Aarklash completed Feedback and Spoilers inside

Just finished the game on hard 7h according to steam (although that might be a bug, i felt longer).

anyways i really enjoyed it in general. i just wanted to give some feedback:

1) Artstyle
I loved the look of the game. I don't have anything to add, i just wanted to mention it

2) Boss Battles
I did not enjoy them that much because most of them involved death mechanics instead of high damage. this means as long as you look at their abilities and keep aware of their indicators most bosses are too easy (either you dodge or you die). conversely bosses without such gimmicks were much more fun, e.g. the golems. In general i found battles with monsters much harder and involved, especially combos with necromancers and undead support units that heal for 100% (unless you get a certain ability with Motcha, see below.). Bosses using kill abilities also means that most of them are immune to control abilities, e.g. they would a walk over if you could silence them.

3) Heroes:
In my experience control, especially silence if the most powerful and needed ability to have. for example i had the AoE silence on Nella, combined with Denzil who has a lot of silence abilities, i could turn whole armies of elite enemies into basic monsters without deadly abilities. I choose Knokka as my tank because of here AoE taunt abilities and her shield which makes her basically immortal. Bo Lahm had not nearly the same staying power. I had Motcha as my healer but i used him more to snipe enemy units that were about to get healed (he can turn healing into damage, which is hilarious because some monsters heal for 100% and yes this works on bosses ). In general i found raw damage abilities not that useful, therefore i barely used Wanderoo or Leck Lorus or Finz. Wanderoo struck me as the only underpowered character, you have to spec into max. mana feast to make here a healer with some staying power and while leech grain is an awesome ability it has a too high cooldown imho. in general i found Motcha a much better healer and support.

On normal and easy, characters with more damage abilities might be better because you could nuke enemies before they get healed. Also some branching choices are much weaker than others, for example Nellas lightning is much better with cascade than the channeled ability because the latter does not deal that much more damage and the secondary effects of the channel are mostly ignored by bosses which is where you would need this the most.

4) Gameplay
I really enjoyed it besides one issue: You can respec any time you want (outside combat) without any penalties, which leads to a lot less replayablitly.

I also did not enjoy the items that much. While i do not mind that they did not alter the looks of the hero, they just did not feel untactful on gameplay. I would love to see items that give additional mana. also a lot of items suffered from the diablo 3 syndrome where you get mixed stats making the item not that worthwhile, e.g. physical and magic damage on one item, when most heroes deal either physical or magic damage. I would really love to see items tailored to a class instead of praying to RNGegus to give me a good roll.

Concerning enemy abilities: The ability of Black Paladins to turn healing into damage needs a higher incantation time. you barely notice them using it and if you don't prepare to loose your tank in 1 second due to heals

I can not shoot or do anythings besides moving in the secret level.

5) Levels
Imho act 1 was a bit short and act 2 had a lot of repetition in the levels, especially the wheel sword hideout. On the other hand i do not really mind for a low budget title. The puzzles got a bit annoying in their frequency, i would preferred more combat instead.

6) Conclusions:
I really enjoyed the game, it had a very high amount of polish and i only encountered very minor bugs:
-light elemental drain life spell would sometimes still show hen you kill it during animation
-the ghost in act 3 becomes attackable at 2 locations, although i did not manage to kill it (only got him to 50% health before he vanished)

i really hope there will be an expansion/sequel with an better item system and more content.

[Izno]

We are glad you liked it

Thanks for the feedback.

[Jolly Roger]

7h!!! GG

7 hours strikes me as really fast. Took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 hours on medium and I didn't really have to repeat but maybe 2 or 3 battles. Granted I use the pause feature somewhat liberally but still -- think steam was bugged for you. my general take is below:

game i s 3 acts plus short epilogue and definitely linear in nature. the story is passable but certainly not what you will remember. gameplay is what it is about -- really good feel to the strategy. some very nice creature combinations and synergy make you think and set a plan. it's not perfectly executed but it is very strong. definitely enjoyed it enough that i'm now starting ragnarok difficulty (hardest setting) and really looking forward to it. my guess is ragnarok will take a bit longer than 20 hours because i'll likely die a bit more / have to plan more diligently.

