devs.. wtf where you on when nerfing raincoat for no good reason

[Light0234]

look ik old raincoat legit broke e8 runs but that is what a red item is suposed to do now its legit ass and in a worse state than meat (old meat is still better than new meat as the regen is usefull for many surviviors and was a common item wich arnt suposed to be that strong)

[ms. jackson]

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Haha bro you are joking? Did you find that item every run? If you played the game for more than 50 hours you would know how you usually don't get what you want every run. Yall keeping bringing up my hours but in reality your just showing that you want people to play a certain way. If you play on eclipse without looping your either going to the bazaar, hoping for bens on stage 4, or hoping for it on the moon. You act as if you got it all the time and your runs were like braindead when we both know that's not the case. My 50 hour brain cannot comprehend your rng

I'm objectively speaking here. Raincoat was extremely unhealthy for the game and now that it's been tweaked to a more reasonable level, it's a fine red item. The runs I did get instantly turn into god runs because malachites and voidtouched enemies were no longer a threat. It made the game less fun, and that's the overall point I'm trying to make here.

In the state it's in now, not only does it provide a way to, in a sense, "forgive your mistake", it also stacks in a way that makes multiple worth getting, and doesn't sting when you pull a red from a chest only for it to be a duplicate coat. It's not the busted item it was before, but it's definitely a better item balance-wise now.

Sure, there's other items that do something similar to Raincoat, but it's not the same. Opal as an item can not compare to Raincoat at all. Getting hit by one little thing makes the shield you have disappear, whereas the new Raincoat can provide a little more protection overall. On top of that, opal only activates while out of combat, making it where sustained fights, namely TP event, makes opal essentially scrap.

Safer spaces is also a contender, but the CD on it is so long at it's base level that tougher times is overall better early on. Sure, maybe with more stacks, safer spaces can compete with Raincoat, but at that point you could be having a more diverse set of options instead of pouring all your resources into a bunch of teddies.

Beyond those two items, I can't really think of anything that can compete with what Raincoat has to offer.

it made the runs less fun for YOU. That is your opinion which is fine but some of us like it as it was. your saying it was unhealthy for the game but again, why are you assuming whats healthy for it? literally everyone plays the game differently that what you said just doesnt matter to the vast majority of players. you think people who use command or play with mods care about whats healthy for the game? do you think people who cheat to get thousands of lunars care? If you got it and it made runs boring for you why not avoid it or scrap it? instead now we have an item that is pretty underwhelming tbh. lets be honest your more likely to stack safer spaces, opals, and repulsion plates then find multiple raincoats or even a raincoat printer.

the late game elite enemies as well as void touched enemies literally encourage you to play like a rat if you dont have enough damage to burst them down. imo the way they are balanced is not healthy for the game as they are just massive damage sponges they will one shot you if you arent able to instakil them. they make the game unhealthy for me so i choose to play eclipse and not loop. thats how i play and find it fun but i dont try and control how others have fun and dictate whats healthy for the game.

i just play it how i want and thats what these nerfs go against. this isnt a pvp game, my fun and my choices dont change how others enjoy their game, thats how a game like this should be. if you want to make the game harder for yourself you couldve just not picked it up or removed it from your item pool. you cannot say your objectively speaking when you then say it made the game less fun for you lmao thats literally subjective

[zero254]

This is a white item now

[76561198811524324]

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

I'm objectively speaking here. Raincoat was extremely unhealthy for the game and now that it's been tweaked to a more reasonable level, it's a fine red item. The runs I did get instantly turn into god runs because malachites and voidtouched enemies were no longer a threat. It made the game less fun, and that's the overall point I'm trying to make here.

In the state it's in now, not only does it provide a way to, in a sense, "forgive your mistake", it also stacks in a way that makes multiple worth getting, and doesn't sting when you pull a red from a chest only for it to be a duplicate coat. It's not the busted item it was before, but it's definitely a better item balance-wise now.

Sure, there's other items that do something similar to Raincoat, but it's not the same. Opal as an item can not compare to Raincoat at all. Getting hit by one little thing makes the shield you have disappear, whereas the new Raincoat can provide a little more protection overall. On top of that, opal only activates while out of combat, making it where sustained fights, namely TP event, makes opal essentially scrap.

Safer spaces is also a contender, but the CD on it is so long at it's base level that tougher times is overall better early on. Sure, maybe with more stacks, safer spaces can compete with Raincoat, but at that point you could be having a more diverse set of options instead of pouring all your resources into a bunch of teddies.

