First, this review is coming from the perspective of someone who plays very competitively, so I’m judging the game primarily from that standpoint.
My biggest issue with the game is the lack of class balance. It feels like certain classes are fundamentally broken, and unless the developers find a way to address this, I don’t see myself returning.
Shadow Strix is especially problematic, particularly in solos. Being able to dash several screens away within seconds allows players to completely reset an engagement until they get a favorable opening. If you make even one mistake against them, you often have no way of escaping, and you’re essentially guaranteed to die. It makes fights feel less about skill and more about whether the Shadow Strix player decides to commit to the engagement.
Mage is still incredibly strong in trios. Even though the class was finally nerfed, the fact that it has a ranged AoE attack that can be cast directly at your feet and chunk someone for half their HP feels extremely unfair. If they land a pull on your team, the fight is often just over.
Support Seer is one of the most frustrating classes to fight, especially in team fights. In solos, they have four extra heals, while in trios they get six. On top of that, they have a totem that can stun you if you leave its circle, a team-wide shield, and a pushback ability. When you put all of these abilities together, it becomes incredibly difficult to actually kill a Seer, especially as a melee player.
The biggest problem is what happens in team fights. If you try to focus the Seer first, you have to deal with all of their defensive abilities and sustain, making them extremely difficult to take down. But if you leave them for last, they can keep their teammates alive and make the other two members of the team feel almost invincible. It creates a situation where there really isn’t a good target to focus, because ignoring the Seer can be just as punishing as trying to kill them.
Then there’s Wither Knight. This used to be one of the worst classes in the game, but after the buffs, it has arguably become one of the strongest. It has seemingly unlimited gap closers, insane damage, and extremely strong 1v1 potential.
And those are just the class-balance issues. There are plenty of other problems with the game.
The lag can be absolutely brutal. At times, the game genuinely looks like a slideshow, and hit registration becomes almost nonexistent, especially when fighting more than one team. There have been numerous situations where the game completely falls apart when you get third-partied in trios, and it seems particularly bad on Brandgard.
The matchmaking is also a complete joke because of the gear gap. The changes that make you primarily queue into players with similar gear have effectively made running Legendary gear feel pointless. You can potentially sit in queue for 5–10 minutes just to load into a completely dead lobby with one under-geared team. Even when using purple gear, there’s still a chance you’ll end up in a lobby with only one other team instead of the expected four other teams. That’s a huge problem for players who actually want to use higher-tier gear and have meaningful PvP encounters. There’s basically no incentive to risk your best gear when the reward can be waiting several minutes for a lobby that barely has anyone in it.
The global chat is another issue. It’s filled with bots advertising currency for real money, which makes the game feel incredibly unpolished.
And locking camp progression behind RNG has to be one of the worst design choices I’ve ever seen. Progression shouldn’t feel like it’s being held hostage by random chance.
Overall, the game is genuinely fun when it comes to PvP, and the aesthetic is great. There’s a lot of potential here, but the current balance, matchmaking, lag, progression system, and bot problem are too significant to ignore.
Until the developers address some of these major issues, I can’t see myself continuing to play.