7 hours does seem a bit sketchy -- think steam was bugged for you. i just beat first playthrough on medium in just shy of 20 hours of game time and i maybe had to reapeat 2 or 3 battles at most. granted i do make a bit liberal use of the pause feature but still think most would get at least 15 hours out of a single play.

as to my thoughts: game is 3 acts plus short epilogue and is definitely linear. the story is interesting but certainly not what you will remember as the highlight. the gameplay is what aarklash is about -- there's a really good feel to the strategy. some very nice creature combinations and synergy make you think and set a plan. i will agree some of the boss fights used the death zone mechanic and were managed mostly by being in the right place / right time.

all in all, the game is not perfectly executed and there are things i might tweak but overall it is very strong. i definitely enjoyed it enough that i'm now starting ragnarok difficulty (hardest setting) and really looking forward to it. my guess is ragnarok will take a bit longer than 20 hours because i'll likely be dying alot more

steam was bugged. it updated today and it took me 16h to complete. i currently play on ragnarok as well, incidentally the game feels much easier, than my first playthrough on hard because i am much more experienced now. i basically realized the most important things to have are sustainability (good tank + healer) and control (silence, knockdown) than damage. as much as i try, a party with frinz or lack lorus just seems much weaker.

my personal favorite party is:

1. Knokka: best tank, i.e. best taunt and best survivability with still decent damage.
My favorite spec:
1.1 Plasmatic Silica: very vital to get this as early as possible basically gives you permanent 150% armor because the cooldown is the same as the duration + some healing
1.2 The toggable AoE taunt with the specialization of still being able to move.
1.3 Obscure Blood gives here good damage, heal and sustainability

her sword ability is good i just would not invest any points in it because of the long cooldown.

2. Denzil: absurdly high control against the most threatening creatures, i.e. casters while having very good damage.
Favorite spec:
2.1 Shadow of the god rat: 10 seconds of silence + insane damage what is not to want, an incredible ability to have
2.2 Mystic theft (with the specialization of applying the silence without needing to remove a debuff): basically an on will silence against sudden threats. very useful to have
2.3 the rest is up to choice personally i prefer hysteria of the god rat for 75% attack speed bonus

3. Nella: can do anything control heal and deal damage
Favorite spec:
3.1 Elemental Storm with silence, basically an AoE ranged silence with short incantation time and low mana cost. she alone can keep a bunch of mobs permanently silenced. The reduced attack speed is just a nice bonus on top.
3.2 celestial blow with additional targets. just a very good damage ability
3.3 breath of health, just a nice backup heal in case you main healer is out of mana. also heals nella which is a nice bonus.

i tried the AoE distance knowback, but you cannot sustain it because of the high mana cost. the AoE silence is therefore much better. Leveling up i would recommend getting breath of health fist, because it synergizes really well with Wenderoo and then the mass silence.

4. Motcha, insane healer and counter healer:
4.1 Wrathful spirit with no incantation time. this ability turns healing into damage, i.e. you can damage enemies with your heals, but more importantly enemy that heal themselves or allies damage them instead. there comes a point were it is very common to find a few undead healers in a group that heal for 100%. combines with wrathful spirit they basically oneshot their allies, especially bosses they are supposed to support. absolute must have and the sole reason why i value Motcha that much higher than Wenderoo
4.2 Mystic Essence: a good AoE heal on the ground
4.3 Ointment of Mokoro: a very potent instant heal in case of heavy burst damage. i rarely used it though


if i use any other setup on hard or raknarok i always loose out on critical control over enemies or durability. Lack Lorus charm/fear only takes out one enemy and his damage is not that high especially if you consider high mana cost of his abilites (even if they were lower he still has long cooldowns on them). Finz i just found totally useless, he has neither the damage nor the control of denzil.

Spot on with the silences being key. Love, love, love Denzil.

For medium, I actually tanked with Bo Lahm because I liked the flavor of that character more than Knokka. But for Rag'narok difficulty, I'm definitely focusing more on min-max and will go with Knokka.

I also used Leck Lorus more than Nella for the same reason but that definitely puts the burden of silences on both of Denzil's cooldowns and field position. Again, will be going with Nella on Rag difficulty.

I healed with Motcha on medium and will keep that the same.

Honestly I didn't use Frinz or Wendaroo much at all after the two groups of four rejoined and I had the choice. I just now reached the part on Rag difficulty where they specify the 2 groups for you (Motcha, Leck, Frinz, + Knokka group 1 and Wendaroo, Nella, Denzil, and Bo Lahm group 2). I was smarter this time and saved enough jewelry for a group of 8 to begin (didn't do this on medium) but still should be interesting with the non-ideal group compostion at much higher difficulty.

i have three issues with Bo Lahm as a tank:

1. his taunt is inferior compared to Knokkas always on AoE taunt (the health cost is barely noticeable)
2. he has much lower defenses and sustainability
3. although his AoE knockdown is very powerful and his enrage is a nice party buff, there are too many enemies that taunt you and disable damaging abilities (e.g. the charging skeletons), i.e. his one good ability over Knokka can barely be used. You really need the AoE taunt especially with Denzil running through enemy lines.