Beyond those two items, I can't really think of anything that can compete with what Raincoat has to offer.

it made the runs less fun for YOU. That is your opinion which is fine but some of us like it as it was. your saying it was unhealthy for the game but again, why are you assuming whats healthy for it? literally everyone plays the game differently that what you said just doesnt matter to the vast majority of players. you think people who use command or play with mods care about whats healthy for the game? do you think people who cheat to get thousands of lunars care? If you got it and it made runs boring for you why not avoid it or scrap it? instead now we have an item that is pretty underwhelming tbh. lets be honest your more likely to stack safer spaces, opals, and repulsion plates than find multiple raincoats or even a raincoat printer.

the late game elite enemies as well as void touched enemies literally encourage you to play like a rat if you dont have enough damage to burst them down. imo the way they are balanced is not healthy for the game as they are just massive damage sponges they will one shot you if you arent able to instakil them. they make the game unhealthy for me so i choose to play eclipse and not loop. thats how i play and find it fun but i dont try and control how others have fun and dictate whats healthy for the game.

i just play it how i want and thats what these nerfs go against. this isnt a pvp game, my fun and my choices dont change how others enjoy their game, thats how a game like this should be. if you want to make the game harder for yourself you couldve just not picked it up or removed it from your item pool. you cannot say your objectively speaking when you then say it made the game less fun for you lmao thats literally subjective

Just going to stop by and say this. The devs know what is best and healthiest for this game (mostly), they wouldn't have changed it if they felt it was balanced.

People complain about ceremonial daggers all the time but luckily the devs barely touched it because they realize it's not that strong on it's own. If you're going to go down this route, then go get mods of your own like everyone else and make the game fun for you.

[nul]

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

Publicado originalmente por Senki:

you know what else is overtuned? like half of the item combinations. Might as well nerf the entire game. The whole point of the game is to become overpowered by stacking items, people acting like raincoat was too bad are silly and ignore the rest of the game.

You're missing the point. It's the fact that Raincoat on it's own provided too much use as a standalone item. You're pointing out item combos when, yes, that's the whole point of the game, but the key word is "combo". I can't really think of any other red item that is not only universally good on every survivor, but also not reliant on RNG to proc.

Brilliant Behemoth. Ceremonial Dagger. Hardlight Afterburner. Spare Drone Parts (if you're not fighting Mithrix/not too reliant on your on-kill items). And while Dio's Best Friend doesn't provide you any direct gameplay benefit, it's definitely a good insurance.

[ms. jackson]

Publicado originalmente por Ferryman:

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

it made the runs less fun for YOU. That is your opinion which is fine but some of us like it as it was. your saying it was unhealthy for the game but again, why are you assuming whats healthy for it? literally everyone plays the game differently that what you said just doesnt matter to the vast majority of players. you think people who use command or play with mods care about whats healthy for the game? do you think people who cheat to get thousands of lunars care? If you got it and it made runs boring for you why not avoid it or scrap it? instead now we have an item that is pretty underwhelming tbh. lets be honest your more likely to stack safer spaces, opals, and repulsion plates than find multiple raincoats or even a raincoat printer.

the late game elite enemies as well as void touched enemies literally encourage you to play like a rat if you dont have enough damage to burst them down. imo the way they are balanced is not healthy for the game as they are just massive damage sponges they will one shot you if you arent able to instakil them. they make the game unhealthy for me so i choose to play eclipse and not loop. thats how i play and find it fun but i dont try and control how others have fun and dictate whats healthy for the game.

i just play it how i want and thats what these nerfs go against. this isnt a pvp game, my fun and my choices dont change how others enjoy their game, thats how a game like this should be. if you want to make the game harder for yourself you couldve just not picked it up or removed it from your item pool. you cannot say your objectively speaking when you then say it made the game less fun for you lmao thats literally subjective

Just going to stop by and say this. The devs know what is best and healthiest for this game (mostly), they wouldn't have changed it if they felt it was balanced.

