From my PTR testing so far:
Damage is fine. Seems pretty good in both m+ and raid. Being able to benefit from Mass Disintegrate so much on the first 2 bosses feels great. There are some great trinkets (House of Cards, Funhouse Lens, Flarendo’s Pilot Light) and also the Neural Synapse Enhancer weapon giving a big chunk of intel on a 45sec cd is great for aligning with Melt Armor/Engulf windows.
Gameplay is slightly worse than 11.1. Tier set is fun, but losing the season 1 set is bad. All you need to do is make these Jackpot!-procced Shattering Stars grant Essence Bursts when talented into Arcane Vigor. OR make Arcane Vigor generate an Essence Burst from Eternity Surge. The free Stars interact with Eternity’s Span and Focusing Iris though? Unless you want essence abilities to do a lot of damage without essence bursts, and then a HUGE amount with the occasional burst? But that is not the case so I am confused. I like the 4pc bonus, fun and impactful enough for me to say I’m happy with it. Also quite strong.
Flameshaper does as much damage as Scalecommander now, in theory, but it is still so bad to play that I simply suggest a full rework from the ground up like Pack Leader has had. Among other glaring issues that Firestorm has, one is that it has ZERO interaction with either hero tree. Tie it into Flameshaper. You can make it do 1000% more damage and currently nobody would take it because it’s so bad to play. I only played Firestorm on the council boss in VOTI. I miss it.
Speaking of Hunters, there is one rather strange thing I noticed. I seem to have the exact same health as Hunters when scaled to the same ilvl, yet I have a talent giving me 8% extra stamina? And I am pretty sure they do not? This seems strange.
MAKE THESE TALENTS BASELINE:
Pyre
Dense Energy
Animosity
Tyranny
Lay Waste
Spellweaver’s Dominance
MAKE THESE TALENTS EASILY ACCESSIBLE:
Power Nexus
Font of Magic
Firestorm
Imminent Destruction
REMOVE THESE TALENTS:
Feed the Flames
Power Swell
Scorching Embers
MAKE THESE TALENTS 1 POINT (OR REMOVE AND TUNE ACCORDINGLY):
Arcane Intensity
Heat Wave
Volatility
Honed Aggression
ADD:
1-More passive damage sources procced by abilities. You could do this by making a lot of the aforementioned boring passive talents baseline and adding actually interesting passives.
2-Hoarded Power. Why does Aug get to keep this, gain a tier set that generates Essence Bursts AND an extra talent to generate them?
3- A talent allowing Dragonrage to be split into 2 charges, each charge giving you half of its normal duration and only allowing 2 extensions. More agency over cooldown usage = better. Always.
4-Blistering Scales into the class tree. I already have Source of Magic, and it would massively close a gap between Dev and Aug while allowing Aug to keep Shifting Sands.
5-Defy fate.
6-Make Obsidian Scales have 2 charges baseline then make Obsidian Bulwark give me a third. I’m already squishy.
7-My 8% extra stamina (no cause really, why is it not there? reported as a bug, as I am pretty sure it works on live)
8- Make the Fire Breath reticle big and wide like Dream Breath for pres, but make it like Starfall and Halo so it will not apply to targets not currrently engaged by somebody in the group. Also, when I have Spatial Paradox up, my Fire Breath reticle should double in length…