I actually played a bit longer with Wendaroo on my current Rag playthrough and she is quite a good healer, but you need the healing star that passes through units and is a boomerang. basically you position one support character between Wendaroo and the tank, fire the projectile -> feast on the support (up to 2 times) and when the healing star returns, both the tank and the support are healed, i.e. you do not need to spec into feast to sustain here mana, in fact with this playstyle you will never run out of mana. she is on par with healing, but Motcha has this awesome ability to turn healing into damage making for some hilarious gameplay especially questors who try to heal necromancers (otherwise this combo is really though to defeat) and his Heal over time has a very strong damage reducing component if you go the bouncing spec instead of the AoE dot heal.

The only useful thing with Frinz is the time bomb, i could get Knokkas Armor up to ~500 combined with her plasmatic silica . the rifle butt (dmg and AoE knockdown) has just a too long cooldown to be useful.

I really don't know how to use Leck Lorus though. His AoE projectile seems just to have very weak damage for high mana cost and medium cooldown. The magic armor reducing ability seems utterly pointless to me and the ability that creates a dot that explodes when the enemy dies before it expires is again just damage without any utility. if the target was silenced while under its effect it might be useful. The only good ability is his charm, but it only takes out one enemy and i never saw those enemies using any skills, i.e. they just autoattack.

I am currently a bit ahead of you on Rak difficulty, i.e. i am going through the vault at the moment. It does not really feel that much different from hard, it even feels easier because i know what to spec and how to engage certain enemies.

edit: i only disenchanted a few white items because i needed the space. i want to recycle them as late as possible to gain the maximum benefit of high level epics

I played through in Hard Mode in ~16 hours.

I found Act 1 reasonably challenging, although that was just me learning the game and characters having limited flexibility. Act 2 had some moderately difficult bits, in particular my first Necromancer. Act 3 however I found really easy and especially the final boss on which I don't think anyone ever went below 80% HP.

I pretty much used Knokka, Nella, Leck Lorus and Wendaroo all game. I only used Bo Lahm, Motcha and Frinnz in the split party section in Act 2. I used Denzil briefly in Act 2 around level 10 when his Bleed was maxxed out and crazily powerful but pretty much dropped him after that.

Knokka
-7/7 Plasmatic Silica with the 5s Damage Immunity: Pretty straight-forward, although in hindsight Control Immunity may have been more useful. It didn't really matter though since Wendaroo is just a beastly healer.
-6/7 Obscure Blood: Probably didn't need that much since she was never in any danger of dying, last few hours of the game I almost never even had to heal her
-6/7 Sword Axe: 7th point gains you nothing meaningful
-2/7 Neuro Taunt: I almost never needed to Taunt anything, losing aggro was rare. Late game even if I lost aggro I didn't care, again because of Wendaroo

Nella
-7/7 Celestial Blow with Propagate x 4: Excellent way to mop up large packs quickly when combined with Death Wish from Leck Lorus.
-7/7 Immobilzation of Light with Instant cast: Interrupt dangerous abilities, (mainly Charms) and permanently CC annoying enemies
-6/7 Breath of Health: Didn't need this many points but never used Elemental Chains
-1/7 Elemental Chains: Never used, tried it out but Nella's mana can be used more effectively to CC or AoE enemies.

Leck Lorus
-7/7 Manipulated Puppet with Instant cast: Incredibly powerful through Act 2, didn't see as much use late-game but still handy for Gargoyle's or other hard-hitting enemies. Could also be used in conjunction with Nella to permanently CC two enemies at once.
-7/7 Punishment of the Cursed with Support removal: Not especially powerful, but good for helping AoE down packs.
-6/7 Death Wish: No benefit to going 7/7 since the enemy will die before it expires and my party damage was almost entirely Magic. Placed on a low HP enemy or high priority target early in the fight, when combined with Sword-Axe, Celestial Blow x2 or x3 and Punishment of the Cursed I was able to quickly burst down and enemy and then spread massive AoE in the area around them, usually killing outright or severely weakening several others.
-1/7 Astral Burn: Used only on some bosses to aid Wendaroo with Mana Burn.

Wendaroo
-7/7 Star of Vitality with 5s Damage Immunity: Absolutely phenomenal skill. Gives any (usually at least 2) party members immunity to damage for 5 of every 10s as well as fully healing them. Saw no need for the boomerang since a single heal was enough to top anyone off since Wendaroo had over +45% Healing Done from items.
-7/7 Mystic Predator with Energy Regen disable: Moderately useful on certain enemies to steal Damage Immunity or to prevent them from casting, especially bosses.
-2/7 Leech Grain: Used more heavily early game, by late game was never required so took points out of it.
-5/7 Sacred Feast: Could have gotten an extra point, but never felt the need, keeping up mana levels was not difficult. A really great trick is to use Star of Vitality to give allies Immunity to Damage and then use Sacred Feast on them, giving them a nice HoT without the drawback.

