Good evening.
In this thread, I'll be talking about DvM, my current issues with this series of perks, and how I think they could be improved.
But first, a disclaimer: throughout this thread I will be referring to Damage vs. Monsters as shortened down to just DvM to save time and space, keep that in mind.
So, DvM. Most people nowadays only recognise it in the current game as a waste of gear stats and an obstacle during Punch-rerolling. And while I DO think that DvM has some redeeming qualities and can ABSOLUTELY save a loadout if people just tried to branch outside their BK/Chaos sets, that doesn't mean I disagree with the general sentiment. I recognise that innate DvM on weapons is an undeserved trade-off for damage, I recognise that DvM and universal damage buffs are part of the same stat system, and I do think these are problems that need to be tackled
That being said, I'd like to propose a rather unusual solution: to add innate DvM to as many weapons (and other pieces of gear like armour and shields) as possible, if they don't already have one, and ideally, every last one of them.
Below I'll try to explain my reasoning for this, and address some of the other sentiments I hear in the community.
"How does this help any weapons at all?"
Right now, in my opinion, I think the biggest reason why DvM is considered such a useless stat is entirely the fault of Black Kat and Chaos sets; universal damage is made extremely accessible thanks to them, and is set to be the current norm.
Only other option would've been to decrease their damage bonus, however that's completely off the table, given how integrated these two armour sets have become in the META, but we can instead introduce ways to encourage people to experiment with gear variety, so we'll be taking the opposite route instead.
Remember: redundancy is KING in this situation. I believe that with enough DvM on as many gear pieces as possible, people will simply be safely covered for MOST of the game's content, even if they choose to try other armour sets that don't necessarily boast the same offensive buffs as BK/Chaos.
"But why not just uncap weapon damage? Make all damage bonuses stack independently with DvM, since that's what people have been suggesting for years!"
I have many issues with this suggestion, as it would simply not fix anything. BK/Chaos would still reign supreme.
With about the same level of success, you could just raise the base damage of ALL weapons across the board - sure, it helps you kill enemies faster, but it does not address the current stagnation in the meta. As BK/Chaos are still the most accessible sources of universal damage, people's preference towards gear would effectively stay the same, while optimized loadouts would also have the added pressure of needing to seek out DvM perks on top of their maxed-out weapon damage. This META stagnation, paired with an already overboard damage output, would effectively homogenise gear variety, and make PvE content easier than it already needs to be.
Slightly beside the point, but even ignoring the META, this simply would be hard to implement given the specifics of gear stats - universal buffs like ASI, CTR, and damage, should be treated as their own entities separate from damage versus monsters, as the entire stat system is carefully built around the 12 point environment.
With that out of the way, I will now list off all the DvM additions that I could come up with down below, and try my best to explain my reasoning behind each of them. If you have something you'd like to add to this list, please feel free to suggest, and try to explain the reasoning to your best extent. If you've read all of this so far, feel free to also congratulate yourself. And join me next week as I go into detail about nerfing Brandishes.
My list of DvM suggestions ends here, for now, if anyone has any ideas of their own, you're more than welcome to post them in this thread with explanation for why they were chosen.