I feel like this game starts the enemies off with waaaaaaaay too many status effects. I'm watching skeletal archers freeze, knock down, explode, burn, poison, and heal. They literally have everything right off the bat.
What this does is make the combat feel the same no matter what you're against. They all have the same moves, just the weaknesses vary. IE can't use poison vs undead. I can understand why enemies later game would have an extensive skill book, but at level 2-6? Feels like the studio is trying too hard to make sure the game isn't easy.
For certain the game isn't easy, but what'll happen is there'll be instances where the AI cheeses you since everything on their side has ranged cc and your side will have some ranged and some melee. The first pirate/bandit fight comes to mind. You have two archers and three melee. Except the melee all have crushing fist and the archers have the standard archer skillbook. This set up creates too many high priority targets.
I think, at least at the beginning of the game, there should be more variation in what the units have. Every archer does the same thing as does every mage. The only difference between the undead pyromancer and the undead mages is rain of fire, and honestly the poison + fire arrow combo the archers do seems more pyromantic than anything the pyromancer does.
If taking away skills from some of the enemies to give more variation isn't an option, at least add in diminishing returns on CC. Having the tank knocked down for three turns, then stunned for two, then frozen for another 2 is a little much.
Conclusion: This game has the most early game CC I've seen in any game, and it feels overused on the enemy's side. I'd like to see some more diversity in the abilities enemies use and have available to them rather than fighting the same enemy with every special arrow or castable spell in different forms.