People complain about ceremonial daggers all the time but luckily the devs barely touched it because they realize it's not that strong on it's own. If you're going to go down this route, then go get mods of your own like everyone else and make the game fun for you.

already do homie, thats the point. i disagree with the changes but at the end of the day will just get a mod to undo them. the devs gave modders and players the tools to make the game fun however they want so we use them. their vision of whats healthy for the game has no bearing over how people play anymore. they threw out anyone taking their balance decisions seriously when they added stuff like command lmao

[Leviathan]

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

I'm not asking them to just release and make everything op but this patch is weird because there are so many op things in the game already that were just as afk oriented as rain coat.

As...?
I mean an item that has so much power on its own without need for synergies? Which item are you talking about?

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

It seems so pointless to make an exception for reworking and turning raincoat into a green when other things have existed that also trivialize the game as well.

Why? As I said, balance for the sake of balance is not a good thing. You balance stuff for many reasons. In particular, if one item is more broken than you expected and has results that you don't want in the game you're making then you make it more balanced. Not because everything has to be balanced, but because you want that feature to be more balanced than it is because [insert reason].

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

What's the rarity of things like gestures? You can literally always get them guaranteed since you can reroll lunar. Tonic? Same thing.

Yeah, but leaving aside that gesturex4+Tonic requires A TON of rerolling (because you need to make the 5 items be whatever you want, which makes it around 10^(-4)-10^(-3)% chance just for the gestures) that doesn't nullify any mechanics in the game. You can still be hurt, you can still be debuffed, you can still take fall damage and you can still die.

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Finding an early tesla coil pretty much invalidates the early game as it's a literal afk damage item.

Not really. Stay afk and blind pests will kill you. Since enemies tend to get close to you they'll die for the most part while it remains active, but since they have ranged attacks they'll always get a hit or two. Also enemies getting close has never been one of your worries early game. You must also consider that Tesla coil deactivates itelf after 10 seconds (and activates itself after another 10 seconds and so). Tesla coil is amazing, but it's not a free win. If you get 10 bison steaks (or equally bad item) and nothing else per stage, you'll likely die at stage 3 no matter if you had tesla coil or not.

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Daggers will just screen nuke ♥♥♥♥ for you anyway without you playing any differently as well, what synergy does that item need to be strong? Just being able to kill stuff?

Not really. Five enemy deaths trigger the same damage as a single bundle of fireworks. You only nuke screen with daggers if you have the required dps and procs backing you up. In fact, daggers suffer a lot from the effect that if you're not strong enough to kill the enemies fast enough and have no decent procs daggers won't help you with that and if you're strong enough to do so daggers will... do nothing extra for you. Daggers won't turn a bad run into a good run or a good run into a god run that often, and they will be of no use if you already have a god run.

That said, they're a great item. Just not AS good as a lot of people think it is, taking into account that it's a red.

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

it goes against the way the game is to make items ♥♥♥♥♥♥ just for the sake of it

True. But what makes you think devs are nerfing Ben's raincoat just for the sake of making it ♥♥♥♥♥♥?

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Ben's is literally red scrap now

Not at all, since for the most part the only use of red scrap is to be used at the white cauldrons at commencement. You cannot just count on losing power just for the sake of maybe finding a legendary 3d printer 20 stages later.
In fact, the only times you scrap a red item is because you think it may hurt you later, either because of framerate, Mithrix, or the annoyance it causes (Bottled chaos, I'm talking to you).

[Dr. James Wilson]

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

I'm objectively speaking here. Raincoat was extremely unhealthy for the game and now that it's been tweaked to a more reasonable level, it's a fine red item. The runs I did get instantly turn into god runs because malachites and voidtouched enemies were no longer a threat. It made the game less fun, and that's the overall point I'm trying to make here.

In the state it's in now, not only does it provide a way to, in a sense, "forgive your mistake", it also stacks in a way that makes multiple worth getting, and doesn't sting when you pull a red from a chest only for it to be a duplicate coat. It's not the busted item it was before, but it's definitely a better item balance-wise now.

Sure, there's other items that do something similar to Raincoat, but it's not the same. Opal as an item can not compare to Raincoat at all. Getting hit by one little thing makes the shield you have disappear, whereas the new Raincoat can provide a little more protection overall. On top of that, opal only activates while out of combat, making it where sustained fights, namely TP event, makes opal essentially scrap.

Safer spaces is also a contender, but the CD on it is so long at it's base level that tougher times is overall better early on. Sure, maybe with more stacks, safer spaces can compete with Raincoat, but at that point you could be having a more diverse set of options instead of pouring all your resources into a bunch of teddies.

