Combat mechanics (PvE)

[bmc85uk]

Ok so I'll dive straight in, I think it's too fast paced.

Knockback
I think that having enemies thrown up to 30/40 metres in all directions (mainly by mages) is far too excessive, most of my time is spent running around the outside of groups 'shepherding' enemies back into the middle, rather than having a nice straight forward fight with the occasional bit of movement.

Having said that it's my only means of escape from a rubber-banding melée deathtrap.

I recently started a warrior and spend most of my time running after enemies and missing with skill use because they're skidding away at 30mph.

In general
I find combat (from the point of view of a pure enchantress) a frantic button bashing affair, spamming pretty much everything (including potions) while trying to monitor friendly health and stay in heal/nuke range of what looks to me like a shoal of fish dodging a load of exploding sharks.

[v5point0]

Once you become a lil mature with this game, you prefer playing solo or with a few people who are skilled and know what they are doing. I use to have lots of fun with PUG back when people played default builds. Now everyone wants to be a hero so if you are playing a standard Warrior you are not going to have a good experience.

Change the sword to a bow, and you will see a difference.

[bmc85uk]

Not quite my point, but there you have it, pure builds - obsolete

While I may not be a veteran of this game I play a lot of RPGs and MMOs, and the knockback makes melée very difficult in this game.

It shouldn't be a case of 'choose a different build'

Every build should work.

[v5point0]

I guess at the end of the day its a matter of preference if you like fighting up close or firing away from a distance. I have played many RPGs too and of course you can't expect the same amount of fluidity that other more complex titles may hold against this one, nevertheless I still dream for the day that my Bear could wield a pair of Blades of Chaos and fight like Kratos from God of War.

If you are going to do damage up close with the other classes around you doing the same, I guess you are going to just deal with it. Its just how each class is built, each have their own play style even though if they become hybrids. An Archer will always kite, if he doesn't he will die, Enchantress will nuke, run and try to survive. You may miss a few kills because of them and you may also be saved from certain death by them.

[bmc85uk]

I agree, every build plays differently, this is also the case in other MMOs, the difference is they gel together because:

1-The tank can hold aggro by means other than DPS
2-The melée fighters aren't forced to constantly chase enemies
3-The healer is rarely given the ability to do such catastrophic spike damage and attract so much attention (skill trees would combat this)

[Druc]

Knockback+Becon=Baddie right in front of you again...use it well

I actully don't mind a bit of running around, it builds tactics for taking out certain mobs or bosses. Yes it's kind of annoying when a mages fireblast does knock a boss back four screens (which then in turn has them run back to their start position and re-heal) but as v5 mentioned there is a way around that as well. Once you get playing with a skilled group of people that are using their skills wisely and not spamming whatever they can whenever they can it changes the dynamic completely and it's not a frantic race in herding your kill.

[bmc85uk]

Ok, point taken, it is a workable system with skilled players, that said, shouldn't we be making the game more enticing and less frustrating for the casual community?

I still feel that the knockback on mage attacks is a little extreme though, it's a needed escape method for builds that kite, but if it was a skill of its own and therefore an optional play mechanic, a mage could blast out the DPS and cause less havoc, the area of the nuke could be reduced to balance how much use it would gain from the loss of knockback.

However with suggested changes such as transitive targeting (http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?3709-Transitive-targeting) group play become easier to manage.