Versatility

[taptap]

I would like to hear expert opinion on versatility. Yes or no?

I used it when I first played archers (with stealth), then stopped altogether in a fit of purism, when starting to play noisy archers I again took it and I am now again on the verge of omitting versatility in favour of a few points melee instead.

I was particularly impressed by one or two archers by psi that took 5 melee + charge. (Streak in particular). It would help early to collect equipment without worrying to run out of ammunition (more power than early versatility) and in the long run the 2k xp would even be cheaper than the investment in versatility. Admittedly versatility gives much more than 5 points in late game, but an archer in late game doesn't have to engage in melee anyway.

[Scatha]

Just to comment on design intention: what I imagined was that the ability would be used along with a small number of points of melee. Note that when you have Versatility points in melee are about half as effective as normal -- but the first points are still very cheap!

[Psi]

And I'll add that was when charge was super-overpowered!

[taptap]

Decided to go with low melee (3 points) but concentration at start (Finarfin). That seems to work fine with minimal investment into unused skills. + Playing with Elbereth makes archery so much easier.