With the last patch and probably the next one GD will have plenty of dmg conversions for all kind of builds - that is all great and with the new FX it urges you to make a build which you probably played before but with a different FX (Forcewave is always a FW no matter what dmg it does right).
However what is missing in the game is completely changing mechanics via mutators/items.
Examples on top of head:
Dual wield 2H weapons
1h weapons treated as 2handers dmg bonus
Mana Shield - use your energy pool as an extra HP pool (like a mod to Possession)
Skills cost HP instead of Energy however HP cannot be lower than 10% or whatever (similar to what PoE has forgot the name of the skill there)
Skills which build charges (like doing dmg or killing enemies). Once a certain treshold is reached player can “activate” the spell/whatever and it does a big boom and evaporates the screen
As-is DMG conversions while opening new build options basically come down to using the same skills just with a colour swap.
Certainly Crate has been tinkering with such ideas and would be valuable if we can get their view on this topic?
That’a not gonna happen in GD unless they add more animation sets for the player character.
Not sure how this will be implemented let alone balanced around.
3., 4. & 5. Cool ideas, personally would love to see these implemented in the Shattered Realm exclusively and not in any other areas (Rogue Dungeons and Crucible). This would add some spice to SR and would make the experience more unique. Current SR can burn you out pretty quickly imo.
Indeed current SR gets boring very very fast. I find myself enjoying more good old Cruci - the dynamics and satisfaction there are bigger and you are not RNG dependent.
Hope Zantai considers some of these.
I think such build changing mechanics can bring the game up another notch.