I'm on my second run through Crimson Desert. I played maybe 60 hours of the game on PC, and when the PlayStation version came out, I pivoted and started playing on console. It's going well (aside from the fact that everybody's hair looks like creamed dog poop on PlayStation). Having experienced so much of the Crimson Desert before starting over taught me a lot about how to best enjoy the game. Especially when it comes to ignoring the skill tree.
For the duration of my new playthrough, I've only spent two Abyss Artifacts on skills. I bought double jump and dodge roll (even though I knew I could learn it for free when I got to the Reed boss guy). But I've completely disregarded all of the other skills. It turns out, you don't need any of that crap to enjoy the game. I have instead used all of my Artifacts to building my health, stamina, and spirit. These are the big outlying circles at the edge of the skill tree. Devoting all of my attention to those has made the game so much more enjoyable for me.
You see, I couldn't really get any of the skills to work. The first time around, I had charging arrows, and the thingie that was supposed to let you swing around like Spider-Man. I had a wide array of combat skills, and too many Spirit skills to remember. And I used absolutely none of them. The button combinations are too intense, and I could never get them to fire off the way I wanted. A lot of the skills just felt like a waste of resources. So this time around, I gave the skill tree the middle finger and I'm having a swell time.
Of course, I'll probably start filling in some of those blanks when I get further into the game. But for now, I'm pretty happy having so much health that I barely ever need to use food to recover during combat. My guy can fly really far with his weird bird glider, and I have enough spirit to hand-palm baddies until I get bored. It's great! The controls are completely manageable, and because I already tried everything (and found that it mostly sucked) I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
So, if you are struggling with Crimson Desert's controls and can't seem to get a handle on how to pull off some of the more complex moves, join me. Just ignore them. The game gives you everything you need.
