I've played Hammerwatch for a good while now, and I've gotten a feel for how most of the classes play. That being said, I would like to offer my comments on the current classes, and some balancing issues that need to be addressed. I'll be using the unofficial wiki for specification and for filling in what i don't know. I'll run though them one at a time and each of their skills starting with the standard atacks, the passives, then the active skills; after which I will make some speculations on the two upcoming classes: rogue and priest.
Paladin
SA- The paladin's standard attack is very effective and almost op; the main issue is that it kill's my fingers. In order to get the most out of the sa, you have to spam the attack button at insane speeds. I typically average 8 attacks per second (remember this number.) So after a while my fingers cramp up. I suggest that the attack damage be raised, and the attack speed cap be lowered (or created, I'm actually not sure if I've hit the cap yet.) 20% change on both would probably be enough.
Divine Wrath- Its a bit of an iffy pick up, but is none the less useful.
Shield- this is in my opinion the foundation of the paladin class, being able to absorb ranged attacks at will. I think it would be nice to have some identification how wide you're current shield is; perhaps an arc around the paladin that lights up when blocking an attack.
Charge- Love the ability. Good for charging in and escaping. No change needed.
Healing (into Barrier)- I have mixed feelings about this one. It certainly can be useful, but it makes the paladin feel compelled to carry the team hp wise. It has also been mentioned that the priest may take the party heal from the paladin, so he would have a new skill to use. I thought of a good alternative that follows the paladin's tanky, front line style. I call it, Barrier. The paladin thrusts his sword into the ground, and creates a defensive bubble, about 2.5 tiles in diameter, around him. It is a continuously channeled ability, like healing. While active, the paladin aggro's surrounding mobs and absorbs damage. He pays mana per second to maintain the shield, as well as a ratio of mana per damage received. Barrier could be used to protect team from oncoming ranged attacks, or save members who are being overwhelmed and surrounded. Upgrades would increase shield size / aggro range, and efficiency (mana per second and damage ratio)
Holy Storm- To put it short, it's not viable (at least in the earlier levels). The sa is much more effective untill you start to max its damage. For instance, i've approximated that the ability hits everything around you at about 4 hits per second. At its first rank it deals 2x sword damage, meaning that its just as effective as your sa atack, so why use it? At 3x damage, it becomes slightly more effective than sa, but is nowhere worth the massive mana cost. At the higher levels of damage and duration, it seemed that it would be very effective, but it's poor starting levels are unsatisfactory. It needs something else to make it viable. My initial though is that while it is active the Paladin could move through and displace enemies. This would let him dive into enemy masses, inflicting large amounts of damage into the interior before escaping. Another idea is to increase the effective range to double your sa, this would let him hit a lot more mobs at once. Also, i don't know if this in its current iteration, but you should gain a 360 degree shield; it makes sense since you're technically facing every direction.
Wizard
SA- nice and powerful, later ranks are satisfying. No change needed
Incineration- Very useful utility, especially for dealing with tanky melee mobs. No change needed.
Frost Shild- This skill is rather finicky to make use of, sheerly due to the %chance component. Since the wizard has the least amount of health getting hit by 1 of the melee mobs is likely to take away between half and a third of your health. This means that you have to be pretty lucky to receive any benefit from it. My suggestion is to make it always activate, lower its initial effectiveness (upgrades would increase %reduction and slow duration)
Flame Breath- This ability in my opinion is no more effective than the sa. Considering it costs mana, it should be much more powerful. I suggest that flame breath should penetrate though enemies. Additionally, it should scale with the sa damage. Makes sense since they are both fire attacks.
Frost Nova- Good overall damage and slow. I actually haven't used this skill very much. But just my looking at its stats, I'd say that it doesn't need a change.
Meteor Storm- Again, haven't used this skill a lot, but looks good on paper. I just add that it also should scale with sa attack damage since it's also a fire spell. Perhaps slightly lowering meteor size and adding an additional meteor to the first level, just to increase the chances that it hits something.
