Addressing the 'Movement' Issues

FIRSTLY, THE PLAYER SIDE...

For the most part, GGG has provided for ways to deal with most enemies especially from my experience and I will share some first in hopes to help realize incase it is something that is lacking on your part:

1. Incorporate chill, knockback, stun, pin or any other immobilization skills or attacks into your build and I think they are necessary to be used frequently in gameplay. Most if not all classes have their skills of addressing them. Although maybe more is needed for variety...

2. Take your time and do not rush through maps especially if your damage and/or cast/attack speed cannot match the volume of monsters going your way. Consider dodging further down an area can risk spawning more mobs that will just overwhelm you.

3. If monsters are constantly overwhelming you then consider you lack damage and need to farm or upgrade better gear in lower level areas before the harder ones.

4. Timing MATTERS. You shouldn't always just hold the attack button. Holding an attack on an enemy or boss usually lowers your movement speed significantly = shortens the gap between you and their attack = more likely to not be able to dodge their possibly lethal AOE or range attack. Do intervals of attacks and notice your positioning to anticipate if the next attack would still be dodgeable range for you.

5. Consider using your second weapon for evading/escape, positioning, and overall movement 'LEAP' skills by borrowing another class weapon such Mace, Spear, Bow or any other future weapons with them. Or maybe more utility Spells if you can make room for INT. Been using the Spear skill 'Disengage' with Mercenary and it feels good.

This is clearly not POE1 anymore and while one shot clearing playstyle can be fun, its not always or even the usual meta here anymore. And while I have presented suggestive solutions, it doesn't necessarily mean they're without its flaws and some of them I re-explore and expound further below.

NOW ONTO ADDRESSING THE FAST MONSTERS

To be fair on GGG, its not every monster thats annoyingly zooming. ALTHOUGH, MOST melee monsters have fast movement speed that keeps up with you if not faster at times (Its almost like an acceleration movement when further I believe) A few notable I could think at the top of my head are:

Transcedent Warriors
Doryani creatures
Multi-legged creatures (dogs, rats, spiders, etc.)

I can't remember to name them all so feel free to comment below any more additions based on ur experience.

These monsters' speed can trail you to the point of leaving maybe only a second or more (or less) to react with an action but usually the next few monsters follow up and this compounds further to the situation. Now their movement speed is a degree of game balance that I believe only GGG can correctly assess considering maybe that 'open window' between monsters is in the time range of Skill casts & attacks (maybe 1.5s, 0.8s, or 2s, etc.) that determine if this skill is overpowered or weak or ideal for the situation as intended and all that considering how it relates with the degree of modifiable player movement speed.

THAT BEING SAID--- there are multiple points, issues, and suggestions that need to be considered that can and might be necessary to help with the overall gameplay experience.

1. Aside from the issue of fast monsters as almost instant movement barriers to the player and should be a scrapped mechanic, a consideration of fair balance against fast monsters are to either give offensive nerfs or defensive nerfs on them. At the moment it seems as if fast monsters are just buffed with no downsides or any effective way of dealing with especially if they are rares with higher health and/or added effects. There needs to be a counterbalance to how advantageous their speed is. Allowing a fast monster to also have decent enough stun buildup or any ailment for that matter will feel like a 'cheat' no win scenario for the player for the damage becomes unavoidable. Their offensive capabilities need to be lowered in exchange for their speed atleast. A brutal example of this is having an Aura debuff (Mana Drain) rare enemy and having consistent fast movement giving almost no downtime for draining mana and then the player cannot do anything to counter it. A mechanic as strong as that-- technically always 'ON', Wide AOE application-- only needs movement speed to be 'broken'. A better approach would be to have their effects be 'pulses' or intervals rather than consistent debuffs. On the other hand, defensive nerfs would be to significantly increase their knockback distance (like 3x to 5x), (small) stun duration, slow susceptibility, etc. to give more fighting chance against them and actually invite more diverse builds.

2. Map design. I believe one of the scenarios the monster mob becomes overwhelming is that given the fast movement of these monsters and the general (maybe intended) weakness of defense options, the typical solution would be dodging and creating distance. Now this can be effective at times but then dodging risks MOVING FURTHER INTO THE MAP & SPAWNING THE NEXT SET OF MOBS which then corners or overwhelms the player. These situations are usually aggravated to players who lack damage. What can be looked into here are possibly whether the buffer zones between areas are spacey enough or spawn time intervals after the first set of mobs can be dynamically adjusted AND/OR give more movement tech skills to overcome this **I will expound on this further below**

3. A related but slightly minorly different scenario has to do with map design and spawning patterns. There are moments when the next area is through a bottleneck and often the monster spawns upon entering and their 'accelerated' movement speed corners you through the bottleneck (sometimes a random enemy follows behind and traps you) and you are forced to retreat into the previous room. Scenarios like this may add variety but should be very limited to decrease the notion of slowing progress by backtracking into the old room.

