My full list of who still needs tweaks

[Copyafriend]

To clarify, i’m not talking about “QOL” stuff, most characters could use one or two tweaks to make things nicer, i’m trying to talk about characters with fundamental flaws. I’m going to try to focus on the ones that need changes the least and work my way to the more urgent changes.

Maxwell:

he’s in a fantastic spot, there is one point of contention however: wickerbottoms books. I have a simple and fairly elegant solution.

only allow him to read one book per day. 
 

him being able to use her books is lore accurate, itd be strange if he couldnt, being the only other “mage” character. But balance wise its a bit of a problem, because wickerbottoms books are very powerful and completely refuelable for free once made. 

 

making him unable to spam them would greatly reduce the power while still giving him access if the player is patient, you can easily claim that the codex umbra “wont like it” or is jealous or the shadow magic wont let him etc etc. 

 

but honestly i dont see this as necessary.

Willow:

just fix the enlightenment problem. Its a fairly rare occurrence that enlightenment is a thing, so its not urgent, but it is character perk breaking, definitely worth mentioning on this list. 
 

Something fire related would be nice too, but eh.

Walter:

walter is in a pretty good place honestly. Quit trying to make him a ranger, dst is NOT built around ranged combat, and if he had good dps people would complain that its boring to play as him. 
 

his slingshot is meant to be, and works well as: a tool.
 

what he does need however is a chest slot alternative for his unique hat. I want to be able to wear head armor without it being a pain. The lack of an option for this is actually really painful especially in the current post fuelweaver content. 

he could also use some better ammo efficiency, the basic ammo is just really expensive, please make it 15 per for gold/marble/thulecite thx thx.

Woodie:

the first character with serious problems

his main two issues are individually big enough for this list:

full moons in moonstorm

the werebeasts almost complete obsolescence past the first winter.

To start with, woodie is basically unplayable during the entirety of the moonstorm, transforming so regularly for so long. Its extremely unfun, and something NEEDS to be done. 
 

but honestly even before that late game problem: woodies werebeasts just have nothing going on once you get the most basic gear.

The moose form is out dps’d by woodie with a hambat (it attacks slower) and its only advantage, its natural armor, is far outweighed by the downside of being completely unable to heal during the duration of the transformation, while also being too slow to kite very efficiently, the charge IS good for groups, but honestly anything that attacks in groups is already the easy enemy in dont starve. 
 

His goose form is way too slow, once you get a cane its not worth the 20 health and the rest of your hunger unless you’re literally crossing the map or the ocean. You have to consider the fact that you have to wait at your destination to transform back. And the fact that its not even magi speeds. Great for early game, hot garbage past it (its a trend)

His beaver form is the only one with staying power thanks to always needing to gather resources, and the beaver being fast at doing so. But woodie already chops faster than average, so his beaver is only good for mass gathering of resources. Which is still a good use but still.

Theres a few ways to solve this, ideally we would start at the current “power level” and get stronger over time somehow.

i can think of a few ways to do this: 

tiers of werebeast transformations

over time woodies transformations get stronger unlocking additional perks.

faster goose moose regenerating health, beaver harvesting even faster 

like tier 1 until your first full moon you’re baseline, tier 2 until your second full moon, you’re a bit stronger/faster tier 3 after that, you’re at maximum strength. 
 

or maybe the tried and true “let us wear amulets” argument, its pretty elegant too, and needs less work.

Honorable mentions:

Wolfgang is not replaced by wanda, Wolfgang doesnt need a buff and wanda doesnt need a nerf.

Warly is not a switch character just because you use him as one, he has too much perksonality to be sidelined like this.

Wes OP pls nerf he needs 25 health hunger and sanity.

Now for the final character and the only one that i believe more or less needs a full second rework.

 

winona:

no its not because she’s a “SWaP CHaRaCTeR”

There is no such thing.

she needs a rework because shes just flat out boring.

not weak. Very specifically not weak, she can make farms no other character can, or at least make them easier.

She has only one fully functioning usable building. The infamous catapult.

The rest is basically fluff to make it work and the tape.

The spotlight just doesn’t help, really at all, even if it did have a relatively large radius its basically a really expensive stationary lightsource. 

there’s just a lot of very good alternatives, id almost prefer for it to point out enemies in the dark because of how many alternatives there are.

Basically winona needs a full re rework. 
 

the way I WOULD do it is basically give several more machines and give her some logic circuits that allow her to turn the machines on/off on command/only activating in specific circumstances. Like a “darkness sensor” and a “player sensor, connect them with an “and” logic circuit and bam, a lighthouse that only consumes power if a player is nearby at night.

basically create a robust enough system and people wont want to switch off winona, she’ll just be worth playing for the opportunity to make cool unique stuff.

[Well-met]

not to undermine your post but I get the feeling most people are tired of character balance and would rather move on.

 

either way the balance will never be perfect since wendy is still easymode to this day.

[MadMatt]

41 minutes ago, Well-met said:

not to undermine your post but I get the feeling most people are tired of character balance and would rather move on.

Absolutely no reason to just throw the baby out with the bath water just because of the character reworks. Characters can and SHOULD get tweaks alongside regular content updates, a character(s) doesn't need to be fixed in one patch. I will fight anyone who shares this sentiment, it is personal btw.

[xDarkSoul18x]

The "talent" system they gave Wilson should be made for every character. Not only would it add a bit of depth to some characters but also give people something other to play and add progression outside of boss fights and surviving. Some characters just feel like "Switch" characters like Winona, make catapaults in your kill farm and switch back. If they added what wilson has to other characters we could have interesting player choices.

