So hi… it´s me again…
FS it would be cool if you eventually could give a sign, that you read all of it. I just want to take care, that it makes sense to write a bigger amount of text down here… I won´t argue about bugs/gamecrashes here, i just want to give my impressions to the game at all. My experiences are from the whole game + beta + DLC + legend + deeds + every career.
So let´s start…
- The new maps
- I really like the new maps. They look great, are welcome new content and got some good mechanics.
a) The Pit:
- This map looks really awesome and is fun to play. The 2 Events are quite fine and i like the Legendary Challenge with the barricades. The first time i was on this map… how could i say that… my impressions were amazing about the size of this map.
Sadly it feels a bit empty and if you know all grims and tomes , the first part of the map is just 50% wasted design. There is one fast way to get it all and no “hey let´s get in that corner, there always lies a medical supply” - point. There should be more stuff or atleast, maybe let the 1st tome appear on 1 of 3 points or use some more barricades for different pathings per run.
b) The Blightreaper:
- I like the surroundings and the dark part. I do even like the fireworks, but i don´t get… “Why is there a firework festival in a town, full of skaven and chaos?” ^^
It´s a little bit sad, that the dark part is like 100% scripted. You´ll get about 2 horde spawns at the same points + 1 boss or 1 patrol until “the event.” This one is scripted to 100% so… But i still like the idea and it feels much better than HitD with the minecart.
The End-event feels so pointless. Even if the Blightreaper is something special, the run is done at this moment. It would be a challenge to get it and escape like on “screaming bell”, but actually it feels unnecessary. Good idea - wrong part of the map.
- The old maps
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I´m glad you had a look into some “map-balance-issues”. A lot of things feels better right now, especially after the first jump on screaming bell. On the other side, some things were done with no love…
An example is the “don´t stay in that corner” design on Righteous Stand looks pitiful. Take away these benches and build a fountain or something up there. The game looks fantastic, so please show us “your love to it” with such things and not like “end of work in 5min… let´s put some benches there and all is fine”. -
The “redesigned” events feel much better now. I will take the RS example again her. It felt so “empty” and totally boring. With the bigger amount of enemies, it feels like “oh we still could fail”.
It would be still cool, if you won´t go for 100% scripts. Let a globadier appear earlier or later in 2 different runs. Just a bit more variation.
- The melee - buffs:
a) “useless weapons”
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I´m really glad (even if i don´t use them), that you fixed some weapons like the greatsword. It´s really good for the gameplay, that more weapons are viable. But some weapons still lack on use.
Please fix that Chaos Warrior issue. I personally like the firesword, doubleswords and even the 1h sword on kruber, but these weapons are just pain without any other armorpenetration.
The firesword and firedagger seems to be bugged too atm. (no dmg on the 1st heavy).
For example: I play firesword + fireball staff on my BW. It´s just pain on a ma like warcamp. I did literally 0 dmg to Bödvarr and even the “load the heavy attack” animation took so long, that Bödvarr gave me a hit.
A pyro could handle that easily with the ultimate. (one conpot with extended duration and you can kill bödvarr with ultimate spam) Same works for CW´s at all.
The thing about those weapons is not, that i need about 1h to kill a CW. The thing is, that everyone with any other weapon is faster and that´s no matter of skill or something, it´s just the unbalanced armorpen.
Maybe add an counter on those weapons and give them a buff for lords like: -
Hit a CW 10 times with a heavy and he´ll be dead.
Doubledmg. on heavys to lords like bödvarr and spinemanglr. -
Just something the player could work with. As long as CW exists in this game and you don´t go ways like this, those weapons will be useless af. There are weapon choices like dual daggers/ sword n dagger / dagger / halberd etc. with a good /great waveclear and tons of armorpen.
So there a just a few options for me. Buff the “useless” weapons into nowhere, so every weapon feels the probably the same or redesign CW / give out some hidden traits like above.
b) the boss-dmg-buff
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Well this is a decision from you, i can´t share at all. You buffed the most (even strong) melee-weapons into nowhere + you nerfed the troll hard. So let me explain:
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Every boss was like the only real reason to lose a run. Especially boss in a bad spot or boss + horde. I won 8 from 8 games on legend yesterday and we were able to rush the whole map. Even in the beta, i rarely lost with randoms and bosses just get melt down atm.
I´m ok with the idea “range is too strong, melee too weak… so buff it”. But it got overbuffed and maybe range should´ve been nerfed. So just meet in the middle with both.
The troll is just a fiesta right now. He is so slow and can´t regenerate any life. Everyone can solo him without getting a hit and he dies really fast.
So please nerf melee about 30-40% from the buff and do the same with range dmg OR buff the bosses! Both feels quite good, but the bosses are a joke right now.
Btw i still think, the elf-arsenal is too strong, next to the others.
