Game Mechanics Flaws in Salted's thought processes for changes and additions.

The ability tree's have large flaws, and I'm going to try to discuss what has lead to these.

It really feels like a lot of the abilities are just "Hey this sorta fits the archetype and would be cool", without much consideration. This leads to many issues involving how the archetype works balance and gameplay, and I really think there should be more consideration into the many factors involved. It also seems there's a lot of "It's fine". By that I mean settling for the bare minimum, ignoring the flaws and issues and not considering much. A example of this is vanish cooldown, mainly silent killer. It really feels slapped on and imo doesn't fit what they're aiming for. Most of the abilities feel like they're meant to make your one strike really powerful and make it slow paced, silent killer(and other ways to reset vanish) goes against it as with it you'll be able to use vanish a lot, which doesn't work with what the archetype is trying to be. It feels slapped on, and a way to reflect compaints about the cooldown. "Oh It's fine because it's easy to reset it with silent killer!" This ignores how minions are situational in fights and aren't meant to be the main focus, and it being easy makes it unsatisfying and inconsistent due to it relying on minions. Another is ability shards, making them extremely easy to obtain goes against the whole reason for them existing, which is to make resetting feel important and rewarding. Buying off the trade market isn't rewarding or important at all, and it's just a way to say "It's fine cause you can get them easily" which is dumb because their whole purpose is to be important and reward effort, but it just becomes a inconvenience and nothing else. The "It's fine" mindset only leads to inconveniences design issues and unsatisfaction, if you want to make good content you need to actaully consider and think. Being lazy will only get you so far, I get you have many things to do but for the few changes you make please consider things.
Although I condemn low thought and laziness, I do agree you shouldn't overdo it and put too much effort into it as you will ignore other responsibilities and projects, but I think the current bar needs to be raised much higher.


Back to the ability trees, it feels the bare minimum is considered and nothing else. Sure it works at endgame with only 1 archetype if you ignore useless upgrades and clashing design and annoyances and limitations, but theres plenty of factors simply thrown aside at times. Here are the main factors I find important:

Overall Concept(How well the archetype feels at full, and what role does it serve. Do it's abilities reward and allow for this playstyle? Is it a fun playstyle? Does it fit with the theme of the class? Does it's placement fit how well it mixes with the archetypes next to it? You should need to sacrifice and have weaknesses for strengths, or require skill to pull it off. The best outcome is having the player feel rewarded(but not too rewarded) for playing that playstyle and get further rewarded for mastering that playstyle. Many factors are needed like everything else, it's not easy but it's the effort needed to make something well designed.)

Progression(How well the archetype feels during progression. Factors that I find important are: Do the starting upgrades feel like it introduces and allows/encourages for the playstyle? Do it's abilities build on the playstyle and feel meaningful and important? Does it feel like the playstyle strengthens as you go down the tree? Does the archetypes playstyle work without every single upgrade? Progression is a large factor that the ability tree improved, but it must be done well. The most important thing is to not have any late abilities that are too important/needed for the playstyle to be functional.)

Tree mixing(How well the archetypes mix, and how balanced is it. Balance as a factor matters in this one too, here are parts that I find important: Are you able to easily mix archetypes? Do your choices feel meaningful and important, are you making hard choices? Is it easy to slap on one of the first abilities and get the whole archetypes power(Cough cough fallen)? Do you feel rewarded for investing into one archetype fully, and does it feel like you're sacrificing important features of the archetype if you want to mix? Is it TOO easy to slap on powerful upgrades down the tree and should you need to invest into the archetype to get that? Requirements are important in this as you need to find a balance to limiting the players mixing for balance and making the player feel free to customise, as well as rewarding investment into a archetype?

Balance(Pretty self explanatory, and the least I have insight and experience in. Try to balance numbers to appropriate levels depending on the amount skill and sacrifice needed to gain that power.)

These are my thoughts on this topic and my advice for future changes. I hope this is recieved and considered. Considering and effort are important parts for a good product, and I feel they are not being thought or done enough. I think this has huge potential, but it will require effort to pull off, take your time and don't stop improving until you reach something much better, nothing is ever perfect but at least settle for something great.