Mercenary Crossbow feedback and also feedback to the game

Hello GGG, Congrats on releasing POE2.

I've been playing as a Merc who mains Crossbow with galvanic chards and combine with Voltaic Mark and Shards etc and just managed to complete T15 Maps and having a break as citadels aren't just spawning for me.

So here's my feedback both good and bad of Merc mechanics and lightning mechanics using a crossbow.

Build - I mainly use Galvanic Shards with Shockburst round and herald of lightning to clear maps. Also, using Kitoko's Glove to electrocute enemies as a crowd control mechanism for my pure lightning build. Yes, I'm sacrifising my glove stats for that electrocute because crossbow lacks viable electrocute option, and yep I can clear T15s, but Bossing is quite tough.

I've tried playing around with cast on Shock, Marks, Curses, etc. I'm enjoying it so far :)



The Good

1) Having to play as a kinda modern artilerries is satisfying, especially with having reloads in between.
2) Having 3 different mechanics on a single weapon is awesome (Grenades, Projectiles, Totems)
3) Herald of lightning is so satisfying when combine correcct with Galvanic shards.
4) All I can say, I have fun with Crossbows, and also had fun thinking on how to build around it.




The Bad
1) Having to switch ammos for different skills loses you almost 0.5ms at times and if its a large enemy packs situation like breaches/mirrors, that 0.5ms of switching to a different ammo before firing feels a bit clunky and may causes death at times. Since Crossbow already has reload speed and weapons swaps delay, this switches is another delay to crossbow mechanics.

For example, you want to combo Glacial Bolts with Fragmentation rounds, the feeling is not as smooth. I'm not sure if there's a lot of endgame builds that uses multiple different ammos in their build.

Another sample - Galvanic shards with Shockburst round combo, switching to shockburst once you shocked a Rare monsters in a middle of dodging and rolling the explosions that is happening, sometimes the ammo just didn't load up and shockburst round just delayed to be shot out


Suggestion : I understand the logic behind ammo switches since different ammo have different clips amount, just maybe make it faster or have a node in passive skill to make it faster so that it doesn't feels clunky or sometimes delayed in between. Or everytime it switches to a different ammo, it automatically reloads to full as well since its already taken some time. (Maybe it costs mana everytime merc switches ammo since reloads uses mana, but that makes it more meaningful for Crossbow users to make the switch)



2) Just my opinion, there's just lack of useful lightning skills in Crossbow that in comparison to other weapons. A lot of Builds currently for End Game Mercs who uses Quaterstaff/Sparks as their main skills instead of Crossbow. The only viable options for a combo right now is only Galvanic Shards and Shockburst and lack of skills that can electrocute steadily.

Lets look at the other skills
- Voltaic Grenade - Just too slow to be a viable skill to electrocute mobs/bosses unless I main Grenades.
- Stormblast Bolts - huh, this needs to be setup and explosive just to be triggered. If I were to use explosives already, this bolt won't be an option.
- Plasma Blast - Looks awesome, feels nice. But man, 2 sec charge up time really hurts. Really need to play around with the build if want to use this skill.

Suggestion : maybe, just maybe, stormblast bolts can be triggered when the ground becomes shocked by killing a shocked enemy and also have electrocute, potentially it can be useful. Or have another skill that can electrocute enmey viably. Else we need to look at bows and quaterstaff skills to build the lightning skill as a Mercenary. Or, having Artilerry Balista to do explosion to trigger the stormblast bolts is also an option/



3) Totemsssss. Oh my, How I wish the 2 is more useful. I'm using it as a mechanic to deter enemy from my character and that's it.

- Ripwire Ballista - if only you are more useful for crowd control... your main purpose is to slow enemies, but you only shoot 3 projectiles at a really slow speed, there's like 20 mobs in the screen.
- Artillery Ballista: if only you can be a viable option to explode the bolts on the ground~.

Oh wait, both of these doesn't really add value to other elemental builds except for Artillery for fire/explosion builds. Hmmm. Sorry Ballista, I'm just using you as bait as for now.

Suggestion : Maybe, have a support skill gems specifically for totems that convert their damage to a certain elemental / make their attack speed faster / have a buff that impacts the player when nearby, it will give another option for crossbow players to have another type of build besides grenade/Bolts.





#Feedback on Current state of Game


1) I wont talk about story, I enjoy the acts but I know it has yet to be completed. I like the way you are going, keep it up :)

2) Corpse explosion / Mobs explosion / environmental explosion / charged shot from trash mobs ; should not have 1 shot potential, maybe have it on percentage of player life instead of an amount. All the deaths from me is mainly due to really almost impossible situation to avoid.

Swarmed by Mobs with Rare, and suddenly a Corpse explode because of a Mod of the rare which I was not made aware of, or an off screen mobs charged a bow or lightning attack which I didn't see of screen and just 1 shot me to death

3) Can we keep the Maps perks like breach or mirror still up if a player died. It feels horrible to not only lose 10% XP but also to lose all the map perks. I dont mind having to lose the waypoint, but man, having to lose so much is just sad and demotivating.

4) Having a currency to have an option to switch ascendancy, or make the switch ascendancy cause a Divine Orb so that you dont have to build a character but remains an expensive option? Just a suggestion