My thought on skills in Solomon Dark beta
This is my opinion of some of the skills.
Channel Mana & Battle Mage: I feel like they got nerfed in solomon dark because it was op in the previous games (battle mage definitely, channel mana maybe) and the new addition of concentration system.
Fireball and its upgrades: It feels like it is way weaker than other solomon game. Explode raidus at lvl 1 got very small and you must put skill points on explode to increase the radius. The fireball's hitbox feels much smaller than before (it sometimes passes through enemies without hitting them). The damage of the fireball and ember seems underwhelming. The summoning imp skill, on the other hand, has really decent dps and it FOLLOWS ENEMIES. After all the horrible nerf that fireball recieved, this one is the only hope that remains in fireball.
Ring of Fire: Same as usual. I wouldn't spend skill points in this.
Firewalk: In my opinion, it is useless. The trail is small and does not last long enough to deal damage. I regret myself for spending two skill points on this on the first run. It really needs some buff on its duration and size.
Lighting and its upgrades: It's pretty much same. The disintegrate(instant kill on low health enemies) seems interesting though but I think hurricane is still better (hurricane deflects arrows).
Prismatic Shock: This ability increases lighting damage a lot. Very useful for lighting and magic storm user.
Magic Storm: Even though this is a successor of one of the worst skills in previous games (acid rain), this one is really good. Its dps is really powerful and the cooldown is pretty quick. It is very useful aoe damage dealing skill now and it even has an upgrade (magic tornado). Hugh potential for late game.
Magic trap: pretty good skill but the visual effect is very annoying.
Magic Circle: Dire Alice's Magic circle(tragic circle) is strong but you aren't Dire Alice. So...NO.
Call Leviathan: Somewhat useful ally but not good enough
Enchant staff: here is the problem, our character is mage, not a tank or a warrior. You need to get point-blank range to use this ability and that is never good in this game. However, if u are earth mage, this skill can help get through enemies.
Stoneskin: few seconds of invulnerability. simple and good. Be aware that the cooldown for this ability is high
Meditation: It got slightly buffed(when meditation is concentrated, it does regenerate faster while walking without firing) but still not useful.
Boulder: pretty decent damage but too slow to charge up. you have to use the golem wisely to survive with starting this ability. Once you start getting some upgrades, its fine I think. For the flourish(the final tier), rock surge is better in my opinion because it allows you to spam big boulders instantaneously.
Raise Golem: Deals decent damage and taunts nearby enemies. Pretty useful in early games.
Magic Shield and Explosive Shield: With the addition of explosive shield, this skill just got way better.
Magic Missile: Pretty same. The new final tier, piercing is really good though.
Planewalker: It looks cool. Duration is fine.
Siege Mage: More damage, better it is. Just as good as usual
Resist Magic: I never got far enough to make good use of this but it will be quite useful when there are mass lightning mages with impenetrable magic shields.
So far, I love this game, though I feel like fire skills, my fav, got too nerfed. It would have been great if that unfortunate event that made this game abandoned never happened. Thank you Mr. Raptis and keep up the good work :D
P.S. Lightning is too good.
Comments
My only worry is game length. In Boneyard the early phase of every run could get very dull (after extensive play) as it is relatively sedate and it takes a long time to get to the more challenging phases. I'm not at that point in Dark, yet, but I can see it happening. I hope that you find a good balance for that in the new Solomon's Keep (by the way, will that get a new name? It's a bit confusing that it has the same name as the first game), otherwise I could see its survival mode getting dull after repeated plays, too. Also, I understand why the progression takes as much time as it does in Dark, which is a good thing in my opinion. But, maybe in the new Keep there could also be some kind of quicker, shorter survival mode that escalates more quickly. Right now a normal run in Dark takes me around 40-60 minutes I guess, which is already very long if you just want to play a "quick round". For a deep run that is great, but something that better suits the "pick up and play" mentality might also be worth it.
Additionally, I must say the magic system you've created and refined over and over until now is so incredibly fun, I can hardly imagine how the other classes could even compare to that. Seeing the highly creative improvements you've made from Boneyard to Dark makes me faithful, but I just hope you don't fall into the trap of not having enough good ideas for melee so that those classes seem like an afterthought. I feel that is the case with many games similar to Diablo, where the melee classes are rather straightforward and a bit boring, whereas only the ranged chararcters really offer broader strategies.
Anyway, amazing work you've done here, and I'm still a teeny tiny bit hopeful you might reconsider working on Dark at some point in the future to finish it up, it really is an outstanding title unlike any other on PC and Android.