Greetings,
this might be a lot of work for some but ...
In the black forest i subverted a greydwarf spawn not too far from a mined out copper node turned big hole and trenched a ever deeper path for them to enter then follow until they find themselves stuck in that large hole. while close it seems far enough away the spawner will keep producing like normal.
I can level my blood magic with the skeletons and shield. I also have a golem trapped in the mountains to train the other magic.
in both locations it is good to have a small rest/shelter structure to stay in for max skill gains.

Originally posted by Soma:

I have 2 opinions on the subject.

1. Like all mistlands weapons/armor we do not know their full power until we get the ability to upgrade the mistlands forge high enough to fully upgrade the weapons/armor.

2. Blood magic skill level really shines here and you get the double benefit of stronger shield and stronger summons. I have mine in the in the mid 60's now and if I spawn 2 skeletons, then shield them they take down a seeker in about 3 seconds. I cant wait til I get that skill to 80+.


So I agree that the point of the skeletons when starting out seems useless, but after working on the skill for a bit they get better, and I hope to have that skill as high as possible when I am able to upgrade the staff and armor when the forge upgrades come out.

because like mostly every other feature in the game, was poorly thought out/implemented. they rushed it in a poorly veiled attempt to get that labor of love award.

so now you have new borderline-useless facilities that should have been upgrades for the regular forge and artisan table, a set of armor that does not provide you any significant defense against the increasingly stronger enemies of the mistlands (whooping extra 4 defense), and a magic system thats probably one of the worst since having magic means sacrificing all of your health and stamina for no significant increase in damage output, you have 4 spells and they're all bad, they couldn't even give the the aoe Novas that the Dverger use on the staves strong attack to the player.

I agree that the progression system in the mistlands feels off. You struggle a lot basically with your plains gear until you find enough black cores. Then the upgrade to your normal Armor isn't really an upgrade while they put you up against 2 star seeker soldiers in the mines where you can't even hit their back with a bow. The cape and the magic items are actually good and help a lot but for me it seems like it's a dedicated fighting build because you sacrifice so much health and stamina so farming black marble or other stuff would take forever. It also definitely doesn't help that we get magic so late in the game. As many others here, I built an arena in the swamps around 2 draugr spawners and leveled my blood magic by spamming the shield on 2 skellies until I reached around level 40. I did the same with the frost staff and a trapped stone golem. Then magic starts to be quite good but you shouldn't have to do this just to be able to use a new mechanic, imho.

Originally posted by Soma:

I have 2 opinions on the subject.

1. Like all mistlands weapons/armor we do not know their full power until we get the ability to upgrade the mistlands forge high enough to fully upgrade the weapons/armor.

2. Blood magic skill level really shines here and you get the double benefit of stronger shield and stronger summons. I have mine in the in the mid 60's now and if I spawn 2 skeletons, then shield them they take down a seeker in about 3 seconds. I cant wait til I get that skill to 80+.


So I agree that the point of the skeletons when starting out seems useless, but after working on the skill for a bit they get better, and I hope to have that skill as high as possible when I am able to upgrade the staff and armor when the forge upgrades come out.

FYI you can upgrade the new mistlands gear to level 4 by entering creative mode and disabling material/workbench requirements.

Originally posted by Archdeacon Monseigneur:

Originally posted by Soma:

I have 2 opinions on the subject.

1. Like all mistlands weapons/armor we do not know their full power until we get the ability to upgrade the mistlands forge high enough to fully upgrade the weapons/armor.

2. Blood magic skill level really shines here and you get the double benefit of stronger shield and stronger summons. I have mine in the in the mid 60's now and if I spawn 2 skeletons, then shield them they take down a seeker in about 3 seconds. I cant wait til I get that skill to 80+.


So I agree that the point of the skeletons when starting out seems useless, but after working on the skill for a bit they get better, and I hope to have that skill as high as possible when I am able to upgrade the staff and armor when the forge upgrades come out.

FYI you can upgrade the new mistlands gear to level 4 by entering creative mode and disabling material/workbench requirements.

Cool! I will experiment with that on a solo map, currently just doing multiplayer so having to do it the long way.

Skeles health and damage is based on your blood magic skill. They get more powerful the higher your skill. Magic is extremely powerful, but you really have to invest in skilling it up before trying it in the new content. My advice is whenever you do low-tier resource runs, get an Eitr Build (Eitr Eitr Stam is what I do) and chop down trees/mine iron in swamp with skele cover. Your Blood Magic skill will go up relatively fast, and you won't have to do much.

Skele last until they're dead (Well, deader) it's a very nice ability even if they didn't get strong enough to take on some current mobs. But some mobs they will always struggle with. Melee Skele basically can't do anything against troll. Just keep getting knocked back.

