Resistances maxing unbalance
Some resistances are pretty easy to max and some others are a bit more challenging. Now nearly everything in end game provides some elemental resistances and I can’t remember the last time I had a character level 50+ who couldn’t reach at least 65% in fire/cold/lightning. But in some other area, maxing the resistances is a different story.
How can I resist to the Impaired Aim effect? Sure, it is not a damage effect, it does not seem to be something that could directly and seriously threaten my character, but it is an effect hampering my ability to play all the same, up to the point where his DPS can drop by 50% or maybe even to 75%. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but why isn’t there anything in the whole game that would give me some resistance against that effect? What am I supposed to do with my ranged char when it is under such effect and firing randomly everywhere in the room but on the one place where I am telling him to do? What am I supposed to think of my ranged character, on which I put some effort after some time, worked on his offense, attack speed, damage, etc, everything, and is now reaching end game, doing good so far, having survived so much, doing epic stuff, but then something somewhere is showing up out of the blue, doing Impaired Aim on him, and all his damages, all his critical hits, all his abilities related with his weapon and main attack, everything is just down the drain just because it is now affected by something on which I have no defense whatsoever and reduce my ability to do damage up to the point where my only option is to temporarily retreat?
Yeah, it is exactly as it sounds: it is just bad.
The stun resistance is another one here where the whole game about getting as tanky as possible clearly shows its limit. Unless one go soldier and/or shield, the stun resistance is a seriously challenging one to max. And that’s not even the whole problem: someone corrects me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that this is one the only resistances in the whole game that cannot be extended above 80%. Why getting the stun res above 80%? Because I need my character to be fully mobile and active. Sure, most stun effects are usually a matter of some tenth of a second, they are no big threat. But what about the long ones, and especially those of those guys who can stun you good and also hit you bad? What about those done by those lightning bolts from those skeleton uniques or by Valdaran? Even when one manages to get his stun resistance around 40-50%, the stun effect is sometimes long enough to get you into a bad situation, and if you’re really out of luck, you can get stun again, and to finally have your character killed without much option to do anything. Just because you just can’t improve that damn stun resistance.
Is this supposed to be the definition of a challenge? Is this supposed to be the definition of fun?
There is that recurring feeling that I sometimes get in the end of the game, unless I have managed to make a really good build, where one is reaching level 90+, entering the final stages in Fort Ikon, the rifts etc, that either one goes soldier/shield or he dies, because he just can’t withstand all the threat that he is going to have to face in end game, or either one goes soldier/shield and doesn’t kill anything (I mean in a reasonable amount of time), because he won’t be able to build up all the firepower and abilities necessary to deal with the population of the end game. I believe that this feeling is among other things related with that issue with the stun resistance.
The soldier is the raw survivor class, I understand that, and I value his strengths, but I don’t think that he is supposed to have such a monopoly on such a universal trouble as the stun effect is.
If it was possible to dodge most attacks doing that effect, it wouldn’t be much of a problem, but the game is so messy sometimes that the player just can’t control anything, and if his character is starting to also not respond anymore, this can get serious pretty quickly.
My suggestion:
Oak Skin: +1% stun resistance / level
Harbinger of Souls: +1% stun resistance / level
(I would have included in this list the Demo’s Blast shield, but this is such a useless skill that I won’t even mention it…)
1-3 new component(s) (mostly for helms I guess) which feature some stun resistance
A side quest which special reward would be a permanent +5% stun res for instance
A devotion dedicated to all those shitty resistances like stun, chaos, impaired aim.
The end of some temporary effects/consumables
I would greatly appreciate if some temporary effects I can get for my character, and especially those of the Royal Jelly Essence (+% HP) combined with the resistance potions, get some visual and/or audio warning when it is about to end and very especially when it does end. It really is a frustrating experience when I am trying to complete some challenging quest (understand for instance going through all the rifts with a low HP char on which I just can’t get his chaos res over 60%) and I find out that why my health bar is suddenly acting like a crazy yoyo and I am about to die now nearly every single second from any attack from even shitty mobs I couldn’t care less 20 seconds earlier, is that just because my very lovely potions have just ended up their nice effects and have very carefully not let me know. Not cool. Please setup some sort of puff bubble or vapor going up around the character or something like that when the resistance potions wear off. Some potions are critical in end game.
Challenging enemies versus ridiculously overpowered enemies
It is a challenge in such game to create a population of mobs and bosses challenging enough to provide that right balance of satisfaction of accomplishment after some hard work and good strategy, yet not too easy to feel boring and childish, and also not too hard to feel impossible and pointless. There is one aspect of that challenge that is interestingly not developed enough in this game at the moment, this is what I would call the arcane effect. The arcane effect is what I understand is done by those arcane unique monsters, which powers is to disable one’s auras and other toggle abilities. This is sloppy at the moment, first, because when those monsters do such attack, all the auras/abilities are disabled, and also second because not many monsters in end game have access to such ability.
I strongly believe that granting an arcane effect with a lesser power but to a bigger population of bosses and unique monsters in the ultimate difficulty would make the game more challenging the right way, ie without making it look like you deal with ridiculously overpowered monsters. If this is possible to setup an ability that randomly remove one toggle ability on its target, this would create a challenge on a different level than the usual DPS vs HP one, hence more attention required, hence more stimulation. All builds in end game exist through the toggle abilities. No one as far as I know can fully complete the game with a 100% raw build (with nothing to toggle on/drink/summon etc), all the auras and other abilities that grant damage bonuses, resistance bonuses etc are just mandatory soon or later. Now if some critical enemies could just disable one of them, just dealing his usual DPS, nothing more, this would push the players in ultimate to regularly check their abilities. The engine has the function, but the game does not seem to use it to its full potential.
The overpowered effect of stacking resistance reduction
We have recently played a team based on resistance reduction, and I am under the impression that the game engine is just not ready for the effect of many resistance reductions applied together. They appear to all stack one over each other without any kind of balance.
The team was:
me: arcanist+occultist, doing flash freeze+curse of frailty+necrosis+Solael’s Flame+Eldrich fire+Black Mark
my ally: shaman-inquisitor, doing aura of censure+word of pain
The monsters just couldn’t stand a chance. It was like a bunch of thugs rushing and trashing a pots shop with baseball bats. They were all sitting ducks exploding one after another with no chance of doing anything, mobs, uniques, bosses, all alike. This was our most efficient team ever. Even the Nemesis and the Mad Queen were done within seconds. I think that the game is already more or less flawed when the resistance reduction are applied on a single basis (the thermite mine or the Eldritch fire providing resistance reduction to their own damages), but that flaw is then completely out of proportion when multiple resistance reductions are applied together. My character was dedicated to the chaos ray (Tainted Power), but with all the effects of the game used into lowering that resistance (chaos), there just appears to be nothing in the whole game but the celestials that can then withstand the crazy level of power that such combination creates.
I value the fact that to have to use a right combination of skills is supposed to create a more or less higher level of power than just using those skills separately, but seriously, the resistance reductions are too strong when they stack over each other. There either should be a reduction to the additional reductions, or some monsters should have a resistance to the resistance reduction. But at the moment, this just feels wrong: you just have to flash freeze/curse of frailty/necrosis/solael’s flame something, and then fire at it the eather’s ray with tainted power+Eldritch fire+the effects of the Black Flame set with the Ritual Circle and it is done in a matter of seconds, regardless if this is a boss or a nemesis. My ally was even doing this worse with Word of Pain+Aura of Censure: he was like a threat magnet and the monsters couldn’t unstick from him which was providing me all the time and security required to clear the place.