Balance changes made build progression and crafting feel overly punishing

Wicked Feedback
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1

After the latest balance changes, I feel like rune and enchantment nerfs were too severe.

The biggest issue is that builds players spent a long time putting together now feel much less viable. When a patch hits this hard, it does not just change balance — it also devalues a lot of time already invested into farming, crafting, and experimenting.

This problem becomes even more frustrating because rebuilding a character is very time-consuming. Crafting resources are hard to obtain: vendor stock is limited, and the drop rates are low enough that farming them takes a lot of time on its own.

On top of that, crafting itself is heavily RNG-dependent. When crafting gear, getting the right prefix is already difficult, and because prefixes are random, players may need to craft many copies of the same item just to get one usable result. I crafted a large number of daggers as an example, and none of them ended up being what I needed. That represents a lot of time spent farming materials, with little to no progress.

Another major issue is that failed crafted items cannot be broken down back into some portion of their materials. Right now they can only be sold, which does very little to offset the time and resources lost. A salvage or dismantle system would help a lot here and would reduce the frustration of bad crafting RNG.

I understand the game is in Early Access and balance changes are expected. I am not against adjustments. But right now the combination of heavy nerfs, limited resource access, low drop rates, random prefixes, and no salvage system makes the overall experience feel more punishing than rewarding.

I really like the game overall and I want it to succeed, which is why I am leaving this feedback. The combat, atmosphere, and general direction are excellent. I just think the current balance and crafting loop need another pass so that player time feels respected.

Things that could help:

  • reduce the severity of rune and enchantment nerfs

  • increase crafting material availability, either through vendors or drop rates

  • add a salvage/dismantle system for crafted gear

  • reduce crafting RNG, or give players more control over prefixes

  • consider some form of compensation or transition support when major balance changes invalidate existing builds

UPD: After reading more opinions, I think a pity system for crafting could be a good solution. I do not mind RNG, but I think it should be more forgiving. If repeated failed attempts gradually improved your odds of getting the prefix or result you want, build experimentation would feel much less frustrating and time-consuming. - 3/20/2026

3 Likes
2

Which rune nerfs? Only the Multishot and Skyfall shot runes were nerfed.

About the enchantment changes: Critical damage, critical chance, armor penetration and damage resistance were defintely needed. The others are debatable imo.

1 Like
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I meant gems, not just runes. My concern is really about the combined impact of all these changes — gems, the rune nerfs you mentioned, and enchantment adjustments. Even if some of those changes were understandable individually, together they made many builds feel much weaker and far more tedious to rebuild, especially with the current crafting RNG and limited resource availability.

4

I agree, the changes were too drastic. Many gems and enchantment values were cut in half. I put a lot of time into building a life steal build that now just kills me. Almost completely broken to the point where I have to start over. This was a very heavy handed nerf across too many systems. It might be the right thing for the long term, but they went about it too quickly. 10 - 20% nerfs would have been fine and we could probably adjust and take another 10 - 20% again if needed.

1 Like
5

If crafted items could be salvaged back into their materials — or even just a portion of them — it would make the time loss feel a lot less frustrating. I mean specifically crafted gear, not items found in the world or dropped by enemies. Some form of compensation would also help, although I understand that might be harder to implement.

6

It would make sense if items such as weapons, armor, etc., that are found were salvageable, but it doesn’t make sense to craft a weapon just to salvage it? :thinking:

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Not a full refund, just a partial return. The point would not be to craft weapons only to salvage them, but to soften the frustration of bad crafting RNG when you spend a lot of time farming materials and still do not get a usable result.

8

Yes i hear what you are saying but!
If You get to Salvage a weapon You crafted > You will only add more to the Frustration quicker.
You want to go all in on the RNG which is probably a bad for some?
I love RNG ^^

You on the other hand seem to say the opposite as You dont like when it gets “too” RNG-heavy, but want to add more time spent with the Crafting RNG that could add more frustration simply by staying at the Anvil for a longer time.(Is what i meant to say)

In some ways it will build more towards a Jackpot chaser?

So in Your case i think you should focus on^

Instead of Adding more RNG

Im just saying it doesnt make sense to add for Crafted Gear ^^

9

I see this game mainly as a great story-driven experience first, with Crucible farming as an endgame challenge later on. To really enjoy all the systems it offers, players should be able to try different builds and variations. The problem is that the current RNG-heavy crafting slows that down so much that experimenting stops feeling fun and starts feeling like endless grind :melting_face:

2 Likes
10

and that become more endless if you add a Salvage System to Crafted Gear that allows a Partial Refund, You are just adding more Frustration to your Crafting Loop.

btw Im not disagreeing with you but adding More RNG to it is not a Solution for You ^^
I dont mind more RNG but you seem to not like it?

11

The real problem is that the systems we have in game right now are all placeholders.

The way crafting works, the enchantment system, gems and runes. . . . everything. All of it is not really how the devs intended the game to be.

Making balance passes now would make the state the game is in now feel better, but it would also make those systems the devs actually want to implement wait way longer.

I’ll be happy if the current balance sucks more just to make the big sweeping changes in 1.0 come out faster. Then they can actually focus on balance.

12

I am not against RNG as a concept, I just think it should be a bit more forgiving. In one MMO I used to play, every failed attempt increased your odds until you eventually got a guaranteed result. Something like that could also work well here.

For me, the bigger issue is the amount of time that gets lost. Crafting 19 daggers and not getting a single useful one feels very rough after all the time spent farming materials.

As for salvage, I do not think it adds more RNG. If anything, it would just reduce some of the wasted time by making failed attempts less punishing in terms of resource farming.

1 Like
13

I completely agree. I finished the story with friends and in my own world, played a lot of Crucible, and finally made a build I really liked — then it got nerfed the next day, which was rough.

That said, I am still very pleased with the game overall and with how impressive it already is in Early Access. That is exactly why I want to give feedback: the game has a lot of potential and I want to see it get even better :heart_on_fire:

2 Likes
14

That i Agree with!

It should indeed have a pity system.

Well you have my Vote! :wink:

1 Like
15

Thanks for the discussion, I appreciate your input :handshake:

1 Like