Some Problems with the Current State of Class-Specific Starting Nodes on the Tree

Hey, GGG!

So, I'm not sure what it's like for other classes, as I primarily play minions, but as a minion player, I feel "forced" to play the Witch. Here's why:

Point 1:

- The % of minion damage on the tree that is within the Witch-specific starting clusters is substantial.
- The % of minion health on the tree that is within the Witch-specific starting clusters is quite notable as well.
- The % of Minion Revive rate on the tree that is within the Witch-specific starting clusters is such a large value that it's basically "required" (for reviving minions, of course).

Whether or not these values are equal to other classes' starting node values or not, is not necessarily the issue, but it's the % of minion damage/health/revive compared to the rest of the tree that is really an issue. With the exception of minion resists, a non-Witch minion player loses out on too much damage and revive time. There's not enough minion damage, health, and revive time on the tree to really consider anything besides a Witch. Even if the minion skills get beefed up (which I believe they should), the % of each stat would still be too great a % of the total available to miss out on.


Point 2:

Minions don't have other options like the other skills. Other skills can look for other tags to help out: Cold, Elemental, Spell, Projectile, AoE, exposure...other skills have options, while minion skills don't. Minion skills don't really have the same chance to supplement their tags as other skills. It's "minion" or "nothing", which is another element that "forces" a minion player to be a Witch.


Point 3:

Feeling "forced" to be the Witch sure it sucks, sure. It's beta. Hopefully, this all gets balanced out soon enough. But, the thing that's especially sucky right now is that two of the three classes that a minion player is "forced" to pick between don't even make sense for most minion skills/archtypes.

- The Infernalist's strengths come from reserving spirit, which a minion player will be very hesitant to do.
- The Bloodmage requires the character's kills/crits (not minion crits) to cancel out the life cost of skills. (But the players will be fully invested in minion stats and their own survivability, not their own offence.)
- The Lich isn't a great option, but at least there are some options that a minion build can use.

The point of Point 3 is that if a user is being "forced" to be the Witch for the minion playstyle, the game should at least provide 3 classes that have ascendancy options that make sense for minions. The Lich is fine, but it really is the "only" decent option for minion players as a Witch.

Anyway, there's some minion (or other class) feedback for the beta process. I know there's other classes coming out, so maybe some of this will improve with other classes also having minion nodes in their starting clusters. But, I still think the overall %s of these class-specific nodes are too high, and the ascendancies associated with the class-specific starting clusters need to coincide better.

Good luck with the beta, GGG! You all rock!