Tree based generation and T3/4 talents appearing sooner

[whitelion]

The new tree based talent generation has been interesting in that I've seen monsters using a wider variety of talents more often. However, it has also had the effect of causing T3/4 talents to start appearing earlier, which has made the early game noticeably harder. It may also have made the later game harder by giving monsters better talent synergies, but I mind that less, since at that point the player has lots of options to respond and it can lead to interesting matchups.

Early game though, the player doesn't yet have many options to respond to dangerous enemies. I've been regularly encountering extremely dangerous skills like Inner Demons in T1s, and there are even cases where you get something like a Necro randboss with heavy investment in Golden Age of Necromancy (and thus high enough saves to resist most debuffs) before the player hits level 20. Say you're level 15 and you get hit with Inner Demons. Sure you can maybe remove it, but on many classes you will have only a Shatter Afflictions rune, which you have to pray hits that and not sleep or confusion or something else like Waking Nightmare. If you're a Wild user, it's almost impossible to find a phys/mental Wild infusion early game. In practice I usually have to run away and maybe retry until I win the coin flip with my cleanse depending on how brave I feel. There are many other dangerous skills as well that monsters now get sooner. Inner Demons is just one example.

darkgod mentioned that tree based talent generation was not intended to increase the difficulty, but I think it did so, especially early. I also think that early game is NOT where the difficulty should be increased. It's much more interesting to fight tough monsters in the mid and late game when your build has at least started to take shape and you have options. It's tedious to have to resort to hit and run (or just straight run in some cases) tactics with your limited early game talents just to make it through the T1s.

I think this is worth looking at to see if 1.7 can keep some of the positive aspects of tree based talent generation without making the early game experience worse.

[darkgod]

Agreed!

1.7.3 should reduce that somewhat, we'll see if it's enough or not. But yeah to re-say it, the point is to make the late game more diverse not the early game more sucky and that's what we'll try to steer to!:)

[whitelion]

Thanks, I'll look forward to it and report back once 1.7.3 drops.