Caster gameplay is unsatisfying.

I've been trying skills of different elements to see what would "click" for me. But the gameplay is just really missing the mark on my Sorceress.

This is my feedback up to mid Act 2.

Fire: Ember Fusillade / Firewall / SRS is the best early damaging skill combo against bosses, by far. Very effective. But EF is clunky to play because (a) first you channel, then there is a delay, then it fires - I'm kiting white mobs all over the map and (b) it FREQUENTLY misses. If I'm gonna channel up a skill, having it then shoot into the wall feels awful.

Lightning: Spark / Firewall is fine for clearing. Arc is just... Arc. These skills kill mobs okay but feel floaty and have no impact or punch to them. The shock animation is visually irritating.

Cold: I have played with these the least. Casting Ice Nova off Frostbolt feels awkward. I guess I need to respec and give these more time to try.

THREE KEY ISSUES I SEE:

1. Early gear/damage investment pushes you hard toward picking a single element. But there aren't enough spell skills available in any single element to have a rounded playstyle.

2. The support gems are terrible. What was wrong with Added Lightning? Can I please just have some extra damage in exchange for a support slot?

The "best" support early is Controlled Destruction, but if you're on a skill with 10% crit, getting 30% damage while giving up (0.1 * 200%) = 20% critical damage, it's only a ~10% damage boost. And taking away crits removes what makes a skill punchy and fun!

3. Pace of play. Kiting enemies backwards constantly is not fun. Rolling to get out of melee range and then mobs are back up in your face 1 second later is not fun. Getting caught in a corner and being unable to roll out is not fun.

I thought the caster gameplay was much better. Don’t agree with most of this apart from maybe EF missing as you’re travelling past monsters.

Being a caster seems better than melee, by all of what I'm reading. The power level is fine. It clears content. It's just... not very satisfying.

I just looked at spell gem requirements for the stuff I want to eventually play and I shouldn't have.

Level 52 before I can use Eye of Winter? Why. Is it so much to ask to have a skill that feels mechanically good to play, and have access to it before 30 hours into the game? I don't want to play 15 more hours with the skills I have. I've spammed enough Sparks and Arcs. It's not fun.

Combo-focused spell casting is UNBEARABLE given the slow move speed and that casts are frequently interrupted.

The game is beautiful and well made in many ways but at the moment it is simply not enjoyable to play.

I definitely felt this early game, all the spells are extremely clunky.
Support choices are extremely unsatisfying.
To even just have a spell that blasts enemies for damage, you're best investing in your starter wand because for reasons? you only have access to johnny combo starter skill gems in Act 1, but there aren't good immediate supports for it.

For a game all about choices, early game feels like you have no choices at all.

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For a game all about choices, early game feels like you have no choices at all.

This is how I feel too. There aren't REALLY different builds to try. And the progression of spell selection is too slow/incoherent to let the gameplay evolve as the content gets harder.

Fire: start with Fusillade shooting through Flame Wall. A little clunky but okay. Then you get Incinerate and Solar Orb (?) which have no interplay with the previous skills and play quite bad on their own.

Lightning: Spark or Arc while putting Orb of Storms on the ground. Okay. Except that you have to kite monsters around so much, OOS has almost no uptime to support your damage.

Cold: Ice Nova or Cold Snap off of Frostbolts, debuff enemies with Ice Bomb... It works together, but lining up all the skills is mechanically awkward. If I pull off a combo which requires me to manually target my Frostbolts at the exact moment they're over the mobs, I want it to be IMPACTFUL and FEEL POWERFUL. Not the bare minimum to make the skills work.

Perhaps the intent is that you mix across elements but then the scaling falls apart. Without a +gem levels item, damage is pathetic.

Let us have all the spell gems and supports from a vendor. If I want to play Flameblast, or Ball Lightning/Conduit, why does it require 20 hours of playing unfun skills first before I can do that?