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Let me start off by saying that in my eyes, Tyranny did to PoE's combat what Dragon Age II did to Dragon Age I's combat: made it much faster, removed the clutter and annoying mechanics, removed the silly rules that made combat not fun (hello PoE Confusion, you will not be missed!) and generally made it a lot more fun.
I have finished the game once on hard, and am very hyped to play it again on PotD. I won't go into specifics too much on balance, since that can be easily solved by future patches. I'll address what bothered me most, and that is the overall design.
Let's start with what I liked: how the level up system works, and the new stat and talent system. The training system as well, although it's a bit of a chore if you want to min-max (which I felt I needed to do as a Mage, otherwise I wouldn't be getting enough Lore, even though I'd be spamming spells every fight). Overall levelling your character feels good, a lot better than in PoE. There still are some trap talents (some of which, annoyingly, you get my default) which are garbage, but there are a lot less of them than in PoE! To name some examples, Charged Blast and Cone of Magic (awful damage compared to spells, awful damage type, waste of time to cast when you could be gaining Lore by casting something a lot more powerful)...
By biggest complaint is with the talent trees themselves. The player character (you know, the only one who can't use any abilities on his own because there is no AI option for it...) has by far the most boring talent tree in the game. Every single companion has a unique, fun playstyle. Comparing Kill-in-Shadow's talent trees to the player's is just unfair. Every single one of her abilities has an OOMPH feeling to it, she dashes all over the battlefield, knocks enemies up and down, sunders armor, bashes heads and actually feels like a rampaging beast. Her animations and talents are a big part of why she feels great to play, and so is her unique pounce talent that only works from stealth. Compare the pounce to the bland Weakness you get from your stealth attacks as a Mage... yeah. Even Landry has a lot more going for him than the PC - a talent that affects the story progression (even in such a minor way, for now), the feeling that you're always building on that Quill of his with unique talents, and of course, the feeling of being a proper, well equipped healer, which the PC cannot at all aspire to (why, btw?). Not to mention Sirin and Verse, which are a great improvement on PoE's bard and an amazing dual wielding warrior... both with unique talent trees that make them feel a lot stronger with every talent tier you gain.
It's not that the PC choices are necessarily bad but they're just... bland. Devoid of life. The magic final tier is an improvement on a very situational skill for a traditional mage, between all the taunts available in the game, I had to go out of my way to ever get my mage in a position where he had more than 1 enemy around him. There are some fun ones... can't really go wrong with a rain of arrows or a flying kick, can you? But I really wished for something fun for 2h wielders as well.
A big part of my disappointment comes from the animations. The PC skill animations simply don't look as good as the companion animations (except for unarmed or bows), especially Greatsword animations. Sundering, Cleave, etc all have these very slow animations... a very classic, soldier ish, disciplined strike. Where's my barbarian at? Comparing these with Verse's animations or even the PC monk's skills which are fast and put everything on fire constantly... Speaking of which, things should be put on fire more by talents and less by items! It's nice to know you're building towards something fun, as opposed to discovering an item in the game that makes you say "well, at least NOW it looks cool*... God forbid you'll have to say goodbye to that item at some point!
As a Mage, once I got past 100 lore and made myself some really powerful spells, I could just breeze through the game, and nothing really improved my performance... since I was so strong already. Within 3 spells, I'd have lots of targets frozen, on fire, stunned and bleeding. Most of the times I didn't even bother with the TONS of reputation skills that I had, because by the time I went through the most powerful combos and Artifact skills, the fight was over.
What I really wish I could see, was one (or more) of your most used skills becoming empowered (in a similar fashion to the Archons). As the story progresses, we could have perhaps unlocked a new (and much more fun) talent tree, based on the talent trees that we have spent most points in (or even better, give us a choice between a subclass and empowering one defining talent or ability). As a mage, I have to say that I felt like a God the whole game. I think that having no Mana to manage was a bit of a mistake. If anything, being able to spam spells at no cost would be a thing you'd get at the end of the game, after enduring many hardships. As a Greatsword user, this moment of glory never game. You're always slow and boring, you just happen to do high damage and stun things. And you can beat up all the Archons if you want, but you'll still be afraid to get close to a Malice.
Also, wounds. Wounds are better than in PoE generally, but I'm not that happy that the only reliable way to remove them is resting. I wish there were talents such as First Aid that would allow you to remove wounds out of combat, as Per Rest skill (something that the PC or Lantry could have). 2 per rest should be enough, I think. I just doesn't feel right to camp in the middle of a storm, or while the enemy boss is just a doorway away.