- The AI-director
- I don´t know , what you´ve done. Is it a bug or a feature?
The AI director seems dead in my eyes. Before the beta… my CPU spammed specials and we got the double amount of the current horde spawns. I really don´t know what´s going on. The maps gameplay feels so boring, if you walk along the whole map with no spawns. We got 4 or 5 horde spawns on skittergate yesterday. Even 1 Stormfiend and maybe 16 specials? I don´t know… could be even less…
I already reported this, because i really hope, that you haven´t “nerf” the AI-director. Legend feels like Veteran for me atm.
So have a look into that pls. I beg you.
- The Okri-Challenges
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I liked them and i still do. The new challenges are quite fine, but even at like the old ones, some are just based on luck or will come while gaming. So there isn´t really a need to care about some of them. It will happen within the time and that´s sad. (f.e. kill a globadier / gunner etc. while they do anything)
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I miss some new challenges for the old maps combined with the DLC.
It could be something like “find a bottle of *** on every map” or “find hints for bögenhafen in helmgart” etc.
You could do even stuff like “bring the torch at the end of the map, but don´t let it fall”. Something where the team have to play together and defend someone a bit more. Not things like “stay in the acid and do the same like always”.
Just let your creativity speak… even if some are unbeatable in the first moments, you could still do some adjustments.
- The loot/cosmetics
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Well i´m probably one of the minority who says, the system is ok and red´s are too much.
But hey, whose things got discussed often enough now, i would like to take a look at the new strongboxes. The idea with the cosmetics and illusions is cool. Even that the actually first weekly challenge feels a bit strange, i´m glad that it already exists.
Not cool is the fact, that i got the same skin a fourth time for the shade right now. It´s “grey” this time… really not cool. The next issue is about the V1 skins. God bless we got some skins for playing V1, but that they don´t match with new helmets is sad. The old skins just overlap the new helmets… why? -
But next to the whole cosmetics and colors i would like to see housing in that game. It would be so cool to decorate the keep like i want. There are so many empty picture-frames and i´m pretty sure you´ll do something with it in the future. So please take it in the next update. I would like to place the “statue of sigmar” on another place too.
Ok…not everyone is a friend of housing, but i think, it would be really great content to farm those things and design your own home. Even with some challenge-achievement like “wow cool you got this or that”.
- Career-balance
a) Oh yeah, everyone probably loves this theme… here is my tierlist at all, explanations will follow:
- S+ tier : Waystalker, Handmaiden, Pyromancer, Bountyhunter
- S tier : Zealot, Ironbreaker, Unchained, Shade
- A tier : Mercenary, Huntsman, Footknight , Ranger Veteran, Slayer, Witch Hunter Captain , Battlewizard
b) So here some explanations on that S+ tier:
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Waystalker: Especially our lovely Kerillian got the best melee weapon choices, together with some good bows, infinite ammuniton , passiv liferegeneration, extended dodgerange and an anti-special-ultimate, she can and will handle all the stuff, the AI-director throws on her. The dmg - output and staggerability is insane.
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Handmaiden: Well yes an elf too. Not with infinite ammunition , but with an insane surviveability. She can outrun every mob/boss, can go into stealth and kills everything in this time. Her ultimate just feels like a gamebreaker atm. She is able to save runs, where every other career would fail. + She can speedrun easily.
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Pyromancer: Insane waveclear with any staff + tons of stagger while LMB-spam (especially beamstaff. Her Ultimate Cooldown is so low, that you can spam it every 20s maybe. She got an insane dmg output and can handle every enemy. She is the Waystalker in form of sienna… or the Waystalker is the Pyromancer in form of Kerillian. I already mention that i killed Bödvarr on legend nearly solo with 1 conpot into seconds did i?
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Bountyhunter: Crits, crits, a lot of crits… The BH is able to kill every special / SV / CW quite fast from the distance. He´ll never run out of ammunition with the scrounger passiv. He just don´t have that much AOE like a Pyromancer or a Hagbane-Waystalker, but saltzpyre´s melee - options are strong too. So even if the quite low amount of enemies will ever reach the BH, he is able to kill it.
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Overall these 4 careers are quite easy to play and accomplish the biggest achievement with that. You can´t die if you can run-out every mob, meanwhile they die to a dot. And you can´t die, if you´re able to kill every enemy from a save distance with endless ammunition. The surviveability and “range-meta” are just too strong atm in my eyes. + Especially the ranged ones here, are able to sit out the whole game with a bunch of temporary health.
c) S tier:
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Zealot: The Zealot as a bruiser class seems quite fine to me. (Ok… he was my main once)
I still have to say, that he forgives a lot too. He got a lack on ranged (low ammunition no buffs etc.), which don´t make him S+ tier for me. But he got strong surviveabilities infight too.
