Hi Obsidian!
Thank you for all the work on Pillars of Eternity! I recently powered up the Beta Backer and I am enjoying having an early look at the game and testing it out. As I play through the game and come across bugs and balance issues, I'll try as much as possible to research these issues and highlight them if I feel necessary and beneficial to the final release play experience of PoE. This initial post will focus on the Cipher class and balancing issues and bugs related to it.
SOUL IGNITION
Soul ignition needs to be balanced.
RANGE ISSUE:
Right now there is a serious exploit with SI that allows a player to clear whole areas without entering combat. The range of SI is huge and a player can cast SI on a MOB and sit back and watch as the MOB is destroyed by the DoT effect without ever drawing aggro. I assume that this not working as intended and would recommend the developer's address this exploit in the next build if possible.
Here is a post from another forum user confirming this exploit:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66960-cipher-soul-ignition/?hl=%2Bsoul+%2Bignition
DAMAGE ISSUE:
Right now now if a player pumps might SI can dispense huge amounts of damage. My character at 21 might delivers a crushing 500+ points of damage per cast. This completely obliterates most MOBS in seconds. I know that the Cipher was designed as a high burst damage class but I am unsure if this power is balanced. Instead of decreasing the damage for SI I would suggest that you INCREASE the FOCUS cost for SI. Require Ciphers to build up 45 or 50 focus prior to being able to cast SI.
Here is a post from another forum user confirming the vast amounts of damage SI produces:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67469-another-touch-on-attributes-cipher-power-comparison/