I really hope they reverse the decision to segment Decos whenever we get 4-slot Jewels.

[John Boltgun]

The only way I can see the system they went with working well is dependent on 2 factors:
1. There needs to be a very large variety of monsters and the gear that comes with them. We're talking Generations 129+ monsters for loads of equipment and weapon variety.
2. They need to add every skill that can be found in a Jewel, regardless of Weapon/Armor, and turn it into a Talisman.

At that point I feel like it's better to just unlock the Decos again. How many of these weapon skills are just going to fall by the wayside because of all these Meta build chasers? Why is Wexploit an armor skill but Attack Up isn't? Why is Guard/Guard Up/Offensive Guard a Triad of Weapon skills? Who is going to pick all three of these instead of 1-2 level 3 Attack jewels or something?

It's just stifling. I love making builds in these games and I feel like this system is trying to railroad me into very specific skills. "Well hey there Hunter I see you can't fit Guard on your gloves but hey why not add Quick Sheath to your build! We think it'll go SO nicely with that Critical Draw Gunlance you're DEFINITELY going to use... right? You Gunlances like putting that thing away a lot in a fight, right?"

Really baffling decision to me. Otherwise, really enjoying the game so far. Just wanted to spaz about the ONE thing bugging me so much.

[Deffy]

I don't it's fine as it is.

[Kasa]

Agreed OP.

I main HBG, I don't need 5 ~ 6 defensive skills like Hungerless ffs.

[EnderYoshi]

I agree with unlocking the decos, there is a huge imbalance of weapon and armor decos and just because a good few people go for meta build doesn't mean the average player would care about them. You're right on Guard/Guard Up as well, those are defense type decos slotted as offensive and takes up valued weapon slots away from things like Artillery so felow Gunlancers will either get slapped around or not do good damage.

You forget about another key points however:

Resistances have no lvl2 or 3 decos, neither does defense boost yet attack boost does.
A huge amount of lvl 3 gems on armor give lvl 1 skills.

[TwinelyWix]

Yeah you cant just max out every offensive skill the game has in a single set anymore and thats fine because hunts are shorter now. You deal less damage to monsters with less hp. HOWEVER the built in skills weapons have are utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 90% of the time.