So Ascendant Embermages (The Ospirix Birdpeople Mages that shoot the Meteor from the Sky) did get a larger delay before shooting their projectile in Patch 0.8.3c
Which was a step in the right direction. But they are still unfair, since they sometimes cast from offscreen and the indicator is so tiny, you easily can skip overlook that.
The impactarea obviously is as tiny as the telegraph, but that doesn’t make it feel much fairer, sicne when you fight other mobs (especially big mobs) you sometimes don’t even see the indicator, until you realized there are some Embermages in the pack you pulled.
In the storycontent they are not that bad, but once you are high arena and high monolith, this becomes a real problem.
There are many possible solutions for this, but I would like the following:
Increase the delay between indicator spawning and impact even higher
This definitely shows how bad the ability is telegraphed
I know the devs try hard to not make the screen clutter to crazy.
And having telegraphs and monster vfx be a little less prominent can help, but when you have an ability like this, that can be really deadly (especially when 3-4 Mages cast them at once) it just becomes unfair
I actually did not notice what is the telegraph at all. I would like if the telegraph is made more unique than simply different color on the floor since it is a highly damaging ability
For example a circular shape that starts flat and wide which gets higher and thinner before disappearing and then the meteor drops.
Or small firey debris that drops at the location before and starts burning you/the ground before the the meteor drops.
I was also thinking about something like a fire pillar/ray shining from the sky at the trajectory of the meteor, not sure how much screen clutter that would cause though.
But anything like this would be at least visible, evne if a mob stand on top of the telegraph.
From what I’ve noticed, if the embermage is offscreen then the telegraph is a rapidly moving rock potentially followed by several more. If the mages are onscreen then they have a load of sparks above/near them when the cast.
Admittedly I also never really recognized a telegraph effect on the ground. When I see sparkles somewhere on the screen, I start running like a chicken and try to find the best attack trajectory.
I’m currently not hating them. But in arena they are really lethal. You get instant aggro and get hit offscreen.
My nemesis are the Osprix Zealots. They are fast, lunge at you from very far away.and have high attack speed. They are so damn hard to encounter. These guys I’m starting to hate.
I agree about the Ember Mages and their telegraph. The first time I ran into them I didn’t even know what was happening but I was getting bombarded by meteors. When I finally figured it out it was obvious that there was a tiny telegraph indicator with a very short fuse.
The Osprix Zealots gave me a very hard time as well with them coming in so fast and hitting so hard.
The problem with the embermages are as follows (from my perspective):
They don’t stand out. They’re actually really unassuming, just a wingless birdyboi hanging out on the side of your screen. This means they easily get lost in all the crazy that’s usually going on on your screen, if they’re even ON the screen in the first place.
The game has basically trained you (the player) that any high damage skill in the game has a clear telegraph in order to avoid it, whether this is boss mechanics like Lagon, or regular mobs like those white caster birdies with the “smite”, to stage mechanics like the mortar things (forget what they’re called). EVERY high damage ability in the game has a very clear telegraph, and that expectation has been set… until the embermage, which has no visible telegraph at all.
Very high damage from off-screen with no way to know it’s coming. The meteor travels so fast that by the time it’s on screen you’d have to have the reflexes of a 15 year old StarCraft pro player to get out of the way (I’m too old for that, sorry). Some abilities that do have short wind-ups are more slow travelling, so you can still dodge them, but this is not the case here. Archers are easier to dodge.
I think the biggest problem is that they are not consistent with the design philosophy that has been present until now, and their overall current implementation presents a problem that the game mechanics themselves are not designed to handle (off-screen attack, massive special effects going off everywhere all the time, crazy huge looking enemies everywhere, etc).
May I place a vote on those Crystal Elementals? I’ve completed Chapter 9 and haven’t seen them much in the campaign, but in the Arena, I’ve been spawn-killed by them at least 3 times (having a group of 3 spawn and have them instantly shoot their tri-beams and killing me before I have time to react) when I’m trying to optimize my build.
I know I can go for the “more health” route, but when many of the pre-Chapter 9 enemies feel like they do nothing, but then having these Crystal Elemental things kill me before I can react, it definitely feels awful to try Arena again. And no, it’s not based on Arena Wave. I’ve been killed as low as Wave 15 by these monsters when I can easily pass 100 if they’re not around.
Actually, I would say the vast majority of Chapter 9 mobs feels completely unfair relative to mobs from other chapters in arena and mono. I think the team need to make another pass at the relative mob strength of chapter 9 mobs in general in endgame. They are at least 2 order more difficult than anything else that can spawn at any given arena/mono levels.
I thought you liked a challenge? 