Beyond those two items, I can't really think of anything that can compete with what Raincoat has to offer.

it made the runs less fun for YOU. That is your opinion which is fine but some of us like it as it was. your saying it was unhealthy for the game but again, why are you assuming whats healthy for it? literally everyone plays the game differently that what you said just doesnt matter to the vast majority of players. you think people who use command or play with mods care about whats healthy for the game? do you think people who cheat to get thousands of lunars care? If you got it and it made runs boring for you why not avoid it or scrap it? instead now we have an item that is pretty underwhelming tbh. lets be honest your more likely to stack safer spaces, opals, and repulsion plates then find multiple raincoats or even a raincoat printer.

the late game elite enemies as well as void touched enemies literally encourage you to play like a rat if you dont have enough damage to burst them down. imo the way they are balanced is not healthy for the game as they are just massive damage sponges they will one shot you if you arent able to instakil them. they make the game unhealthy for me so i choose to play eclipse and not loop. thats how i play and find it fun but i dont try and control how others have fun and dictate whats healthy for the game.

i just play it how i want and thats what these nerfs go against. this isnt a pvp game, my fun and my choices dont change how others enjoy their game, thats how a game like this should be. if you want to make the game harder for yourself you couldve just not picked it up or removed it from your item pool. you cannot say your objectively speaking when you then say it made the game less fun for you lmao thats literally subjective

Like picking up Raincoat makes your experience way more enjoyable. Also, I think I have the ability to assume what's healthy considering the time I've invested. I've collected every achievement, I've played with mods, I've done eclipse runs, I've played with artifacts, I've done unorthodox builds. That's why I'm saying the item is unhealthy. I've done a lot of things in the game. It's the idea of Raincoat pre-nerf that makes it unhealthy, not me getting the item itself.

And I do think that having those elites force you to play safely is totally fine. Prioritizing those enemies because of the threat they pose to you is how you should be going about it. And that's not me gatekeeping, it's just common sense. You should be targeting those stronger enemies because of the threat they pose. If you're not chunking their HP, it's because you don't have the proper items necessary to deal with those elites, or your survivor doesn't allow for that kind of damage to occur.

[Dr. James Wilson]

Publicado originalmente por nul:

Brilliant Behemoth. Ceremonial Dagger. Hardlight Afterburner. Spare Drone Parts (if you're not fighting Mithrix/not too reliant on your on-kill items). And while Dio's Best Friend doesn't provide you any direct gameplay benefit, it's definitely a good insurance.

Behemoth isn't that good on artificer, merc, railgunner, and loader imo. (granted, atkspd railgunner with behemoth is wacky) I think it's great on survivors that can consistently throw out attacks.

Afterburner doesn't correctly interact with merc, and I don't think artificer and railgunner get the biggest boost from it.

Drone Parts is in a weird spot because yes, it is good on everyone, the fact that you need to invest more money into drones and turrets can be compared to investing into more items so other red items have better synergy with what you have, if that makes sense.

I'll concede dagger.

I'll also concede Dios, but, as you said, it's just insurance, and doesn't provide a massive gameplay boost like dagger or pre-nerf raincoat did.

[ms. jackson]

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

it made the runs less fun for YOU. That is your opinion which is fine but some of us like it as it was. your saying it was unhealthy for the game but again, why are you assuming whats healthy for it? literally everyone plays the game differently that what you said just doesnt matter to the vast majority of players. you think people who use command or play with mods care about whats healthy for the game? do you think people who cheat to get thousands of lunars care? If you got it and it made runs boring for you why not avoid it or scrap it? instead now we have an item that is pretty underwhelming tbh. lets be honest your more likely to stack safer spaces, opals, and repulsion plates then find multiple raincoats or even a raincoat printer.

the late game elite enemies as well as void touched enemies literally encourage you to play like a rat if you dont have enough damage to burst them down. imo the way they are balanced is not healthy for the game as they are just massive damage sponges they will one shot you if you arent able to instakil them. they make the game unhealthy for me so i choose to play eclipse and not loop. thats how i play and find it fun but i dont try and control how others have fun and dictate whats healthy for the game.

i just play it how i want and thats what these nerfs go against. this isnt a pvp game, my fun and my choices dont change how others enjoy their game, thats how a game like this should be. if you want to make the game harder for yourself you couldve just not picked it up or removed it from your item pool. you cannot say your objectively speaking when you then say it made the game less fun for you lmao thats literally subjective

Like picking up Raincoat makes your experience way more enjoyable. Also, I think I have the ability to assume what's healthy considering the time I've invested. I've collected every achievement, I've played with mods, I've done eclipse runs, I've played with artifacts, I've done unorthodox builds. That's why I'm saying the item is unhealthy. I've done a lot of things in the game. It's the idea of Raincoat pre-nerf that makes it unhealthy, not me getting the item itself.

