Slayer is the one part of the game that doesn't connect to anything else

[torn glacier]

Firstly, I think this game's focus is on interconnectedness. Other skills and professions feed into each other heavily so that none exist as an island. Slayer breaks this idea because everything that slaying gives you is either converted to gold or fed right back into the slayer loop. Which I think is bad. You kill a monster and get trophies and XP. XP is only used to equip new weapon types and get better tasks. Tasks only give gold and more XP. Trophies are used for 2 things. Tasks and accessories. But those accessories are only used to be better at combat and kill more monsters. This means the only thing that ever leaves this loop is gold. Making it more of a self sustaining island separate form the rest of the game. This is me identifying what I think is a problem.

Now I have 2 ideas for what could help with this. The first one is just give trophies a use outside of just slayer accessories. Maybe fur can be used to make a new type of leather armor. Or maybe instead of using catalysts to reroll leather gear we use fur to do so. Simply connecting trophies to something other than slayer would pull slayer into the general game flow and make it more interconnected.

My second idea is give monsters drops that aren't just trophies. There was another suggestion that mentioned having Jackyls drop leather and meat. I think this is hard to work in with how things are currently set up but if monsters can be worked into crafting drops I think it would be nice. Not replace birds, but give Jackyls as an alternative source. Maybe make alphas t2 and/or 3 leather, Umburas higher, etc.

Also I am kinda confused by why there is such a clear and universal separation between monsters and animals. For example if you hit an Ox I imagine it's gonna hit you back. Even goats have horns for a reason. So I think scrapping the monster/animal separation and instead doing something like WoWs red aggressive mobs and yellow passive mobs would be more interesting. So an Ox might both be a big source of t5 leather and also a decent mid-game enemy to fight but won't fight you unless provoked. This would make hunting less about hit moving node better and more about laying traps to be able to kill animals without having to fight them head on. Maybe once an animal is killed anyone can take a trophy off it but to refine it down into leather and meat a hunter has to process it for example. I get that this is much more involved but I think overall it's a much more interesting and fun idea to move forward with in the long run. Anything to make the game more than just, everything is the same as last tier but new color and with more grinding.

Slayer is the one part of the game that doesn't connect to anything else

[undone summit]

Monster drops should 100% be used in armor and tools depending on the item

Also if they transition to a tierless food system like they've suggested, giving monsters alternate meat types would be good. Like you could make goat stew or jakyl steaks and each would provide different buffs

[torn glacier]

yeah, I feel like the obvious inclusion is food and I forgot about the tierless idea but yeah that would be the perfect opportunity to do so. Let them be rarely more interesting food buffs

[solid spindle]

i like this idea Imagine a umbra sword, Frost crab duel daggers, with ice along them. Jackyl cross bow with a wolfs head.

[torn glacier]

while those all sounds cool, the goal above is to create items via slayer that are used for more than just combat. I do think we should have more unique weapons though and hope the PvE update brings some variety on that end

[solid spindle]

I agree. I just want something to do besides crafting

I enjoy crafting but I need some diversity

[torn glacier]

for sure. I think this month's PvE update is likely gonna be a make or break moment for some people honestly. I'm not banking on it a huge amount, but I've already had a group leave because all they could do was craft new tiers and they didn't see a point to anything

[undone summit]

i think unique sidegrades of equipment and weapons using slayer materials would also be a good idea.

they could either be used as stepping stones between tiers, OR alternative ways to craft tiered gear with the same stats as the standard gear of their tier. like you could have a pyrelite claymore OR a jakyl bone claymore

in general there should (eventually) be more unique gear for every tier. like runescape has a lot of stuff in between the basic bronze-rune gear sets that are acquired in different ways and offer alternate paths of progression

[torn glacier]

I like the idea of there being things you can "lock" an item at a tier to make it stronger but prevent you from tiering it up. And I feel like slayer mats could be a cool way of doing that. Like serrating your claymore with jackyl fangs to do more damage but losing the ability to tier up

here though I was more focusing on the unique meat drops. Or fur for leather. Or bluring the line between hunting and slayer so that you gain some hunting mats via slaying. Ways to make slayer output something that is directly tied to other aspects of the game. I'd even settle for just, throwing some monsters in caves and making the loot variety higher down there. Boom, now you slay and get mats for non-slayer things

[undone summit]

i dont think it should lock items at a tier as much as put them on a different progression track

slayer will also hopefully tie more into the game when they add dungeons- depending on what items you can get from dungeons

[torn glacier]

I mean, if that track is better than the base track though it invalidates the base track. Locking at a tier also creates horizontal progression I think

[undone summit]

true, but i think if people can "lock" items at a tier they'll probably not be used much except for the highest tier stuff

especially with weapon rarity also being a thing

[torn glacier]

I mean, right now people only care abot higher tier because there's no horizontal progression. I feel like things like locking in items will make people more likely to settle at a tier and do better at that tier than people that push past them. Sort of like with tools. You either gamba for best in slot at your tier or you push tiers and that sorta decides if you are better at t3 or have access to t4. But idk, either way the general idea of adding slayer mats to more recipies is good

[undone summit]

if damage types or elements were a thing, you could easily have a sidegrade system without capping gear while also ensuring the original gear is still as viable as it's sidegrades

like monster hunter or spiral knights

but i dont think theyre going to add damage types