So I’ve played quite a lot of the beta so far and felt I could form an opinion on what changes I think should be made for release and going forward.
Firstly, on Incursion, the currently available map allows for snipers to hit the first sentry from across the map in safety. They can either do so from their staircase/balcony near the central area, or by walking up the sloped entrance to their tunnel which is even further back next to their sentry. This line of sight really needs changing.
Reyna feels like she needs a buff. She’s very good at being a utility character and saving allies, but she doesn’t do enough healing to be classed as a healer, and doesn’t do enough damage to be classed as a dps’er. When you’ve got Ambra’s that can out damage assassins and still rival Miko’s healing, she feels weak, and a bit lost. Her dome shield feels like it could do with being 7 or 8 seconds, and her damage just needs a boost.
Kelvin’s Sublimate seems very overpowered for a tank. He can take a truckload of damage, and then just get out of jail free, and not just that, but stunning perhaps the whole team in the process. If the movement speed boost was removed, or at least significantly reduced, but keeping the stun and invulnerability, it would be used as more of a stun and less of an escape.
Galilea is ridiculously overpowered in melee combat. She can mince ranged characters twice as fast as assassins can, and that’s not even taking in to consideration her stun for days. This coupled with her damage shield, and her ult for escaping makes her very, very difficult to stop, especially if she has a pocket healer. Her damage needs bringing down some in my opinion.
Kleese’s battle chair boost allows him to jump up the cliff in the area with 2x Thralls on Incursion, allowing him to cheese the first sentry behind everyone’s backs. Doesn’t seem like he should be able to do this.
Attikus. I’m hoping he becomes useful on Capture maps as a defender, as on Incursion and Meltdown he seems useless. He hasn’t got the agility of other melee classes, or the small stature, to get into attack range without being seen or without being pummeled. His one initiate in his leap is weak at best, and the only good thing about it is the stun that it does if it hits an enemy against a wall, but compared to the tanks, his damage is poor and survivability even poorer.
I’m hoping there’s more healing characters, or at least hybrid characters like Kleese coming out in the future, as at the moment, it seems that the team with the healer wins. Only do you get balanced games when both teams have tanks, healers and dpsers and none of them try and cheese the sentries.
Toby, I’d love to comment on, but can’t for obvious reasons!
Some items are a bit broken. A friend of mine got an epic level item that had worse stats than a white item of the same. In particular, Boldurs legendary Rune of the Bear’s tooltips are broken, stating %MAJOR% on the first line, and then saying an increase of 0% damage for +400% seconds. I’m not sure if the item is broken, or just the description.
The game is very enjoyable though, and I’ve placed my pre-order today after 50hrs of gameplay. I feel the game’s deserved my money already never mind full release.
I’m hoping to see more with character customisation. The skins are a bit lacking. The re-colours seem a bit lazy, and much more could be done with them.
Would also be keen on hearing if there are any plans on punishing people who rage quit/leave matches. Will there be any kind of debuff from entering another game for 30 mins/1hr? Will Gearbox look at implementing bans on repeat offenders?
That’s my two penneth anyways. Thanks for making a very enjoyable game thus far.
