type of deals, really. Realistically, I agree...but I doubt it's going to be that realistic and i'm sure they'd be ways around it.

[Konrad Knox]

There's no such thing as a "safe eating" trait, either. Park Ranger only gives you a skill that benefits you from getting sick from the rain, which itself isn't fatal and only a minor nuisance.

Construction worker and prone to illness would probably be a better pairing, as you get the zombie-virus defying powers of thick skinned, that could just nullify any benefits, all to earn a few extra points . . . Perhaps you meant hypochondriac? With reliant and thick skin, you could more or less ignore (at your own peril) any indication of illness. Then, yay, "free" points.

 

But if you take Prone to Illness on a construction worker, you will catch a cold in the rain all the time.

And hypochondriac is just too much of a bother, when you can take claustrophobic for +4 points instead.

If there is a "at your own peril" clause, then we're definitely not talking "free points", lol.

 

I assume by "reliant" you mean "resilient". If yes, resilient itself does not defend you from getting infected, it only slows down the progression of infection. What you want for construction worker is Lucky. Lucky is actually combating your chance of infection.

I find Resilient to be useless, because even without it, and even with prone to illness - you can still survive eating rotten/burnt/raw food, as long as you keep yourself fed with good food.

 

By "safe eating" we mean the player choice to not eat dangerous products.

I think the only use for Resilient is to survive drinking bleach, but who cares to do that, where there are plenty of water barrels for water.

[Swagger]

I always pick the fire officer and only take strong these days, I find the rest not really that necessary (fire officer is not necessary, just preference)  Police officer is not that useful because guns are not that useful (SP).  I only carry one in case I get grabbed and need to switch to my gun to quickly get the horde off me so I can escape, otherwise its only really useful as a distraction tool.  Construction worker and lucky are also over rated imo, you shouldn't be getting scratched or bitten full stop.

[Tyken132]

made a few minor changes to the OP

[Konrad Knox]

I would put Lucky on the list of most popular traits, Tyken.

It seems like everyone likes it, and it provides a lot of benefits for only 4 points.

 

Infection protection.

Loot enrichment.

Fishing success.

Random gunshots driving zombies away from you, not towards you.

 

Probably other things.