Finished Act 1 twice now, the new armour system is very good. It means that you actually have to work out how you want to play each fight. You can't just cc (or get cc'd) into oblivion from turn 1. Huge improvement on the first one where some fights you actually wouldn’t get a turn before dying if you got ambushed and they got off a lucky crowd control (or vice versa). I'd almost like to see health/armour globally scaled up (and maybe damage globally scaled down?), so that fights are slightly longer, forcing you to make harder decisions. The fights in the first act are WAAAAY too easy. I played the shit out of the first DOS, so maybe I'm just used to the system. But, I barely found any challenge in any of the fights in the first ACT. You can stealth an archer, flesh sacrifice, enrage and with the right talents, you can 1 hit anything short of the 2 end bosses. That might need a nerf, along with 2 handed (which is just broken with a few talents and skills).
I'd like to maybe see some changes to glass cannon. It used to be a very significant choice, now it’s a little gain for a little price. It’s not so much of a big strategic decision which alters the way you play.
Personally, I’ve love to see more talents that completely alter the way you play your party. Zombie is great like that, glass cannon used to be, not quite as much now. Talents like this keep play throughs feeling fresh and different because you have to strategize differently, and I plan on playing this game until Larian release their next title (maybe after that as well).
On that note, I’d suggest including challenge modes that you can select at the start of a new game. Some of us LOVE being challenged to our limits and beyond. For example, no combat fleeing, all damage you deal is 50% reduced but gain 50% more hp and armour/s, double enemies in EVERY fight including boss fights (call them clones or shadows?), all trade items cost double the usual amount and barter is not available, all sources of healing are reduced by 50%, nudie run – no chest pieces or pants allowed, pain shared – all damage received (not status effects) is divided evenly into your whole party involved in the combat. Just a few fun sounding ideas, I’m sure there are a heap of good challenges you could include and I’d love to be able to choose how to increase the challenge of a particular run.
Putting stats into your major areas doesn't give much reward. It just keeps you doing pretty much the same damage if you put ALL your points into a single line. You don't really benefit at all, if feels like you are maintaining your damage, rather than creating meaningful and impactful choices as you increase your attributes. You get a lot more from your characters if you dump all your stats into constitution and just take the 30% damage reduction and use any skill tree you want. Just chuck a single point into aerothurge and become a utility tank. 30% damage reduction or an extra 400+ hp at lvl 8, seems like the choice is a pretty easy one, especially if you take utility abilities.
I absolutely love this game so far, and I can’t wait till we get to see more of it!