And I do think that having those elites force you to play safely is totally fine. Prioritizing those enemies because of the threat they pose to you is how you should be going about it. And that's not me gatekeeping, it's just common sense. You should be targeting those stronger enemies because of the threat they pose. If you're not chunking their HP, it's because you don't have the proper items necessary to deal with those elites, or your survivor doesn't allow for that kind of damage to occur.

sorry but no matter how many stats you flex at me it wont mean your objectively right to tell others whats healthy for the game. i have done everything you said as well and spent hundreds of hour in the game but it doesnt make my opinion fact. if your saying the idea of it is unhealthy but not the item itself then what are you even arguing? you just said it gave you god runs so if its so boring to get those god runs maybe avoid the item? lmao

like i said i dont think they are well designed late game enemies so just difference of opinion there. a dps check is simply a boring game mechanic to me and shooting a lemurian for 15 seconds just because its glowing green doesnt interest me why do you think no one likes fighting voidling? its not interactive at all. this isnt to say i cant fight these things and win but more its a chore and bens was a good way to bypass something i didnt enjoy

[Dr. James Wilson]

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

sorry but no matter how many stats you flex at me it wont mean your objectively right to tell others whats healthy for the game. i have done everything you said as well and spent hundreds of hour in the game but it doesnt make my opinion fact. if your saying the idea of it is unhealthy but not the item itself then what are you even arguing? you just said it gave you god runs so if its so boring to get those god runs maybe avoid the item? lmao

like i said i dont think they are well designed late game enemies so just difference of opinion there. a dps check is simply a boring game mechanic to me and shooting a lemurian for 15 seconds just because its glowing green doesnt interest me :awkward: why do you think no one likes fighting voidling? its not interactive at all. this isnt to say i cant fight these things and win but more its a chore and bens was a good way to bypass something i didnt enjoy

You asked what gave me the right to assume what's healthy and what isn't, and I answered. The argument that even if I have done a lot of things in the game doesn't allow for me to tell others that Raincoat wasn't healthy is downright wrong. If someone with a lot of experience told you how things are, you'd generally want to believe them, because they know more than you do. I can't verify your hours nor achievements, but I'm going off of the goodwill of yourself telling the truth that you've placed a lot of time into the game too. But even you have to agree that Raincoat did too much for just one item.

Also I'm just slightly confused here with the DPS check thing you said. Ror2 is literally a DPS check game. If you don't like DPS checks, why are you playing this game? It's hard to argue against because unless you have perfect RNG, or are rolling with artifact of command/glass, chances are that the stronger enemies that spawn from the 4th stage onward take a bit longer to take down than your average lemurian or beetle. And if you're taking consistent damage, the DPS check also applies when it comes to taking down the threat quickly, or sustaining via lifesteal. It's just a bit hypocritical from my POV.

[ms. jackson]

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

Publicado originalmente por will b4 jada:

sorry but no matter how many stats you flex at me it wont mean your objectively right to tell others whats healthy for the game. i have done everything you said as well and spent hundreds of hour in the game but it doesnt make my opinion fact. if your saying the idea of it is unhealthy but not the item itself then what are you even arguing? you just said it gave you god runs so if its so boring to get those god runs maybe avoid the item? lmao

like i said i dont think they are well designed late game enemies so just difference of opinion there. a dps check is simply a boring game mechanic to me and shooting a lemurian for 15 seconds just because its glowing green doesnt interest me why do you think no one likes fighting voidling? its not interactive at all. this isnt to say i cant fight these things and win but more its a chore and bens was a good way to bypass something i didnt enjoy

You asked what gave me the right to assume what's healthy and what isn't, and I answered. The argument that even if I have done a lot of things in the game doesn't allow for me to tell others that Raincoat wasn't healthy is downright wrong. If someone with a lot of experience told you how things are, you'd generally want to believe them, because they know more than you do. I can't verify your hours nor achievements, but I'm going off of the goodwill of yourself telling the truth that you've placed a lot of time into the game too. But even you have to agree that Raincoat did too much for just one item.

