Would like to chuck in my opinion as someone who played DAIL/Grimarillion for a long time, have played Zenith specs a fair bit (espec. Terror Knight) and have done some light modification to the specs when creating my own personal modpacks (usually together with 3J’s cataclysm specs).
OVERALL:
Zenith has fallen into an odd place in terms of Gameplay within Grimarillion. The specs used to be the go to for me, but recent work on D3 and GQ specs made them really satisfying and modern, and left Zenith specs feeling a bit clunky. In terms of overall design, I think there is a bit too much power in the raw stats from the mastery bar (Retal in Champion, ADCTH in Necrotic, CDR in Rift especially), that removes so much room for power in the abilities themselves and leaves it feeling a bit irrelevant where you put your actual points.
In addition to this, a lot of the specs have some really fun and unique abilities, but they just sit out on their own with no synergies or transmuters, removing the great feeling of building upon the ability as you progress, or options for customisation when combining specs or different damage profiles. Necrotic has 7 ABILITIES which have no transmutes or synergies, making it feel really bare and underwhelming, only compensated for by the fact that the raw stats available or incredibly overtuned. The Zenith combination abilities look and feel great, and were an awesome idea, but I honestly sorta feel that given that the mod is predominantly used in combination in Grimarillion, that the abilities could be moved into the main tree, maybe some as Exclusive Skills. And on the note of Exclusives, I feel like big exclusives, especially multiple to allow for different playstyles, at the end of the trees are sorely missed in all the Zenith specs and would help a lot with power budgeting.
TERROR KNIGHT:
Terror Knight is a really well designed mastery, it’s thematically awesome and just feels so perfect to play and build around. In my opinion, it just suffers from being too good. Especially in the context of Grimmest in Grimarillion where most people use it, it just has everything. Personally I was consistently tuning it down, as when I played multiplayer and friends used it, they just did everything and made it no fun for everyone else. The bottom bar alone, especially [Suit Up], is just so ridiculously good that it eats up a huge amount of power budget on it’s own. [Soldier of Madness] could probably afford to be an exclusive skill given the +1 to all skills on it, the CDR from Entropic should be brought down significantly. Maybe some of the bottom line bonuses could be moved into [Suit Up], and some or all of the ADCTH could be moved to ER or SoM?
[Engage] could probably be completely removed (Or replaced with the Grip from Necro+TK synergy) and it’s synergies moved elsewhere given the availability of movement abilities external of masteries now, the thematic of a slow moving dreadnought that [Suit Up] implies kinda goes out the window when you add a charge ability. The weapon swing abilities feel AWESOME, although [Carnivorous Slaughter] also feels a bit overtuned on its own.
Other than that, maybe removing more of the Life Leech in favour of other damage sources as it’s a very aged stat, maybe a few transmuters to allow more options for gameplay, or maybe one of the new bladestorm abilities thrown in, and the spec is great.
ELEMENTALIST:
Elementalist is a really cool concept, the idea of being able to control your damage split between the elemental transmuters, turning any other spec combination into Full Fire, full lightning, or just a dead even split, is SUPER cool and feels great. The idea of dumping mana and then refueling is also interesting, although in practice it doesn’t always work out to be particularly effective.
I feel the actual abilities don’t always feel that fun to build around, particularly [Stormbolt], [Stormcaller], [Rupture], and [Sprite], and can feel a little clunky, but that might just be my personal preference.
CHAMPION:
The idea of a pure retaliation juggernaut is awesome, and feels great SOMETIMES. [Battery] always felt a bit lackluster, but the retal->damage stat could be EXACTLY what this ability, and the entire spec in general, needs to feel great.
Again, this spec suffers from a lot of cool abilities just sitting out with no transmuters or synergies, and a lot of them just don’t really make sense to the concept. The mastery bar is also RIDICULOUSLY strong, especially early, making the actual skills/masteries feel really weak in comparison to just pumping the bar. It could also really use some exclusives at the end to make it feel interesting.
I don’t really have specific suggestions beyond that atm (Although I’m playing through as a Champion now so maybe soon!), but I’d love to see maybe some incentive to play a retal character with a big 2h rather than shield, like in the picture?
OUTRIDER:
Again, cool concept, gun and board. Synergies are done well. A lot of cool and interesting stuff here. [Arcane Assault] being a major source of power is really bad imo, it’s an interesting concept, but in practice the gun just gets stuck on shit, can’t get around Line of Sight, and is generally just annoying to play with. I don’t think it really needs to exist, and there’s enough here to make a fun and interesting spec without it. I also think [Barricade] is another ability that sounds interesting, but in reality is just annoying and clunky and should just go. Again, that might just be my preference. Some exclusives, and/or some of the combo masteries put into the main tree, and this could be a great spec.
NECROTIC:
Cool idea, cool damage profile, cool auras. Active abilities feel terrible, sparse, and not really thematic. Leech grenade is just weird, feels like it doesn’t belong. WAY too much power in the mastery bar, feels like I’d be picking this spec just to pick up a few auras/passives and mastery bar stats, which is always a bad sign. Needs a lot more abilities with synergies/transmuters, needs just more in the tree in general, and the rest needs to be toned down a little. I really want to like this spec, it just doesn’t have a lot going for it.
RIFTSTALKER:
Admittedly, have hardly touched this spec, but from my brief exploration within it, it just feels all over the place. None of it flows particularly well or is particularly interesting. Chaos as a damage profile has been left behind and should be moved away from. A lot of room for Aether to be built upon with other damage sets too though. There is probably room for an Aether bladestorm here, though, [Caedra’s Collapse] is a cool concept too. CDR from the mastery bar should definitely go, that is WAY too strong. I don’t want to say too much else on this, though, as I’ve barely played it, and it doesn’t fit my playstyle in general so it could just be me.
On the whole, I do want to say that you did some great work on this mod, it feels great in some places now, and it definitely FELT great in the past, especially in DAIL days. It just needs a bit of work to feel modern now that other specs it’s usually packed with are so fun and competitive, especially with Asylum’s outstanding work on the GQ masteries. I feel like now is the time to bring it up to date, and I’d be happy to help in any way I can if you’re interested.
but updates to existing masteries are on their way!