Overall, good feed back.
The game is in an interesting spot at the moment.. as many of your issues have been addressed by the team along with potential “solutions” on the way.
IE: Stat system overhaul into a Job System.
They’ve also posted a teaser for the upcoming Hotfix 4 and Patch 1, which might perk your interest. (featuring Stardew Valley styled farming/crafting and a “native rune” system to help alleviate some of the combat issues).
All that said, I do agree with how tedious fighting is in the game at the moment. It’s why so many of us run builds similar to the “Subzero” loadout.
It negates the need for healing and focus generation.
Essentially trivializing many core features of the game.. which at least makes the end game grind somewhat fun.
Granted, just like the addition of “unlimited fast travel” teased in the Patch 1 preview. Many players are against the mere existence of anything like the Ring of Determination.
So on one side of the argument people are upset and want it nerfed. On the other, even with the speed and power you get.. the game still feels unrewarding.
I’ve cleared the Crucible near 30x times.
*Even doing so without ever purchasing a single “Echo”.
Yet at the end of each run, I know all I’ll get is some legendary gear that’s far inferior to plagued gear. Along with some mats and gear that’s basically just gonna get sold for cash.
Again, these are things the devs are working on.
So I wouldn’t get disheartened with the current state of the game.
If anything, the devs ( @thomasmahler specifically ) are very open to feed back and willing to incorporate new systems as needed.
That said, one of the biggest issues with combat is that enemies aren’t really built in a way to deal with magic, let alone ranged players in-general.
So the devs made it hard to generate focus early-mid game forcing players to engage with the parry/block mechanic. (This explains why the Ring of Determination is so valuable/essential to most builds).
In fact, we use to have a potion that simply refueled your focus.. but of course this meant players didn’t need to engage with the “parry” mechanic anymore (thus trivializing it).
So the devs changed it to a “bonus” for focus gain.
In contrast, you have games like Elden Ring that simply allow you to play ranged/mage builds instead of melee or parry focused.
I’m not saying Elden Ring is what NRftW should be.. but there’s a clear difference in how the mobs interact with the players “fighting style”.
Going forward, I’d like to see the mobs and their encounters fleshed out and feel more unique.
After all, with a wider variety of mobs (with fewer shared mechanics), the less likely the devs will feel the need to nerf anything that endangers specific mob types.
At the end of the day tho, the devs seem to have a goal and are trying to move toward it while incorporating player feedback.
So it’ll be interesting to see how the game evolves as we get close to the official launch.