Also I'm just slightly confused here with the DPS check thing you said. Ror2 is literally a DPS check game. If you don't like DPS checks, why are you playing this game? It's hard to argue against because unless you have perfect RNG, or are rolling with artifact of command/glass, chances are that the stronger enemies that spawn from the 4th stage onward take a bit longer to take down than your average lemurian or beetle. And if you're taking consistent damage, the DPS check also applies when it comes to taking down the threat quickly, or sustaining via lifesteal. It's just a bit hypocritical from my POV.

ill agree it was maybe too strong but i dont understand when other things are very strong as well and even broken in alot of situations. is dios best friend not an insane red? it just gives you an extra life with no strings attached haha idk man. tons of items are just brainless in this game that makes it fun. in any case i can accept it getting nerfed or reworked if more thought was put into it. this is a green item now homie and i dont think they really tested its effectiveness before making the update live. im fine with the game pre loop but i barely loop at all now outside of obliteration. i dont like how the game really gets deep loop and the elites are just not fun to fight for me. i prefer doing short eclipse runs or just doing twisted scav right away lol.

like i said i have no problem dealing with these elites and late game enemies i just prefer not to, its not enjoyable for me anymore. i dont play with artifacts usually or use command at all. i really dont feel like making my profile public so believe or not but i played the game since early access

[Spicybullfrog]

i would unironically take an oddly shaped opal over ben's raincoat if oddly shaped opal wasnt ridiculously common already
this item sucks balls and you have to suck at the game to benefit from its second perk (barrier on debuff removal)
unless you happen to be running a barrier build i guess

[Light0234]

Publicado originalmente por spicybullfrog:

i would unironically take an oddly shaped opal over ben's raincoat if oddly shaped opal wasnt ridiculously common already
this item sucks balls and you have to suck at the game to benefit from its second perk (barrier on debuff removal)
unless you happen to be running a barrier build i guess

just saying hp builds are the best in the game nothing can compair in stage 20 runs (barrier does nothing and shields are downright bad on everyone)

[ms. jackson]

Publicado originalmente por spicybullfrog:

i would unironically take an oddly shaped opal over ben's raincoat if oddly shaped opal wasnt ridiculously common already
this item sucks balls and you have to suck at the game to benefit from its second perk (barrier on debuff removal)
unless you happen to be running a barrier build i guess

fax

[nul]

Publicado originalmente por eggboi:

Publicado originalmente por nul:

Brilliant Behemoth. Ceremonial Dagger. Hardlight Afterburner. Spare Drone Parts (if you're not fighting Mithrix/not too reliant on your on-kill items). And while Dio's Best Friend doesn't provide you any direct gameplay benefit, it's definitely a good insurance.

Behemoth isn't that good on artificer, merc, railgunner, and loader imo. (granted, atkspd railgunner with behemoth is wacky) I think it's great on survivors that can consistently throw out attacks.

Afterburner doesn't correctly interact with merc, and I don't think artificer and railgunner get the biggest boost from it.

Drone Parts is in a weird spot because yes, it is good on everyone, the fact that you need to invest more money into drones and turrets can be compared to investing into more items so other red items have better synergy with what you have, if that makes sense.

I'll concede dagger.

I'll also concede Dios, but, as you said, it's just insurance, and doesn't provide a massive gameplay boost like dagger or pre-nerf raincoat did.

Behemoth is a free 60% total damage boost. I don't think any other item in the game exceeds this other than shaped glass. Crowbar is 75% but only if the enemy is near full hp. Behemoth is unconditional. Even if you miss, your attack can still deal 60% damage. It can also proc expose and lost seer's (the roll on this is the same as the attack that procs the explosion, so it doesn't double the roll against the target you hit, rather makes the lost seer's effect an AoE), give desperado stacks/light's out resets, and benefit from the slayer keyword.
The expose part makes alt merc a god.
Edit: Adding here that behemoth isn't that good on ranged Acrid. Poison does not benefit from the damage. So I'll concede that it's not universally good.

Speaking of alt merc, afterburner is great with that too. And it enables Railgunner to straight up fly across the map by spamming shift. I'll admit it's not the best with artificer, as the ice wall has limited utility. No bosses and no flying monsters makes for sad times. And preemptively putting them down on void cradles seems to cause the void infestors to avoid it every time

The drone parts thing makes sense.