Since its launch, Last Epoch has been welcomed by many players. The large number of wonderful content and mechanisms in the game have brought us a lot of fun. However, like any game, Last Epoch is not without its faults.
So here we are going to talk about five things that definitely need improvement in Last Epoch. Developers can further enhance our gaming experience by improving or removing these elements. I hope it becomes more successful and a better game over time.
Remove Damage From Off-Screen
First, I have to say that damage from the other side of the map needs to be eliminated. I think most of you will agree with me that off-screen damage is not a rewarding mechanic in ARPGs. This is annoying and feels unfair at times, especially finding it extremely irritating to be hit by powerful AOE attacks from enemies far away from our position.
While I’m currently happy with some of the damage inflicted by mobs from off-screen in the game, getting one-shotted by a mob on the other side of Monolith map is super annoying.
This is a critical issue with the sheer amount of visual effects we have on screen, especially with the more flashy builds like Runemaster’s special effects spam with invocations-based. So I’d love to see this mechanic disappear in Last Epoch.
On-screen damage doesn’t add any depth to gameplay. It doesn’t make me a better ARPG player, nor is it something I can specify to use in-game tools. Off-screen damage will also punish us, possibly just because we stopped to check for loot or possibly organize our inventory. Overall, this is not a cool feature at all and it has to be removed.
Performance Needs To Be Optimized
Next, we want to talk about Last Epoch performance. I have a nice rig with a Ryzen 7 5800x, NVIDIA 3070, and 32 GB RAM. When not much is happening on the screen, I get a good steady FPS of around 140+. At times, I could maintain a stable FPS of 80-90 even though there was a lot going on the screen.
However, with certain maps and character builds, my FPS would drop to very annoying lows. For example, we only got 30 or 40 FPS when spamming Runemaster’s Frost Claw, Elemental Novas were popping up everywhere, and it was really no fun.
In fact, lowering my settings did improve their performance. And I’ve seen a lot of players complaining about game performance or setting changes having no impact on the game’s FPS. So this is naturally related to the optimization of the game.
Therefore, I hope the developers will look into improving optimizations for the game. To be fair, they’ve come a long way over the years. In the past, the game had poor FPS performance on certain maps or when using certain character abilities. But in order for players to fully enjoy the game, further upgrades are definitely needed.
Improve Arena Mechanism
Next, we want to talk about Arena. Currently, Arena is the least rewarding activity in Last Epoch endgame. Aside from leaderboards, unique loot drops, and a change of pace, there’s no real reason to run an arena now.
The amount of loot you get from Arena is inefficient considering the time it takes to acquire it. Sure, XP you can earn in Arena is substantial, but you can get similar XP, if not more, when running Monolith.
Plus, you can get more Last Epoch Gold there, so why should you bother with Arena?
So what’s wrong with Arena? I believe this is the flow and structure of this game mode. Some enemies crawl at a snail’s pace. This is especially problematic because of the design of some arena maps. Most of them are too big, causing you to stop frequently and look around for the last mob.
Therefore, I want all Arena maps to be as simple and compact as Arena of Champions map. Developers, please zoom out and get rid of or speed up slow enemies. Also, improve the loot and maybe add some unique rewards, just like you would in a dungeon. These improvements could make Arena a more viable option as an endgame activity in Last Epoch.
Bad UI Issues
Let’s say that UI of Last Epoch has always been a problem. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really improved over time. I’m having a lot of issues with the game’s UI.
First, often when crafting and selecting affixes, the tooltips will start going crazy. They continuously display the item’s description, or a window with affixes information. Other times, the item description doesn’t pop up after launching the game until I change the loot filter for some reason.
Also, do you sometimes get FPS drops from quickly checking many item descriptions for dropped items? I’m not sure if this is a recent issue or if I just didn’t pay attention because I didn’t get that much loot in the past.
Besides, some options don’t tick correctly on the menu, or don’t work at all. No matter what I do, I can’t turn on “show life above the character” in the game.
As a result, UI is a very annoying part of Last Epoch experience. It should be a useful tool, but it often became an obstacle I had to overcome in the game, which is a sign of poor UI performance. Instead of enhancing my experience and allowing me to better understand the game, UI often drove me crazy.
Improve The Display Of Stats
Finally, let’s talk about the way stats are displayed in Last Epoch, which needs some improvement.
At first glance, the stats visible in Last Epoch are very large, detailed, and easy to understand. But as you play more, you realize it’s not all that great.
First off, figuring out your DPS isn’t as simple as you might think. This is because some skill tooltips don’t show DPS at all.
Take Runemaster, for example. When it was built to cast random spells, we had no idea what its DPS would be. But in other cases, it shouldn’t be difficult for developers to provide us with estimates, such as Chaos Bolts, which are currently not shown at all.
Then we have some stats that don’t show up in our character stats sheets at all. For example, we have no way of knowing statistics about “Chance to apply Frailty” related to damage types penetrations or channeling skills.
I’d also love to see a breakdown of stats on the tooltip, like my Necro-based Warlock has 888% Necro damage. The source of this damage boost is shown in the table, which contains two item passive idols. This way I can understand which parts of my build are causing this damage. This will also make it easier for you to judge what to replace or what to focus on improving.
You might think that last point is a little nitpicky, but remember, items and stats are a core and integral part of ARPG gameplay. We should always be looking for ways to make our decisions around loot and character building easier.
Of course, some gaming communities resort to mods or external apps to fix inefficiencies that exist in their games. But I wish the developers of Last Epoch would put effort into UI and stats to make sure we don’t have to rely solely on fans of the game to fix problems caused by the developers.
So here are five things I hope will be improved in Last Epoch. How is your gaming experience? What aspects of Last Epoch bother you? What systems or inefficiencies would you like to see improved? I want to know what you think! See you next time!
