Original Post — Direct link

I have been playing a bit a year or so ago and gave it another whirl this week. The core issue I got with basically any character concept I might try is the same:

There simply is nothing or always the exact same three things to fill out your 3-5 slots for almost all character builds. There are a few exceptions like the void knight using about 3 short-cooldown skills and reversal, but besides that one, there really is not much variance to the builds.

 

Once you picked one skill to be your main attack, there is zero point in almost all of the other skills because they all compete for the main attack slot and are not particularly relevant to use instead of whatever you aimed for as your actual standard move. At most it might be that one of the two is very single-target focused and better suited as a boss killer.

Most characters have "the" movement attack their class has as the second ability and then three slots to throw in three of the about four possible options of support skills, most of which you won't even actively use most of the time because you could just as well be mainattacking and/or dashing around. You might get regular good use out of one of them, but trying to use multiple support abilities usually just means you are not using your main attack a lot of the time which is usually overall detrimental.

 

POE has the same issue in a way, as do a lot of action RPGs. Funnily enough, I feel like this is one of the areas Diablo 3 did exceedingly well in: Every class had multiple abilities with cooldowns of 10 to 15 seconds that felt impactful and powerful to use. That way you could weave them into your normal routine of mainattacks and repositioning, they were always available when encountering stronger mob types and they were available enough times during a boss fight to be useful after repositioning or a phase change.

 

Last Epoch has a few skills that can be modified to get a short cooldown, but often those skills do not get the power increase they would need to warrant that swap or using them a lot over your main spamming skill. Very often you are left to wonder why you don't just make that skill your main ability instead.

This is particularly pronounced on the classes that have overall fewer skills right now - especially the two that lack an entire specialization. The rogue seems to be the worst off: She basically has to pick decoy and smoke bomb most of the time because there simply is nothing else to fill up the slots.

 

I feel like this could be solved in a two-pronged attack:

Obviously, creating a few more skills for every class would be very beneficial (some generics but also perhaps one more gated a bit behind each specialization, but early on so hybridizing is encouraged more). Of course we also want the extra abilities that come with the currently still missing specializations, but those are a given.

The second approach would be to give a lot of the attack abilities nodes that significantly increase their output and give them a lengthier cooldown. Not 2s like some right now, which just means they are neither a main attack nor anything else, really. Something like 8-12 seconds cooldown but the skill has a power level four to five times as high as your typical standard attack.

 

Also, each class could easily do with extra or modified existing abilities that play more into the "active defense" slot. Like allowing smoke bomb to activate "silver shroud" when used so it can be used to actively tank one big hit. Or making rebuke make you invulnerable for .3 seconds after pressing the button. Stuff like that.

 

Edit to bold one of the points most of the replies seem to be glossing over and making strange assumptions about. No one is talking about minute-long cooldowns.

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about 1 year ago - /u/moxjet200 - Direct link

We don't believe long cooldowns are healthy for an ARPG because longer CD abilities are often saved until a strong threat arrives, essentially solving that encounter for you. We don't want the solution to every large threat to be using a cooldown. Short cooldowns certainly do have their place, but we often prefer to gate with mana, combo build ups, charges, etc.