His incoming dmg get halved (atleast 10) with the right passiv. His ultimate gives a lot of temp-health and i can survive deadly hits with his passiv. Yes he is definately a completly melee-focused career, but even i think, that´s a bit too much. -
Ironbreaker: He is probably the easiest / most forgivable career in the game. Or just… perfect for newcomers. He can do all quite good and his dmg-reduction is sick as hell. He´s not S+ tier, because he can´t do the things that fast and good, like my s+ tier careers can do.
I still think his passiv needs a nerf / rework. I mean “Negate every incoming dmg every couple seconds”. You can eat an Overhead-attack from a CW and the incoming dmg = 0. That is too strong. The cooldown have to be much higher or need something negative like " +20% incoming dmg from aoe effects like gas / ratling gunners / warpfire. "
The gromril armor forgives so much and is a gift from sigmar on legend + . -
Unchained: The Unchained got all the staffs a pyromancer got + 50% dmg reduction. The only reason, why she is not in my S±tier list, is that she dont have an ultimate, that is able to oneshot CW´s /specials with an aimbot. She just seems strong with her tankyness + excellent waveclear and with the right melee-weapon choice, she´s able to kill CW´s quite good too.
The Overcharge on hit is actually a negative aspect, but i don´t think that´s a real problem, as long as you can negate that with your ultimate. She may could need a lil nerf to 35 - 40% dmg- reduction. -
Shade: Again the strong melee-arsenal + stealth + strong boss dmg / oneshot CW´s. She lacks on range and suviveability next to her partner-carriers, that´s why i won´t count her as S+ tier. It´s fun to play her, but i think her ultimate cooldown is too low, especially with that insane melee-options. Overall she is in a good spot.
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Overall these 4 careers are strong /forgives a lot of incoming dmg or (shade) can take out the most dangerous one in seconds (CW/bosses). That relies on strong dmg-reduction passivs and cooldowns. That could need a fix/lil nerf in my eyes.
d) A tier… Welcome to the “in a good spot” careers:
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Mercenary: Overall a good melee-class with well designed support options. (Attack speed, temp healt, knockback, infight-rescue)
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Huntsman: I love the “Headshot-design”. He feels not weak and not overpowered like some other ranged classes. He needs his items and some kind of skill. I think he´s the overall balanced range career.
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Footknight: Well not as tanky as a tank should be and not the damager like the mercenary. He´s a mix of both with a great crowd control ultimate, which is perfectly to rescue someone in bad situations (surrounded in a corner). I think he´s in a good spot for every run / map.
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Ranger Veteran: He´s a really good dmg-support career with his tons of ammunition, bombs or pots. His ultimate is well designed for dangerous situations, since he´s a squishy. Overall nice to play.
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Slayer: Already through his “no range”, he feels balanced. His crowd control and dmg stacking, the attack speed and movement are just fun. Yes he´s able to speedrun too, but he don´t got that low cooldown + stealth + range for disablers like the HM. I think he´s in a good spot and great for every grp, who already got enough range for specials, but lacks on waveclear /ap.
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Witch Hunter Captain: Overall a good buff - support. He´s really fun to play, i would even say, i enjoy him the most. The best option seems to be the rapier. Every other melee - weapons don´t match with his overall performance (in my eyes). * I don´t think he needs a buff, just a lil bit more attention from the players.
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Battlewizard: Feels great with the right arsenal. Some guys play her with an endless staggerperformance, i enjoy the milkyway-kite-tactic. The BW is really fun to play. She just lacks hard on AP with no critbuffs / an ultimate like the pyro and got no dmg-reduction like the UC. Overall she depends hard on weapon-choices and those weapons probably need some adjustments, but not the BW.
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Overall these classes are quite balanced in my eyes. They got their job and depent a bit on the weapon-choices. I like and enjoy them the most in their current state, without thinking “ok… balance pls, gamebreaker, easy to play”.
- Last word:
Overall this is just a view of myself over the game in it´s current state. I do know, that a lot ppl will have another opinions, find another issues, ideas etc. I could´ve written much more, especially to the career-balance.
I just wanted to give FS an overall superficial view about it, otherwise i would write a week on it.
There are a lot of questionable balance- / design-issues in my eyes, that could need a rework / buffnerf.
I don´t even want to argue about the “useless” career-trait, because there were enough threads about it.
So FS i really really hope you may read that all and think a bit about it. As i wrote in the begin, just leave an “ok” or something pls. Just a feedback “that the time / work / thoughts make sense” would be cool.
Btw it would be nice… especially for the “ai-director” issue, that the game would become more challenging again. It feels like the game becomes more comfortable / easier with every patch. (even the jump puzzles for tomes/grims). I´m ok that you want to balance that game for more than probably “core-legend-players”, but some things are a bit too much. (melee - boss - buff)
Atleast maybe let it like it is and give us a legend ++ difficulty to compensate that. (No deeds pls)
That´s all for now. Thx for reading.