Played the free trial on Steam and was extremely disappointed to be booted out of the game at level 20, unable to log that character again without buying the game. I thought this was play the entire game for free for a few days, not a demo. It took some doing to get the game working because I have not updated my video card driver for several years. Since I'm still on Windows 7 I had to download the fourth driver down the list because the later ones would not install on win 7. I was annoyed at the class selection because it was Diablo 3 all over again; where's my paladin? Why did some classes return and others did not? At this point I think they should have included every single class in the series, created all new classes, or made some kind of classless system like Path of Exile. I was also very annoyed with the always online bullshit, and how often the game crashed. I lowered the graphics to the minimum, to the point where it looked like playing Diablo 2 on a CRT, which lessened the crashes a somewhat.
I started with Valcaria the necromancer. Several things annoyed me during the beginning: my basic weapon attack was permanently replaced by my first skill. What if I want to do physical damage and take all shadow spells? Are there even enemies immune to certain damage types at end game? The camera zoom was too far in, alt did not highlight breakable objects, and the enemy numbers and difficulty were not high enough on tier 2. I miss the old days of Diablo 2 when I would play multiplayer mode solo and set the difficulty for 8 players. Even Diablo 3 had better difficulty. Every battle should be a life or death struggle balanced on a razor's edge. Why even have any encounters that would not even make a character break a sweat? The difficulty was much better for world events and dungeons; the entire game should be intense fights like that. It was quite hard though when I first got out of the prologue because I did not understand how damage scaled. I kept using a low level 2 handed scythe with +20 intelligence. Necromancers are casters so weapon damage should be irrelevant right? I discovered the truth when I found a much better 2 handed sword with +10% skill damage while testing it out to see if the int bonus or damage bonus was better; the boost to my dps was like 200 to 300%. There were also no attribute points on level up, but that was fine. There were plenty of other build choices to make, and I did very much enjoy those; making my own judgments while also brainstorming all the other possibilities. I especially liked how easy they were to change, so I could try out different builds and even adjust on the fly.
The book of the dead allowed me to choose from 3 different types of skeleton warriors and mages. I am very much into being the minion master but I did appreciate the option to forego the minions altogether for personal buffs. I focused on damage with skirmishers and shadow mages. I did not try out reapers, I assume they are more area damage. I also did not try out the tanks or other elements for mages. Switching to more defensive support minions with slows, stuns etc, would be useful in some situations. Most of the time the enemies did not directly attack me, so I would hang back playing the commander. Other times I could kite while my minions did damage. There were 2 times where the difficulty was too much, both inside dungeons. 1 was an end boss spider that kept summoning minions. It was a minion master vs minion master battle that dragged on forever, though was not much of an actual threat. I believe the main challenge for this fight was the aforementioned low level weapon. Later I had my first and only death to the butcher, because he completely ignored my minions to bee line for me, and could move faster than us. I had the complete wrong build for that; maybe some more slows and stuns would have allowed me to win, since I did get him down to 50%. I liked the layout of the skill tree, with its variety of build choices, either/or boosts for each skill, and the cheap cost to respec. I went with decompose, a hit scanning channeled damage over time that could create extra corpses. I decided to focus my points to specialize in the few skills rather than spreading them thin, so I went for the 10% damage boost for myself and minions rather than the 50% slow. For my second skill I chose blight, an area effect damage over time with some initial damage. I did not like how it was a projectile that put down the area damage upon hitting something rather than just putting it where I clicked. Again I chose the damage boost for myself and minions over the chance to root. I put the rest of my points into passives for the skeletons and had not decided on the third skill yet. I liked how raise skeleton included both warriors and mages in the same skill slot, and I absolutely loved the mechanic of summoning a temporary skeletal priest to buff the minions when using that skill with full capacity. It was a great way to use excess corpses. No idea what other skills I would invest in, though I might switch to blood skills to heal minions; will have to see how it goes at higher levels.
Then I made Crystallycea the sorceress and did not like the hairstyles. I settled on a pony tail but blonde was not nearly blonde enough. I decided to be frost mage and started with ice bolt. It was a very good spell, fast and accurate with good range. I liked the mechanic of repeated chills eventually freezing enemies solid, and the upgrade to make ice bolts against frozen enemies do area damage. I chose the upgrade for vulnerability rather than mana. The next spell I tried was frozen orb for its area damage, but I did not like it due to lack of range. I refunded it and got ice shards instead, which was like a machine gun of ice. It did bonus damage against frozen solid enemies and I chose the upgrade that allowed that bonus to apply anytime I had a barrier. This spell synergized very well with ice armor and frost nova. I also picked up teleport leaving only one free slot. It was a fun combat loop; snipe with frostbolts, pop barrier to unload ice shards for massive damage, teleport and dodge away to create range and allow mana to regen, snipe again then use frost nova to freeze enemies solid when they closed in, then unload ice shards again. The shards also ricocheted for area damage against frozen targets. I found an amulet that gave plus one to all conjuration skills. Hydra was the best, which I started using at the beginning of fights by popping it down at the edge of the screen. Cold blades and lightning spear were not as good because they had to travel from me to the enemy. But I think that final skill shot should be for the ultimate ice spell. Stupid limited skill slots. Not sure if I would keep teleport, a pet, or get blizzard. I could see making a fire mage, lighting mage, tri elemental mage, summoner, and possibly others.
