My 0.4 Post Patches Feedback

Have played a bit more after the patches dropped so here's some additional feedback:

Play Style
- SSF with league reset
- Play through campaign and then some maps until bored
- dunno how many I did lol, maybe 200h?

Loot & Items
- Item progression stops too early
--- During Act 2 / Early act 3 base weapon types stop being upgrades and affixes take over
--- example maces: why do I know the names of Forge, Studded & Temple Maul? because after those it's just bigger number = betterer
--- For casters this can happen even at the start of act 1
--- A lot of affixes also feel like they don't have any real progression
--- (is anybody truly excited when that +4 skills turns into +5?)

- I've a noticed a high variance for basic items between my runs (the unlucky runs)
--- Artificer orbs, had some runs where I ran out because only a couple dropped
--- Support gems, usually not a problem but my last run had about 20 in total
--- Flasks ... had a Jamanra fight with a medium mana flask
--- Gem Cutter Prism, usually I can quality one main skill completely, but sometimes I just got like 2
--- it's okay to have RNG for them, but those very extreme outliers should never happen

- Currency drops seem to be lowest in act 4
--- I guess that's because there is this gap where the league mechanic wont give you benches?
--- but even then I'd expect drops to be better than previous acts

League Patches
- Nerfed jewellers = good
- Nerfed exalt & regal at the low end = bad because literally no rewards

- The beacon spawning unique monsters early is pretty annoying
--- They are just a wall of HP
--- I would prefer that event to be very rare and extremely deadly *evil grin*

- Switching strategy has become harder with the patches
--- Personally I would prefer some option to remove more rooms

- Original seed has too much influence on my preferred strategy
--- example: when I get the early architect room in act 1 it's very easy keep adding special rooms


Mapping
- Alch & go feels pretty nice
- Difficulty progression needs rework (atm, we basically just have 4 tiers not 15)
--- Usually I just rush bosses to up the tier quickly, because it does not matter
--- If it's a bad build then I just map a bit to get comfy, then do a couple of bosses in a row for bigger skips
--- The actual difference that can be felt is between an unmodified map vs map with affixes
--- So maybe add the POE1 system for yellow & red maps back?
--- or, you need 1 additional modifier per tier to run / complete this map?

- Couple of maps just look ugly (i.e. fortress)
- Doryani's "Identify"-option being bugged is pretty annoying (dunno why nobody seemed to complain about that)

- Would be cool to see some more unique moves from the map version of bosses

Monster Balance

- I've noticed that a couple of monsters suddenly have this ability for random one shots:
--- no telegraph -> boom a single 2k damage hit on a level 20 char
--- seems like some sort of crit to me, but instead of a single monster it's the entire pack at the same time?
--- Mawdun Mine -> Plague Nymph
--- Deshar -> Scavengers
--- Utzaal -> Viper Legionaire
--- Black Chambers -> Doryani's Elite

- It seems more likely to get pretty nasty combinations of rare modifiers earlier
--- example: you play melee and suddenly you get a temporal bubble + chilled ground where previously the rares just had 1 modifier.
--- maybe blacklist certain combos at low monster levels?

- Stuff like proximity shield also happens more often
--- would be good to balance melee vs ranged but that mod doesn't seem to do anything
--- (or maybe the radius needs to be much smaller)

- Whats up with ignite suddenly being useful but only for monsters?
--- probably a good thing to make the ailments matter but this seems like some sort of bug?

Some annoying Campaign RP
- "oh no the halani gates are closed again" (maybe add some monsters?)
- talk to Una so she can tell us to go through the grim tangle
- that dude sitting in the bird nest in act 4 you always forget about
- doing 3 million mouse clicks while talking to Tujen to free that old granny

Skill Balance / Ideas
- Having some more time to play, I've noticed that spells are even worse
--- "simple" frost build: WASD + Nova + Snap + Darts + Bomb + Eye of Winter + Comet = 11 buttons
--- chronomancer expands this with: Orb of Storms + Sigil + Temporal Rift + Agony + Time Freeze = 16 buttons *yikes*
--- compare this to shield wall -> works fine with click to move so 2 buttons
--- compare to permafrost -> 2 clicks + WASD

- Speaking of permafrost, whats up with that UI?
--- maybe add those setup options to the skill panel?
--- and make it obvious to users so even newcomers will see it?

- I was tinkering a bit with minion + marks & they feel pretty okay-ish
--- They solve some of the AI issues and are pretty okay at things like armor break
--- Unfortunately they are inferior to other options at the moment
--- Maybe add a support that allows minions stronger benefits?