first things first kill double turning and like 90% of the hatred for the class is gone.

With that out of the way, I like GS! I think summoners in games are fun, I love minion types, and I think the versatility of youkai having niche passives (as summons) to fight back a variety of opponents is really cool! My favorite thing to do in this game is position Drowned Woman so that people can't AOE me without losing momentum, or walking Wind Elemental into gust traps.

Installing for elemental immunities is kind of lame but it looks like we're moving away from that with every youkai rework so that won't be necessarily the topic here.

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GS is not a weak class. It is however, an outdated one. Most of it's class power budget is in Chain Unsummon, which recently got gutted (as it fucking deserves), but almost the entire rest of the class feels dated. I am not insisting that GS is weak in any way- Youkai are strong, even in the current sphere where they're arguably at their weakest.

However, I think shapeshifter is better at the whole "having youkai on the field and commanding them" bit than GS. It feels like GS' entire class identity hinges on its ability to get 4 youkai out in a turn instead of 2, and literally nothing else.

Here's my list:

YOUKAI TAMER: +25 power to enemies with a Youkai race sounds really cool, and would be incredibly fun to play around now that there's a lot of new ways to play around that, except- It only works on basic hits. Leaving this passive to languish in the realm of weird 80 apt builds and awkward MG setups. If it just worked in general, I think it'd be kind of neat.

SPIRIT WELL: 5 SP for +18 FP. This is the most useless stat passive in the game. I have no idea why you'd ever take this unless you were just autopiloting clicking all the innates while filling out a class.

MISTY DIMENSION: I kindly request someone replying to this find me a single use for this passive. I guess a twin dancing ST/GS would run it for like...sneak attack? This passive blows.

ASTRAL AEGIS: This is a glorified stat passive for +5 Def and +5 Res. While that's good and all, there is very obviously a hole here where this was once a much better skill with interesting ramifications, but was too strong and nerfed into the ground. Aegis Shift is completely pointless I have no idea why you'd spend your time pressing that button.

SOUL CHAINS/JUDGEMENT BLADE: Okay guys I know it's really cool but this combo kind of blows lets be real. More useful for punishing other summoners and people wearing beast bands than it is for it's actual intended combo. However, it's a fan favorite so w/e i'm not too broken up on it.

SPIRIT REGENERATION: don't.
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Other passives/skills in GS that aren't listed here are, in my opinion, solid enough to merit their current state. Even if Encourage could totally be a lot cooler than just a raw stat buff.

This isn't necessarily meant to be a "WE SHOULD BUFF GS" thread, because GS isn't bad. But I want to bring attention to just how lame like 70% of this class actually is.

Status Inflict vs Status Resist has long been extremely polarized. Either you will always fail or you will always succeed with almost no middle ground existing.

This is because of the fact Status Resist is attached to Sanctity, a stat that most races gain extra benefits for and thus almost no characters will willingly build Sanctity on a race that does not get something on top of what you get by default. Yes, I am aware some people will still build things like SAN Humans out of spite but the fact of the matter is the exact same stat spread will perform much better if you alter the race to something that gains a significant bonus for having built SAN.

It becomes problematic when you want to avoid statuses then realize you are not a race that gets anything for SAN. Thus you're faced with the decision to build sub-optimally to have status res or to consider a different race to make it more beneficial. Not to mention the Corrupted that are actively penalized for building SAN.

A potential band-aid fix for this issue would be providing benefits to races that otherwise did not have any SAN benefits prior. So every race (other than Corrupted, thems the breaks) gets something for building SAN unique to them. These races being:

Humans
Homunculi
Mechanations

Every other race in the game gets something for SAN even if it might not be great (reaper/apertaurus made obsolete by Arcane).

I'd envision the SAN benefits being attached to preexisting racials rather than something entirely new, building off what's already present.

Some possible suggestions being:

Human -

I don't think the current state of sneak mines is very fun.

