Personal Impressions

[remiel005]

There are dozens of threads like this, but in response to the update 84 feedback requests I am making one for my personal perspective.

 

First, I would like to note that the amount of bugs in the game make it hard to give perspective on a lot of the game balancing issues.  When I receive no experience for quests on one character class and only experience rewards on another character with the quests reading as uncompleted I can't give perspective on the none BB characters progression.

 

Classes - They all carry a certain distinct feel, which isn't always a good thing.  I haven't spent and equal amount of time on each, but this is what I've seen so far:

 

Barbarian: Works great with other melee classes and as a back-up front liner.  The options right now don't seem to lean too offensively or defensively so there isn't much distinction from one ability selection to another.

 

Chanter: Already included in details that this class is over powered.  The chanter's invocation cone sizes and summons make them amazing as back liners and the fact they can both do their songs and fire ranged weapons just lends to too much going on with very little management.  I think slowing down either their chant speed or their combat speeds while chanting would help balance it out.  Their overall need to rest is also nowhere near any other class in the game.

 

Ciphers: There resource management element didn't coincide well with the power of their abilities compared to other caster classes.  The current available abilities are very small in number.  These two combined meant I spent time spamming just a few moves that didn't seem to make much difference in combat.  This was the class I was looking forward to the most, but I feel like they don't fit well anywhere in the party.

 

Druid: Didn't do much with a druid.  The fact that most of their abilities are rest based makes them very low on longevity.

 

Fighters: I've only played with the BB fighter and I'll admit I'm not 100% on the engagement mechanics.  The fighter appears really good at stopping enemy movement and mitigating a lot of damage.  The only thing a fighter lacks that I've seen is the ability to pull aggro(for lack of a better term) from other meleers in the party.

 

Monk: They appear to have a lot of fun passive abilities, but their activated abilities and wounds system are a little lost on me. This has made me spend very little time on the class.  The monk is must more streamlined in equipment than any other class.  If your party is set up with a melee focus they also don't get to use their abilities as much.  Their speed causes them to engage quicker than other classes but they usually easily get stomped before healing can go into effect.  I think an ability that allows them to absorb damage from other party members would make them more viable.  If I used the BB fighter correctly the monk just sits auto attacking.

 

Paladin: Very low maintenance class.  Their auras are so small in area that you have to bunch your characters together for them to be useful and their party buffs don't appear to compare with those of chanters in power or variety.

 

Priests: The priests are a class with limited longevity compared to some other classes.  Their healing abilities are sometimes trumped by individual class abilities that are encounter based (barbarians self heal and the fighter's defensive buff).  However, their wards are immensely powerful and long lasting.  Throwing down either the 2nd or 3rd level ward makes for very quick work of enemies most of them time in ways that trumps druids and wizards, especially considering there appears to be no friendly fire.  I would say wards need toned back some and their healing abilities either come with contingencies (heals xstamina at x%of max) and/or offer a ratio of hp repair to balance out per rest use abilities.  My issue with their healing is also the amount it heals and how much time it takes vs. how quickly stamina is usually drained.

 

Ranger: With the hit points being broken with the pet, this class is hard to figure out.  Just using a weapon with a ranger is boring compared to most other damage dealing classes.  Most of the time the shared hit point pool doesn't work so I can send the pet to fight by himself and can't be defeated since it returns to 1 stamina infinitely.

 

Rogue: A decent class if you put a little work into positioning them.  I think they need more clarity as to how their abilities and damage work in game than what is given.  Most of the information I had to find online.

 

Wizard: Just stuck with the BB wizard on this one so far and exactly what I'd expect from this class.  Biggest issue I've found so far is trying to figure out line of sight when targeting with spells.  Sometimes I can fire to the far ranges of my vision, other times he will walk right up to where I targeted.

 

Races: Racial attribute bonuses seems insignificant.  The racial abilities don't seem that significant either.  I could see these being a very large conversation/story element, but I haven't seen that aspect in the beta.

 

Attributes: The biggest difference I've seen so far is in non-combat interactions.  Having high or low attributes limit what could be said, but I haven't seen too much of a difference in how the game plays out in beta over what is said in conversations.  The story interactions allow you to use companion's to achieve things, which is nice, but could be helpful in conversations too.  Perception and resolve stick out the most - we have no idea on the mathematics behind interrupt/concentration and no idea on what bonuses it would give.  There is also very little in the way of reference point to another game.  Defensively they don't make a difference since their counterpart attribute seems to be generally more useful.  It would be helpful if, when reviewing class abilities, it show the difference stats make.

 

Equipment: I like the options for all characters to have all equipment.  I don't think the differences in the equipment is very clear or intuitive for IE or paper/pencil experienced players.  Also, bonuses will be listed for equipment, for example +2 Damage Threshold for Fine or Exceptional.  However it'll read the same on my characters DT as the plain version of the armor.

 

Crafting/Enchanting: I've had so many issues with items bugging I haven't even tried this.

 

Conversations/Quests: I think the conversations provide a lot of options that play into character builds.  However, the long-term or even most of the short-term consequences aren't obvious in the beta.

 

Combat: I like combat, however, I don't think it is comparable or intuitive to paper/pencil or IE games.  The abilities/class build makes it feel like most mmorpgs; if your front line goes down it usually turns into a tpk.  Hit points drain as fast as in IE games, but I haven't seen anything outside of rest that will increase this.  I usually have to rest to heal my life rather than to restore some of my class abilities.  Having a fixed party doesn't allow me to try a lot of builds to get a different feel to combat overall.

 

User Interface: I understand a classical interface is already planned, so I can skip that.  One of my biggest issue is being able to adjust the cursor/tab details and size.  The caster bars for the sprites are really small compared to everything else - would be nice to have adjustable size or place a full-sized bard next to the character portrait.  The extra information is nice, but obscenely large.  Most of the time I don't want to know the full details on everything so instead of a check on/off it would be nice if you could place your cursor over a specific enemy and hit a button that expands the basic name/life status into the full defense details.