Hello all! After completing majority of game (pretty much all activities and Woven Echoes aside from Uber Aberroth) here is a feedback post about game in general - what is good and not so good, what can be improved and likewise.
Campaign
Campaign was decently interesting lorewise, but very easy - my character dealt with mobs and most bosses quickly and without much issues, the only two giving some challenge were Lagon and Majasa. Such situation was even more so in Chapter 10 that I completed as 300+ Corruption character - since there is no Corruption-like scaling for campaign I pretty much oneshot all enemies on my way. I also did not know about Veteran boots (game does not really tell you about their existence), maybe with them my experience would have been more challenging.
What can be improved:
- Consider giving hints about Veteran boots in campaign itself or even making them drop from a chest near your starting character instead of hidden behind a wall in nearby cave. Consider also switching higher difficulty mode to either ring slot (so that player still has access to all kinds of gear slots when playing harder difficulty) or just a separate game setting (so player does not need to sacrifice any gear slots for it).
- For future campaign chapters consider adding possibility to scale them to current characterâs maximum Corruption level (if any) to make them challenging enough even for players who are already playing in Empowered Monolith. That would provide option to make campaign have decent difficulty even for existing characters and since future chapters would likely have some (Avatar of) Orobyss fight it would not be proper if he would be weaker than his Shades or even his servant Aberroth (which already happened with Observer fight).
Dungeons and Arena
They are decent side content with separate mechanics and reward structures. I especially liked Temporal Sanctum with time switch ability that was cool lorewise (we donât really use Epoch that much in other game parts) and final boss fight (where cleverly using this ability allowed me to beat her T4 even when being significally undergeared). However, non-Temporal Sanctum dungeons and Arena need improvements both reward wise (they are not played much since their reward is comparably much lower) and gameplay wise (it is very not obvious that you need to use lantern on Titanâs Heart in second part of fight and it just seems overtuned in T4 and even when you do use lantern - ranged builds get in significant disadvantage from necessity to kite with very close contact to it).
What can be improved:
- Improve rewards for Soulfire Bastion, Lightless Arbor and Arena fights and make them less based on Soul Embers for former (as that has direct countersynergy with boss keys).
- Reduce base power of Titanâs Heart attacks on T4 difficulty to make lantern hugging less mandatory for it and possibility for ranged builds to kite better / in a larger area.
Normal and Empowered Monoliths
There is currently a significant difficulty jump when getting from campaign into monoliths that can make many players caught by surprise. Monoliths themselves are decent alternative universe variants of âwhat if X happenedâ and their web structure and map goals are decently varied in Season 3. However, past 300 Corruption scaling is odd as there is another difficulty scaling jump and much more oneshots that can make the game feel less enjoyable, especially for glass cannon archetypes and builds.
What can be improved:
- Make difficulty scale smoother between end of campaign and start of monoliths (harder campaign / a bit easier early Monoliths) to provide more smooth transition for new players.
- Monitor sources of one-shots past 300 Corruption and adjust them if they are not tied to telegraphed mechanics (like flight of a hornet mob that seems harmless but literally oneshots you or charge of Void Razorface mobs that has minimal telegraph before happening and can happen even from offscreen).
Nemesis
They are decent side content with possibility to both pick their difficulty (via number of empowers) and upgrade some of your items. However, currently something is odd with their mechanics and they mostly add bad legendary affixes to your uniques (pretty much bricking them) much more than adding legendary potential (even 1) and their voice lines are odd and provide lines that are said after defeating them entirely even when empowering them and they escape (instead of usual âthis is not over yetâ and likewise).
What can be improved:
- Adjust ratio of Nemesis upgrade possibilities for chance of adding legendary potential to be more in line with chance of adding legendary affixes.
- Fix Nemesis voicelines to match the situation they are - defeat lines after full defeat and grudge / continuation lines when they escape.
Champions And Exiled Mages
Both of them are kinds of special mob encounters with decent new mechanics, but rewards for both of them are not good enough, especially in Monoliths where you donât use much neither Champion affix items nor Experimental affix items. That can be addressed.
What can be improved: Make them more likely to drop Exalted versions of their affix gear (Champion / Experimental) in Monoliths and improve their rewards in Monoliths in general.
Timeline Bosses And Harbingers
Timelines bosses are quite good and with interesting mechanics (and add possibility to fight Rahyeh and Heorot at all) and addition of Harbingers as second boss fight to them (but with option to disable it before fighting the timeline boss if needed) is nice as well.
What can be improved: Harbingers could get more varied, since they mostly have similar appearance and abilities and just borrow several skills from the according timeline boss. Consider adding more unique skills (and maybe also different looks) to different Harbingers.
