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Comcast in Florida, horrible rubber banding, please solve…

This discussion will focus on how the passive abilities of different weapon types do not interact with the summoner's skills and mechanics, highlighting how no current weapon type is truly beneficial for the summoner.

1. Long bow

A) Heartseeker

It doesn't work with damage-per-second skills, nor with HEX.

B) Bullseye

It doesn't work with damage-per-second skills, nor with HEX.

2. Short bow

A) Arrowstorm

It does not cause HEX to be consumed faster, nor does it have any other beneficial interaction with the summoner's skills.

3. Wand / Book

A) Deadly Finisher
Unfortunately, the "Deadly Finisher" has a very long animation, which slows down the rate at which you consume HEX. And the multiple instances of damage don't cause the HEX to be consumed more efficiently.

B) Echo

It doesn't work with damage-per-second skills, nor with HEX.

C) Perfect Timing

This is a passive that works properly with all skills, however its benefit is quite limited if activated with "spirit shred", "Hex", "Mortal Blast", "Disintegrate", which either already have their own cooldown reduction mechanics, or already have a low cooldown.

D) Conclusion

We can even choose a weapon that best suits us depending on the content we're doing or based on the item's attributes. However, it seems that the passives of all weapons weren't designed to interact with the summoner's skills and mechanics, mainly because most of them don't benefit damage-per-second skills, nor do they make the HEX be consumed faster.

I understand that the next stream is planned for the end of the month and that the team is currently focused on fixing reported bugs and bringing the PTR back online to test the next major update. However, I think there is a more fundamental issue that needs to be addressed before “bug fixing” and iteration can be truly meaningful.

Right now, much of the game feels less like an alpha with unfinished systems and more like pre-alpha systems and tech testing, where many core gameplay loops simply do not function yet. This makes it very difficult for players to provide useful feedback beyond pointing out that things are broken or missing.

Here are some concrete examples from current gameplay:

• General state – most content feels like placeholder content; it’s hard to identify any location or system that feels even ~20% complete in terms of functionality.
• Crafting – low-level crafting is effectively useless, and core crafting loops are not working in a meaningful way.
• Fishing and naval gameplay – ships break frequently, the time and money investment is not worth it, and the loop provides no viable progression or reward.
• Harbingers – not functioning properly, preventing testing of intended PvE systems.
• North zone – largely non-existent from a gameplay perspective; the economy also doesn’t exist, with only 2–3 main cities and no real economic loop.
• Raid bosses – not working, making raid testing impossible.
• Dungeon bosses – also not working, which breaks one of the most basic PvE gameplay loops.
• World zones – desert, jungle, and bottom jungle areas are unfinished and largely non-functional despite being accessible.
• PvP – currently feels extremely broken and not representative of a testable system.
• Events – not a single event is working, removing one of the game’s major advertised gameplay pillars.
• Settlement reputation and leveling – not working, which is especially critical given that nodes and settlements are central to the game’s core design.

Because of this, it’s difficult to point to any complete end-to-end gameplay loop that can reasonably be tested in its current state. Bug fixing is important, but without at least a few systems functioning at a basic level, players can’t give feedback on balance, pacing, or design — only on the absence of functionality.

What would help significantly is a clear, “normal” alpha-focused roadmap that outlines which core systems are expected to reach a functional alpha-ready state first, and in what order. Not feature-complete or polished, but working end-to-end at a basic level.

For example:

• Which gameplay loops are currently considered priorities to reach alpha functionality?
• Which systems are intentionally non-functional or placeholder and should not be tested yet?
• What does the team internally define as “alpha-ready” for crafting, PvE, PvP, events, nodes, and the economy?
• What milestones mark the transition from pre-alpha systems testing to a true gameplay alpha?

Clear answers to these questions would help align expectations, focus player feedback, and make PTR testing far more productive. Right now, without that clarity, it’s difficult to know what we are meant to be testing beyond reporting that systems do not yet work.

I want to PvP. But I can’t.

I thought we were supposed to be able to fight over grind spots, but if I attack I go corrupt. So we can not fight we just passive aggressive mob steal. Lame.
I thought I could fight over someone stealing my ashes but they drop pvp flag while running away as i’m attacking them leaving me flagged and a free kill for the roaming lvl 25. Lame.

The only pvp in this game is leveraging the systems in situations that favor you.

It’s literally the DEI of PvP fighting to get Human Resources on your side and avoid any fairness.

I see in the patch notes that some Caravan mechs have been fixed. As a player in the northern region on a slow developing server, the lack of Caravans being used has never been a matter of the mechs being wonky, but rather on the overall viability of transporting crates via caravan versus via mule.

The only mats for JM caravans come from the southern regions. With those hard to get mats, you can theoretically get 8 crates in a slow moving Caravan. You'll likely need to have a few people guarding it. If you take those people, and all of you use alpine baghorn mules instead of the caravan, you'll complete the crate run faster and it'll have moved 9+ crates.

It's also far less time consuming/difficult to get a team a set of baghorn mules, than it is to create the caravan. Why would anyone go through travelling for 50 minutes to get to the south, gather materials, bring them up north, then spend a small fortune refining/processing it all, all that for a less efficient way of doing crate runs?

This area of the game needs a lot more work than just fixing a bugged attacker/defender event. And the north's gaps in crafting options for various simple items is limiting on the northern players ability to try stuff out — like having to go south to be able to craft apprentice bags, as there're no ash trees in the north. Similar issue with Caravans.