Personally, I love the new physical armour/magical armour mechanic. It’s a fresh take on a very old, very staid health system, and that, I think, should be encouraged.
Reading over the negative feedback for it, I’m struggling to identify a clear, solid argument for why it’s a bad thing. And I can’t fathom why it’s seemingly being written off as something ‘anti-hardcore’, as though it’s some kind of simplification of more sophisticated systems that existed in the first game (really?).
If anything, it adds depth. I’d like to see them take it further, however. I think multiple ‘health bars’ is a brilliant idea, but that it should extend to fire/ice/electricity/etc. That way, you’d really have some multi-layered combat. Sure, your fighter might have the best 2-handed sword in the game and have maxed out all 2-handed damage, but what else have you done with him/her? Because the enemy they’re fighting has a massive physical damage HP bar, but extremely low fire HP. Suddenly you’re stuck, but only because you’ve been too single-focus to diversify your builds.
I haven’t seen the physical armour and magical armour regeneration abilities/spells that were mentioned above, but I think they’d be a superb addition to the game, especially with a multiple HPs formula. So you can regenerate your fire/ice/electricity HP at any given time with different spells. To me, this would make for some truly creative combat – there’s huge scope here for evolving the elemental aspect of the game, and bringing it to a whole new level IMO.
The complaint it simpl:
no armor -> CC chain to death
Armor spells -> don't solve for instant armor is down & defensive tactics are weak
Enemy type -> carry different gear types for each enemy
Party buil? -> two on physical and two on magical to focus down armor...plus grenades and barrels
No body said the armor system sucked or to remove it entirely, just that it's left some glaring holes in tactical options
Has nothing to do with casuals vs hardcore
Has everything to do with the fact that those of us who power game can easily exploit this system
