So, before I explain what I think could be improved with the system, let me first outline what I really like about the reforge system:
Accessories!
There is no "one best reforge" for accessories. Of course, you always want the +4% over the +1%; but +4% movement speed is valuable for mobility, +4% damage or +4% crit strike is free extra damage, +4 defense turns up in tank builds, and +4% use speed turns up occasionally. This is a really interesting system which means no modifier is "inferior" - just useful in a different context. It's genuinely really interesting to pick and choose which one you might want!
Weapons, on the other hand...
There is only one best prefix for weapons. Legendary/Unreal/Mythical/Ruthless for the four main classes, with other oddballs like Light popping up occasionally for e.g. mining tools. Godly is secondbest, Demonic is never a bad modifier, and Masterful on magic or Rapid on range are always modifiers that are good to have: but you always have the feeling of "it's not as good as it could be." Because the stats are strictly inferior to a Legendary/etc weapon.
Fundamentally, this results in the reforge system for weapons essentially rolling forever till you land that best modifier and then forgetting about reforging it ever again. I think that, even within the statistics that can already be modified, there's room to do just what accessories do: to have multiple viable "best modifiers" that might be good in different situations that reward specialization. This isn't to say the Legendary modifier needs to be removed: it can be kept as a "jack-of-all-trades general excel," but I think there's room for additional specializations. Here are some examples for just the melee class:
- Massive: +30% size. The larger size could and help out with crowd control, allowing you to hit multiple mobs at once: think using a spear in the Old One's Army. It could also be helpful for extending whip range when a summoner, allowing you to keep a greater distance from your foes.
- Slow: +100% damage, -50% speed. At first glance, this looks like the same overall DPS but with a tendency to whiff: however, factoring in enemy Defense will mean that such a modifier would allow you to get a higher overall damage output. Quick math: Suppose a weapon does 5 damage every shot and fires once per second. Imagine you're hitting an enemy with 8 DEF, for 4 damage reduction, so you only hit for 1 DPS. With this modifier, you hit for 6 damage every two seconds, which is three DPS, a +200% damage increase. This modifier would also put a higher emphasis on aiming, to make sure you can get the most out of its fewer shots.
- Rapid: +25% use speed. Significantly speedier than Legendary, this would allow weapons that can stack debuffs (think the Daybreak's stacking) or otherwise have unique mechanics (think the Sleepy Octopod's charge time potentially being reduced by this modifier) to get more value out of what makes them unique.
As an example of some other modifiers other classes could benefit from:
- Masterful, for magic: -33% mana cost. Modifiers already exist to reduce mana cost, but it's hard to compete with Mythical which comes with -10% mana reduction and has extra damage to boot. By speccing purely into mana reduction, players would be less reliant on mana potions, which allow their overall DPS to increase (as using a mana potion temporarily reduces your damage). Builds that use no mana potions at all (to not suffer the damage penalty) also become more of a possibility.
- Far-flying, for range: +50% velocity. Velocity is a really intriguing stat, because not only does it increase how far your projectile goes (assuming you're not using bullets), it also removes some of the predicting you have to do when playing range: when you're aiming at a target, you don't just have to aim for where it is, you have to aim for where you think it's going, and increased velocity means less travel time means enemy moves a shorter difference means enemy is less likely to juke your shots. While this would be "less DPS" than an Unreal weapon, the capability to stand at further distances (and get hit less) in addition with more likely to hit (which increases overall DPS) means that this could be a genuinely preferable modifier.
That's just changing the numbers on stats that already exist. If you wanted to go the extra mile, you could implement entirely new modifiers:
- Velocity, like what range has, but for melee. Besides speeding up the projectiles, it could also increase yoyo move speed, which could be helpful when chasing fast-moving targets that yoyos can sometimes struggle to keep up with (think trying to use yoyos vs The Twins.)
- Explosive: This modifier could increase the size of area of effect attacks. Think the Solar Eruption's explosion on hit, rockets, etc. This could be useful in situations where crowd control is required, such as the Lunar Pillars. You could think of it like the +size modifier melee weapons have, but for non-melee weapons.
- Peaceful, for rocket-launching weapons. This would add a unique attribute: no matter what ammo is used, tiles will never be destroyed, allowing you to use Mini Nuke IIs to your heart's content
- Efficient, for ranged weapons. This would add an additional chance to not consume ammo. Could be useful for players who don't have enough resources to reliably use expensive ammunition like Holy Arrows, Chlorophyte Bullets, or Fallen Stars, although would overall be inferior to a +damage boosting modifier.
- Far-seeing, for ranged weapons. If applicable, this would add the effects of the Sniper Scope / Binoculars. This allows you to see more of an enemy's movements and react accordingly, and allows you to stay further away (and get hit less) The effect of the scope can sometimes be nauseous as the camera wibbles and wobbles all around, but by being an optional modifier just like how the Sniper Scope is an optional accessory, players who would get nauseous can reroll to a more standard +damage modifier.
- Long-lasting: The damage output of several weapons (think Razorblade Typhoon) is essentially capped by their projectile lifespan. Outside of increasing the damage potential of homing weapons, this could also be helpful so e.g. you have to replace your Rainbow Staff or Nimbus Rod less frequently, as they'd last longer.
Finally, I think it's worth noting that negative modifiers don't need to be emphasized. Think of the "Heavy" modifier for melee weapons: +15% knockback, -10% speed. This already isn't a good modifier since knockback is not always the most useful thing in the world, but the -10% speed brings it down even further. But the speed penalty is worse than the listed -10%: when compared to a Legendary weapon (+10% speed), the speed penalty from heavy turns into -20% (or 18%, depending on how you do the math). This means the modifier is just terrible, with no reason to ever pick it. So when looking to give a bonus to existing modifiers, I don't think they need a penalty elsewhere to bring them down, since by missing out on boosting other stats they're already missing out compared to a Legendary weapon.
All of these are hypothetical names & hypothetical numbers, but they illustrate how even within the existing system, I think there's room to diversify the modifiers system so that there isn't just "one best" modifier. Which I think is a goal that would be helpful to the game, as at the moment the weapon reforge system is "reforge to Legendary/Unreal/Mythical/Ruthless and then forget about it forever."