I have finished the game once on hard, and am very hyped to play it again on PotD. I won't go into specifics too much on balance, since that can be easily solved by future patches. I'll address what bothered me most, and that is the overall design.
Let's start with what I liked: how the level up system works, and the new stat and talent system. The training system as well, although it's a bit of a chore if you want to min-max (which I felt I needed to do as a Mage, otherwise I wouldn't be getting enough Lore, even though I'd be spamming spells every fight). Overall levelling your character feels good, a lot better than in PoE. There still are some trap talents (some of which, annoyingly, you get my default) which are garbage, but there are a lot less of them than in PoE! To name some examples, Charged Blast and Cone of Magic (awful damage compared to spells, awful damage type, waste of time to cast when you could be gaining Lore by casting something a lot more powerful)...
By biggest complaint is with the talent trees themselves. The player character (you know, the only one who can't use any abilities on his own because there is no AI option for it...) has by far the most boring talent tree in the game. Every single companion has a unique, fun playstyle. Comparing Kill-in-Shadow's talent trees to the player's is just unfair. Every single one of her abilities has an OOMPH feeling to it, she dashes all over the battlefield, knocks enemies up and down, sunders armor, bashes heads and actually feels like a rampaging beast. Her animations and talents are a big part of why she feels great to play, and so is her unique pounce talent that only works from stealth. Compare the pounce to the bland Weakness you get from your stealth attacks as a Mage... yeah. Even Landry has a lot more going for him than the PC - a talent that affects the story progression (even in such a minor way, for now), the feeling that you're always building on that Quill of his with unique talents, and of course, the feeling of being a proper, well equipped healer, which the PC cannot at all aspire to (why, btw?). Not to mention Sirin and Verse, which are a great improvement on PoE's bard and an amazing dual wielding warrior... both with unique talent trees that make them feel a lot stronger with every talent tier you gain.
It's not that the PC choices are necessarily bad but they're just... bland. Devoid of life. The magic final tier is an improvement on a very situational skill for a traditional mage, between all the taunts available in the game, I had to go out of my way to ever get my mage in a position where he had more than 1 enemy around him. There are some fun ones... can't really go wrong with a rain of arrows or a flying kick, can you? But I really wished for something fun for 2h wielders as well.
A big part of my disappointment comes from the animations. The PC skill animations simply don't look as good as the companion animations (except for unarmed or bows), especially Greatsword animations. Sundering, Cleave, etc all have these very slow animations... a very classic, soldier ish, disciplined strike. Where's my barbarian at? Comparing these with Verse's animations or even the PC monk's skills which are fast and put everything on fire constantly... Speaking of which, things should be put on fire more by talents and less by items! It's nice to know you're building towards something fun, as opposed to discovering an item in the game that makes you say "well, at least NOW it looks cool*... God forbid you'll have to say goodbye to that item at some point!
As a Mage, once I got past 100 lore and made myself some really powerful spells, I could just breeze through the game, and nothing really improved my performance... since I was so strong already. Within 3 spells, I'd have lots of targets frozen, on fire, stunned and bleeding. Most of the times I didn't even bother with the TONS of reputation skills that I had, because by the time I went through the most powerful combos and Artifact skills, the fight was over.
What I really wish I could see, was one (or more) of your most used skills becoming empowered (in a similar fashion to the Archons). As the story progresses, we could have perhaps unlocked a new (and much more fun) talent tree, based on the talent trees that we have spent most points in (or even better, give us a choice between a subclass and empowering one defining talent or ability). As a mage, I have to say that I felt like a God the whole game. I think that having no Mana to manage was a bit of a mistake. If anything, being able to spam spells at no cost would be a thing you'd get at the end of the game, after enduring many hardships. As a Greatsword user, this moment of glory never game. You're always slow and boring, you just happen to do high damage and stun things. And you can beat up all the Archons if you want, but you'll still be afraid to get close to a Malice.
Also, wounds. Wounds are better than in PoE generally, but I'm not that happy that the only reliable way to remove them is resting. I wish there were talents such as First Aid that would allow you to remove wounds out of combat, as Per Rest skill (something that the PC or Lantry could have). 2 per rest should be enough, I think. I just doesn't feel right to camp in the middle of a storm, or while the enemy boss is just a doorway away.
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