What are we doing with the difficulty curve?

Axel: In the play test, a 15 was where you could get the highest item level loot from the items. We want the journey to a 15 or wherever that difficult is set, we want that to be interesting as well. We want that to be something that takes a bit of time, but also where players feel there's reasonable motivation to use currencies to upgrade items and start to use the different systems and explore their talents, gems, and all of these things overtime while the game is still growing your power.
We felt that went a little too fast. We want to look at upgrading, upgrade costs, and loot in general. Primarily, the big thing, is the difficulty curve. In the play test there was smaller differences between each difficulty. We think we can create a more interesting journey for that first power increase by having that difficulty curve increase be sharper to some degree.

What are we doing about NPC Critical Hits?

Axel: In the play test, we had enemy abilities that cannot crit. As you increase difficulty, there's a place where critical strikes will surprise you and kill you outright. It's random and that generally isn't the most fun way to experience how challenge increases. In the play test we removed critical strikes from a lot of the enemy abilities so we could tune around it.
Some enemies had "filler casts" that were capable of critical strikes. What we saw in the play test was those casts were still capable of one shots even without crits. In hindsight, generally magic damage reduction is harder to come by to players than physical reduction. What we're experimenting with right now, is no more critical strikes on projectiles. Melee auto attacks are the only things that can still critically strike, with exceptions being made for buffs on boss or trash npcs.

How are we handling bad overlaps with boss mechanics and curse mechanics?

Axel: We had a system to handle that, which I assume players didn't notice during the play test. What we had going into the play test was a realization that there was going to be bad overlaps. So we already had it so curses don't trigger the same way in a boss fight. In a boss fight, the trigger will continue counting down but when the cooldown finishes it won't trigger instantly. Instead, we had it so certain boss abilities were tagged to open this trigger window and close it after. We caught a fair bit of them, but there's probably some tweaking we need to do.
On Cithrel, in Cithrel's Ascent, she has a mechanic that requires the group to soak and I think we managed to use that tool to make sure that meteor never happens at the same time as Binding Ice or Meteors. So I think we managed to use this to avoid that overlap. The siren boss in Sailor's Abyss was one of the outliers and we'll need to ensure during certain gameplay moments, we also prevent curses from triggering.

What are we doing with Character Progression?

Gems

Axel: Generally, we feel like they were a success as far as trying out a system that gave more choices for players to experiment with. We also got to test having a cap on that. The way the players interacted with the system felt positive to us. One thing we wanted to do was take out the bigger powers in the gem track and move those into a new progression system we're working on. Essentially cutting the 12 node track to 10. Primarily we felt for a one week play test those gem powers felt great, but we realized if this is week four and everyone is making whirlwinds, green spikes, and blue aura stones, we felt that would start taking away from the identity of the heroes. We'll still have them in the game, but they'll be a choice between that and other effects tied to a new system.

Loot

Axel: We've definitely heard the feedback from enough players that we realize we need to address the randomness of gearing, like basic items and how you get them. We had players who played 40 hours on one hero and didn't get a piece to replace their basic item. We have some plans that will address that randomness, while at the same time we don't want it to be game-able. We want to ensure that we don't end up in a situation where a player can farm a dungeon for 10 hours to get their item and know that they'll guarantee an item from another dungeon. We've got a good idea on how we want to handle that.

What are we planning to do with weapons?

Axel: Weapons are traditionally in RPGs, and kind of one of the main things people enjoy acquiring and are excited about when they drop. That's not lost on us. I want to confirm that we like weapons as well, and we have plans to add weapons for early access.The reason we didn't have weapons in the play test build is because we want to do something fun with weapons. We don't want it to just be another item that has more stats.
We're still exploring how we want them to work, but I'll say one thing we're looking at is: You'll notice every hero had one missing ability slot on their action bar, and that's definitely something we're also aware of as we talk about weapons. We want weapons to be exciting, so we want there to be some choices for players to make. We want them to be something players can experiment with and explore over a longer time in a season.
Players gave feedback about how gems felt very powerful, and now that we're adding weapons that will also be very powerful, we're probably going to adjust gems down a bit. However, the plan for gems was always to have it be something you're progressing through for a longer time each season. You won't be able to fill out your optimal gem setup in the first week.
In the play test, you could upgrade beyond the highest item level you could get from drops. We're going to expand that a bit so there's a longer upgrade journey beyond the drop cap.
Weapons will probably be the most powerful part of your kit, then talents, gems, and then optimizing your secondary stats on items.
We heard feedback that set bonuses didn't feel powerful enough to compete with gems. We agree, and have some thought's on armor sets on a wider creative scope.

Lets talk about Legendary items!

Axel: We want some of those "oooo" moments as you're gearing up and working through progression. Let's say you get a pair of legendary bracers, they will have a high value just by being legendary compared to other bracers. Going beyond that we want to make sure there's interesting choices not just a power boost but fun choices.
A lot of players that play RPG's, they go into with a focus on specific aspects of a character.("I want to focus on crit strikes, and play it this specific way), and that's a big part of the game but what also makes these kinds of games exciting is the unexpected twists and turns that come along the way there. So you have your plan, but then all of a sudden you get some weapon or other item that makes you consider playing a different build, if at least not temporarily.

Early Access

Axel: We want to use the EA period to make the game better, but we also want to ensure that the game feels great to play on day one. We're excited for Early Access this year.

Fellowship Community Council

Hamish: Imagine a private discord or private group of players like yourself that are just dedicated to making the game better. What we've already started doing, and will continue to do is grow this group. It's a group of players that are under NDA so we can talk directly with them and be very very open about the development of our game, and get that feedback as soon as we can. We have a lot of hardcore players, but I really want to find more player profiles that will give us a more holistic view. If you're interested, just DM Hamish on discord. Write him something about why you'd be a good fit.

Fellowship DEV UPDATE | Public Playtest Wrap-Up