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Mananite -> RE: =AQ= Elemental/Mechanical Gaps Poll (9/23/2024 20:08:05)
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Armour Leans:
Lacking coverage (Free):
Spellcaster:
Every single element, especially if we take the extreme approach of "items that aren't seasonal and not GGB or Tokens", as the vast majority of Spellcaster armours fall into those categories. While Necromancer exists for Darkness, it puts a complete stranglehold on the element right now, as there's zero reason for any Darkness Spellcaster simply because Necromancer is completely overtuned in what it does.
Fully Offensive:
Water is the single biggest gap of any slot that needs to be filled, as the only real FO Water that isn't transiently available is Kindred... Which was released over six years ago at this point, and is extremely problematic in its design.
Wind is technically fine holistically, but having one more always-available option would be nice for variety, as Mark of Wrath and Haunted Dragonlord both have their own weirdness.
Likewise, Ice is also an element with a lot of options, but most of them have weirdness or transient availability. Ironically enough, Ice does not have a "just works" FO option without any flashiness; something as simple as "has a weapon-based skill with EleComp to cost" would genuinely help out the element.
Earth could also use a bit of love, with Eternal Champion carrying the element on its back for every single lean. Give the armour some rest and introduce a bit more variety!
Energy is hamstrung entirely by the existence of H-Series, with the vast majority of non-Spellcaster alternatives boiling down to "why do that all that work when H-Series does it faster and simpler".
Light is propped up entirely by Paladin, leaving a genuine lack of up-to-date options that are free.
Darkness lacks any "modern" options, basically boiling down to Angel of Souls (which was made on weird standards that makes it way stronger than it should be), and the Warrior-locked Shadowfall Raiment.
Fully Defensive:
Just like Spellcaster, basically every single element, especially with the rise of Warrior Lean. Neko's been propping up FD as a lean for over half a decade due to a combination of simply doing everything FD wanted for that time period, and no FD armours being released that actually did anything besides being FD. It is genuinely difficult singling out elements for FD coverage when the question inevitably becomes "is it better than Neko", which is a conversation best reserved for a GBI. Of course, this also means that FD is a proverbial "blank canvas" for the devs to work on.
Oversaturated (Free):
Fully Offensive:
FO Fire embodies what FO Darkness was ages back: oversaturated (but over time). Thankfully, FO Fire also consists of genuinely great armours, just cut back on how much we're getting.
Similarly, FO Ice became what FO Darkness was ages back after 2023: oversatured due to an excess in one year. Unfortunately, many of them are hyper-specific in their use case (unless you're Santa Avenger, who just hits things really really hard).
Lacking coverage (Premium):
Spellcaster:
As long as Chaos Slayers stay around, Spellcaster technically has perfect coverage, albeit extremely costly as this would require an excess of UR GGBs. Spellcasters in general could use more premium options, but given just how much Mage support has been token or token-derivative since the creation of the modern lean, I'd prefer this hypothetical future support was gold.
Fully Offensive:
Paradoxically, there's plenty of Premium FO options for all elements... It's just that a lot of them are either genuinely bad or outdated. Realistically, there's no need for "new" premium FO armours, as there's a massive backlog of older package items that can fill in the premium gap by being updated. Granted, it'd be a huge amount of work for the devs, but it would be nice for the art on a lot of them to see the light of day with a modern revamp.
Fully Defensive:
... There's premium FD armours? Jokes aside, modern FD armours are nonexistent, let alone premium FD, due to decades of neglect, and Neko's strangehold.
Oversaturated (Premium):
In lieu of a lean-by-lean list, I instead present the following plea:
Please no more "we're going to spend years releasing one for every single element" premium armours. It's ridiculous enough we have five different series of UR armours that are all elementally-shifted clones for perfect coverage (Bloodmages, Bloodzerkers, Bards of War, Masons, Chaos Slayer Clerics).
Mainstat Coverage
I will not bring up anything Hybrid-related, as the the existence of Hybrids are in a state of flux while the proverbial dust settles after the Stat Revamp.
Lacking coverage:
Defensive Warriors:
Would it be appropriate to say "yes" and move on? Avenues of defensively-oriented options better fall into mechanical coverage than "do warriors have defensive options", whose answer is a very tepid "yes but also not really" due to growing pains with the extreme modernity of Warrior Lean.
