So this thread is about feedback regarding things I don’t think necessarily were taken into account.
Start Rant
1. Lore
So several things are missing from Kurast, and straight up should trigger lore junkies for Diablo.
like, why is the Kurast dock gates aimed at Gea Kul, instead of into Kurast? in diablo 2, you traveled continually north to go to Lower, then Upper, then Travincal, then finally into the durance of hate.
From everything it looks like, it looks like the lore team did not even have a look at the map from a basic logical standpoint compared to diablo 2. Because, the dark wanderer didn’t wander through Gea Kul. He wandered out of the gates of the Kurast Docks.
Second lore point; where are the (favorite) factions that called Kurast Home?
The assassin’s are a HUGE one, and haven’t been around Kurast, or anywhere in d4. Sure, we have the Iron wolves out of Gea Kul, relocated to Lut Golein, but they were originally based out of Kurast, and they should have had at least a provisional outpost there after the hero from Diablo 2 made them famous by cooperation with them.
There is the set up for the corruption that hatred gives, which ironically gives room for one of the other favorites, Demon Hunters. DH’s are cut from the same cloth as hatred itself, given the resource, and realistically could have been merged w/ the rogues.
The lore points between the two separatist rogue themed factions are not present, and suddenly there’s a MAJOR Kazra citadel in Nahandu (kurast) to the Kazra demigod?
I can understand adding ‘content’, but when ya’ll can’t figure out proper placement of a dock. . .
The feedback is clear, ya’ll should have considered and consulted Your lore team regarding even maps, not just story to keep continuity with where you go.
- The spirit borne
The Spiritborne makes me cry inside for several reasons.
1, it feels like a Monk rip off. Infact, using Seponzac, it makes all of the basic skills basically the same as d3 monk. Further, the Legendary aspects are straight copies in most aspects to the d3 monk legendaries/uniques. This character needed more work to individualize and separate his primal roots, which should be more like a jungle Tarzan Aztec hunter based on aesthetic, and less in functionality be like a Monk meets a rogue. I would even argue it should play closer to amazon’s, given how they function in a similar conceptual environment, and how they were mentioned in D3 Expac.
Now, Does that mean the class is bad? No, it’s Overpowered in fact, and lacks Identity because of it’s power and borrowing builds from other classes to make it’s own. Some things that could be used to improve this: Pets, an eagle pet, or interactive gameplay with pets depending on the class. Last Epoch’s Hunter is a PERFECT example of this idea. Using the eagle to swoop down, move around, and not just ‘invoking a spirit.’
The animations make the class Identity. ANd when Soar’s cloud that persists look like the bladed wind ability from d3, Thunderspike w/ Seponzac having almost a direct animation rip (Deadly reach), along with WIthering fist (Way of a Hundred fists).
and then… there’s Cyclone… Le sigh. Ya’ll cut 1 word off it it (cyclone strike, in d3)
In no way has this been explained lore wise either; did the monks of the mountains from d3 and d1 take up residence in Nahantu after hatred left and assist with the losing battle against the hollows? Either way, There are some design issues from the perspective of a D3 beta player and veteran, along with 24 year d2 veteran.
2, Builds function, but in a way not as intended.
Look, Seponzac is such a meme, that I shouldn’t even need to mention it. It is brokenly overpowered w/ what is likely an unintended interaction.
I fully admit, I have created a binding on my mouse to repeatedly hit the space button instead of MASHING IT myself till I get carpal tunnel. IT does not automate the whole build, but so long as my dps is contingent on hitting a single button repeatedly and not holding it down, to save my 130 dollar keyboard and it’s switches, and my poor poor hands that WoW trashed from years of play, it was nessasary.
Seponzac has an interaction with Thunderspike, causing Evade to have no cooldown. Using Evade triggers thunderspike, causing you to reduce evade’s cooldown by 5 seconds. But if you have certain pairs of boots, or CDR, the cooldown gets reduced more per attack or per the passive cool down reduction.
The result is an infinite evade loop w/ a cast incidental basic skill by pressing one button repeatedly.
This would not be BAD if it weren’t for the interaction of another ability, namely the ‘spirit hall’ for Eagle. Every time you cast an eagle spell, you get stacks. So long as you have stacks, you get Movementspeed, and cast up to 8 attacks, which do 125% weapon damage each (notable, given most coreskills do not even hit this # at 5 ranks, perhaps at 8 to 10).
So for 3 skill ranks and one Unique, you get infinite Evade, Raiden (the top down Arcade game shooter) auto targetting fast traveling projectiles.
