Last Friday (January 19th), there was a ninja balancing done to equipment. Currently, the majority of the equipment has been recorded and uploaded onto the gear spreadsheet, but there are still a few pieces of gear that are not updated, but rather have been given a “best guess” (those appear highlighted in yellow on the sheet). If you have any of those, please either comment them below or shoot me a dm on Discord!

This update review format is quite different from the Deja Review series for a number of reasons. First of all, this gear change is the only change that was applied in the update. Writing a Deja Review for only one change would be difficult, and overall, not very informative to read. Instead of taking an overall broad view of the update, I’ll be looking at most of the sets in-depth, along with my thoughts and concerns about the current “equipment meta”.

Viking Set (Horned Helm, Demon Shoulders, Skullbasher) – At the highest level, this set provides 8% more resistance against both projectile and melee attacks at the cost of 10% of your special meter. I believe that this set is a good tradeoff for a player that only has Mega Fireball. Mega Fireball is near useless in this meta, dealing only a very small amount of damage. The main reason to use Mega Fireball is the utility it provides, such as OTG hits, but those are quite rare, which means that the tradeoff of special meter isn’t that bad. However, with almost any other special move, this set falls apart. In the rare case that you run Mega Fireball, this set is an 8/10 pick. However, if you run any other special move, this set ranks at a low 4/10.

Army Set (M1 Helmet, Combatant Shoulderguards, Mighty Missile) – At the highest level, this set provides 11% more resistance against melee attacks at the expense of 11% shorter defensive moves, such as Reflect and Counter (with the exception of M1 Helmet which provides 8% more resistance to melee attacks with the same drawbacks). This set is a very solid choice for almost every player. Very few people run Defensive Moves in any build currently, which makes the drawback almost nonexistent. I would rank this set at a solid 7/10 for all players.

Thug Set (Toxin Filter, Warboy Guards, Big Pipe) – At the highest level, this set provides 20% bot bonus for an 8% shorter block. This would be a very solid pick for anyone with the Healbot special move if bot bonus worked properly. However, currently bot bonus is a debuff and makes both Mortarbot and Healbot worse. Therefore, there is no point to running this gear. This set is a 1/10 for style.

Greek Set (Ancient Hood, Holy Pauldrons, Discus Shield) – At the highest level, this set gives 16% more projectile damage for 21% extra block damage taken. This set is a good choice for any player who wishes to run several projectiles in the same deck. This gear is especially useful for a Mia build which revolves around a quick in-and-out playstyle. However, there are just not enough viable projectiles to make this set good. Currently I would rank this set at a 5/10.

Beserker Set (Beserker Helm, Crusader Armguards, Knight Brazier) – At the highest level this set provides 100 extra health for 13% longer stun on blocks. The detriment isn’t too bad, but the buff isn’t very strong either. Even if you have Horned Helm level 1, it provides a better bonus over the course of the match than a fully leveled Beserker Helm. Therefore, this set is rated at 2/10.

Samurai Set (Shogun Kabuto, Sacred Spaulders, Feudal Mallet) – At the highest level, we believe this set will provide a melee bonus of 6% and will lower parry time by 8% (with the exception of Shogun Kabuto which will provide an 8% melee damage buff at the cost of 14% less parry time). This set isn’t a strong contender because the Army Set provides a bigger bonus to melee resistance for a much less noticeable drawback. This is also outshone by the next entry on the list. Therefore, this set rates at 3/10.

Futuristic Set (c120 CyberVisor, cTek Shock Deflector, Blastball Bat) – At the highest level, we believe this set will provide an 11% resistance buff against projectiles at no extra cost (with the exception of cTek Shock Deflector which will give an 8% resistance buff against projectiles). The fact that this set has no drawbacks makes it a strong contender, but it runs into the reverse of the problem that the Greek Set runs into. There are not enough projectile users to make this set very viable. Odds are, most opponents will probably only have a Fireball, and maybe a Dart, in their deck. The rest (and the majority) of the damage that will be against you is melee moves. This set ranks at 4/10.

The Ultimate Set (Wukong’s Crown, Tao Bracelets, Dragon Guts) – This set is by far the best in the game. At the maximum level, both Tao Bracelets and Dragon Guts provide a 6% melee and projectile damage bonus for no drawback. Wukong’s Crown at max level provides a 13% damage bonus to each. That means that you can have a 25% damage bonus to both melee and projectile damage for no drawbacks. I think this needs no further explanation. I’ll just rank it 10/10.

There are some pieces of gear that I will rank separately from the sets for the sole reason of being unable to decide which sets they come from.

Focus Bandana – 11% extra projectile damage and 11% less defensive skill time at max level. This ultimately suffers the same fate as the Greek Set, in the fact that there are not enough projectiles in the current meta to run this. This ranks at a 4/10.

Steel Spaulder – At max level, this set provides a 16% longer block for a 13% longer block stun. This buff greatly outweighs the debuff, and if this were still a meta that did not revolve around throws, this would be a much better piece of equipment. Unfortunately, the current meta demands quick and precise blocks, which means this piece of equipment is near-useless. I rate this 3/10.

Sharpstripe Armorband – At max level, this gear provides 11% faster special charge time for 11% less defensive skill duration. Special charge is a massive boost in matches, and the debuff on this piece of gear isn’t bad either. I would rate this piece of equipment 7/10, and perhaps 8/10 if you have a special move that costs a lot.

Deathbringer Shoulders – At max level, this gear provides an 11% bonus for both projectile and melee resistance, and causes defensive tactic duration to decrease by 11%. This is basically an upgraded Combatant Shoulderguard. I rate this piece of equipment 10/10.

Golem Shoulder – The max level is currently unknown. However, it mainly offers health for defensive tactic duration. Once again, I would say to choose resistance over health. This is rated at 2/10.

Half Shell – At max level, this gives 11% extra damage to projectiles and 11% more special charge needed. This is basically a worse Focus Bandana because of the punishing drawback. I rate this gear 2/10.

Tenderizer – At max level, this charges your special move 11% faster and makes you take 22% more block damage. This is basically a worse Sharpstripe Armorband and costs more to level up. I would rate this 4/10.

Champion Golem Shoulder – This provides 35% extra block duration, but as I stated before, the meta revolves around throws. Therefore, this piece of exclusive gear gets 10/10 for style and a 3/10 for functionality.

Anchor – This gives 60 health for no drawback, however, as always, I would say to choose resistance. This ranks at a 2/10.

Gorb’s Shark – This gear gives 8% extra block duration for 14% less parry time. Once again, this is not very useful in the current meta and ranks at 2/10 for the punishing drawback.

So, by now, I would hope that you know my current opinion on the gear meta. It is much better than before, and there are some new pieces of equipment that have become viable. However, the only truly viable pieces of equipment provide resistance or damage, with one piece providing special charge. It basically takes out any skill of selecting equipment to fit your lineup. If your resistance adds to more than your damage, pick resistance. If your damage adds to more than resistance, choose damage. Health doesn’t give enough of a benefit to be used, especially at higher levels. Block Duration is near useless because of the meta. There is only 1 type of gear that provides special reduction. Bot Bonus is broken. This all leads to the dumbed-down selection that I described above.

However, this is a step in the right direction. It gave drawbacks to a bunch of pieces of equipment that needed it (Shogun Kabuto comes to mind). Unfortunately, it means that matchmaking is a little stale especially with all the healbots. Resistance and healbot together are close to unbeatable. They take less damage and essentially gain free health that can also resist more damage. So, it is obvious that something needs to change. Once again, we will just need to be patient.

Until then, run Resistance or Damage. Just add them up.