I like building characters in ARPGs more than perfecting characters, so I do the beginnings of the games far more often than endgame content, so that’s my bias in these suggestions.
Immersion:
Before doing some testing earlier today I thought enemy bodies disappeared a bit after they died. After some testing I realized that while some do vanish, others stick around until you’re off screen enough. I imagine keeping bodies around is a performance hit, but it would be nice to keep them around as they’re the only signs of the combat you did that can persist on the map, other than drops left behind.
Alternatively instead of off screen culling or quick decay, removing dead enemies could be used to enhance the feeling of differences between zones. Each zone and the enemies in it tend to belong to one of the great powers, the 4 gods, the undead or void. Bodies could stick around for a second or two before being ‘reclaimed’ by the zone power. Rayah’s forces could dissolve into flaming feathers, Logon’s into small thunderstorms etc.
This isn’t meant to replace the death animations. I studied the death animations on enemies in those early game zones and really liked them. Its just they tend to occur during combat, leaving little time to appreciate them. The body dispersal could be an over the top sort of visual reward for engaging in combat.
Gameplay: I usually end up outleveling the story zones I’m going through. What if different hub towns had the ability to pay character levels for passive points or idol slots?