Taking into consideration that the parry mechanic itself is a mess though.
It doesn’t trigger if you evade a shot for example. Generating frenzy charges also is only able to be done if using disengage on the mob which you parried, not another one (since the debuff on the mob gets consumed) which is a fairly dumb implementation when it gets frantic… like in a breach, or ritual.
Also if you’re too far away (more then 2 meters) projectiles mostly don’t count as executing a parry. And the parry also having retaliatory damage means that mobs are relatively often slain when it happens, which reduces the options further.
It’s simply awful design currently for the whole mechanic in itself.
Great you enjoy it.
As for non-OP spears… yeah, you mentioned doing auto-attacks a lot, hence I can only nod and say ‘as expected’. Hence bad design from GGG.
Especially when it comes to combination-play (which GGG wants to have) then the usage of auto-attacks shouldn’t happen in 99% of the time. If that’s the case then something went wrong, as we can see.
Which only works with the current campaign mob density, which isn’t something that sustains into end-game as mentioned.
It sounds like you have a fairly careful style of gameplay, I had that as well with my merc in 0.1 for a long time. It’s not sustainable though as your progression crawls to a stop basically as soon as mapping begins properly. The areas are simply so big and the mechanics needed to get good results back reliably work actively against the parry and mobility playstyle in the current setup. Simply clashing designs there.
Ritual will be a major problem for example since the area is miniscule and enemies are plenty, hence mobility being a important factor… but reliable defenses are more so.
Ahhh… that’s a shame, but good that it’s coming! Will make things a lot better, that’s for sure.
I like current implementation of the parry. Without those limitations, it would be a bit less interesting for me.
Regarding to auto-attacks — I think balance of melee skills was a bit too low in early game, and I didn’t try them later yet, but will eventually add some melee skill probably. Overall, autoattacks can be part of combination gameplay same way as any other melee skill.
I have no idea how it will be in the endgame, will adapt when will get there. Currently in the act 6. But it might be just fine because her powerful AoE spears.
The issue is the unreliability of frenzy generation. The downsides are too strong.
Also the showcase of unblockable attacks is still not fully implemented, not every attack counting as unblockable shows it visually, there’s several instances where it doesn’t. But that’s simply hotfixes over the course of the league, so no issue there… if done.
The issue with auto-attacks isn’t that they can or can not be part of combination gameplay… it’s the part that they are nearly as strong as combination gameplay itself, and at times actually stronger.
The focus of the game design is on combination play, but currently a good chunk of those combinations have a higher setup cost then what they then actually provide as a result, hence abstaining is often better then using. Higher difficulty for less return is kinda… sub-optimal
I’ve checked out end-game more then progression, Standard player here after all (yes, the rare breed).
Many skills are ‘fine’ there, but there’s some major issues implemented. Like… Huntress will have a hard time. Melee is still a mess but works, and minions have been utterly devastated, to a degree that you can’t even play them, and still hard to play despite turning a good chunk of the changes back.
GGG simply screwed up, it was badly tested and went far overboard.
We’ll need to memorize attacks of all monsters anyway, if we want to make meaningful decisions during the combat, so it’s not a big deal anyway imho, if they show visual hint, as long as we can distinct it visually from other attacks.
Any skill can be potentially transformed into one-button build if it has too much damage, it’s not related to auto-attacks only. In the last interview, Jonathan promised that he will make sure that combo-gameplay will be stronger in the endgame, than some one-button builds. Though while there are too many broken stuff, and without middle-league nerfs, I guess there will be one-button builds too, of course. But that’s the goal, and reducing overall damage was important step to that goal.
GGG buffed them recently, they agreed that minions became awful.
I think so too. But well, they finished it in the last minute, I guess it’s downside of such rapid development speed
Also, about this, I think it’s totally fine. You can parry, you can crit market target (this is utility part of auto-attacks), you can freeze. Later you will be able also to cull like a monk, to generate frenzy charge. At least for me, it feels easy enough to sustain. And starting combat weak, without charges, adds more dynamic into gameplay.
Btw, probably if you start new class from endgame, you will miss a lot of how it plays, it takes time to try different things, get used to everything. I’m not sure if I will have similar experience in the end-game. I will see it tomorrow
For example, previous season I played ranged around snipe skill, and first few days I missed perfect window all the time, it took couple of weeks to become totally confident with it. If I would start from the lategame and tried that skill, I would decide it is totally unplayable.
I think I understood one of reasons why many people feel so. If you are usually going into monsters with intention to parry them and deal damage this way, this is kind of sucks and feels like a bad design. I never do it, except maybe if there is one weak monster and I am feeling greedy for the charges. I can, for example, go to auto-attack monster after marking him, and try to generate charges this way, and if he is fighting back, then I parry and generate it from the parry instead. So, one way or another I will get it as long as I will not mess something up.
As excited as I am about 4/17 and the start of the next season and the new patch, I gotta say an emphatic “no!” to an early release. Why? Because you keep your word and act on what you say without changes. That’s what good businesses do, and that’s what good people do. They said 4/2 originally and changed and will inevitably suffer a bit. They gotta now deliver on their 4/17 schedule without another change.
I would love to have the game today, but I am glad that they have a little extra time to polish. I know that there is a lot that happens in the days up to release, as it is a lot easier to fine tune and fix issues pre-release than post-release. They only have one chance to make a great first impression. I think that it is highly unlikely, but I don’t want them to screw it up.
Personally, I am an Avid PoE-er (mostly PoE1) and found LE’s less complex (but still very engaging) systems a great refresher. My circle of gamer-buds are in the same boat I am. I’ve no doubt there are plenty others that feel the same or would feel the same if they hopped on over.
There’s enough complexity to be engaging and fun for people who take the time to learn and master it, and not too much to overwhelm new players, which was the bane of PoE1 (as much a bane as the most popular ARPG could have had, anyway).
