So after getting 2 characters to max level and reaching end game, there’s 1 major problem I believe that stops the game feeling engaging and fun. And that’s the difficulty, If I select hardest difficulty its because I want the game to be challenging and as difficult as possible.
Early Game (Hardest Difficulty) - Early game for sure you can feel the difficulty, your punished for you mistakes and befor getting somewhat of a working build you can and will die and struggle in most fights. So i feel early game is in a good place for those that want a more challenging experience
Mid Game - Very dependent on how lucky you get or how well you start putting together your build, can definitely feel the game get easier, if your landing the enchants you want. weapons and runes, its very dependent on how your playthrough is going gear wise. by this point you also have a good understanding of the mechanics the range of enemies have and if your any sort of good at the game, it starts becoming really easy to play around.
End game - At this point I’m not even full build with a min/maxed build I have enchants that my build doesn’t require, I’ve not even exalted my gear and I’m basically running a make shift build but yet I find my self 1 2 or 3 shotting every enemy I see.
Conclusion - The games harder in the beginning and progressively gets easier the more you go through the game. easier to the point where it just sucks the fun out of the game to the point your just running zones clearing without any challenge what so ever, it makes the game feel stale boring and pointless. why do I feel the need to find or craft that perfect piece of gear and craft an amazing build if I’m already 1 shotting enemies from just having frost or lightning infusion on my weapons. it feels like the enemies Are not scaling while I’m scaling, enemies get froze or stunned 2 quickly and too easily which makes for a boring fight, I don’t have to worry about doing mechanics coz I can walk up hit them once and completely immobilize them and they’re just dead.
Solution - Make End game as hard as it is in the early game, enchantments gems runes and attribute points should become beneficial to help you win the fight not be so overpowered that the fights already won before you take your first swing, I want to go into a pack of enemies feeling like if I don’t play this correctly I’m going to lose and die. I want to feel like I have to min max my build to give me a better chance at defeating mobs because if I don’t there’s a high chance I’ll die, making the end games continuous farming for better gear actually mean something and feel worth my time. if you remove the risk of death there’s really no point in continuing to play this game after the campaign is said and done, because what am I farming better gear better enchantments for, why am I bothering to exalt my gear when I cant feel the benefits
of it because I was 1 shotting enemies before the campaign was even done
Ideas - You’ve added facets to weapons, you could add something similar to mobs like, this mob cant be stunned or frozen, this mob has an aura that drains your focus or stamina, this mob has lifesteal, give them buffs and give them aura’s that debuff us. make the fights more interesting and that make you think about plan of attack befor walking in. give them shields that you gotta break down befor you get to there health bar.
Significantly raise mob health give them more armour give them more resistances 1 shotting mobs has got to go its not fun and its not engaging, been able to freeze a mob in 2 hits has also got to go I can walk into enemies and kill them with my eyes closed.
Overall what you have created here is amazing I love the game I love the content, I love the story telling, its up there as one of the greatest games I’ve played in my whole 30+ years of gaming. But as a veteran of gaming me like I imagine many others when we select the hardest difficulty then that’s because we want our content to be as challenging as possible and right now I feel its so far off the money.