Aberroth
His boss fight was quite epic with jumping through pretty much all Last Epoch eras during it and changing mechanics. However, last phase (below 30%) seems too ranged / glass cannon builds unfriendly - you have to kite within very small area that gets filled with blades / pools / beams, have to reposition to the very edge of non-corrupted area (through all this damaging stuff) to avoid his Timeshattering Slam explosion wave and pretty much have a race with him âwho would kill another with hardly avoidable damage firstâ. That is not very compatible with some builds and can be adusted.
What can be improved:
- Increase drop rate of Harbinger Eyes to make his fight more accessible for learning players. First 10 that are gathered during story quest are guaranteed, but after that their drop rate reduces too much and should be increased.
- Increase size of uncorrupted area in last phase to give ranged / glass cannon builds more place to kite and avoid mechanics.
Uber Aberroth
He is likely overtuned and while being called âoptional contentâ has unique drops, so should be tuned within reach of most builds that are well geared and well / synergizingly built (to give them a goal to accomplish and access to these drops). Currently that is not so where only some builds can live through his mechanics.
What can be improved: Tune his power level to be within reach of most well-built (with synergizing skills and items) and well-geared builds. Or just buff many builds that currently cannot even challenge him.
Woven Echoes
These are good additions to regular echoes with unique mechanics (like Plants vs Zombies), goals (like Aerdenâs Watch) and rewards (like possibility to reroll legendary potential / affix ranges / attributes etc). However, some of the Echoes are too rare (with prime example being Rune Prison Complex that I got only once and with worse luck might not get at all) or are likely overtuned (like The Fading Brink where Harbingers and especially regular mobs that appear with them were often able to one-shot my character at 300 Corruption level even when same character was already capable of farming 500+ Corruption monoliths).
What can be improved:
- Increase drop chance of Rune Prison Complex or make it available from other sources than RNG drop from Exiled Mages.
- Tune difficulty of The Fading Brink, especially its Void Razorface regular enemies via reducing damage of their one-shotting charge (which also has minimal telegraphing and can even happen from offscreen).
Tombs And Cemeteries of Erased
These are decent mini-dungeons with possibility to add guaranteed Exiled Mages / Nemesis spawns etc and having unique drops of Weaver Idols. However, their Woven Enchanter mechanic could use work - it just replaces one Weaver idol with another (which you might as well just drop without spending Memory Amber) and its re-enchanting of non-Weaver idols is still too RNG based. All that could be addressed.
What can be improved:
- Add to Woven Enchanter an option to reroll affix values while keeping same affixes on Weaver idol (can cost more Memory Amber than regular reroll to compensate and attempts are limited already). That would improve Weaver idol crafting with possibility to first get an idol with desired affix combo and then play around its values to playerâs needed level.
- Add to Woven Enchanter possibility to reroll non-Weaver idol with keeping same enchanted affix(es) and just resetting / changing number of Weaverâs Touch on it (can cost more Memory Amber than regular reroll to compensate and attempts are already limited). That would allow to get non-Weaver idol with desired enchanted affix(es) and then just reroll Weaverâs Touch to reupgrade them to needed for player level.
Rift Beasts
Their mechanic is interesting with possibility to customize their powers and even rewards. They are mostly fine, just could use possibility to raise evolution cap beyond 7 for players that want even more challenge from them or higher risk and reward values.
Primordial Uniques
Interesting addition to the game and are supposed to be strong and build defining, but many Primordial Uniques are currently undertuned and not competitive not only with other Primordial Uniques, but even with regular ones. Prime example is Wildfire Embers - it is bugged (mirrored skills from wisps donât benefit from skill tree), undertuned (Ignite proliferation does not match tooltip and spreads much lower amount of stacks than present) and not really competitive not only with other Primordials, but even with regular ones like Nihilis and Omnis.
What can be improved: Such primordial uniques need boosts and adjustments to justify taking them over both regular uniques and other Primordial Uniques. For Wildfire Embers specifically - its mirrored skills should benefit from skill tree, Ignite proliferation should work according to tooltip and values could be buffed. Consider also changing Wildfire Embers slot from amulet to ring, so that it would need to compete with uniques much less powerful than Nihilis / Omnis and builds that would play with it would still be able to benefit from both amulet and 1 ring modifiers / affixes that they would want.
