The general idea of how I see balance is that everything should have some reason to use it regardless, though some things more-so than others. Items that infringe on the niche of others while being strictly better in almost every way is something I have the most issue with because even if it’s an endgame vs midgame, you’re still basically just replacing an item altogether. It’s the sort of thing I see with Bone Dagger vs Stinger, though even that has a bit of leniency due to it being a case of Cyan vs White and not White vs White.
Also, with something like Gladiator Guard vs Mercy’s Bane, it’s a fairly unfair comparison due to the fact that Mercy’s Bane is generally an actually balanced item, while Gladiator Guard is just a fairly OP version of it without many - if any - drawbacks. Mercy’s works because of its massive loss of Defense in comparison to even a Dragonscale Armor, overall resulting in monstrously more damage taken in return for a decent chunk of DPS; Gladiator Guard only slightly reduces the DPS it gives in favor of removing almost any penalty in terms of Defense(outside of against T15, which drops from the same dungeon mind you) and even giving a lot of Speed.
As for Zaarvox vs Gladiator, it feels… wrong, that in order for an item to be good, it has to specifically be paired with another item, even if they happen to be STs. It’s the thing I dislike most about the way ST sets are generally designed; half of the set outright relies on other items to function well or even decently, and now with newer sets, some items are legitimately required to get full effectiveness.
I can’t exactly show every detail, as it’s for the aforementioned Private Server, but I’ll show an edited example of what it looks like.
Essentially, every factor you want to put onto an item has a different effect based on a lot of variables, such as Projectile Count, the True Range of the item, if it has a Status Effect, the Arc Gap range(Scattershot), and of course the normal stats. It shows all of the stats and how they’d react to different amounts of Defense, as well as just raw damage, and even with boosts. All of these are then taken into account with a value that compares itself to Tier 12, including Tier 13 and 14, and based on how many points it has versus Tier 12, it’ll tell you if it needs to be stronger or weaker, while having a range so there’s room for leeway.
It overall works very well, and allows for testing based on the aforementioned variables without having to put it into the game, or even into a testing server. Things will behave differently with different Attack and Dexterity values of course, but given the distribution of those stats among classes, certain things will end up being better or worse on specific classes regardless and should be taken with a grain of salt. There isn’t one for abilities, but those are too specific - especially with the things I want to do to the classes - to put into a calculator.
I can also clarify what some of the terms here mean if you’re curious about their implementation.
Absolutely. Kabam’s biggest issue was neglecting a lot of the game in most aspects and funneling pay-to-“win” into the game, while DECA’s biggest issues are either their marketing, or their complete lack of consistency when it comes to the strength of items, whether it’s endgame or not. Powercreep is normally a bit more… excusable in single player, but not only is this an MMO, it’s a co-op that also relies on luck for getting good things. Powercreep simply doesn’t work well with the game’s overall design, at least IMO.
It’s nothing against you for disagreeing on certain things like Jugg, as I didn’t clarify that one myself. A couple of other things are just hot topics for debate as well, and I’m going down with the ship on those ones either way.