Intro:
Really enjoyed this patch. I was very disappointed day 1 and 2 because of the poor melee hit registration, but by day 3 & 4 I was able to adapt and I got use to it. I found my new favorite class as well, thanks to based Vesros and everyone else who helped create the new Alche. I was incredibly impressed at how consistent parries were throughout the build, I can’t remember a single moment where something interacted weirdly with my parries except for Xylvion’s videos. I think I put the most hours into this alpha test.
Alchemancer:
Absolutely love this class, I really can’t explain in words how awesome it is to play this class. His animations are smooth, his voice lines are incredible, I think he is very difficult to play while also being incredibly rewarding. Out of all the classes in the game, I think he has the most potential, maybe Tinker moreso.
I played him primarily as an assassin or janitor. I took fire sword so that I could get LMB, although I think rockets are better in almost every aspect, I just took fire sword because LMB was the best attack this build. I would feint people a ton, with melee and abilities, and often time snipe people from afar. The general pattern was bird–>TP in for the kill. I was punished plenty of times for TPing in, and also rewarded many times for it as well. I felt he was difficult to play consistently well with given his weak defense, but also very rewarding. Using TP to juke people or delay and following up with clutch birds and chaos orbs just felt so satisfying. I really can’t wait to play him more and see what you guys come up with.
Mechanics:
Dodges:
I think it’s becoming apparent that dodges are more of a crutch rather than an option. What I mean is that there is never really any time where you wouldn’t want to dodge, it’s automatically dodge no matter what for me. I know others have suggested that the range be reduced, but I’m not sure if I agree. I think that the poor melee hit registration this build greatly exaggerated the power of dodges. Secondly, when I compare the dodge in this game to the rat’s dodge in chiv, I find that the dodge in this game covers much less distance, although I could be wrong. I feel like if the range was nerfed, it would be useless as it already doesn’t cover that much distance, just enough to avoid some attacks. I think adding a short cooldown to it might be helpful because it really is becoming a crutch, one that I am guilty of. I don’t think increasing stamina is a great idea either, because players can foolishly waste all their stam still and get away with the various mobility spells the game has to offer.
Melee hits:
As I’ve described in the past, it really feels like I’m trying to hit a cricket or something with a tiny needle, it’s just so inconsistent and sometimes impossible. I had several players in my matches mention this as well, they described it in a very similar fashion. I found that LMBs and stabs were the most consistent during this build, and overheads were practically useless. I never comboed attacks either, because they would never hit. I won’t go on anymore as I’m sure you guys already understand the issue.
Parrying was very consistent this patch, I don’t remember a single “WTF” moment for parrying. I was very pleasantly surprised with this. At the same time, the parry box was increased a bit too much. I wasn’t really able to z-stab or waterfall people, and sometimes I even got back-parried. Overall though, I am incredibly impressed at how consistent parries were. I put tons of hours in as well, which makes it more surprising to me that I didn’t have a single shitty parry moment.
Abilities:
As always, I really enjoyed using various abilities because they’re just so satisfying to hear and see. The only ability I really had any major complaints about was surround parry. I didn’t see too many people use it to great success, but in the hands of an experienced player it was absolutely OP. I definitely had to pick and choose, most of the classes didn’t seem to have a “best build”. I could make all sorts of set ups work, mostly because melee is still core.
Misc stuff, weird stuff:
-sometimes I would randomly not be able to parry on Alchemancer, it wouldn’t matter if I was in combat or not, it just randomly happened.
-on day 1 my ping was normal, east was usually around 50-60 and west was 90 or above, normal as always. On day 2, my ping inverted: servers that were west now displayed 50-60 ping, and servers that were east displayed 90 or more ping. I think it was just a display error, as my gameplay felt the same relative to which server I was playing on.
-comboing off of someone’s parry happened very often, very frustrating to play against.
-sometimes my enemy would completely ignore flinch, it wasn’t a trade because it didn’t really happen at the same time. I would hit them in release, and they would windup as they took damage and not be flinched, it happened rarely but was very weird.
-sometimes I can’t do anything on Alchemancer, I just get locked out of being able to melee, to use spells, anything really.
-games would sometime end prematurely, happened pretty consistently.
-audio seems to be a lot better this build, I can better tell where my enemies are approaching from, but it’s still not great.
-did I mention that I love Alchemancer?
Overall great work this build, lots of weird occurrences, but I’m sure you guys will sort them out. Things are looking very promising. Right now it feels like when you’re installing something, and it just sits at 99% for like 5 minutes. There’s a lot of things that are so close to being perfect, but it’s just not quite there.
thx based vesros