4. Every class needs a movement/evade tech. The example/s above show how necessary these are and them being exclusive only to certain classes prevents build diversity and autonomy. Long narrow pathways, Area DoTs, getting swarmed by mobs are a reality in this game that we most likely will not be able to avoid and movement techs are the only way to fairly balance those unwinnable scenarios. These movement techs have longer distances and can get over the hurdles of mobs swarming when dodge roll cannot. This is especially necessary considering a favor for fast & powerful enemy monsters who have an advantage on map control, prevents any tactical positioning and may even instantly stun if not kill you.

For example, Mercenary has offensive utility skills (cold, pin, knockback, etc.) but defensives are only through aggro-drawing totems (which are whole different build scaling) or ice crystals (which are 50/50 in effectives and a double-edged sword of possibly trapping you in). Mercs are then forced to rely on basic dodge-- which can be inconsistent or doesn't create enough space for a ranged weapon-- or a whole different weapon skill (Mace leap, Bow Escape, Spear Disengage) which feels nice but limits creativity for builds by locking the second weapon slot and frankly not utilizing the other current skills that lack utility or are just effectively obsolete. Personally, I feel theres too much redundancy in grenades atleast in the way they can be used especially considering they have the same fuse time handicap. It would be interesting if a grenade (or any skill) can either be reworked or modified (maybe via support gems) to be fired with an 'evade dodge' animation to a certain opposite direction of the projectile fired. It adds a defensive option for grenades which are usually either offensive or to unreliable due to delay time.

Spellcasters can summon minions as a defence buffer but the player themselves are still susceptible to getting trapped in damage (ex. Area DoTs). Imagine if their 'leap' skill is a powerful Fireblast that pushes them away from an area. Or they turn to lightning themselves and chains out through 4 or 5 enemies. Or how about literally riding a wave of ice over enemies. Many ways to be creative.

I'm sure the same can be applied to future weapon skills and I hope they are.

It is important to remind these skills should also be available early on in progression to allow for variety in approaches and overall fairness in encountering such scenarios.

5. Movement skills (such as Leaps, Escape Shots, etc.) should have more "FLUID" almost undisturbed pathing especially when used near the edges of map and NO AIM ASSIST (atleast for WASD controls). It is too often disappointing how we can be cornered by enemies as the skill animation happens in the same place or its momentum is blocked by even the slightest protrusion from a boundary.

6. And Lastly, I believe my approach is the better interactive approach to these issues by incorporating skills and mechanics for more interactive fun. And so while the solutions I suggested are more skill based, I also highly suggest these strategies and concepts can be considerately applied to other existing (non-movement) skills as well possibly in the form of new Support gems or maybe new uniques to really allow for more build diversity, not restricting scenarios to "one right tool for the job" concept, and make anyone's favourite skill or playstyle viable in some more if not most situations.

If there are more points or perspectives I missed, feel free to share so we can brainstorm the issues.


**EDIT
P.S. also thought about considering adjusting composition of mobs but it seems GGG is on the right track given the update. Too much melee, fast, or specifically unique monsters may be the cause of 'overwhelming' or swarmed situations. But yeah its one of those things only GGG can look accurately into.
**

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Papiness_#2792 wrote:

FIRSTLY, THE PLAYER SIDE...

**NOTE Made this before the update and only finished now

Well the reduced cold buildup on enemies, and reduced chill effect, and the increased effects to the player, realy kill that entire idea. Not to mention that "Cast on Freeze" just refuses to work any more. Yeah GGG can stuff 0.2 where the sun don't shine. NO ONE likes ANY of the changes theyve made.

Electrocute refuses to work

Freeze refuses to work

Pin refuses to work

Maim refuses to work

Maybe you should try these ideas for your self to see if they work as intended rather than just reading the skill description.

"

KingDaMuncha#6025 wrote:

Electrocute refuses to work

Freeze refuses to work

Pin refuses to work

Maim refuses to work

Maybe you should try these ideas for your self to see if they work as intended rather than just reading the skill description.

I wouldn't post this if they don't help. I use Gemling Totems often with Glacial Bolt and my Ripwires pin most enemies consistently on 1-2 hits. Also added Leap slam and Warcry knockback and it works well. Buildups are still based on damage SO they're ofc still subject to further damage/leveling-scaling. Also, some skills are better than others (maybe even the only options) in dealing certain ailments atm and especially do it only with High-element convert skills for more damage = more buildup. Skill gem level also matters in damage output. And ofc it depends on your level vs. the content you're playing. If they're not working for you, you have a lot of things you can look into. But they usually do work all through the game up to endgame. Its not perfectly consistent but its consistent enough to matter. If anything, it could just be endgame which is a whole separate scaling that can be fixed or otherwise literal balancing/evening-out of variety of builds to all be viable. But again, on base stuff with 'proper' gearing, it works. It could be better, maybe it needs more investment than we like, but it still works on average.