I played the 3 classes, and here the problems I got :
The story start is great, simple and dark, but it quickly end up in fetch quests. It start with D1-2 feeling, but end up be the same as D3.
The story is nice but FAR TOO intrusive! It’s fine the first time but annoying like hell the second. Waiting for NPCs to open door or catch up, forced to talk to them before progressing when they could do it while we move.
Let the player set the pace! After the first time, most people want to rush / play the game, don’t get the same story again and again in their face. I really hope in the full game you can progress ignoring the main quest and explore the world like you want, like an adventure mode.
take too long to unlock the horse ?
Boss are super annoying ! Some have adds, other none… making lot of skills/build useless (like barb kick) since boss are immunes to everything.
They move all the time and you can’t slow/stun them. When you’re melee you must chase them all the time and when they stop it’s to attack, so you’re forced to face tank them! That really limit melee build. It’s a pain for a trap build too since enemy never stay on them and you can’t force him, only when you stagger him.
Hitboxes are weird. You try to move away they still hit you. Look like their attack is following you even if the animation isn’t (or lag ?).
No ground indicator of the AOE.
You have only a split second to react. Not enough time ! Playing against the wendigo boss, you see he will charge, bam, no time to move you lost 3/4 of your life.
Projectiles track you. All the projectiles! Even the mortar/grenade like attacks !
D3 bosses were far better. Look like they have been finetuned vs ranged characters but you forgot to make them interesting for melee and other builds.
Lot of disparities between classes and builds. Lot of secondary skills (lot of time fun) are useless in boss fights, like kicks, knockback… all the status effects in fact.
I found that DoT builds have a hard time to progress, really slow to clear packs.
Some skills have charges and other similar not. Rogue caltrops or Dash and Barb kick have 2 charges, but not teleport(sorc), backstab teleport (rogue), charge and jump (barb). Give a charge to all mvt skills for consistensy.
I find that melee oriented classes should get a second evasion charge ? Even if it cost a skill point.
A few exceptions, but near all basic skills are single target. That mean if you take a secondary skill that is single target too or very narrow AOE, you really have hard time to clear packs until you can unlock a late passive/ability like rogue shadow enchantment.
Rogue :
Lack of throwing knives and grenades skills (personal favourites). Only 1 of each.
Early melee is hard compared to a barb that can have a teleport basic attack and long aoe secondary skill. You have to wait for the mvt skills and enchantment and it become fun. (perhaps just me).
Smoke grenade AOE too small and I would rename it Flashbang (+ charge ?). Last Epoch has a true smoke bomb.
the imbuement skills affect all melee skills, even the mvt ones, but why not the traps and grenade (apply status on top of the daze) ? You have more diverse use as a melee than a ranged / trapper. Why not give a special effect (toned down) to your basic skill while you have charges left ? Like at minimum change it’s dmg type (could be an extra passive : while you have imbuement charges left, your basic skill dmg type change)
Dark Shroud : I like the bonus but it suffer from be a passive skill. could have an extra effect : When you recast the skill, if you have shadows left, they aim to the enemies ? + can be affected by the imbuement skills.
Barbarian : Overall I liked it, but noticed to late I was in WT 1 instead of 2.
Hard time to line up the kick properly. There is some weird dark magic with the skill aiming. Main issue is that mobs can move very fast and so the skill don’t launch in the direction I want. Useless when boss don’t have add. Too bad I really like playing billard with this skill.
Execution skill is just 100% time better than the bleed skill ? Give a refund mechanic to Rend if the explosion hit X mobs or a charge. Or use Fury ?
One big missed opportunity : Skills don’t change depending the weapon you use ?? Could be great to have pattern variations.
Sorcerer : I really disliked this class. Perhaps not for me, but skills felt they came from D2. no impact compared to other 2 classes.
Effects too discreet ?
Lightning Spear is just a worse chain lightning. I would prefer a big ligning bolt that pierce every thing in a line.
I’m not a big PoE players, but I think some of their skills nailed it, like glacial cascade or lighning ball.
At the end of the skill tree, not passives encouraging using multiples elements together ? You have 2 for each element but none for mixing ??
Lack of neutral magical skills ? Something like the imbued skill from rogue that power up the next skill ?
Miss the ability to use most weapons with your character. Can’t do a knight mage or a twohanded rogue.
I liked the beta, but worried by the lack on information about the paragons or endgame gear. Like enough build diversity ?
there are games where cutscenes play once without skip, if you start a new gameplay, theres the option that you can skip it, it could be an option, or just add a skip option always…specially in secondary quests, where the story is not as deep as in the main story…
about the classes:
barbarian as lot people say, are very challening…as there are very few ways to cut distance a lot of cooldowns that end up using the basic skill and from the early footage i saw barb as a challenge, specially that kick, and some single target skills, i wonder how well will the barbarian performance in higher tiers and endgame…
with the rogue taking experience from the barbarian, i didnt even bother with melee skills i went ranged mostly except for dash, so i dont know how good are the melee skills for rogue
sorc’s performance is the best, smooth run with cold and fire skills but as you say, most of those skills come from diablo 2 and seems like lighting skills are bad.
