So… lots of hours logged in here. Kickstarter, alpha, beta, etc. and keep in mind this post is from the perspective of someone who exclusively plays hardcore.
One thing that seems to have diminished over time with each patch is the ability to be creative, eccentric, or outlandish with builds. More and more this is becoming a game where your hand is held as you navigate Cairn. Now I understand some people like their hand held. These are the ones who want to buy Legos that only go together one way who are more or less guaranteed that they will end up with what’s on the cover of the Lego box. Then there are those who buy Lego’s in bulk in order to build…whatever their imaginations can dream up… and I feel that each patch brings more lock downs on the latter group in regards to Grim Dawn creativity…and so much so these days that I look at builds on the forum and it’s just people reposting the same builds over and over.
There was a day when legendary items were… legendary. Now I feel they should be renamed to necessary items. (after level 50 I pretty much sell anything that’s not legendary…no point) And to prefix legendary with “Mythical”… over sells them. I feel Crate has made their perfect mold of gear that keeps you from having great wombo combos that they didn’t plan for you first. I remember when breakable walls weren’t highlighted and you went around swinging at everything feeling rewarded when you found something cool. Now we’re forced up an escalator of gear with no choice but to arrive at Crate’s intended destination with each build. I about shat myself a bit when I saw them allow +3 to all skills on the mythical silverbolt (up from the previous +2). I thought to myself, there’s the Crate I remember, let them back out! Oddly Crate’s creativity is at the cost of players creativity. As Crate implements how they want builds to go it’s at the cost of the freedom for players to be able to.
I would like to back the argument that it’s ok that not every build succeed and it’s ok that some combo’s are a bit overpowered. Usually when nerfs like this are in effect it’s to balance multiplayer games, specifically those where one player is vs another, and while I appreciate Crate’s diligence in their updates, is there really any need to tear the cape off of superman? There’s no monetary gain for Crate when we grind, no pay to win, so let us be… legendary! What’s the downside? By the time people get enough gear to start these crazy combos they’ve already logged plenty of hours.