Ranger
SA- My only request is to slightly increase the damage at range, since the ranger is a ranged class, and you can only achieve maximum damage when standing very close to your target. Increasing the distance before the damage starts to fall of by 2 or 3 tiles would be nice.
Dodge- Similar to the wizards frost nova, %chance mechanic makes the skill too variable to make use of, especially since the percentages are so low. The solution I came up with was to make the Ranger always avoid attacks that are in front of him (think a 45 degree knight shield that also negates melee attacks). The limiting factors on this to prevent op'ness (I hereby declare it a word) would be to limit it to when the archer is not attacking, and to make it only doge one attack per second. Thereby, if you're facing two melee attackers, one of them will hit you, and you'll only dodge the first arrow of a swarm of arrows assaulting you. Suddenly not op. Upgrades would increase dodge per second ratio.
Marksmanship- Ahh, the crits. The staple of the archer. Very useful, no change needed.
Bomb- Very powerful and useful skill. No change needed.
Overgrowth- Useful when surrounded. Altogether a useful utility. No change needed.
Flurry- Like Holly storm, its questionable whether or not this is a viable skill due to sa atacks being more effective at lower levels, especially since it requires the ranger to be surrounded to achieve full efficiency; and the ranger is pretty screwed if surrounded. I came up with a good solution (actually while I was writing this). instead of spinning in a circle and shooting, perhaps he could fire a "flurry" of arrows in a cone in of him, Legolas style. Think a rapid fire arrow shotgun. That would certainly make it more effective than the sa.
Warlock:
SA- No change needed. You have a poisoned dagger that makes dead enemies explode for crying out loud!
Blood Sacrifice- Good sustain mechanic, possibly a little op. No change needed
Soul Sacrifice- Against a large group, this is highly op. The Warlock can continually cast spells with this. It would be much better if it was a chance gain, like blood sacrifice.
Lightning Strike- All around good skill, though a little costy. No change needed.
Life Steal Nova- Again, against groups, highly op. This gives the Warlock waaaay too much sustain. An easy way to somewhat fix this is to make it so that the Warlock only gains health if the enemies are killed during the duration.
Electrical Storm- Extremely powerful ability, only question is if its worth the enormous mana cost. You could cast 7 lightning strikes for the same amount, and I think those 7 strikes are more powerful than the storm, haven't used it enough to accurately tell though.
And now we enter speculations and ideas for the Priest and Rouge. All I know about them is the Future patches post, so mostly ideas.
Priest:
Obviously, the priest will be a healing mage responsible for keeping the team healthy. I imagine he will have a ranged sa like the wizard. The two things mentioned is that the Priest would take over healing from the paladin, and the possibility of a healing/damaging beam. Already its clear that the meta of the Priest is healing, which should be reconsidered because healing is not the most fun thing in the world, but the benefits of the large amounts of sustain the priest would offer would compel someone from the party to play priest and carry the team. Aside from the group heal inherited from the paladin, I don't think he should have any more healing capabilities. However, I do like the idea of a beam attack, and think that perhaps the meta of the Priest should be focused around light/holy magics. Something interesting I came up with up the top of my head is that one of his abilities could summon a familiar to attack enemies. Not sure if that fits with the rest of his yet to be announced kit. But hey, seems cool to me.
Rouge:
When I think of a rouge, I think of a high damage, high mobility, single target attacker, which it seems he will end up being. From the for-mentioned post, the only hinted information is backstabbing and throwing knives, which actually sounds more assassin like; but they also are high damage, high mobility, single target attackers, so I think the two can be interchangeable in this regard. His sa will most likely be a dager, but considering the warlock's got daggers down, perhaps we could give him a more rougelike weapon, like claws or knuckles. His first ability will probably be throwing daggers. Two other abilities I like is the ability to stealth, and a dash attack. not like the paladin's though. More like a dash up and assassinate the first target you hit; also good for mobility.
There you have it. My total spiel. Further comment and tell me if I missed something and give me your own ideas about the two mysterious classes. Over and out.
