Please read all of this before commenting. ( Especially Dev's :D ) I spent several hours the other night speaking with other players in the arcade about the game ( several came and went throughout the discussion ). This is brief summary of our collective thoughts.

Gunners don't deserve any buffs. Guns are reasonably powerful, and the whole point is not to take damage. So don't tell us that gunners need better or more varied armor. Gunners, Bombers, and Swordsman each have their own dedicated armor. The other armor sets provide variety to all three groups. Recent changes HAVE caused a equipment balancing problem however.

With the introduction of the arsenal stations the need for additional weapon slots, and perhaps more importantly the usefulness of weapons that deal pure normal damage has been greatly diminished. Why would anyone carry a sudarska or an iron slug or a super nova into battle when they can customize their load-out for the given level? Sure there are no arsenal stations in boss stratums, but boss stratums are themed and require the same type of equipment throughout. We were hoping the mission system would address this issue (perhaps enforcing single load-outs for extended missions) but alas it seems this is not the case. At the very least we'd like to see buffs applied to pure normal damage weapons in the future. Dead alch paths and forgotten equipment don't do much good for the game.

Our hopes for the mission system is a greater focus on strategy and more varied game play. By and large Spiral Knights increased difficulty by increasing damage and defense levels of monsters and by "mobbing" players with relatively slow monsters. We're not saying the current monster set needs to be trashed, far from it. We just think they could be put to better use through level design. We thought the introduction of the Twin's and the Twin's stratum was a good example of this more strategy oriented game play, we'd just like to see more of it. There was also a good deal of applause for the updates to JK, the load out system, the introduction of Lock Down, situation rooms and the promise of a persistent story line.

One idea tossed around was a danger room with a grid of moving drones (you wouldn't have to kill the drones to pass the danger room). It'd force players to find a pattern, and it'd be fairly difficult. We'd also like to see Vanna revisited, as there's only really one viable way to kill him. This doesn't exactly promote varied game play.

In general we'd like to see a little more depth to the game. We all love the game's mechanics, style, and visual appeal but many are turned away or stop playing because the game seems slow to progress, repetitious, and because honestly as a 5* what's left to do? ( Yes shadow lairs are fine and dandy but they're entirely too expensive to warrant regular exploration on a regular basis. Players often take several attempts to beat a boss in the shadow realm and it's not clear that you must have the 4* equipment with you in order to alch special items so players may need to beat them twice to obtain them. This process is extremely pricey, and the return simply isn't high enough.) Obviously these are long term hopes, and we recognize the dev's have their own plans for the future. We just hope they address these issues, and in doing so end the massive player base turn over that has become the norm for Spiral Knights, because ultimately this should translate to a happier larger player base and more revenue for the company.

Obviously this can only cover the opinion of a dozen or more knights, and we'd like to hear yours. Comments and opinions are welcome!