this is something that has always confused me about the game, the fact that generic bonuses are on par with the specific bonuses.
what i mean is things like the wolver line (it's the easiest example, please don't flame me) achieving MED bonuses in both damage and ASI to everything sword related, and some of the sunset line having the same for guns.
meanwhile we have the 'mob specific' gear such as the chroma/drake/angelic lines achieving... MED dmg bonuses to certain monster families as well.
needless to say, i don't see many people using the latter armor for anything other than costumes, while underneath they're wearing a wolver line, or a stetson line, a demo line.
in many games i've played in the past, the more 'focused' of the benefits—the ones that affect a more narrow range of targets—usually enjoy the higher bonuses, while the 'generalized' ones that work for everything are slightly less.
my suggestion:
Option 1: (buffs)
- give the Chroma/Drake/Angelic lines (as well as the specific alchemy paths for the gunslinger equivalents) bonus HIGH to their respective monster families
- keep Skolver/Snarby/Shadowsun/Bombastic lines at MED dmg bonuses
this is to keep the current general-damage lines 'as strong as it is now' but create new incentives for people to branch out into the other equipment lines and actually use them for combat, and not just decoration
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Option 2: (nerfs)
- keep the monster family specific bonuses at dmg MED
- but nerf Skolver/Snarby/Shadowsun/Bombastic lines down to dmg LOW even for the 5* equips.
- give the various shields LOW or MED damage bonuses against the monster families they are designed to defend against
- Barbarous Thorn Shield reduced to LOW dmg bonus
this is to 'rebalance' the various lines so that the 'global' SWORD or GUN bonuses are reduced, and again to give incentives for people to branch out into the other equipment lines
edit: specified which lines i think need to be affected to include some gun and bomber 5* armors
please discuss
Option 1.
Not only that, but switch the bonuses and resistances that the Chroma lines have. Arcane should have Shadow Defense and +High to Undead/Fiend (which fits well given its description anyways), Volcanic Salamander should have +High to Gremlin/Construct, and Deadly Virulisk's bonuses should be ramped up to High with +Beast/Jelly. To even this out, however, give them -Low to everything they aren't effective against.
Additionally, give Arcane some other status resist than Fire; maybe give it Freeze and Shock or something. It seems a little redundant when compared with Volcanic, and if the fire resist stays it should be weakened alongside the new resists.
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Remove the weakness to Fire on Angelic lines and boost up their family bonuses (VH at 5* for Valkyrie/Divine Mantle and Hood/Dragon Scale*), High for Heavenly Iron, Fallen set gets +Undead Low). Their bonuses should be higher than the Chroma lines because they're focused on a single type of enemy rather than two.
*The Divine set has a bonus to Fiends. The Dragon set has a bonus to Beasts. Concerning the Dragon set though, I'd like to see its bonuses spread as a High over Beasts and Gremlins... but that's just me.
EDIT: Listed bonuses are for individual pieces of gear.
EDIT 2: Fixed a Freudian slip.