I agree with 3. The full-heal is just cheap.

I could list a bunch of ways to safely deal with devilites for you, but I'm sure that's not what you're looking for.

The normal devilites flinch at any attack which makes a patient gunner really deadly to them. Overtimers will still even flinch their range attacks at anything (but not their melee attack).

I find it funny how many people can't deal with the devilite family seeing how they are the most easily countered with bombs as most flinch when you hit them with a bomb.

Correct me if I am wrong but I'm pretty sure a nitro can make most devilites (Not talking about trojans here)flinch when hit by the blast. I know they do from the barb bombs when the correct star for spectrum.

The only real "nerf" i feel they need is a longer flinch time. Make him fall or do a little, "AHH ALMOST FALLING PLES NO GRAVITY," kind of animation so that they take more time while flinching.

I used to think they were overpowered but then started farming the Gauntlet on Elite to the point where I can do it without ever dying once. I found out they are just as easy to take out as any other monster. The trick is to be either really close to them or out-of-range and always keep moving. Circling around a group is usually the best movement pattern, if their are traps then find a spot you can move in a C pattern. I noticed the devs intentionally placed breakable blocks on Devilite levels, use cover to your advantage.

They aren't overpowered, they just have a steeper learning curve by requiring strategy to kill them (ie. kill order, moments of attack oppurtunity)

Yeah, groups of (T3) Rocket Puppies are ranked way higher for me, too- higher than Gorgos by far.

I still think Devilites are a pretty well-solved problem. The strings "Alchemer and" and "combo" are very important in the sentence you quoted. You don't have to go all Devilite May Cry with combining four weapons and all 3 sprite abilities in some mind-blowing way, but SK does let us switch weapons so fast that they're more like fire modes than separate weapons, which is a big capability to ignore and very easy to learn to use. I agree that the Needler is not the best answer in every situation, and also that Devilites are at their most problematic when we're forced to fight groups of them in cramped spaces, but Alchemers are my favourite weapons for that specific case; Alchs deal the best damage _per attack_ of any gun besides the slow Pierce ones, which means that when I have to ease up on attacking in order to evade more, the Alchemers are my best option since the only weapons that come close in terms of minimal slowdown when attacking are the other non-Pierce guns. When I can afford to slow down and/or pause enough that the Alchemer is not my best DPS option, each of the Pierce weapons I've tried has Fiend applications where it really shines, with its time/movement cost limitations neatly dovetailing with the Alchemers' forte, to say nothing of Alchemer charge attacks being so powerful and versatile. In those time/movement terms, both of the Snarble weapons are great as bombs and swords go, but lacking when compared to most guns. Since those guns excluded by that "most" qualifier happen to be the Pierce guns, I suspect there's an intentional game design decision to encourage us to look for complementary pairings beyond just Meatloafing the damage types.

As for boosts, my preference for the Alchemer is in some part because it doesn't demand any particular boost vs. Devilites, so I have more flexibility to pair with any Pierce weapon and stack whatever bonuses are called for, like status resist when the theme includes Freeze, Shock or Fire- and when I'm not worried about those I can choose any offensive boosts based on my heavier weapon. For Magnus, I find ASI essential for switch-shooting, though I expect that less derpy players don't consider it essential. For Needler, I prefer damage and CTR for pop-tarting and spawn-ambushing, though I'm comfortable using no boosts at all and ASI is always nice. For the sword, ASI is my preference but again not essential, and for the bomb I consider CTR to be a must-have.

Now that the gunner update is coming, you should hold on to your socks because they may or may not be blown off.

At least one new piercing gun is coming. And the Glidled Griffin is probably gonna be a 5* Antingua. Thus making dealing with fiends much easier. There's really no need to nerf one of my favorite monsters to deal with. I have a Grand Flourish with Fiend High. I knew I was gonna have to deal with these guys, so I rolled and rolled and rolled. Get a Final Flourish with Fiend Max on it or something. There is no need to nerf these guys.

ALTHOUGH,

I do agree with Point 3. The same thing should apply with Lichen Colonies.

I went to try Return of UR to see what you're talking about; I played on "Elite" setting, on the EU server (oversees from my location, as I'm in the U.S.; as much as I whinge about my jitter, I see other peops who have it worse, so this seems the more fair option for testing playability) unequipped my Sprite and used 4-star armor rather than my usual for Fiends- used 5-star Skelly shield because I don't have a 4-star Shadow shield, and tried with various 4- and 5-star weapons. The first level varies, but interestingly always has a giant haunted toilet room near the beginning as you described.

I had to use my free revive to get through that level, every time I tried it, though I did get through the spooky toilet a couple of times before watching my poor character fall over. Test was aborted when I noticed I was starting to fall asleep. I think I managed at least 5 tries, based on which weapons I can clearly remember using: Prisma Driver with Mega Magnus, with Blitz Needle, with Hunting Blade and with Storm Driver. The latter two went derpishly; I kept trying to spray needles with my sword and I'm pretty sure I'm not quick enough to get any benefit from juggling two Alchemers, so all I managed to do there was slow myself down.

I have trouble with FSC and OCH, so if I can manage something, most people can do it. I expect cheesing it with a Blaster and Pulsegun would make it pretty easy to get through, but I already upgraded both my Blaster and my Pulsegun to 5-star. I guess it's reasonable for a newbie to fully upgrade those first, so maybe I should have tried it anyway. Next time I find a nice block of playtime, which should be next weekend at the latest, I'll do that, as well as try again on lower difficulty but still using mostly 4-star gear since it's before the final Wall of Heroes and still using the more distant available server. I'll be very surprised if I find that it doesn't look like any reasonable newbie can get that one checked off as cleared, though, in the very worst case having to ask for a friend to carry. Now that I think of it, I should still have my old 4-star swords, I'll dust those off as well.