Skill point strategies

**therother** · 03-31-2011, 06:34

I'm finding I tend not to spend all the skill points available as soon as the character ranks up, preferring to wait until they reach the better skills. For instance, I only spend one (on Strategist) when a general goes to 2 stars, preferring to spend the extra points on either the Poet (research bonuses) at 3 star and/or the command bonuses at 4.

I was just wondering if people had any skill point strategies? Do you balance or concentrate? What's the best combination for a your daimyo, "apprehension" meksute or a assassin? Is getting to to the bottom of the skill tree anyone's goal (don't think I've ever done it!).

**Monk** · 03-31-2011, 07:16

I only concentrate on a few of them. Strategist is the biggest since it gives such a huge boost to movement - I always find i'm ending up short of my objective unless i've got at least two points in it. Field attacker/defender is also pretty important to me, but otherwise I don't find myself concentrating on a single skill. My heavy hitting general, the one I put at my 'elite' stack, normally has field attack/defender and strategist all to their max with a few secondaries filled in here and there.

For my backup general/family members I usually concentrate on + defense bonuses and use them for shock charges. If I have 3 stacks (not usually until very late game) I will have one commander as my ambush/night battles guy built specifically for those types of actions.

**Rothe** · 03-31-2011, 08:17

For generals I stick to the left side of the skill trees. I don't use generals for naval warfare really, and personal skills for the general units are not that important in a battle. Better to focus on command and bushido. The bushido boosting skill is funny in a way, since the second step adds +9%, which is a huge boost over the first +3% and the +12% that comes in third place. I tend to put two points in that, max out strategist and then go for command. For a defensive general I will skip the strategist 2nd and 3rd step and aim for ashigaru commander.

For Metsuke, I will max out oversee town. Perhaps some players have not noticed that the metsuke overseeing increases tax rate by 5% per star. That is a big boon to the wealthiest cities. Apprehension is perhaps good for getting the Metsuke to level, so 1 point in that might be ok.

For Ninja, I just usually put a bit in sabotage for leveling, and then I max out the assassination bonus. That way I can skip using Metsuke for apprehension and just assassinate troublesome agents with my ninja.

Monks I level in many ways. I will usually have a monk for converting religion in a province, and there I will max out those bonuses. I might keep a monk for character conversion and demoralize and then a monk for boosting morale of my own troops. The other monks I might use for happiness boosters so that they can move around in case of food shortage or something else that causes discontent and that way I can avoid using upkeep for garrisons in the castles.

**Seyavash** · 03-31-2011, 12:02

I have played around with different strategies. Most recently I have tried to specialize my generals with one taking on the great warrior role and others more on the strategist side. However with all generals and agents I try to go for the chi and bushido bonuses.

Ninja's I focus on the assassination tree with a few points to the sabotage side. I find that even with an assasination focus they usually don't get caught and killed on sabotage jobs.

Metsuke I focus strictly on overseeing towns.

For all of them I will use a single point to skip to the next skill that I really want. since metsuke tree alternates between town and army oversight I max town and give one to the army so I can get to the next town skill.

I haven't come up with a set strategy for monks yet.

**Zarky** · 03-31-2011, 12:47

My plan for monks is stick to the left side. I usually end up hiring most of my monks through holy site province so I build Pilgrim hostel there, already gives +6% to chi research. Then I have them demoralize every single enemy army until they level up and keep at the left side, also putting points to +demoralising armies and maybe character conversion if enemy agents start popping up more than my ninjas can handle.

**Rothe** · 03-31-2011, 13:44

Originally Posted by Zarky

My plan for monks is stick to the left side. I usually end up hiring most of my monks through holy site province so I build Pilgrim hostel there, already gives +6% to chi research. Then I have them demoralize every single enemy army until they level up and keep at the left side, also putting points to +demoralising armies and maybe character conversion if enemy agents start popping up more than my ninjas can handle.

I'll have to check which skills are on the left, but seems like a good idea.

Still, I really think it might pay off to get one monk good at converting people to buddhism, to be able to build a Nanban port and/or to be able to take areas with different religion at max (like Ikko Ikki) and convert them really fast. If you can get a monk with 4 stars in conversion, he can for instance support one Nanban port without any christian influence getting through.

**Dead Guy** · 03-31-2011, 14:22

What do the stars actually do for generals? What boni do they provide in battle?

I've personally focused a lot on infantry commander, because stand and fight is p. awesome, it's like inspire light for all units in the radius, and the + melee attack is also nice. I had that fear-causing one on one of my generals but never paid attention to see whether it worked. Never gone with the +combat stats for bodyguard ones...