They do too much damage with too little counter play.

Being a melee and just having them spawned on you to instant damage isn't very fun, and a twin dancer or someone with rapid attacks is going to just eat pant.

My suggestion:

1. Give them a 1 turn activation phase. They can't be triggered on this turn.

2. Stop moving them per damage instance and instead double their turn round move.

And if the whole air pressure and sanctuary thing isn't done, that too.

Mixed Bag here, but I gave a whirl at making a cosmetic set for Ruler based around puppets. Not much of a spriter, but they've all got backs and sides, and an icon was even provided, too. I just think puppets are neat, so I've got no complaints about them being just cosmetic - that's the idea, really! As always, Dev is free to use them - if anyone else wants to use them for something else, please do reach out first.

Wind Runner's non-Annorum variant triggers field hazards (tested with cinder tiles) even though the caster doesn't move.

New polearm: Pike

3 range, rarity 3 stars
0 crit (115%)
85 hit
power: 9
scaling: Finesse (70% str, 30% ski)
weight: 16

Attacking enemies within 1 range incurs a 20% accuracy and damage penalty, and does blunt damage instead of piercing. However, if it hits, it knocks them back 1 tile.

Attacking enemies beyond 1 range has +10 hit/crit.

Potential skill: Phalanx Formation.
3m, 2cd, 15fp. Must target an ally in melee range. Create counterattack (prophylaxis) tiles everywhere within 2 range of them except within 1 range of yourself. These tiles disappear if either you or your ally move.



Sprite:

Quote:Evolution Feast

Chimeras can continuously trying to refine their bodies through eating remains. This trait will track the amount of times you consume remains. Once you do so 400 times, you'll be eligible to select the Final Form trait.

Quote:Final Form

Requires Evolution Feast to be at 400. You've reached your apex after consuming so many creatures, granting one of your mutations an additional ability. Upon gaining this trait, select one of the races you wish to gain your additional m

So currently when flip shotting onto someones back with a short bow you don't get flank bonus.

First picture is a flank hit without flip shotting onto their back, second is flipshotting onto their back.

https://imgur.com/a/eeq96Tj

Hit is lower even with flip shot hit buff. I used this with a filcherbird as a short bow to test.

Firthrowers, and throwers as a category (even if there's only just one right now!) could be so much cooler than just a straight line. They don't really compare in the slightest to launchers (well, jackhammer) for AoE, even if they feel like they're meant to be complements to each other.

So I suggest... making firthrowers and any future throwers attack in a cone shape! Similar to how hyattr breath works right now. That is, it starts in a 3-tile wide line, but after every two tiles, it gets an extra tile wider on either side.

You - three wide - three wide - five wide - five wide - seven - seven, so on.

The base firthrower could be 4 tiles long, for example. But... things that increase attack range, like Gigantic and Long Barrels, could increase the length of the line by 1 instead, the width growing with it. As is, they do nothing.

Base range
Gigantic or  Long Barrel range
Gigantic and  Long Barrel range

(Not really a 'balance change', but a new squirt gun thrower that applies soaked would be funny, pls dev)

Field objects are a thing in the video game, but they're extremely rare. I think there would be a lot of advantages to having more of them, as long as they're implemented well.

Having randomized obstacles in a map increases variety, making each battle a little different. It allows you to put your back against a wall, and interact with the objects with skills like turnover and such.

It would also introduce more inherent variety in the maps. If one map type has more field objects, it's going to be advantageous/disadvantageous to certain builds. Hell, this is a tactical RPG. Having obstacles in the maps is core to the experience. I think SL2 doesn't utilize the concept of the MAP enough. Maps are generally the same size, fairly large, and with almost zero obstacles in them. This makes each map feel pretty much the same with the exception of a few more unique ones, and the occasional strange spawn locations. Adding randomly generated walls to most maps will immediately make the entire game more varied.

