Hi Larian,
To start, i mostly enjoyed the game, but i think it could be improved/changed to some points to be more challenging/tactical. Sorry if there is some mistakes, english isn't my mother tongue
I played the game in tactical with the following team :- Fane as Glass Canon Scoundrel / Metamorph - Full Dexterity build (dual wield)
- Lohse as Hydrosophist / Summoner / Geomancer - Mostly Constitution/Memory build (shield)
- Beast as Warfare / Necromancer (shield)
- Sebille as Glass Canon Archer (and some Pyro for buffs) (Crossbow)
Armor and Crowd Controls :I remember Original Sin I, with CC mechanics, especially the final boss, who never ever made a single hit. So i mostly approve your armor concept, but the problem is the weakness of armor itself.
As a physical team, armor was broken in 1 char round, sometimes 2 chars. So any boss can be hard CC before he plays.
For me there is multiples solutions, especially in harder mods :
- Increase mobs armor, and bosses even more
- Give an immunity to hard CC for 1 turn after he took one (for bosses only)
- Much more RP and effective to me, give more talents to bosses, like Fortitude, Living Armor, and the skill that regen a large amount of armor after a CC...
Combats :Combats are a good experience. Playing with positions, blocking ladders or path with chests, paintings (oO)... Exept that difficulty is easier than i expected. But its more a matter of balance :p
Classes : Most classes, exept that they suffer a lack of balance, are nice to play. But i still got some feedback to do about it.
- Tanking is impossible, taunt don't bypass armor resist check, and mobs avoid any attack on the tank, if they can hit someone else (in a way, it mean that IA isn't idiot), but the problem is that it makes tank build absolutely ineffective. Adding a perk that increase chances to be attacked, or at least more options to protect friends would be nice(guard, protect, enhance resists..)
- Archer is really good at dealing damages, can uses a lot of arrow choices, got some nice CC. But a thing i don't get is the damage bonus from upper position. Why to choose a +5% increase with conditions, instead of a +5% flat damage from Warfare, or 5% critical damage with Scoundrel (at the end i had about 85% crit chance, and i'm sure i could reach 100% without any prob). I would also like a real difference between bow and crossbow, like a longer range, or piercing damages...
- Scoundrel seems balanced for most of stuff, exept source skills, but i'll talk about it in another part. Anyway i think a larger weapon choice would be nice, and maybe some benefits from Wits, atm Backstab is considered as a critical, so no need of critical chances.
- Hydro, i'm not sure what to tell about it, in a way i like the support way of the classe, but in another its disapointing to see that most of their support skills aren't scaling with any stats.
- Geomancer, same as Hydro about scaling on support skills.
- Necromancer, a really weird class to me, giving a HUGE life steal on any attack, but mostly a support class. 2 summons that can't stack, really high cooldown skills, no real damage output, some long range stuff, but others are melee range... Most of skills are super fun, but can almost never be used.
Skills :
Some skills lack of identity if you ask me, or are simply unusable.
- Summons who doesn't stack (at least with summoner main pet)
- Bouncing Shield, a good idea, to give tank a skill that scale with their shield armor, but completly overpowered in endgame (hitting at 6k per target with 2 rounds CD)
- Provoke should bypass armor (but i think enough players said it already :p)
- Daggers Drawn and Onslaught are exactly the same skills
- Break the Shackles, almost useless, as it doesn't break hard CC, other source racials can give them a free round, or a nice AE spell... Maybe a full CC break is a bit overpowered, but there is probably a way to make a better balance.
- Flesh Sacrifice, in early game its really a good racial skill, but as you progress it becomes very very dangerous, lvl 1 you pay 1 constitution for 1 instant PA and 10% damage for 2 rounds (wich is 10% of your current stat). Lvl 20 you pay 7 constitution for the exact same bonus. I love the idea of scaling, but if you want to keep the same % as level 1, you need 70 constitution. Lowering a bit the drawback of this skill could be nice.
