Please consider postponing this update
Please consider reevaluating this update before releasing. I personally like many aspects of this update but also feel many were lackluster. As many others have voiced, there will be some grief that this will cause the players of hardcore as well with the favor adjustment and the fvs viability.
My personal view is that the class changes at the least need to be postponed as I have seen too much negative feedback with regards to the changes and their negative impacts, a big one is the sonic blast change, its one of the only aoe spells a low level caster can effectively use as burning hands/acid spray are a bit too close for a caster to do safely, and with how mobs are being assembled in the dungeons nowadays, without aoe a caster is helpless as there's like 7-10 enemies in a group and if they get close enough to use the two other spells then they are as good as dead.
I did really like the new sacred fist archetype but I couldn't help but wonder what the reasoning was to put the radiant servant tree in there as it does not seem like a healing specced build.
For the dark apostate it just seemed kinda weird, I had a hard time figuring out what the archetypes focus was as it did not excel at much and what it did excel at, it felt was undersupported (ie it has apostate dice for weapon user to imbue their weapons with, good, but no aura for self heals or chance to heal on hit, feels bad since this is directly competing with ek at this point for flavor and abilities when played this way)
Stormsinger I liked so no real complaints, just the sonic blast change as that was a key spell for any spellsinger/stormsinger/arcane caster.
Bank changes I am very enthusiastic about but weary because of the general problems associated with tinkering with the bank system.
Toee changes I am very sad to lose the craftable weapons, while you guys did add an augment to give us the aoe blast (I love that by the way, full support), with the general increased support for Eldritch Knight and Arcane Archer lately, it feels bad to remove one of the few sources in game of vulnerability stacks for elemental damage. The other loot changes to ToEE seemed ok, some items were good but many seemed meh since they are coming in at a level range where theres so many other sets from the revamped gear from the epic crafting pass and Isle of Dread, it just feels a little saturated at that level. I did not get a chance to explore the actual ToEE quests that got changed so will eagerly look forward to running those when they go live.
Overall this update does have some good stuff in it, but it feels like there's not enough good in it at the moment to outweigh all the negatives that going live with it will cause, particularly going live with hardcore active. I would personally consider adding the archetypes and bank/DD changes and leave the rest for after it has had more time to be hammered out and would be more appropriately timed. My biggest concern here is that you guys will push something that drives away players which will slowly whittle down the player base until there's not enough to support the game, I love this game so hope you guys will reconsider this update.
