Combat feels clunky

The combat feels kind of clunky and not very fluid in the beginning. I felt it when I first started playing, but I eventually either got used to it or it went away after I got fun abilities to use.

I invited 2 of my friends to play with me and they both said the exact same thing when they started, saying the combat felt really clunky. (Yes, they both used that exact word.) One of them stopped playing and said he might try again once the game's a bit more polished and that D3 and TL2 felt better. The other friend still plays, but only when I bug him to play with me.

After hearing this from my friends (and experiencing it again myself when I created a new character to play with them), I did a quick forum search and found that I wasn't the only one that felt the combat, at least in the early stages, felt clunky.

I hope GGG makes this better because it seems to alienate new players.

I think the reason it feels "clunky" is because of the way the cast point and backswing animations are designed in this game.

In attacks, there's the "cast point", which is the time (in milliseconds) that it takes between the issued order and the time it takes for the order to take place (for example, the time between you start moving your wand and when the fireball actually appears). If the entire animation is one second, the cast point will usually be something like .6 seconds, meaning your character will swing their weapon for .6 seconds before any spell is released and mana cost is triggered.
In a lot of games, if the character is issued an order before the end of the cast point, the animation will cancel and no damage will be dealt, no cooldowns or mana cost will be penalized.

The backswing is the time between the end of the cast point and the end of the animation. The damage has already been dealt, but the character will continue to swing his weapon. Using the previous example of a one second attack animation, the backswing would be the remaining .4 seconds.
In a lot of games, if the unit is issued an order during the backswing, the animation will cancel but the damage has already been dealt, so the character can move with no penalty.


The reason Path of Exile seems clunky at first is because your Exile's animation is locked during the entire cast point and the entire backswing, because the Exile cannot issue any commands between the time that the attack order begins and the animation completely finishes. Any commands issued will be ignored, and are not queued to fire at the end of the animation. Most games allow you to cancel the animation at any time, so by comparison, it feels like your Exile's response is slow.

+1

It's supposed to be clunky early on...wont get better until you get some support gems and building your passives around specific attacks.

Got to the point in the closed beta that my marauder felt nice and fast and very fluid and that's the slowest class generally...starting over in open beta with the same build but no gear or support gems it feels even worse that just trying it for the first time but at least i know that it will get better.

Yea...it's still a bit clunky..much better what it was two years ago..but still..

There is something wrong with animation dynamics or/and camera motion (lack of camera motion).. It's hard to point on specific thing why..but this is where TL2 or D3 is really ahead..hopefully..there will be more polish in this aspect of the game..

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lagwin1980 написал:

It's supposed to be clunky early on...wont get better until you get some support gems and building your passives around specific attacks.

...it feels even worse that just trying it for the first time but at least i know that it will get better.

Yea, but new players don't know that and it gives them a poor first impression of the game.