- Summoner Infusion, a skill that regroup all basic infusion with the same global cost, but for 1 shortcut and 1 click could be nice. (as a high level skill ofc)
- Last Rites, a good skill to help and deal heavy damages with shackles of pain, but sadly it can critical with Savage Sortilege, so you can oneshot yourself easily.
- Raining Blood, due to armor check of bleed, its useless. an AE bleed that can't stack bleed.
- Shackles of Pain, due to armor check, you can only use it on a focused target, wich really lower its tactical interest. Plus if you consider that tanky chars are never focused, you will almost never be attacked while using it. Good idea, bad mecanics
- Ballistic Shot, a nice tactical skill, but completly overpowered, i instant killed many monsters out of fight with it, or destroyed boss armors from an upper position before engaging. (Like the boss of act II, big Voidwoken guy who spread decay fog).
- Rupture Tendon, completly overpowered too, in duo with chicken or shackles of pain. Mostly avoided to use it, because its gamebreaker.
- Marksman Fang/Sawtooth Knife, as there is only few piercing skills in game, its mostly useless, you can't really kill a mob with it, to many cooldown to be a fighting srategy. (Only place i used it, were in act II when you kill psychic fears of a brainwashed women).
- Bless, Curse... Never used it in combat, i like the idea to have multiple surface types, with a lot of effects, but the source cost makes those skills to situational. Maybe limit it to 1 use per fight but remove source cost.
Source : That's probably the thing i hate the most in the game. I understand the reasons behind this mecanic, but for me, its a failure.
Source is supposed to be powerfull but limited use spells, but in a way they are underpowered. I mean, good Source spells uses a lot of action points, so its not a "side" supply of AP to win a fight, its more a "one shot cooldown" to wipe the ennemies. For some classes thoses spells are awesome, Meteor...but for some others they are just slightly better than normal attacks (like Archer or Scoundrel). As example Arrow Storm or Arrow Spray is super strong against big ass mobs or large packs, but most of the time its an useless skill for the source cost.
But anyway you can refill source in a few seconds with a Pyramid set at fountain. So, what's the point in this mechanic ? :p
Options are to remove source points, as they are not adding anything to game experience, and limit big spells to 1 use per combat or/and limit the number of "Master" spells you can memory at once. (more like Original Sin I)
Or, you create really "overpower" skills that requires Source, but there is no infinite supply for it. At least in harder difficulties. This way you limit usage of strong skills, but there is a real goal in using source.
You could also add a Roleplay dimension, you use only a few Source you find in the world to fight, and you are playing a good guy, or you choose to have much more Source available, but you will have to drain it from souls, and you are playing an evil guy. Some consequences would also be nice for it.
Items : Stuff is working a really linear way, a bit to much, a lvl 5 unique weapon, will be worst than a lvl 6 basic weapon. It reminds me Ego Draconis.
Its a bit sad that you can't keep items for a longer time. I remind a collar that immune to Stun, but sadly, with a few more levels, a new necklace will give you 10x much armor. Wich mean that to be effective you have to update your stuff at almost every level. A bit sad with Unique Items.
Maybe they could have a level range, or a way to be upgraded ? (If there is one, i missed it :p)
Enigmas :Really a few enigmas in game, and the only ones i saw were really easy.
Performances : Game is working pretty good, no freeze, low framerate...i got a good gaming computer, but the friend who played with me don't, and he played in full details without any issue. The only problem were loading times, (in multiplayer) synchronisation was really long, we don't all have optical fiber, and maybe save sizes could be improved ?
Conclusion :In a global way this game is a pearl, i mean, only a few killing bugs, a nice story, gameplay, features...I enjoyed every hour i spent on it. Wandering in wilds, speaking to all NPCs, searching to complete quests with another way...If every RPG could be as deep, good, and beautifull as this one...A great thanks to all teams that worked on it. As a backer i had faith in you since start. Now we are waiting for a new game, maybe some new universe, or else ?
To finish, a last question :
WHERE THE FUCK, IS BELLEGAR ?!?!
Thanks