as a lot people have said, dungeons are repetitive, there are no floors, all of them require the same mechanic (unlocking boss room) the trail is almost the same,
even the random events you find while roaming are more diverse and creative.
i agree with you about the weapon restriction but one of the devs stated (irrc the video where they explain about the strongholds) that they dont want you to “use weapons in a weird manner” like a barb with a bow to cast spells
i also hope for build diversity, but there are too many restrictions as it seems like resource generation, cooldowns damage imput etc
Overall, lightning skills all look alike and do not have mechanical variety like fire or ice skills. Chain lightning and ligning spear for example could at least have different vfx
Enemies and bosses have weird behavior, totaly ‘unfair’. With the wendigo, he can start rushing mid mvt without any warning. Enemies attack aim at you even in animation. They move/turn too fast, like impossible to backstab them, super annoying with boss. It’s just impossible to avoid dmg. It feel like a stat check more than player skill check.
for the sake of Hell, I want a legendary that give me the arbalest shrine effect for my rogue. Demonhunter ultimate feel!
I played the sorc more and… love it now, just totaly OP.
Outside of chainlightning, lightning skills are bad really. Hate lightning spear like I said, both visualy and gameplay wise. Lighning ball look fine but it’s too slow or don’t hit hard enough.
There is a breaking point. I find first 2 skills meh, outside of chainlighning. Incinerate look nice but do meh dmg for the risk of staying stationary. Conjuration > Fire hydra is by far one of the best beta skill ! Then blizzard take second place with perhaps fire wall in third. Meteor need a bigger AOE or more dmg to worth it.
Enchantment offer a new layer of customization, even if I find the lucky hit one useless without proper gear. Surprised only 2 slots ? was nerfed from previous beta screenshots ?
What’s make the sorceress OP ? Most skills are mana based instead of cooldown. That’s mean you can ‘spam’ your best skills and ditch secondary skill that don’t worth it. You always have your fire hydra on. With Rogue and Barb you’re just stuck with 2 skills most of the time, not with the sorceress.
Example, why Rogue don’t have more skills that generate/use combo pts ? You have only 2 skills you can ‘spam’, all other are on cooldown. I think most rogue utility skills need to have a charge system > You can use them all in short time to deal big dmg spike, or substain your dps room by room without dead time if you manage the charges.
Barb need more charges too or more way to reset cooldowns or shorter cooldown. The main issue with barb and rogue, is that there is no passive resource regen, that mean if you base their skills on resource it will be bad, but the cooldown are too big. It’s just day and night between the mage class and the other two. Because mana regen alone, you can leave your persistant spells do dmg while gaining back mana to use them again, so they are on all the time.
Why not give the rogue different way to handle skills depending of specialization ? Like if you have combo point, allow to spend combo pts (1-3 depending of the skill) to use a skill on cooldown ? If you have the second spe, utility skills reset their cooldown when you enter unlimited resource mode ? Need something more dynamic.
Barbs damage is 100% gear reliant which means you struggle in most boss fights until you can get your gear score up. After playing a short stint on the sorcerer you have to wonder if anyone will play anything else so much more damage than barbarian it’s laughable.
I’m loving the overall look of the game and the areas are incredibly detailed. My hope is next weekend i get to try necromancer and it has decent damage because it’s unnerving to think how out of balance the melee vs, ranged is already!
Any skill or aspect that give you barrier or invul are good. More suggestions :
Make CC build up a debuf on boss with a dmg reduction, or give CC skills additional effect like heal, barrier or incoming dmg reduction when used on unstoppable mobs. Right now those skills are just useless vs boss, and barb/rogue have a lot of them !
imbuement : change dmg type of basic attack while you have charges.
Caltrops : change the cold passive to something else. Work with imbuement (Shadow, poison and cold caltrops). generate a combo pt for each enemy hit by the initial burst dmg.
Smoke bomb : change to flashbang. Add physical dmg. Use energy instead of CD (can spam with second spec). Work with imbuement for different types of grenades. Consume combo pts, +1 grenade / combo pt with a small spread.
Poison trap : Change to physical. Use energy too ? Can be used with imbuement to change the type of trap. Comsume combo pts for a bigger more dmging trap.
Concealment : Give full combo pts. Activate the unlimited energy for 4 sec (second spec) when you break it.
Dark Shroud : Give full combo pts on use. Activate second spec too on use, or when you deplete all the shadows.
I think that would make the rogue more dynamic and less dependent of basic skill use.
Barb, improve berserking with better visual and with a cooldown reduction. OR create a special berserking mode the barb can enter and spam all his skills without cooldown (but deplete fury fast).
One issue with rogue / barb, I think we miss ultimate keystone of the skill tree. The shadow imbuement give a big boost in melee rogue I think, and a passive like bleed or vulnerable > Aoe dmg could be another big boost. Sorcerer enchantment is like another keystone passive.
Perhaps barb is a late boomer dmg wise. Hard to tell without full skill tree.
And I’m fine with it. I think it’s why the barb have more item slots that any other classes. So really dependent of aspects you can get too.
