One of the core values SK preached was the importance of teamwork, however teamwork isn't really important at all in the game. Most players can handle the game on their own (all without ever changing weapons). If SK is to stand any chance of actually recuperating as a game imo it needs to make a few slight balance alterations that would bring back teamwork in the game, aswell as gear variation.

For the sake of not turning this into a "Damn this weapon sucks", "It's not that bad, this weapon is worse right now" I'm going to be pretty general with these suggestions.

1) Monster damage. Monster damage increased across the board, but not by much. Right now even those who aren't supposed to have high survivability (Chaos/Swifstrike) don't die very fast. Idm the monster damage that much though tbh, not as important as the next one. The monster damage buff would mainly be due to point 3.

2) Monster defense. If the monsters had higher defense it would allow those that are supposed to be tanky (slimes) to actually use their strength of relentlessly pushing forward, where these kinds of "tank" monsters are just free farm atm due to their low mobility and damage. It would actually make them take time to kill and it will force players to split focus onto which monsters they want dead first, having players aim at the monsters like Greavers (squishy, priority targets) and switch to the tanks once the damage is down. This would require tactical targeting, something that's entirely foreign to the game atm (which isn't a good thing. "I shoot thing, I kill thing" is fairly brainless).

3) Buffs to certain armour lines. Having made the tank monsters tankier, we now make the tank Knights tankier. This will actually give people an advantage to using armour for the sake of protection, creating unofficial class divides. I understand SK's never been one for classes, it's one of its defining features, but this wouldn't force players into classes as such it would just make different gear in parties a much rewarded option (rather than everybody in the party just grabbing what's strongest). Having true tanks in the party who lack the damage boosts from Chaos sets and such to deal the same damage would generate structured parties aswell as pushing people onto rarely used gear (Troikas, Plate lines, Caliburs, Cobalt). As it is atm there's very little difference between aggressive armours and defensive armours, with most people just grabbing what has the best damage increase, CDR and/or status change rather than comparing defensive properties. Have this armour lines buff also apply to helms and shields. It's very rare to see someone actually bring a shield for defensive purposes rather than aggressive stats. The monster damage buffs wouldn't keep up with the tank buffs. It'd mean squishy knights wearing squishy, aggressive sets have to stay safe and avoid damage alot more than previously, whereas defensives can play more of a front line.

4) I didn't go into weapon balancing because I believe creating a front line and back line would actually bring certain weapons back and make some others less useful. It's best to avoid putting weapon changes in the same boat as the listed changes as Idk where the weapon strengths would be after the above.

Overall with this I'm also against the idea of spam-monsters that always seem the easiest solution to things (like when minies were introduced). Spam-monsters takes away from the teamwork further as it forces people to split and work alone. Although that's not as important imo as the balancing.

Not put much planning into this tbh so comments appreciated.

Side Note: This is far easier to do than creating new bombs, guns, armours, monsters and would have just as big an impact to gameplay, if not then more of an impact.