The game is unplayable if you level up
Dear Development Team,
I am writing to provide critical feedback regarding the endgame balance and the Cardinal System's scaling algorithm in Echoes of Aincrad. Currently, my character has reached the absolute endgame ceiling, but the game has become completely unenjoyable and borderline unplayable due to how enemy behavior and player defense scale at high levels.
My Character Profile:
• Gear: Level +20 Swords and Daggers with maxed-out, Purple-tier EX-Mods.
• Status: Fully optimized endgame stats.
The Issues:
- Extreme Enemy Aggression & Animation Spam:
At high character levels, overworld bosses and elite enemies scale to a point where they completely trap themselves in infinite animation loops. On difficulties as low as Normal, bosses are constantly spamming heavy area-of-effect (AoE) hazards and blow-back winds without any internal cooldowns. This forces players to spend up to a full minute doing nothing but dodging, with zero viable attack windows. The only workaround is to "face-rush" the boss and hope to brute-force a DPS-check before their attack scripts begin, which completely ruins tactical combat.
- Broken Posture & Stagger Scaling for Basic Mobs:
While weapon damage scales heavily up to +20, player armor and natural Poise/Stagger resistance completely fall off. Because the Cardinal System gives basic overworld mobs (such as the bouncing balloon enemies and wolves) massive tracking and stagger-weight multipliers, a single basic hit completely flattens my character.
- Shield Block Ineffectiveness:
Even when utilizing a high-tier Shield, standard blocks completely fail against basic mob grab-attacks and heavy projectile impacts. Because these are mechanically coded as "Unblockable Heavy Force" hits, my guard is broken instantly, leading to unescapable stunlock loops while trying to get up from the floor.
Suggested Solution:
Please review the exponential scaling of enemy AI tracking, posture damage, and ability cooldowns at high levels. Enemy multipliers need to scale linearly, or late-game armor items must be buffed to provide appropriate Poise and Stagger Resistance so that shields and defensive playstyles remain viable on lower difficulties like Normal.
Thank you for your hard work on the game, and I hope this balance issue can be addressed in a future patch.