So, there was something else I wanted to talk to you all about. Once again, this is gonna be about equipment.
I really love the identity that the Sword subcategories have, and Anima has a good niche, as well. I'm kinda in favour of Sidearms being set outside the Weapon Triangle, although would it be entirely fair to have the provision that Priests/Sisters, Bards, and Dancers don't get to
play with too many knives? And what would this do to the Thief tree of classes? I kinda made Sidearms entirely for them, but how've you all been playing the Thief class? Support based or combat based? Is it actually not that weird to see Ezio running around Assassinating people with a Silver Blade?
Anyway, the point is, taking out Sidearms, Swords, Bows, and Anima all have a clear divide in their weapon subcategories (although some could use more highlighting). I'd like to achieve something like that for the other weapons (Staffs have the clearest divide between Heal, Buff, and Ailment, although to my understanding Heal is still the dominant choice), but that's where things get...muddier.
For Lances and Axes, are you guys happy if the division is "Typical Weapon/Heavier, Less Accurate, More Powerful Weapon/Thrown Weapon" (Pierce/Polearm/Spear and Hack/Bludgeon/Thrown), or would you rather Polearm and Bludgeon take on more of the "Anti-Cavalry and Anti-Armour, respectively" identity? Or something else?
And as for Light and Dark Magic, that gets even muddier. The idea behind Judgement, Barrier, Ancient and Druidic magic was always more gimmick based, with the intended identity being
Judgement: Anti-Specific Units, but not so effective vs others
Druidic: Anti-Specific Weapons, but not so effective vs others
Barrier: Mage Tank
Ancient: Status Ailments
Is there a better way to achieve these identities? Are they fun identities to start with? What would you rather do as a Shaman or a Monk, rather than just "Heavy magic damage" vs "Crit happy magic damage?"