It would even open up new design space. What if there could be new skills or even classes that utilize field objects? I feel like there's so much potential there. In fact, the more I think about it, it seems like it's a big part of sl2's existing design that isn't being utilized.

And lastly, of course, it would really improve Ruler's gameplay in my opinion. Instead of being focused entirely on digging up stuff in their corner and not moving, they would be incentivized to going around the map to collect things while fighting. I like the idea that certain maps, especially rocky maps like caves, would be an advantage for Rulers. While interior/city maps (where most pvp takes place) would be a disadvantage.

An extra rule to make this work
A field object should never spawn next to a solid tile or a mob. This would make it impossible for the objects to completely block a mob, or block a passage in the map. However, they should be able to spawn next to each other, creating these random walls that aren't connected to the normal map edges and walls. This way, it's never gonna be an issue even if you spawn a lot of them. Just pick random tile on the map, check if it's not dense and not adjacent to dense, or mobs, and if not spawn it, repeat until you put down all the required objects or x amount of iterations were attempted (so it never hangs).

Maptype object lists
The way I imagine this working is that each map would have a type variable. I don't know if this is already a thing but basically we have a list of these "maptype" objects, which are just a name var and a list of field objects. Then, each map would have a maptype var. This would potentially allow custom maps to utilize pre-exising maptypes. So if you want to make a new sandy map, you can use the sand type. Or maybe you could enter the field objects you want manually, which would probably take more UI work. If you use types it's just a matter of giving EMs a verb with a list select. But anyway dev can figure this out.


NEW FIELD OBJECTS
This is a totally unnecessary idea but it could be cool for even more variety in battles

Runes
These are non-dense, but can still be dug up for 1 geomaterial.

Range rune: the classic rune from g6, increases attack range if you stand on it.
Locking rune: immobilizes you for 2 rounds, but you cannot be knocked back or pulled. (grants a brief immobilize immune after the 2 rounds) doesn't work on bosses.
Trap rune: explodes for 100 aoe damage of a random element.
Power rune: increases your SWA and ele atk by 10 for 2 rounds

Rocks
Simple rocks that have different effects. Worth 1 geomaterial.

Normal Rock: no special effect.
Magmic Rock: creates an indiscriminate explosion for 30 fire damage within 3 range when destroyed.
Ice Rock/Ice: spreads ice sheets within 4 range.
Sand Rock: blinds anything within 1 range for 1 round.

Valuables
chest that you can attack and it breaks and gives you 100 murai???

Dangerous
venomous/thorny plant?
naturally spawning dense vines? (that one wild elf trait that makes you able to ignore vines would become useful)
pit trap? (trapfinding becomes useful?)
slippery surface?

Nature
Tree: gives 1 geomaterial, leaves behind a stump that can be harvested again for 1 more material
Bush: Gives +5 defense and +5 evade when standing on it, but it's destroyed 
Log: 1 geomaterial

MAP TYPES
Here is a list of map types, and what the list of items would look like.


Fire (Tera Flama, Lava Lake)
- 5 magmic rocks

Sand (Beach cave, Lost beach, Wastes, Deep Wastes)
- 4 sandy rocks
- 2 normal rocks

Nature (Lake Halard, Sunken Forest, Most overworld places)
- 4 random flowers
- 2 normal rocks
- 1 tree
- 20% chance of 1 bush
- 1 log

Ruins (Catacombs, Temple)
- 4 normal rocks
- 50% chance of 1 random rune

Rocky (Geladyne mountain, Haunted mine, Goblin cave)
- 9 normal rocks
- 1 gold nugget or crystal

Watery (Jammer Cavern)
- 4 normal rocks

Empty/Clean (Most interiors, arenas, cities, etc)
- nothing!


Let me know what you guys think. Of course everything here is just an idea, something for Dev to think about. I think there's a lot of potential with this mechanic so I'd love to see any additions in this vein! Thanks for reading