tl;dr Some are good but others are really bad.
First off, they were totally unannounced in the patch notes. Why would you do this?
How does everyone else feel?
First off, they were totally unannounced in the patch notes. Why would you do this?
- Leadership 25 -- Boosted the XP gains of both so they actually matter, great. Good stuff.
- Leadership 50 -- Additional 20 morale has been reduced to 4 and 8 for attacking and defending, respectively. Since morale doesn't matter, the reduction doesn't matter. But it does come with a doubled-rate of recruiting either low-tier or high-tier prisoners, including top-tiers. Overall, that's pretty sweet.
- Leadership 75 -- Governor perks are useless for players and 20% additional security is "who cares?" but +1 loyalty per day is nice enough. One of the secondaries is mildly nice though, reduction in disorganized duration, but the other, increased morale damage, is useless.
- Leadership 100 -- This is where it turns bad: having Tier 3 troops never retreat in battle is (mostly) useless. Troops don't start retreating until most of them are dead, so you're not gaining anything by having a few survivors stick around to get cleaved instead of turning tail. Increased renown gain on the other perk is OK but having troops start off with a free 200 XP might be solid. Of course, that doesn't really do much at higher tier, but it is nice when paired with the Leadership 25 perks. But with that said, these perks are overhauled and replaced the pair of 15% wage reduction perks that were in place previously. That wage reduction was ultimately much stronger than either of these. You could also grind up renown faster and more efficiently by smashing bandits solo but there weren't many ways of slowing down the inevitable increase in party costs.
- Leadership 125 -- Press F to pay respects: Disciplinarian, one of the earliest working and most-beloved perks, is now gone. Instead it has apparently been replaced by (since its the perk currently active on my character after I didn't get a full respec) +5 party size per town held by your clan. Uh, OK. The other perk is mostly the same (which is to say that it sucks) except they added "Remove morale penalty for recruiting troops of your faction." I'm going to assume that's not implemented but I don't like what it is implying...
- Leadership 150 -- A completely reworked Veteran's Respect that no longer gives a wage reduction, but is instead a pair of governor only perks: +20 garrison size (lol) and +1 daily morale when under siege. My other choice is 20% more high-tier militia as a Governor and 20% more morale gain from victories. Garrison size is mostly irrelevant and morale is completely irrelevant in 99% of the fights the player is in. Also, I can't use governor perks and none of the companions can realistically level Leadership up to 150 to unlock this. Yeah, this change is gonna be a "naw" from me.
- Leadership 175 -- 20% less influence to call parties to your army seems good but (IME) by time you move past clan-only parties, you have enough influence that 20% extra doesn't matter and your main limiting factor in how big the armies you want to call together is how bonkers slow you will move and how much food they'll eat. It also adds 5% shared experience, which is a nice secondary. The other perks gives +10 morale (again, pointless) and +10 party size and replaces the 20% cohesion decay reduction, which seems like a fair trade.
- Leadership 200 -- Another morale perk (brokenrecord.mp3) with archer shared experience vs. not implemented and an extra shared cavalry experience secondary. Cavalry being as mediocre as they are, you should probably pick the archer one. But either one is better than the pair of governor perks that were here before.
- Leadership 225 -- A not implemented yet implemented 20% troop XP gain in simulated battles against (wait for it) more useless morale perks. These replaced the 20% XP gain for heroes or troops perks that are in 1.5.4. Not a good look, since most players don't bother simulating enough battles to notice a difference in XP gains there. Personally, I would take the XP gain perk, even without it being implemented because it is probably equally useful as the morale one.
- Leadership 250 -- Now we're talking: +1 companion or +1 party. Technically, it is supposed to be 3 random focus points to three random companions when you get this perk, but randomly distributed FPs aren't nearly the boon that being able to field five total clan parties is. This easily can make up for the relative handful of troops you'd get with the previous Ultimate Leader perk (1 for every +5 skills above 250).
- Leadership 275 -- The same perk as it has always been, made less redundant by getting rid of its weaker sibling. There can only be one.
How does everyone else feel?