Someone already mentioned, but they do get your barrier (If you're close enough) though not your Forsaken power. Barrier + Skele = very goods.

Originally posted by Mr.Pessimism:

Frankly i find the cost of magical weapons to be to high in comparison to their usefulness in the mistland at the start. i mean i understand they get better with skill but if the skellies can't take down a seeker at the start then whats the point. i mean we just got magic. shouldn't i be able to use it to some degree in the current zone. not level it up in past zones just to be able to use it in the mist lands.

You can still use them in the mistlands. A good distraction is often just as useful as straight up damage. But if you're expecting them to carry a fight, it's never gonna happen, even when all stars align. They're still valheim mobs and their Engagement AI is simple. They aren't going to dodge roll to avoid a one shot kill. They're not going to flank a soldier and hit the weak spot. To be fair, it's a miracle their pathfinding is even as good as it is.

Yeah, spawned skele's don't expire until they die. So at the beginning of my daily playthrough I spawn them outside my walls and they beat on anything that gets near and when I log in the next day they're still there sometimes if they haven't been killed.

I tried leveling them up in a dungeon with a spawner but they'll run in there and destroy the spawner so I'll have to lift up one of the weaker enemy spawners so they can't destroy it.

Frankly i find the cost of magical weapons to be to high in comparison to their usefulness in the mistland at the start. i mean i understand they get better with skill but if the skellies can't take down a seeker at the start then whats the point. i mean we just got magic. shouldn't i be able to use it to some degree in the current zone. not level it up in past zones just to be able to use it in the mist lands.

I have 2 opinions on the subject.

1. Like all mistlands weapons/armor we do not know their full power until we get the ability to upgrade the mistlands forge high enough to fully upgrade the weapons/armor.

2. Blood magic skill level really shines here and you get the double benefit of stronger shield and stronger summons. I have mine in the in the mid 60's now and if I spawn 2 skeletons, then shield them they take down a seeker in about 3 seconds. I cant wait til I get that skill to 80+.


So I agree that the point of the skeletons when starting out seems useless, but after working on the skill for a bit they get better, and I hope to have that skill as high as possible when I am able to upgrade the staff and armor when the forge upgrades come out.

the skeletons are not there to fight for you. There is no viable way for that to work from the mountains forward, maybe plains forward if you have high defense staff ability.

you work together. freeze the enemy, so its slow. Help tank, since you are smart enough to block and dodge. They take a hit or two but prot staff keeps them alive.
all this works so much better if you leave ML and go level up your magic on trash until all your magic skills are 50+.

Even with the above..

I have found the mage armor and foods to be too much liability. What I do is keep going as a melee viking, and replaced my stamina food with an eitr food. Then I can freeze and nuke a little and cast protection on myself, but can't get these guys out because of the 2nd food requirement which leaves you weak.

the problem isn't seekers, really, those are actually kinda weak. Its the groups & swarms esp inside mines esp at the door first time inside. The skeletons will split up and get killed, and hardly slow down the enemy at all, or get cornered and stunlocked or worse get in your way. One seeker should go down to the 3 of you so fast it wasn't even interesting. Sometimes the bow guys are better, you can butcher knife them and retry until you get 2 shooters.

on my creative world, i spawned in a lvl 4 skelly spawner and a lvl4 protection staff to get a feel if it would be any better. at low skill even 4 skellys were better than 2. but then i bump my skill to 100 and whoo boy! in combo with a fire staff nothing gets close enough to hit me! i'm a walking god drunk with POWER!!! and then i go into the mistlands and my poor skellys get stuck on a rock and i never see them again...

High blood magic with both Dead Raiser and Staff of Protection along with high elemental magic skills makes for a pretty effective all-around magician. It also doesn't seem like the skeletors will expire on their own, so they can be put to use as guards, mining escort, advance warning against encroaching enemies (thanks to AI aggro)...

The staff of protection prevents damage done before armor calculation is applied, so that's why it tends to go down so quickly. It should be much more effective against damage that cannot be prevented by armor in the first place (I don't remember how it works against poison and such though), when you can summon many skeletors or have other allies alongside you, as well as when in use with pure mage armor.

I wouldn't say any of the magic skills are intended to be entirely self-sufficient (elemental magic comes pretty close though), and that's one reason why they are available relatively late into the game. You can't leave your sword or spear home just because you stole some magic from your enemies.

need to level up the skill first. they are otherwise ineffective. once at 40+ the difference becomes quiete noticeable.

that'd be nice.. too bad you average 40 health when spamming the summoning spells and protection bubble so you get oneshot after they die in 10 seconds. leaving you perpetually under 15 skill, while destroying the rest of your skills.

you don't have to level up on mistlands. go find a dwarf spawner.