So how is this unfair.
well, first, Evade has no Iframes. SO it’s Not THAAAT broken.
Wrong and heres why. There is a passive called ‘Mirage,’ per rank, while in Evade, you have +20% dodge chance per rank, and get +5% crit chance when you dodge for 3 seconds.
The dodge chance is the important part.
We have infinite spam on Evade. oh, I forgot to mention one other detail about evade. Evade is subject to animation canceling, unlike every other animation in the game, and becomes subject to it once attack speed comes into play. So the moment you get Thunderspike, or Deadly reach to those avid D3 players used, you do so at breakneck speed, and reset the CD of Evade.
Well, that means Evade never finishes it’s animation. You, for this build Never leave Evade when you do content. SO it’s a Perma +60% dodge chance.
‘ah, but Kimris! That’s Multiplied by the remainder like every other source of Dr for dodge. if you have 20% dodge, and add 15 %, the math is (15% * remaining chance to hit - aka 80%= a total of 12%), meaning it’s 20% + 12%, meaning 32% instead of 35! So it’d be more like 60% * 80%, meaning an additional 48%, if you had 20 before everything!~’
Yeah no. Go play with it, the 60% is Additive and not multiplicative by the remainder. Meaning you dodgecap at 40% w/ this build, fully doable.
You are immune to direct attacks and projectiles (and with the right affix, you could even reflect them back!)
‘So wait, immune to boss hits, infinite movement that outspeeds mounts, Machineguns, and what else? You’re gonna say immune to CC huh!’
Yup. Didn’t even require a runeword. Just takes 4 stacks of Resolve + gorilla spirit hall passive to have permanant CC immune, so I am naruto running through everything.
This cannot be the intended result of this build, because the animation canceling needs to be fixed, because that’s what breaks this build. This build, you can tell, was intended to be Tspike + Soar Unique boots for soar Jump to be Like a dragoon from Final Fantasy, Spawn feathers, drop, pull feathers in, reset cooldown. rinse repeat with small refractory period.
You can do the above build, it’s a bit fun, butttttt, it’s not damage efficient compared to the ability to hold down a button and spam an input like you can do with a core skill.
Which brings us to # 3.
THis is something Diablo 4 Expansion does right, and I encourage Devs to play with it more responsibly.
Create builds that break or challenge rules.
Add skilltypes to skills that have no reason to have them to create interactions that were not intended. THis is part of where the Numbercrunchy fun begins, and Spiritborne HAS that in multitudes.
But, the issue becomes, spiritborne shouldn’t alone have this toy. Why cant barbarians have skills become brawl skills?
Rogue skills switch up marksmen and cutthroat by shooting Knives or otherwise?
You have a universe of Design potential here in how you approached the SpiritBorne that you barely touched if not at all for other classes. Please, continue to do this, add more affixes. Item drops shouldn’t have Everything be available via dungeon to add codex to start, because that was Never the spirit of Diablo. Sometimes, finding the right item is exactly what needs to happen. Sure you have a large audience.
But people who play games don’t always know what they want, and the perspective and idea of not getting something is what makes Actually getting a cool item with an interesting interaction fun.
Either way, you had a start, the spiritborne and Nahantu regions were a fumble to be honest. Ya’ll could really make them better, and please do better in the future.
Oh, give spiritborne Dual weild maces, or mace in shield, or mace and Axes long term.
It’s more historically accurate per ‘the tribal aspect’ unless you want to continue to shoehorn the Monk quarterstaff w/ the Journey to the west monkey king skin in addition to the Lightning Javelin wanna be amazon idea.
PS,[spoiler]
youuuu have an oppurtunity to continue the hunt for hatred in the storyline from seasons till next expansion drops.
If you don’t do this, I will be upset. Your storyline was ‘oh woe is me, my name is Naerelle, and I can’t carry this burden like the wanderer,’ So akarat HAD TO DIE like MUFASA/ASLAND/Christ, for the sins of us all. Ya’ll’s writing team had a chance for stuff to go way more morbid.
Like, Kill the traitor. If not us, an assassin who’s been following us, and Nairelle for being a Mage (que lore) the whole damned time. Infact, she was the one who stabbed her MOTHER. HA. HAHAHA. could have been an AMAZING send off to the end of the story. BUT YOU MISSED IT. BAAAHHHHHH. HUMBUG.
[/spoiler]
End of Rant
and from what I see clone of last season LS Sorc doing just fine in this season - whom I don’t see at all - Barbs/Druids