Offensive Rangers (IE FO 0-Proc Rangers):
Fire is comfortably filled out, having a variety of good options (if a bit "bland" in mechanical shenanigans, which isn't the worst thing that can happen).
Water options are a bit lacking in options that "just works", as a lot of them are gimmicky or require further stat investment to actually utilize.
Ice is in a similar boat to Fire, having a variety of good options, but lacking the proverbial pizzazz that comes with modern equipment.
Earth could use more "just works" options, as Eternal Champion is yet again carrying the element.
Energy is arguably the best-filled in option for Ranged, having a variety of good and mechanically interesting options.
Wind/Light/Darkness? They just need options, as they're stuck in the late 2010s "MC to damage" quagmire that the other damage types grew out of.
Defensive Rangers (IE FD 100-Proc Rangers):
Water could use more free damage options, as the best they have is Fright Thorn's damage MC. Including Premium, they have access to Hivediver.
Wind very desperately needs options, as it's basically just Lost Talon (which admittedly is a very strong option) or the outdated Rat Grenades.
Ice needs options period (especially free ones), as there's no gold, always-available option besides the hilariously terrible Dessert Set weapon.
Energy could use some pure damage options (IE not DoT), but is otherwise very well-rounded.
Darkness could use more modern (read: mechanically interesting) options in general, but otherwise has options that are "good enough".
Offensive Mages (emphasis on Spellcasting):
Obligatory "make more Tomes" statement. Besides that, Spellcasting Mages just need (free) support period, as the vast majority of modern Spellcasting cost a pretty penny to acquire.
Spellboosting:
Wind has no offensive option (IE boosts spells with a damaging status) that isn't pure damage (which is wasted against bosses).
Earth lacks options period, with their only boosters being Bloodblades and Arcane Cutlass.
Energy could use more options, as their only non-Bloodblade, non-Arcane Cutlass option is the seasonal Carnax Cneeboard.
Defensive Mages (emphasis on Spellcasting):
Obligatory "make more defensive Tomes" statement. Besides that, Spellcasting Mages just need (free) support period, as the vast majority of modern Spellcasting cost a pretty penny to acquire.
Spellboosting:
Earth has no defensive options period.
Energy only has the seasonal Carnax Cneeboard as a defensive option.
Ice would really love having something like Winter Warden permanently available as a defensive Spell booster.
Spells
Wind doesn't have a good always-available, free status-oriented option.
Ice doesn't have any options that aren't tied to Frostval (the seasonal event).
Earth is lacking in DoT options.
Energy is lacking in DoT options.
Light is lacking in options period, with the only spell being tied to a previous Frostval event (which isn't the most accessible given how long ago it's been and the associated token cost for the painting).
Darkness technically lacks options, but it can be propped up by Necromancer doing Necromancer things.
Oversaturated:
Offensive Warriors:
Please cut back on general FO Warrior support; they have enough already, and their defensive brethren are crying for options.
Offensive Rangers (IE FO 0-Proc Rangers):
Fire/Ice/Energy weapons are very well filled for options.
Defensive Rangers (IE FD 100-Proc Rangers):
Fire/Earth/Light weapons are very well filled for options.
Mages (emphasis on Spellcasting):
Yes but also no? Spellboosting has a lot of emerging support, but it's almost all premium. Technically this means it's "oversaturated" with the sheer volume we've been getting, but for the average player it's not feasible to get a full suite of support.
General Mechanical Coverage:
Lacking:
Shields are a very underutilized slot and should be iterated upon. Additionally, having a few more stat drive clones would help free up slots for all builds (see: DEX-adjacent builds having their Wind shield locked to Fujin for almost a decade before we got any other DEX drives).
More personally, I think there should be more compressed items akin to transformation weapons, but for other slots (EG Shields compressing a Guest, a misc compressing a Spell). Granted this is entirely for my own enjoyment, as I'd love to have a "disorganized" character that has all their slots compressed into a different slot.
Oversaturated:
Please no more Status Potence on items. Powercreep has very realistically reached critical mass, and status rolls have become status guarantees. Until Potence gets a look at, they really should not be getting released (for example, before the Stat Revamp, Beastrangers could get almost 60 Omni Status Potence, which all but guarantees any status unless you have no stats).
Similarly, please cut back on generic "converts status to damage" status eaters; they've become so commonplace it's more of an eye roll seeing something eat status for damage.
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