After putting some thought into why I find Last Epoch combat to be somewhat less visceral than other games in the genre, it occurred to me that the combat sounds in LE are maybe not quite as robust and expressive as other titles.
I recently watched a Diablo 4 beta video featuring the rogue, and I was impressed with the amount of grunting and physical exertion-type noises the character made while in combat. Diablo has had excellent combat sounds such as this going all the back to Diablo 2 (go watch old D2 videos - there’s tons of grunting and such during combat). There’s also plenty shrieking, yelling, and death throes-type sounds from the dying monsters in D2.
D3 and Path of Exile also both feature great combat sounds and voice lines. The Witch in Path of Exile will occasionally yell “Everything dies!” “Life is short, deal with it!” and other unique lines after killing rare monsters. The wizard(ess) in Diablo 3 will yell “Didn’t see that coming, did you!” “I’m just warming up!” “How does that feel!?” and other lines after killing monsters. Path of Exile’s Witch has great caster sounds, with character builds such as the Arc Witch yelling “Hiya, hiya, hiya” as she repeatedly casts the Arc ability.
Last Epoch has some of these sounds, but in my opinion they are not present/varied enough, nor are they powerful enough, and this hurts the combat experience (in my opinion). I know voice acting can be relatively expensive, but I hope we can get some better combat voice lines and expressions in the game. With current AI programs that are able to competently voice lines and sound organic, maybe that would be an option for character voice line generation? Also, better death throes sounds from the monsters would be very impactful, in my opinion.