Intro:
As a huge fan of ARPGs and a game developer myself, I truly appreciate what No Rest for the Wicked is trying to accomplish. I’m currently working on a game that draws some inspiration from it, but with my own unique spin. While I’m not the type of player who shies away from a challenge, I do believe there are certain aspects of the game that could use some fine-tuning. I hope my insights and suggestions help the dev team refine the experience and bring the game closer to its full potential.
Combat Feedback – Problems & Suggestions
1. Enemy Aggression & Pressure
Problem:
Enemies are overly aggressive and fast, often spamming abilities with little downtime. Openings for player attacks are extremely brief, requiring high stamina to safely engage.
Additionally, dodge i-frames feel very limited, or enemy attack active frames are overly punishing — making it hard to evade even with good timing.
Suggestions:
- Slightly reduce enemy aggression and ability spam to create more breathing room.
- Extend dodge i-frames or reduce enemy active frames to make dodging more reliable.
- Widen the punishment window after enemy attacks.
2. Relentless Attack Tracking
Problem:
Enemies track the player too perfectly, making dodging very difficult. This is especially noticeable with heavy spear throws, which are nearly unavoidable at close range.
Suggestion:
- Disable or reduce tracking during certain attack animations or on animation startup to allow for more skill-based dodging.
3. Backstabbing is Ineffective
Problem:
Backstabbing is extremely difficult to perform, even on staggered enemies. Many gear enchantments rely on it, making them nearly useless now.
Suggestions:
- Make backstabs easier to trigger with a more generous window or clearer feedback.
- Introduce a Backstab Modifier stat on gear, similar to Dark Souls, which influences backstab damage.
- Some weapons can specialize in backstabbing, while others are less suited but still viable.
- This would also give backstab-related enchantments more purpose and build diversity.
4. Staggering Feels Pointless
Problem:
Enemies are often nearly dead by the time they stagger. With backstabs so limited, staggering offers little reward. Gear that boosts stagger feels ineffective.
Suggestions:
- Add more staggering-specific moves or clearly mark which attacks contribute more to stagger buildup.
- Increase the impact or reward from staggering (e.g., a short damage multiplier window).
- Consider reducing the investment cost to build around stagger, making it more accessible.
5. Combat Feels Restrictive / One-Meta Focus
Problem:
With backstabbing and stagger-focused play weakened, players are pushed toward stacking Focus for burst damage. This narrows viable playstyles.
Suggestion:
- Improve the viability of alternate builds (backstab, stagger, bleed, etc.) to support diverse playstyles rather than funneling everyone into focus.
Loot Feedback
Loot in No Rest for the Wicked is interesting but lacks depth. Most enchantments focus on basic stats like health, focus, and stamina, offering small improvements rather than truly changing playstyles. Runes provide more engaging effects, while enchantments often feel tame and are only impactful when stacked heavily, which can make much of your gear feel like deadweight until you’ve invested in specific bonuses.
Enchantments
Enchantments like movement speed and poise defense work well, but others—such as gaining focus on staggering an enemy—feel underwhelming. A rebalancing and adding more specific, impactful enchantments would encourage players to experiment with different builds. For example, an enchantment like Fire Affinity (+15-33% fire damage) would make sense for fire-focused builds but be useless for others, rewarding specialization.
Cursed Items
Cursed items should not just have random bonuses. They need specific, impactful effects with a significant cost. For example:
- Stone Gazed Pig Sticker: +100-150% weapon durability, -50% weapon damage. While broken, it ignores broken conditions and attacks shoot shards dealing 30% more damage.
- Nail-Laden Club of Wrath: Can only perform charge attacks at the cost of 3-5% health, but charge attacks cause explosions dealing 30-60 fire damage.
These items should provide a powerful mechanic but at a significant cost, offering a true risk/reward system for players.
Celestial Gear
Celestial Gear would be rare and provide powerful, interesting effects that enhance combat without the downside of cursed items. Here are a couple of examples:
- Preacher’s Rags of the All Watchful (Armor): Illuminates an area, building stagger on enemies within it.
- Midas Touched Tanth Captain Gloves (Gloves): Enemies have a 1-5% chance to drop a gold coin upon death.
This type of gear could add a new layer of excitement and provide powerful, risk-free effects to diversify gameplay.
In conclusion, loot and enchantments need more variety, meaningful impact, and risk/reward mechanics to encourage diverse builds and strategies.
Conclusion
I’m still getting through the new patch, but I already see some signs of areas that need improvement. I believe the developers mentioned something about wanting to change loot in the future, but I figured I’d jump ahead and share some of my thoughts now. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope my feedback helps the dev team in refining the game!