First of all. i like it a huge lot. theres NO TIMER for starters, so we can take our sweet time clearing the area and playing properly. it also gives us a way to perfect our gear. AND in a way that respects our time a huge lot.
So far i have only 2 main issues.
The first is the existence of 2 specific random mods on enemies. The first is regeneration, and the second is enemy speed.
To me deliberate combat in any action game, requires very fine tuning of a lot of things. one of such is speed. if the enemy is too fast, we have less time to react, our timing to evade/counter is different, and some weapons FAIL entirely as they are simply too slow if the enemy speed is too fast.
coming from POE, i find that speed, aoe, projectile quantity are huge offenders against player balance. make the monster have more health, make them hit harder, heck give them new attacks even. but if you change the speed, aoe size, or projectile quantity. the game can simply be unbalanced for certain builds.
in POE2 my fav boss is balbala. shes fast and will skewer you in a jiffy if you dont get out of her way. but i’ve mastered her dance. i know how to weave in and out and stab at her when shes vulnerable. thats all fun and games until i get to maps and she gets affected by a speed buff. dodging her attacks become almost impossible. i have NO OPENINGs to take advantage of as she is already firing off her next attack instead of giving me time to chip at her life.
as for aoe, in poe1, the phoenix guardian has a well telegraphed fire nova attack, where he charges up then lets loose a huge nova. normally it is pretty balanced. but give him a speed buff and the attack can happen almost instantly with no time to react. on the other hand, if he’s affected by aoe increases, seeing him charge up his nova is just pain as the nova will hit the entire arena with no place to run.
its simply RUINS balance. i think any inclusion of speed/aoe/projectile quantity is a huge mistake for any game that wants to maintain deliberate combat in a balanced way.
these type of mods need to go for the sanctity of deliberate combat.
i also mentioned regen. regen in general appears fine. but in reality its also a terrible modifier as it has the possibility of creating no win scenarios. for example the bird boss that summons another bird boss. the bird boss by itself can be tough as it has huge attacks so you need to keep moving and sneaking in hits where possible. but once the second boss comes in, unless you have a lot of dps, you will be in a lot of trouble. why? sneaking in hits for 1 boss was hard enough. now you have 2 of them. if your dps is low, finding safe openings to hit them can be a challenge. all the while their HP is regenerating. if they perform long attack loops one after another, you have little to no chance to even sneak in significant hits to offset the regeneration which can end up with them regening back to full life.
that feels bad. you have the time and skill to avoid damage and sneak in hits but it’s all negated when the enemy fully regenerates.
so far i only identified 2 mods which are speed and regen. i dont know if there are any other mods that exist that make the game feel unfair.
the second issue is the boss arenas. not all boss arenas are the same. the worst i’ve ever encountered is the underground cavern south of town. the nearest spawn location is at least 1-2 minutes away from the area so every death becomes increasingly frustrating as it takes so long to get back there.
another issue is the arena is not a regular “circle” arena. there are walls, water and debris. i fought the twins boss (swings a huge stick and has 2 heads) there. it was VERY difficult for me, as the place was cramped up. it was too easy for me to get stuck on some debris near a wall. sometimes i would roll into water. sometimes i would feel so cramped up when the boss laid his purple traps all over the place. lets not forget he has huge ass swings that cover a disgusting amount of area.
that particular arena feels quite unfair. i have not played enough breaches to identify other arenas that has this issue. but this one particular arena stands out to me a huge lot. it is significantly different from other arenas.
beyond that i have no real other issues with breach.
i would suggest that we have a way to reset a breach or manually trigger a breach. if this option is not available, its not too big of a deal for me as i will simply jump realms. it is annoying to do so tho. it can be a currency sink.