Sorcerer feedback
I played all these parts and modes as Fire Meteor Sorcerer. I adore Black Hole skills in games and immediately went for specialization that had it and since only fire-based Black Hole is semi-viable (cold-based is very undertuned and there is no lightning-based one) I took synergizing fire-based skills - Meteor (for Craterborn and potential Armageddon synergy) and Fireball (for Craterborn and Cycle of Fire synergy), mandatory defensive skill (Flame Ward) and pretty much mandatory with all the new added mechanics mobility skill (Teleport for mana refund node that synergizes with Meteor). That all seems like a decently thought out build. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this build made from provided by developers obviously synergizing tools and effects was significally inferior to lightning version (which has much better scaling) and even some odd builds like Cleaver Solution. I still refused to switch from my non-meta build and managed to complete most of game activities with it, but even such situation where obviously synergizing build is this much inferior to builds that are based on just 1-2 items (Vilatriaâs set and Star Pact for lightning meteor build and Cleaver Solution and stat stacking for its build) is extremely not right. To add salt to the wound Sorcerer that was admitted as one of worst classes / Masteries in Season 2 did not receive any changes in Season 3 âbecause it was not its turnâ leaving it in the same state for 4 more months (since developers donât do mid-season adjustments). Such approaches to balancing and build making are very not right and should be adjusted.
What can be improved:
- Since it is finally Mageâs turn for season tweaking (alongside Rogue) I expect a lot of changes for them in Season 4 including Sorcerer. However, even such approach of â1-2 classes per season and others get minimum to no changes and need to wait for their turn 8-12 monthsâ is not right and should be changed - all classes should have dedicated development and receive balancing tweaks and changes each season.
- While Sorcerer is supposed to be a âglass cannonâ build it is currently both too glass and not enough cannon - it gets one-shot far too frequently on higher Corruption maps (post ward nerfs) and its damage output is not that impressive even compared to both much tankier classes (like Void Knight) and dps classes that donât need to build such large mana pool and manage mana as much (like Falconer). Sorcerer in general both needs survivability buffs (for example Sorcerer specific passive to increase ward retention provided by Intelligence) and damage buffs (so that building such large mana pool and playing around it for strong spells is justified compared to much easier classes).
- Fire Sorcerer builds and fire caster builds in general need some love as they are inferior to other elements. Firstly - there should be a high level offensive unique weapon to scale them and currently for non-pet builds (as pet builds can use Dragonflame Edict) there is none (Aergonâs Refuge exists, but it is very defensive oriented). Secondly, Spreading Flames needs a boost in endgame (where its damage contribution is currently extremely minor) via something like Sorcerer passive that would make its damage scale with characterâs global Ignite chance or Intelligence (which would limit its power in early game where it is already strong and just scale it mostly in endgame where it is undertuned). Thirdly, fire builds lack survivability compared to both ice builds (which have passive crowd control) and lightning builds (which have very strong Lightning Aegis). Fire builds should receive some form of mitigation as well, for example via making Fire Aura also reduce damage taken by X% while active.
- Fire Meteor builds specifically could use boost to bring them more in line with lightning ones. That can be done via for example buffing base damage of Meteor, but reducing damage bonus from Star Pact to compensate - such tweak would keep power level of lightning Meteor builds on comparable level and just reduce their gap with fire builds. And since Star Pact exists and synergizes with just 1 item consider also adding an ice meteor version (like Comet) to Meteor tree or Sorcerer passive tree or via one of uniques to make it more broadly applicable.
- Black Hole is still bugged - its Binary System node does not add Cold tag and scaling (despite adding a cold based damage component and visual) and its additional Black Hole from Scattered node occasionally disappears much earlier than the original one (it might be not entirely affected by duration extension nodes). These should be fixed alongside its base duration being increased from 2.75 to 3 seconds (which would synergize much better with duration increasing nodes, as Black Hole ticks every 0.3 seconds and currently 10% aka 0.275 seconds duration increase nodes sometimes donât even provide an additional damage tick for it). Cold-based Black Hole nodes should also be buffed for competitiveness, since currently they are so undertuned that playing original cold based and pulling Black Hole is simply not viable. And since Black Hole is the Sorcererâs ultimate skill it should synergize with all elements that he can use and could receive some lightning version and nodes as well.
- Fireball is udertuned compared to other basic skills (like Frost Claw and Lightning Blast) and could use some buffs as well, especially to its endgame scaling.
- Flame Wardâs base effect (ward generation) gets quickly outdated in endgame (where it would provide at best 1/5th of your regular ward pool) and its scaling could be boosted as well.
- Focus has an oversight and lacks Intelligence tag (while being a Mage spell), even when it gets some Intelligence based scaling (like Iron Stance). That could be fixed.
- Ice Barrage and Glacier are too build diversity limited being based on just 1 element and could use some alternative element versions (like lightning based).
This sums up my feedback for now. Thank you for reading!