I did several Crucible runs today and here are my current thoughts, I’ll add more later.
Cyvion
The Echo Knight finally has a name, I really like that. His fight feels more fun with the added boons, since you can theory craft a little bit. I use a great sword and had the most success with the following boons:
- Damage reduction
- Lifesteal
- Stamina Regen
- Poise Defense
Basically the face tank build.
The Seneschal
He looks like a cursed E.T., I love it. The unique art style for those characters is truly gorgeous, whilst also being cursed. Please stay true to this style. Also his reveal animation was amazing, I really had a what the moment when his fingers crawled out of that pit.
The Gloam
I love their visuals, like a hybrid between cursed myconids and the infested from Waframe. Love how one of them uses his head as an artillery piece. Their attacks patterns are also well readable. I do like how each faction has their own archetypes of enemies, I especially like the big boys.
Now if the Gloam spawn in the aqueduct looking map there are 3 enemies right in front of you. And, the first time I saw that I just figured I’d out aoe them down. But, they each dashed backwards away from me and created distance. I love that strategic placement and that behavior from the enemies.
New Rooms
I love the visuals, and the rooms feel more coherent now. Before it felt like a mix of maps from different areas. I especially like the visuals for the Gloam looking maps and the ones with the excessive amount of skulls – skulls for the skull throne!
Traps
I like the changes to the ones that shoot fire projectiles. You can more clearly see where they are shooting and they shoot a lot faster.
As for the biting traps, they feel a bit wonky with how enemies move around them. Like they get stuck a bit.
Boons
I haven’t unlocked the additional boons yet, the ones from the seneschal, so I will update this later.
I love the additional effects we can unlock like the plague explosion, ice burst, static lightning field, lightning strikes, fire burst and more. It increases the cool factor of combat.
Now, will we be able to unlock those or something similar as enchantments or maybe talents?
Exalted Gear
YES! This is such a needed mechanic. The whole need for refarming gear due to low rolls is now eliminated as you simply exalt your gear and get max rolls. This is an insanely welcome change in my book.
Dropped Gear/Food
With the removal of this it feels more like endgame content rather than a way to just farm items to play enchanting lottery with. I quite like this change and I imagine when the actual farming update comes out we will get a more steady supply of that. I would still look to add more armor recipes and such so the gear we like the visuals of is more readily available. Especially since a way to farm gear for enchanting has now been removed.
Enemy Deaths
The enemies die in more gruesome ways, love it.
Mob Density
I feel with the new rooms there could potentially be more mobs. Or different archetypes of enemies so there is more pressure on the player.
Falling to your death
Hasn’t happened yet as it did with the old Crucible so that’s good
Closing Words
That’s all I can think of for now, I’ll add more later. Keep up the great work Moon!
Edit 1:
Banish option
Please add a banish option to eliminate unwanted boons, maybe we can unlock them from the Seneschal.
Edit 2:
Undesirable Boons
These are boons I always end up rerolling:
- Skip room.
- Random boon.
- Elemental damage on weapon, I already have a Heat enchant on it. I don’t want that to be overridden.
- Increased damage when in a new room.
- Any food boon.
Desirable Boons
These are boons I always choose:
- Plagued lifesteal/spellvamp → 15% is broken. I do think this is the strongest boon. And, I would lifesteal/spellvamp to exist. But, it needs to exist in a way where it is not broken for builds with a lot of on hit effects whilst being underwhelming for slower builds.
- Stamina regen.
- Any heat based enchant to synergize with my great sword.
- Damage reduction.
- Attack speed and movespeed.
- Rune damage.
- Focus gain.
- Any unique effect since they look cool, preferring any non damage proc based as greatswords attack slower.
Replayability
I would like more incentive to clear the crucible after getting exalted gear. Maybe the ability to unlock new enchantments like those unique effects. Or maybe some unique gear, there is a lot strewn about in his lair.