Hello I’m a games artist and independent developer for what little weight that might add to my observations.
I’ve tried out the beta and all things considered i’m quite endeared to the game, however while I think the game is good I feel like a few things are holding it back from being truly great.
I’ve tried to keep my observations and suggestions within the reasonable scope of what development time you have left, so I hope you read!
Okay, my first concern is with combat, the system is close to feeling great but suffers a little from a crisis of identity. It’s caught between its roots as a more tradition MMORPG and it’s ambitions to be an Action RPG.
Where this issue more apparent to me is in the boss battles. Boss reaction times are are very slow, bosses track very poorly and it feels absolutely silly to watch them attack a space you occupied 8 - 10 seconds ago. Maybe this gets more interesting at higher levels but i was expecting more of a challenge then just circling around to the bosses butt. And occasionally dodging aoe, mobs and traps, which for the most part and fairly easy to avoid. The only times i have died to bosses have been when I’ve gotten sloppy in a fight, which is usually a result of being a little bored.
I also think there is some issues with the jumping hit boxes. Jumping over a bosses spinning ray attack often still lead to damage and this was quite frustrating. Hopefully this isn’t a netcode issue.
If possible I would suggest making the bosses reaction time and tracking a bit faster, it feels almost intentionally slow, and I can’t tell for what purpose. To a lesser degree this is an issue with all mobs. Melee mobs are extremely easy to kite, while archer mobs are almost undodgeable. Essentially I’m hoping that movement will take a more vital role in combat both through being more relevant in melee and boss encounters and more useful against archer mobs.
A short dash, maybe scaling with DEX, would go along way to making the combat feel more reactive, but this might be pushing scope a little.
Essentially you have all the mechanics in place to make this work, the timing just needs to be adjusted.
Hopefully that helped, I’ll try to do another post on the class system if I find time.