Next I made Aevariel the rogue as an archer and skipped the campaign for him and the following 2 characters just to get a different experience. I liked how he had equipment slots for both bow and melee weapons, but I didn't quite understand how the stats on the blades affected archery; I chose blades with bonuses like +dex over the actual weapon damage thinking they would benefit archery more. I tried out both powerful shot and heart seeker early on. The auto aim on the seeker was not quite my style for a point and click shooter but it was handy to shoot around corners, and around enemies chasing me to hit certain valuable targets. Ultimately I decided to refund that and focus on powerful shot, which when given the knockback bonus functioned like a sniper rifle and shotgun in one. Next I chose barrage which fired a spread of shorter range shots. I chose that to help with multiple targets and upgraded it to ricochet on vulnerable targets, which synergized well with the vulnerability on powerful shot. Then I got caltrops to help with creating range. It was a good area effect slow that also created distance, but I had a tendency to use it while running away and end up jumping straight into the enemies. There was also a lack of animation cancelling so sometimes when I tried to use it while shooting I hit the button twice and ended up doing two back-to-back caltrops. Then I found an item that gave me a point in shadow step, which caused me to teleport to an enemy for a melee strike, then a short movement speed boost. It actually worked very well with an archer build when used against a distant ranged attacker, so I might actually take it for real. He died a couple of times and I found myself not using energy very often, largely due to how I only used barraged at close range when I was meant to be a long range sniper. So I refunded barrage and got penetrating shot instead, which was much better for the sniper play style. I choose the slow upgrade for penetrating shot, and ice upgrade for caltrops, both of which helped a lot for keeping enemies away. This build lacked area effect damage so the next skill I chose was poison trap. I tried out ice imbuement but did not like it that much; it was redundant with the slow on penetrating shot and chill on caltrops anyway. I found an item with +1 to shadow imbuement and found that to be a great source of area damage. I think in the future I would drop poison trap, choose the vulnerability upgrade for shadow imbuement, get clone as the ultimate, precision as ultimate passive and then spend the rest of points on passive stuff; stutter step, concussive, exploit, weapon mastery, precision imbuement, frigid finesse, and last point in malice. I could see making a separate pure melee character.
Xalveris the barbarian was next and I knew I wanted to be a dual wielding frenzy build, just like in Diablo 2. I was a little shocked to see just how many weapons the barbarian could equip at once, though it was an interesting mechanic. I went with frenzy for the damage reduction, then double swing with vulnerability upgrade for my big hit. It was fun, but this character died more times that every other character combined. He even died before I unlocked the defensive skills, largely because of those damn giant goat men with their very high damage attack that also stunned. I got iron skin with the healing upgrade, and challenging shout with thorns. I needed both of those to stay alive; I would start with the shout then wait until low on health to use iron skin. Then I got charge for much needed mobility, investing in the cooldown reduction. He died far less often with those abilities, and killed faster than the previous characters. I think for the future he would get call of the ancients for ultimate, and unbridled rage as ultimate passive, then spend the rest on passives to focus on tanking; duelist, tempered fury, invigorating fury, imposing presence, martial vigor, pit fighter, and 1 in thick skin. I could see playing a different character that focused on 2h weapons.
The last character I played was Valcarius the druid. He actually died at low level because I was trying out all the different basic skills without spending any more points, so he was underpowered. I did not really have a clear build idea for him other than be tanky. I settled on storm strike with vulnerability upgrade because it had damage reduction. The chance to immobilize enemies and hit multiple targets came in handy. I also considered maul for hitting multiple targets and fortifying health. The wind and earth magics were cool ranged options and I would definitely make different character(s) as a ranged mage type. Next I chose pulverize with the damage reduction upgrade, earthen bulwark with fortify upgrade, and debilitating roar with healing upgrade, so I was in and out of bear form all the time. I tried out all the pet skills and liked raven the best; it did passive damage every now and then like the Diablo 2 thunder storm spell, and could be used to place a much needed area damage over time wherever I wanted. The wolves were more single target damage but had health bars and thus could be killed, while the plant had immobilize and would be better for a ranged character. I also tried out the next tier of spells; trample was like the barbarian’s charge and gave much needed mobility, though that was not as much needed with the raven. Hurricane was more like a point blank area damage over time that was attached to the character, which was good for a melee build, while boulder hilariously slammed into a target and took it away from me. I was getting boulder for free from an item so I used that to push annoying enemies out of the fight and get some range. In the future I would get grizzly rage for ultimate, ursine strength for ultimate passive, though I have no idea which skill I would take for the final slot between ravens, trample and boulder. Trample gives fortify so it might be the most tanky option. Passive would focus on tanking: quick shift, heightened senses, natural fortitude, ancestral fortitude, vigilance, 1 point in predatory instinct, 3 in iron fur.
It is difficult to judge the game from only low level play. I did enjoy the world, main story, side quests and moment to moment gameplay, though I would prefer a singleplayer mode where enemies did not respawn, did not scale, and events and dungeons could only be done once. The game has way too much MMO vibe when I just want to play offline by myself. The build and combat mechanics were excellent fun but I am dubious how much I would want to play a character past max level. I did like how every character benefited at least somewhat from every attribute, like strength giving armor. Though there should be attribute requirements for better base item types. The crashes were a problem and sometimes I could not skip dialogue and cutscenes. I did not like the base loot items because they did not seem to be power scaled like in Diablo 1 and 2; for example, finding a shortsword and a broadsword in the same area when the broadsword should have higher base stats. Though I have not seen enough of the game and items to see how that will pan out. Will probably get the game years into the future when it is cheap just because I love the genre so much, despite how much I hate the mandatory online.
