Hello hello, apologies in advance if I'm re-threading on already discussed, pointed or rebaked topics, but nonetheless, wanted to contribute my thoughts as someone that has been playing very infrequently throughout the years and decided to return recently.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank the Devs who returned to give this game some long-deserved love and maintenance it deserved, as well as the recent changes making the game more accessible for newer players, but I still remain hesitant to recommend the game to friends. As much as I like the game, there's still work ahead and I'm glad the Devs are perusing the forums, communicating and sharing a bit o what's going on behind the scenes. With that in mind, I do have a question (more of a suggestion disguised as a question, honestly).

After the "next big thing", are there any plans on rebalancing gear in the future?
Because from my perspective, that's one of the handful of core problems preventing me from inviting my friends and acquaintances to the game, and the weapons/gear being one of them. I'll try to summarize as well as I can:

• First I want to emphasise, if any changes are considered or thought upon, they should focus on the last used/weakest gear, and leave the OP or "problematic" at the very last. It's better to start by incentivising gear that has been deemed "useless" or "not worth using" for years, so Veterans get to diversify their builds and newcomers/returning players aren't "punished" for not knowing what's best or superior at the time of spending their resources throughout the game.
• In the scenario where such changes were to happen, I feel there could be a bit of communication regarding them, as in: Giving the community a heads-up of which items/sets are gonna be touched upon, an idea of what those changes would be and their thought process. It feels like too much to ask, and can't blame anyone thinking so, but as a hypothetical, I think it can help the Devs get some feedback and maybe catch changes that "wouldn't do much" or "do too much", alternatively there could be a closed testing branch for more hands-on feedback, but I don't know the feasibility of that and I don't want to push the idea of extra work on an already tight team.

At the end of the day, these are just my thoughts, and there really isn't a single game that comes close to what Spiral Knights is, and witnessing it's "revival" really makes me hopeful that such work continues, as issues and bits are ironed out. And for others stumbling upon this. Feedback, corrections and personal elaborations are much appreciated. That's what forums are for, after all.

~Lihaph