Here I’ll go into detail about my opinion on the recent changes so far, whether I agree with them or not, and (at least try to) explain why.
As the Fountain Spirit seemed to be the enemy with the most issues before (and obviously the most important one as well), I’ll just keep the other enemies aside this time
Boss
The latest update appears to have made the boss fight tougher in general. However, I still find some issues in it so let me give detailed feedback on each of its phases:
- Encounter: Short scene and doesn’t appear to have any major problems, so I’ll just continue.
- Stationary 1 (Parametric): Not sure if you changed this one but it seems to be hurting a lot more than it was, so that’s a good one. Despite that, the lack of other threats makes this stage too easy if you stand still and behind (on long range).
- Stationary 2 (Confuse): Already enjoyed this part before, maybe the most engaging part of this whole fight. The high projectile speed, along with the seemingly unpredictable shot pattern, calls for quick reaction times, which turns the whole scene into something quite a lot more fun.
- Stationary 3 (Spikes/Armor break): In spite of being easier than the previous one, I believe this phase will still be somewhat of a challenge to the people who try to kill this boss. With the help of the long range shots and the armor break effect, Fountain Spirit should pose quite a threat here.
- Chasing 1 (Big shots): An improvement for sure. This part itself is nothing out of the ordinary, but right now it feels more like a chasing phase than it did before (Mostly damage changes, it seems?)
- Chasing 2 (Small shots): This one still looks way too easy. Every time the phase showed up I just stood still and never felt in actual danger, even while on extremely weak classes. I’d suggest a pattern/movement change or just straight up increasing the damage here.
Items
Spirit Staff: New changes didn’t make that much of a difference. The weapon was already nifty as it was, and making it more desirable didn’t hurt at all.
Enchantment Orb: After this complete rework, to me it’s probably the most interesting concept we have on an orb so far. With it being really easy to use for the curse and having a low stasis duration, makes up for a great UT for newer Mystic players. It does feel a bit strong, as only hitting the curse effect ends up being extremely easy, but the lack of berserk appears to help balance it. Overall, definitely an improvement to the previous one.
Bugs
- Enchantment orb isn’t granting the enemies stasis immune, I’m sure that’s unintentional.
- Enchantment orb’s tooltip could have some sort of clarification about how it exactly works, there’s no mention of the different way curse and stasis work.
(Edit: After they updated, forgot to add that both of these issues seem to be gone)
Dungeon generation
It will probably be the first thing you notice when entering an Ice Cave. Although the color theme remains unchanged, navigating the dungeon will surely be a new experience. Overall, I believe an improvement was made, and while there’s still a lot to add to the dungeon to make it feel like a late-game challenge, I’ll comment on the changes made so far:
- Spawn point: Not entirely sure how I feel about having different groups converge on the “Leech pad”. In a way, it does promote cooperation as, in general, it should become incredibly faster to clear the enemies, but to me the high player spread caused the way to boss to be a lot quicker than it ought to be. Extending the pathway’s length should fix the issue, assuming that a high enemy variety is maintained.
- Ground: Adding new hazards such as damaging tiles tends to turn the experience quite more enjoyable, as you must be extra careful while fighting the enemies. Therefore, I believe you shouldn’t stop here, because a dungeon like this has to be scarier than a mid-game one, and adding more danger throughout the rooms surely would make players more cautious.
Enemies
Yetis: Despite feeling good to finally get rid of that swarm of mini yetis charging at you, the Big Yeti’s new snowball attack, although slow, can feel a bit too unforgiving, with its 300 damage. Considering how hard this dungeon is supposed to be, I agree that the shots should hurt, but I would still suggest a slight reduction on the damage and travel time.
Bat family: Another one of the great enemy changes. Firstly, we finally got distinguishable enemy projectiles, which was the least Kabam could have given us back then. The small bats are no longer the hassle they used to be, wandering around and charging at high speed while dealing damage. Instead, they surround players with a “minefield” while the parent attacks them. For sure a step in the right direction.
Lizicle: About this one, I can only say that the shot pattern lacks some creativity, and is very easy to predict. Would recommend thinking a bit more on this concept, but not a terrible idea to be honest.
Iceion: Also seems like an addition with great potential, although it’s not as threatening as I believe it should be. While not chasing players, this enemy isn’t aggressive or defensive, it’s just there shooting some slow and weak projectiles that happen to quiet. I would suggest higher damage/faster shots/more shots while on this “idle” phase.
Esben the Unwilling: I believe you only removed the chest and tweaked the invulnerability periods, yet he (<- pun) ends up having a too long of an invulnerable phase. Since he, at the moment, does not have an amazing fight (fairly boring, in fact), the long attacking phases feel unnecessarily long, and would probably not be considered much fun. Bugs: Graveyards don’t have HP bars anymore.
Overall: Some of the enemies are definitely on the right track, so my suggestion is to keep working on them and creating interesting fights. As for the boss, I assume the changes are still in the works, so I’ll wait and see for that matter. The same goes for the untiered drops, as both of them could use a few changes.
Leeching
Arguably one of the most concerning issues the Ice Cave from the live servers has and, from what I have seen, the leeching problem is mostly gone, considering there are only two paths that you need to clear now. However, even though this shouldn’t turn into a huge deal since there are no sub-branches to make this part too tedious, the faster group could just let everyone teleport to the safe spot when they reach it. Not as much of a major issue as it used to be, but still worth considering, in my opinion.
Dagger changes: CDirk and Etherite already seemed fine, but the extra changes don’t make that much of a difference anyway. Either way, making these 2 daggers even closer in DPS, and more different in functionality, may hopefully give players an easier decision to make when unsure whether to use Dirk or Etherite.
Prism changes: Most of the issues I mentioned in my previous post appear to have been resolved.
Poison changes: Also nothing to add here.
And that’s it.