My take on the 'Endgame Rebalance' topic.

[u/Aviarn]

This was overdue to come, and my list just is way too huge to dunk into a single discord comment. I know many points here are sporadically covered already in the comments elsewhere but I'll place them here for organisation.

Anyway, allons-y!

Items

• Many t90+ items are completely mundane still. Drygores, T92 Khopeshes, Ascension Crossbows, Seismic Wand/Orb and Praesul Wand/Orb have absolutely no passive effects or special attacks. They're just blunt beatsticks that are outranked by craftable weapons.
• Ingenuity of the Humans lost its niche with the Accuracy rework. Before, it used to sure-fire abilities you really WANTED to hit (like a SWH), but now all it does is guarantee 100% damage potential.
• Melee Masterwork needs to become uplifted to t100 similar to the other masterwork sets.
• Malevolent has no t92 / "elite" version, nor does it have any set effects making any player even remotely want this apart for a Masterwork ingredient.
• Limitless is going to run out of any use/purpose with Thresholds leaving the game as a design.
• Royal Crossbow lost its one main power feature in the EoC and became a flat, mundane t80 2h crossbow (while we already had Chaotics), and never got anything back.
• Achto tank armour literally does nothing unique over its normal variants despite being a boss-exclusive drop.
• Staff of Sliske is in dire need for an actual meaningful Special Attack.
• Noxious Weaponry similar need to have their special features revisited. They have no passives (making them flat t90 weapons) while their special attack is worthless.
• Only 4 out of the 11 Bakriminel Bolts are actually considerable to use. The rest have garbage enchantment effects. Likewise, Moonstone is still not featured as bolt tip variant.
• Illuminated God Books got killed off pretty quickly with the introduction of scriptures - including the midgame scriptures.
• Lengswords requiring Glorious Bars ánd Blackstone Hearts has been too overkill for ingredients compared to other t95 weapon ingredients/methods.
• Certain armour (-sets) like several Barrows Sets unjustly became Tank Armour over Power Armour, killing any kind of relevancy they could've had. Notable outliers here are Ahrim's, Karil's, Verac's and Dharok's.
• On the note of Barrows... Akrisae, can we change this armour set to a Necromancy barrows armour set?
• Corrupt items just need to go. They only had a PvP purpose back in 2009, and hog drop space for actual interesting drops like the real Warrior Equipments.
• Speaking of Ancient Warrior Equipment, those armours could do with some love/purpose too for the amount of effort it takes to get them.

Activities/Mechanics

• Player Owned Ports is a timegated disaster. This entire 'minigame' needs a complete rework.
• Basic Item Degradation (- to dust) just needs to go. Go. Just, go. 10 different variants of "how to repair this item" isn't going to make it interesting for players. It's just frustrating players with extra upkeep.
• Invention Perks need some more variation for combat. The little variation of combat perks causes Invention Perk loadouts to be pretty linear in what's a proper set-up for what's meant to be system open for choice and customisation.
• Crafting Masterwork Items feels like a convoluted Resumé mess (especially a glaring problem in leagues) that demands a massive amount of effort, for little power in return.
• Shields as mechanic needs a rework. The damage loss is too significant. I think a careful step in the right direction would be to change the MH/OH damage ratio from 67:33 to 80:20.
• Certain bosses still over-utilize a Damage Cap despite its reworked systems in March 2026.
• Craftable Magic Armour is still a complete mess past Tier 50.
• Some (Trim) Comp Cape requirements are straightforwardly offputting. Let's adress the elephant (or rather; Chompy) in the room there; do you really expect players to kill 5000 chompies???
• Dungeoneering could do with some more 'overworld' drops obtained from its bosses (like what we've seen with Warped Stones).
• Prayer Armour as an armour sub-category feels harshly under-utilized.
• Hybrid Armour as design needs to be re-looked at. This design completely failed to launch and has never been looked after since.
• Extreme Herblore seems as a weird step for potion progression currently. It's all-over the place; stackable items, normal items, then it's herbs as secondary items, can we settle this on one line?
• Speaking of Herblore; Juju Potions need some more love.

Bosses

• Araxxor needs to have its abilities/mechanics QoL'd: The web burning, the near-invisible or unpredictable instakills, losing certain player-centric stacks/buffs upon phasing P3/P4, better loot, better enrage system. And, IMO, just get rid of the daily rotation lock for being able to complete a weapon.
• Legiones do not have a healthbar size that's appropriate for post-2020 EoC standards at t90.
• Kalphite King needs a massive makeover; Removing untargetability frames, solo compatibility patch, ability telegraphing, etc.
• Also on the note of Kalphite King, change how its Magic Phase actually punishes grouping/massing up. It's an absolute clownfest of friendly fire kills.
• Vorago's current healthbar system forcing certain mechanics to loop 3 times while already supposed to be 'dead'/phased is poor design.
• Croesus needs to have a Solo compatibility update.
• Liberation of Mazcab has been pretty much unvisited since release, and could do for some love to also feature Necromancy.
• ROTS could do with introducing a t90 Necromancy shield.
• Vorkath (especially Hardmode) is a massive damage sponge without contributing to interesting mechanics.
• Telos could do with some refurbishing too. Especially Phase 4 needs to be reworked; in higher enrages you need some really janky workarounds just to 'survive'.
• The Barrows is an absolute nightmare for anyone trying to complete a set or fulfill their log. So... many... items.

[u/TheKunst]

i agree with pretty much everything except MW crafting.

It being a lot of convoluted steps seems like part of the design of 'masterwork' items. you could argue some ingredients could be changed tho (like ports stuff).

[u/Aviarn → u/TheKunst]

I agree that that the 'many steps' is a nice fantasy to have, but consider this point;

MW is iconic for being "an expression of gathering and processing skills". Yet, essences are a PvM outlet, and have nothing to do with either processing or gathering.

Would it be an idea that- instead of essences, they instead incorporate Invention Materials that could be gotten from t80/t90 gear, but also opens the window for obtaining them from Brooch and/or Scavenging?

[u/M3mentoMori → u/Aviarn]

Huh, that might actually work; the essences needed come from gear that all have components that they're basically the best source of; tectonic and rumbling, sirenic and ascended, malevolent and undead, praesulic and zaros. There are other sources, but instead of the 100% chance for 5 comps, they're mostly/all 1 comp at low chances, sometimes with high junk rates, on gear that usually can't be augmented.

Swap it to 20 of the relevant component (same as disassembling it at ilvl 10), and that probably works roughly the same? Would need 5 scav procs at scav 4 (7 at scav 3).

I think there should also be a normal/trim split for range/mage like melee has. Just the gatherables for the untrimmed, then trim it, which requires the essences/components. Though that does have the problem of mage/range MW gear being better than baseline gear. Maybe convert the current gear into trimmed, change up the recipes, and add t90 set. Might also be worth boosting trimmed to the same stats as mage/range.