Winona having a chance to save resources when crafting, wormwood maybe having perks for his armor/traps for offensive or perks for more food/garden stuff. Just a few off the top of my head.

[Shosuko]

I am hopeful that the choices Klei said will come to all characters between lunar and shadow will help sort things like Woodie wereform control and Willow in lunacy.  If they do get some options for this, it should be available to them ahead of CC / end game loop.

I feel people who get too hung up on swap character / op character / etc are probably overly concerned with how other people are playing when it has no effect on them at all.  I have no problem playing Warly or Winona (two of my favs) completely solo without swapping.  Their downsides bite a bit hard, and I think that is the main reason people don't play them more - but their downsides are supposed to bite so its w/e.  Same with OP characters.  Wolfgang, Winona and Maxwell have a lot of strength and if people want to play the strongest characters in the game that is their choice.  I think its more important that we have varied power levels then have everything homogenized.  I don't always like playing OP characters, so having weaker or more demanding options keeps the game fresh.

It is a bit harsh what Maxwell does to Wicker though - I don't think any change is really necessary but if something were to change I think he should just get locked out of her library.  I think it would be thematically restricting, and if you had a second player to swap your books in and out of the library for you then so be it, I don't really care.

[Cassielu]

I wish Wickerbottom's book (mainly light and rain) could rebalance for this shadow rift.

Control acid rain and earthquake is op and too destructive.

[Mysterious box]

6 hours ago, Copyafriend said:

Walter:

walter is in a pretty good place honestly. Quit trying to make him a ranger, dst is NOT built around ranged combat, and if he had good dps people would complain that its boring to play as him. 
 

his slingshot is meant to be, and works well as: a tool.
 

what he does need however is a chest slot alternative for his unique hat. I want to be able to wear head armor without it being a pain. The lack of an option for this is actually really painful especially in the current post fuelweaver content. 

he could also use some better ammo efficiency, the basic ammo is just really expensive, please make it 15 per for gold/marble/thulecite thx thx.

He doesn't need to be a ranger the problem is what his slingshot does is niche at best while being heavy in the cost and inventory management. His damage isn't meant to be good? Fine make his cc worthwhile it's a horrible payoff as previously stated and has only further been highlighted as such in the face of Maxwell's much cheaper and more effective cc abilities.

6 hours ago, Copyafriend said:

Willow:

just fix the enlightenment problem. Its a fairly rare occurrence that enlightenment is a thing, so its not urgent, but it is character perk breaking, definitely worth mentioning on this list. 
 

Something fire related would be nice too, but eh.

 

I'm fine with enlightenment being her downside but what I feel really needs fixed here is her lack of control over Bernie and his unwillingness to help her face hostile shadows when she's sane.

6 hours ago, Copyafriend said:

Maxwell:

he’s in a fantastic spot, there is one point of contention however: wickerbottoms books. I have a simple and fairly elegant solution.

only allow him to read one book per day. 
 

him being able to use her books is lore accurate, itd be strange if he couldnt, being the only other “mage” character. But balance wise its a bit of a problem, because wickerbottoms books are very powerful and completely refuelable for free once made. 

 

making him unable to spam them would greatly reduce the power while still giving him access if the player is patient, you can easily claim that the codex umbra “wont like it” or is jealous or the shadow magic wont let him etc etc. 

 

but honestly i dont see this as necessary.

tbf this could easily be explained away by saying the buff Charlie gave him made him incompatible with the forces within her books. Either way I don't think we should be so focused on the lore that it devalues another character so much.

 

6 hours ago, Copyafriend said:

His beaver form is the only one with staying power thanks to always needing to gather resources, and the beaver being fast at doing so. But woodie already chops faster than average, so his beaver is only good for mass gathering of resources. Which is still a good use but still.

Technically base Woodie out paces the beaver at this as well even more so when you get a gathering tool like lazy forager.

I've said it before but I feel like what he needs is to remove the hp cost of transforming as well as the hunger penalty after it's too harsh for such limited transformations but the sanity drain can stay. All methods of preventing the bar from draining should apply to all forms including walking to get the maximum benefit of the time you have. He should also get invincible frames during form changing. 

Moose damage should be boosted to compensate his attack speed or his attack speed should be bumped up to match normal Woodie's attack speed without boosting his damage and he should be hitstun immune as incentive to use it over alternatives without becoming the absolute best option without thinking since there are stronger weapons that will allow healing in combat.

Beaver should be able to pick up stuff really that's all it takes to fix him.

Goose should get a higher speed boost and be able to pick up food items and only food items.

42 minutes ago, Cassielu said:

I wish Wickerbottom's book (mainly light and rain) could rebalance for this shadow rift.

Control acid rain and earthquake is op and too destructive.

I know it doesn't make sense but assuming they keep acid rain and boulders I kinda hope they make her book make regular rain and normal earthquakes when read instead of the new ones both to avoid griefing and because it'd make them extra special.

[Dextops]

6 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Beaver should be able to pick up stuff really that's all it takes to fix him.

honestly an innate lazy forager ability to go with the beaver form would be a nice addition (though it doesn't make much sense lore wise idc)

[MadMatt]

16 minutes ago, Dextops said:

honestly an innate lazy forager ability to go with the beaver form would be a nice addition (though it doesn't make much sense lore wise idc)

Tbh it'd be quite based if whatever logs the tree would drop when gnawed instead go straight to Woodie's inventory. Achieves the same effect while being less "immersion breaking" than having a lazy forager poof effect.