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Sapphire -> The Boss Conundrum and the Unintended Consequences on Item Creation (4/1/2022 14:37:01)
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Let me preface this with, I do not have an answer, and perhaps what's going on is a necessary evil, but TBH, whenever I see the game/players being steered towards an inevitable conclusion I don't think it's healthy for players and staff alike.
Example-> Neutral armors/weapons with specials. This has been touched on by myself, and others. Neutral armors are not optimal in nearly any situation, and weapons with specials are only competitive in neutral armors. So because 99% of players tend to not use neutral armors, and thus, weapons with specials, creating neutral armors and weapons with specials by players is viewed as not good. Staff would have to put some type of crazy good or even game-breaking effect on these in order to make them desirable game-wide, and so the move over time to focus on 0 proc or 100 proc only puts staff in a corner as to not really develop these types of items. It's a waste of their time, TBH. I wish staff would fix weapons with specials at the very least to be competitive and give themselves more options for the future. It's a win for them, as well as the players.
That paragraph is a long-winded preface to draw this analogy:
Staff somewhat allows many aspects of this game to be fair-play versus normal monsters, with a few exceptions of course. But items or things that break boss fighting is more of a focus. On the surface, I get that.
But when you start, over time, to create ways to counter the game's ability to make boss fighting so easy, with things such as
Damage Caps
Damage Clawbacks
Freedom
Boss Boost
Form shift immunity
and the list continues to grow (I prob left some out)
While these are attempts to make the fights a challenge, it is also creating the situation where certain types of items, ideas contained within, etc are not favorable to owning for more and more and more players.
If bosses always resist Fear, for example, then why invest in a multitude of fear items or even bother playing a Fear-based playstyle if you run the risk of struggling even more than normal due to the reliance on fear strategies? At the end of the day, players are simply trying to get to the rewards, and using items to get there the easiest is the subset of items best used day in and day out. That's reality.
The list goes on and on and on. Why use daze, fear, or any status infliction strats within in your active inventory if you won't be able to either reliably use or simply the status cant be used at all?
The boss Conundrum to try and make the fight a challenge is unintendingly steering item buying decisions based on what works or doesn't work versus all or most bosses. And because of this, with time, making items with said effects is becoming more and more and more a waste of time for staff to use on items....as less and less and less people will be buying those items...so it's the same argument as the weapon with specials/nuetral armors, just that it comes from a different space in the game.
The game, with time, is simply narrowing down little by little by little what players want, and thus, what staff will make.
And it's not good for the long term.
I am not advocating for easier boss fights, nor have a solution or idea, but this issue became self evident to me as every new release I literally analyze it based on this point of view, and I would be willing to bet many players do too.
So with time, self buffs, heals, and things that always work on monsters or on oneself will dominate the item landscape.
Just how it is.
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