This is not my feedback, but I found it here on Reddit and agree with pretty much all of it.
First off: The game is amazing for an early access release and I believe there is a very solid foundation of ideas and systems. To give a bit of background so you understand where the feedback is coming from: I am an avid ARPG player with thousands of hours in PoE and Diablo and hundreds more in games like Titan Quest, Last Epoch and Grim Dawn. Thus my feedback will focus on Itemization for the most part.
Note that none of the solutions offered are the be all end all. Merely thoughts I had that could improve some of the aspects of the game.
Runes:
- Problem: Some Runes seem to scale way better than others, for example: Multi Hit runes giving focus on every hit. This results in a very spammy playstyle of just repeatedly using your rune abilities. Also every single rune you find/extract taking up space in your inventory/stash.
- Solution: Rebalance the Runes so multi hits either only give focus once, or at a reduced rate per hit depending on the ability. Also, make it so the Enchatres can learn runes if we give them so we only have to find/extract them once. Similar to Crafting recipes. Adding Stat requirements to more high-end runes would also make sense.
Crafted Gear:
- Problem: Crafted gear outside of Weapons is very lackluster since the costs of Rare materials like Skulls, Tusks etc is hard to justify if one trip to the Enchantress is likely to make the item worse.
- Solution: Make it so all crafted pieces are already Enchanted, and have them roll either 4 Fitting Enchants baseline, or 3 Fitting ones + one Random one. So you could target slots with enchants you want, and keep the RNG of them rolling decently on the item. They would still be worse than well rolled plagued gear in the endgame grind, just a stepping stone to get a build rolling.
Enchanting:
- Problem: Enchanting an Item has a very high chance to brick it. A lot of the plagued downsides are completely build-breaking while others don’t effect your gameplay at all. For example: Taking more damage, or losing Stamina on damage taken. While Losing XP(at max level) or Halving your durability does nothing. Another issue here is you being locked into the rolls. This will become a bigger issue the more mods are introduced to the pool of enchants.
- Solution: Overhaul the Plagued Negatives so it is a consideration of “Do I want to take this Kiss/Curse effect?” instead of throwing 80% of them into the trash instantly. Another idea was forcing 4 positive mods on plagued items to lower the RNG of it a little bit. With more Mods introduced I strongly believe there needs to be an actual crafting system in the game. Be that something simple like in D3 where you can reroll one Mod on an item, or something more advanced like in Last Epoch or even PoE.
Armor Identity:
- Problem: Every single Armor Piece in a given weight category is the exact same. Ontop of that, with how weight works there is very little reason to use anything below Mesh Armor in my experience. This will only get more obvious the more levels we get so investing a couple points into carrying weight is less of an issue.
- Solution: One idea I had was to give every “Set” implicit stats. Example: The Liar Mesh Armor pieces always having a few % of Poise Defense as an implicit modifier. Not a lot, maybe 2-5% per piece at most. But this could help giving different items in the same weight category some identity. Also having innate effects for weight classes. This could be something as simple as: Leather Armor giving a minimal amount of Movespeed per Leather Piece equipped. Cloth could give Focus Gain or Regeneration. You could mix and match to get multiple smaller bonus, or have a full leather set and perhaps get a Bonus at 4 out of 4.
Enchants:
- Problem: A lot of the effects being “On Damage Dealt” greatly benefits faster weapons to the point that they completely outshine slower weapons in most scenarios.
- Solution: Change the on damage dealt effects to a % of the damage dealt. Alternatively introduce something like a Proc Coefficient (Daggers only getting 33% of the on hit value for example). Personally I would prefer the change to a % of the Damage Dealt simply because it is easier on the tooltips.
Weapons:
- Problem: With so many weapons already in the game, getting the one you want is a test of endurance. Even more so if you consider the chance of it completely falling apart once you enchant it. This results in people either abusing the Realm Backup mechanic, or duping Saves for near infinite tries. That or they rely only on weapons that are easy to grab off of the vendor. Also, getting lower tier weapons is very difficult as the world levels up as you progress through the story.
- Solution: Give us a way to target weapons. This could be done by “personalizing” the loot so the loot dropped prioritizes weapons that fit that characters stat spread. Example: If you play a pure Int character, it is X% more likely that weapons you find are pure Int scaling weapons.
Stats:
- Problem: Stats don’t really feel like they are doing anything outside of scaling your Damage.
- Solution: Give each of the 4 Damage Stats something else ontop. Should a very strong character get a bit more HP or carrying weight? Dex could give less stamina cost on dodges or sprint/roll attacks. Perhaps Faith gives Poise defense “Unbreakable Faith” and all that.
Gems:
- Problem: Gems having such high roll ranges, while being un-replaceable ontop of good gear being so rare to find to begin with is a bummer.
- Solution: Allow us to replace gems. If I have a really well rolled piece of gear, let me dump 10 Gems into it until I get a roll I am satisfied with.
Knockback:
- Problem: A lot of smaller enemies seem to have very low stagger thresholds, or onehanded weapons do too much stagger damage. This results in a lot of combos only connecting with one or two hits before the enemy gets flung across half the room.
- Solution: Either increase the threshold or reduce the stagger damage dealt by smaller weapons so the most efficient way to play isn’t roll/sprint attacks.
Respec:
- Problem: Trying out different weapons is not possible on your Main character, so if you want to try a new good weapon you found you have to reroll blind without even knowing its moveset. Also it is very easy to accidentally ruin a character by putting some points into the wrong stats.
- Solution: Allow us to use any weapon, with a heavy damage penalty for not having the required stats to use it just so we can see the moveset. Also allow some limited form of respeccing. It should by no means be free and easy, but some point adjustment should be possible. Plague Ichors could be used here.
These were the biggest things I could think of right now. I did not want to get into a wishlist for things that have been mentioned a million times already like Stash Management, Housing etc. I am more concerned with issues that are present and have perhaps not gotten the most attention yet.
Thank you for reading through all of this, I am sure there are things I have forgotten but luckily I am not alone, the community seems very active and I have high hopes for the games future!