I'd also like to know of the 'higher' placing shadows how many were casters and how many melee.
I'm stubborn and always go melee shadow, but it's pretty much self-gimping to the nth degree with Descent.
No AoE to speak of for the first 4 or so levels, mana problems, frail. I spend a lot of my time running around on low life kiting crowds just to kill one more to try to get some flask charging.
If I survive to Haste+Whalebone Rapier (so level 7) I can be okay. If.
Personally I was doing both. Claw and shield in one set and wand/wand or wand shield in the other. Sometimes freezing pulse was more efficient and sometimes whirling was more efficient for packs, depending on your weapon at that point. Double strike was always much better for single target of course. I used fire trap a little bit but the damage is pretty terrible at these levels now.
I mean, you get double strike and freezing pulse from the getgo so that kind of dictates what the flow will be unless you get a nice weapon and whirling or cleave somehow. If there's a way you could get dual strike, cleave, and whirling then you'd go waaaay faster with melee shadow. I haven't looked at a chest list yet so i don't know if that's possible without freakish rng.
I'd also like to know of the 'higher' placing shadows how many were casters and how many melee.
I'm stubborn and always go melee shadow, but it's pretty much self-gimping to the nth degree with Descent.
No AoE to speak of for the first 4 or so levels, mana problems, frail. I spend a lot of my time running around on low life kiting crowds just to kill one more to try to get some flask charging.
If I survive to Haste+Whalebone Rapier (so level 7) I can be okay. If.
Ive rolled pure caster both times so far (can have a look at my gear/gems, theyre listed in both events). The second time was much smoother since i knew which chests to take, as shown by the gear differences.
Shadow melee is just poor in this event, as double strikes single target damage is only decent, and has poor status delivery thanks to the 70% base damage, while whirling blades has to be the worst aoe attack in the game (except in those few areas where you can abuse wall resets, which is unfortunately way too mana intensive for races).
The complete lack of bows or bow gems is strange too. Shadow has a projectile and attack speed path and gets bow gem offerings in standard races (same with duelist); why are these option not available in descent? Improved gem selection options would really help build diversity here.
Probably so there wouldn't be cries about alpha players having a substantial advantage in the races. PCGamer was also given information for an exclusive unveiling of the event, so any leak would have been bad.
You quoted the first thing I said, and responded with something I addressed in the rest of my post.
As for PCGamer, I'm not really concerned with that. The exclusive didn't even have the full information. I wont go into how stupid it is to give an exclusive like that to begin with.
I'm concerned with things being tested properly. Neither of the points you made should have any barring on things being properly tested in a beta.
Last edited by Magnicon on Jun 30, 2013, 2:26:23 AM
As for PCGamer, I'm not really concerned with that. The exclusive didn't even have the full information. I wont go into how stupid it is to give an exclusive like that to begin with.
You may not be concerned with it, but GGG is. I'm offering reasons for not giving alpha players early access to the game mode, since you didn't seem to understand how that could happen.
"
You quoted the first thing I said, and responded with something I addressed in the rest of my post.
Yes, you responded to it saying that alpha players having an advantage in the races wouldn't matter because it's "beta". Funny you mention that, because that same point (it being "beta") can be used to justify pushing the race mode directly from internal testing to the public.
"
I'm concerned with things being tested properly. Neither of the points you made should have any barring on things being properly tested in a beta.
I was simply offering explanations for not giving alpha members prior access to the mode. Additionally, lack of alpha testing doesn't mean things can't be properly tested in beta. That's what's happening right now with each of these events.
I'd also like to know of the 'higher' placing shadows how many were casters and how many melee.
I'm stubborn and always go melee shadow, but it's pretty much self-gimping to the nth degree with Descent.
No AoE to speak of for the first 4 or so levels, mana problems, frail. I spend a lot of my time running around on low life kiting crowds just to kill one more to try to get some flask charging.
If I survive to Haste+Whalebone Rapier (so level 7) I can be okay. If.
Ive rolled pure caster both times so far (can have a look at my gear/gems, theyre listed in both events). The second time was much smoother since i knew which chests to take, as shown by the gear differences.
Shadow melee is just poor in this event, as double strikes single target damage is only decent, and has poor status delivery thanks to the 70% base damage, while whirling blades has to be the worst aoe attack in the game (except in those few areas where you can abuse wall resets, which is unfortunately way too mana intensive for races).
The complete lack of bows or bow gems is strange too. Shadow has a projectile and attack speed path and gets bow gem offerings in standard races (same with duelist); why are these option not available in descent? Improved gem selection options would really help build diversity here.
I view you as something of a Shadow success story, so I shouldn't be surprised you went caster both times. I agree I'm being a masochist and a moron but...it's what I enjoy, and I'm hardly aiming for the top, so I do what matters to me. But it is extremely frustrating. Double Strike and Fire Trap is pretty much it for me.
One Descent I will drop cleave randomly and it'll be awesome until I die.
I don't understand GGG's choice or lack there of for gems for the races. Why do they insist on forcing 1 or maybe 2 builds on the players for each class? The races would be a whole lot more interesting if there was a wide variety of choices, instead of what we current have. If something is out of line and clearly dominant, fix it, as groundslam once was. How many races is running FP witch/shadow going to really last as novel? Counting on the RNG to even make those builds functional is bad enough so far. Expecting enough to get some drop only build is not practical.
I don't understand GGG's choice or lack there of for gems for the races. Why do they insist on forcing 1 or maybe 2 builds on the players for each class? The races would be a whole lot more interesting if there was a wide variety of choices, instead of what we current have. If something is out of line and clearly dominant, fix it, as groundslam once was. How many races is running FP witch/shadow going to really last as novel? Counting on the RNG to even make those builds functional is bad enough so far. Expecting enough to get some drop only build is not practical.
Got the same feeling playing as ranger in Descent Races. I always play ranger as a melee character and that option is ceased right away which hurts my soul plenty. :(
Can you guys at GGG PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix weapon swap? I would love to have one set with a move only with wands, then be able to swap with a main attack mace on my left mouse move click.
Just like the weapons I and II, we should be able to swap I and II with our skill keybinds at the same time.