I didn't use any Control/Anti-Magic/Reduction immunity abilities or equipment. While it was occasionally annoying I frankly didn't care about it after mid-way through Act 2. The sheer HPS and survivability Wendaroo was able to put out meant that even when Knokka had 0 Armor from debuffs she was in no danger of dying. I did feel like my bursting-cleave strategy was losing steam toward the end of the game though. But again it didn't matter, my characters couldn't die.

My strategy would probably be less effective on Ragnarok, especially the bursting down and AoEing enemies. Star of Vitality would still be insanely effective though, Damage Immunity + a Full Heal is pretty good on any difficulty! I would probably need to look into Silence effects on enemies as well as some Control and Reduction immunity for my party.

I agree that Bo Lahm is probably just flat-out inferior to Knokka, he doesn't have any survivability tools. He probably works okay for Easy and Medium however. I can definitely see the potential in Motcha, I'll give him a proper go on my Ragnarok play-through. Frinz could be useful for certain situations although for me he's competing directly with Leck Lorus for the DPS spot and while he has extra damage he doesn't have any CC. Some of the comments about Denzil and his ability to mass Silence sound interesting, I'll check that out.

I feel that Nella is fairly irreplaceable through much of the game since Wendaroo and afaik Motcha can't reliably heal themselves.

I felt disappointed with the difficulty of the final boss, I felt since he was some mind-control master that I would be facing swarms of dangerous enemies instead of just him doing not much at all. Overall the difficulty seemed to peak about 30-40% of the way through the game and tapered down from their as I learnt how best to exploit Star of Vitality.

Just finished Rag'narok play through -- good bit of fun but agreed that, with the experience from the first play through on medium, it didn't feel harder -- just an awareness that I was playing with greater team synergy. Playing on Rag'narok as first play through would have probably been very painful though.

The 4-player comp I used after the group of 8 rejoined was Knokka, Denzil, Nella, and Wendaroo (basically your first party of four back together again).

Knokka: rushed to full 7 Plasmatic Silica (immunity to all damage) - I could see 10s control being useful as well. After that worked on getting Vitae Treatment to M65: Obscure Blood Tree (3 points) and Neuro Taunt to X78: Mutant Pheromones (3 points). Then Obscure Blood to max (Greatly increases Health Drain final) and the taunt up to 5m with health drain.

Denzil: took 6 points in Shadow of the God Rat 6 points (one shy of max), and Mystic Theft to max (the one that doesn't require any effect to be removed to silence), and Artery Gnaw to the max (with +50 to miss perk). Mainly get him to at least the silence portion of Theft and God Rat, then rushed to end of Artery Gnaw then put points into increasing silences.

Nella: rushed her to max Elemental Storm Silence 5s. That is her strongest ability (borderline imbalanced ). Then Celestial Blow to max (4 enemy propagation) and 6 points in Breath of Health for support heals.

Wendaroo: Rush to Star of Vitality max (boomerang effect). Get at least 3 points in Mystic Predator (Soul Bite) to be able to take effects off allies (very handy), then Leech Grain to max (I chose larger healing zone for positioning flexibility), took Soul Bite to 5 (where it can take anti-magic but one short of taking damage effects off ally). and then put her last point in Sacred Feast cause it had to go somewhere.

It's pretty easy on all fights to get your characters lined up for Boomerang heals. Knokka is the hub of the wheel tanking and then Nella stands a short distance behind her, Wendaroo a short distance behind Nella. Denzil is roaming taking out ranged casters or on the back side of whatever melee is left. As Denzil moves about, just pivot Nella and Wendaroo to keep everyone in a line. Grain on hardest hitting melee that you won't be killing for ahwile. Star for big group heals. Feast off Nella and/or Denzil to get mana as necessary.

Heals just seemed way more stable with Wendaroo. Yeah, Motcha can do the whole heal reversal but with so much Silence going around between Nella and Denzil -- not many enemy heals are getting off (or any enemy spells for that matter). Honestly, with Knokka keeping most things taunted and Nella / Denzil silencing anything at further afield, fights are really, really stable.

Great game all around -- love the synergy between the party as well as the enemies -- ending seemed quite open to sequels/expansions -- get to work!!

For giggles and variety (and because i really like the combat of the game), I'm going to try and beat Rag level with the other 4 characters (Motcha, Bo Lahm, Leck Lorus, and Frinz). Not my ideal make-up but I like problem solving and challenges