Shadow Gear revamp ideas

[Mortalbane]

General thoughts
- shadow gear should be initially weaker than the moon gear
- it should drain sanity, but it should get more effective the lower you sanity is
- shadow gear should have the most damage of its tier, when you are insane
- durability should be much lower, but shadow gear should be able to repair itself, draining more of your sanity
- alternatively, shadow gear can initially have weak stats and infinite durability, but fueling it makes it strong

To summarize, shadow gear is strong, but you have to pay the price.
Dreadstone regeneration felt so good, that i simply don't want to put on anything else. Especially not the current Void gear. I suggest nerfing all other shadow gears, but adding that regeneration to them. So if you don't fight much, you won't need to worry about durability.
Also, with Maxwell or new Woodie, and monkey tails, i can have tons of materials to craft tons of Dark Swords and Night Armors. But i don't like carrying stacks of resources, why not just nerf the equipment a little bit more and let it be crafted without living logs and papyrus.
To reap full benefits of the gear, you will have to be insane all the time, so shadow creatures will come to visit often. But as shadow gear will require no non-shadow materials (for example, Dark Sword and Night Armor will only require nightmare fuel to craft), you will not be very unhappy about it. And higher tier gear will make disposing of the shadow creatures easy.
Well, if there will be too much nightmare creatures, maybe each equipped shadow gear piece could reduce their spawning time or chance a little bit.


Shadow gear

tier 1
Dark Sword, Night Armor

- only requires nightmare fuel to craft
- damage/armor and durability nerfed greatly
- the lower your sanity is, the better are the stats. But at maximum values still nerfed compared to current
- repair themselves, draining more sanity while doing so (like Dreadstone)
- buffs Maxwell's stuff a little bit, same as amulets and staffs
also
- update their art to modern times. Maybe add some particles to reflect that they are living and moving a little bit. You know, like the nightmare fuel would move
- maybe rename them into Nightmare Sword and Nightmare Armor. To avoid confusion, and since they are now not some "ooh scary Shadow artifacts", but just tier 1 stuff


tier 2
Thulecite Club, Crown and Suit

- only requires thulecite to craft
- is quite weak, but has infinite durability
- uses nightmare fuel as... well, as fuel
- unless fueled, has no special effects and doesn't drain sanity
- when fueled, stats get good, gear drains sanity and has special effects (like forcefield and tentacles). The fuel percentage only affects duration, but not power
- when fueled, are strictly better than tier 1 in every way
- buffs Maxwell's stuff more
also
- icons and textures reflect the fueled and empty states
- is fuel consumed with time or per hit? That is a good question


tier 3
Fuelweaver gear, Dreadstone gear, Void gear

I think that the way they all are implemented now is questionable. I can get Dreadstone gear before the Fuelweaver, but it requires a lot of waiting. The Dreadstone gear is awesome and will last forever if you're careful.
The Fuelweaver gear has some cool mechanics, but i don't want to farm the big boss all the time.
Void gear felt like a downgrade from the Dreadstone and was very disappointing. Not to mention that everyone will look the same in it, since they failed to make character's eyes affect the hood. I hope they will improve all that, since the expansion has just started.

Repair kits is a nice idea. But i'd prefer repairing those items simply with materials. As they are "living" of sorts, they could just "absorb" the materials, no kits needed.

So, why not make all three of the same tier and divide the roles - Mage, Tank, Rogue - the usual suspects. Perhaps Klei themselves wanted to do it this way, but if so, the execution is questionable.
Bone gear buffs Maxwell's stuff by a lot, next is Void, and the least buff comes from the Dreadstone.

Bone Helm
- has little armor and infinite durability
- can be fueled with nightmare fuel and such, has no effect unless fueled
- drains sanity slowly when not fueled, and faster when fueled

The effect - all nightmare creatures are neutral to you. If you attack one, it will become hostile, but others will not. Wearing it makes all nightmare creatures clearly visible, as if you are insane. While wearing it, the annoying insanity screen effect is reduced, with no need to go to game settings.
When the Helm runs out of fuel or is taken off, the nightmare creatures become hostile again.
The item is quite fuel-hungry.


Bone Armor
- has little armor and infinite durability
- can be fueled with nightmare fuel and such, has no effect unless fueled
- drains sanity slowly when not fueled, and faster when fueled

The effect is the same as it is - completely blocking any instance of damage, with a cooldown.
Item is very fuel-hungry.


Shadow Thurible
- is unchanged
It's a special item, and let it stay that way.


Bone staff
A new weapon for a "shadow mage"
There can be a lot of options of what it can do, but considering them should align with Maxwell future skill tree and possible changes.
For now i have this:
- has little melee damage and infinite durability
- can be fueled with nightmare fuel and such, has no effect unless fueled
- drains sanity slowly when not fueled, and faster when fueled

Using it on a mob (right-click) tells nearby nightmare creatures to attack it. One "command" = one attack, after which nightmare creatures return to wandering around and waiting for you to take the Bone Helm off and bite your ass. This would be some kind of "active summoner" gameplay.
If you see no nightmare creatures around, nothing happens when the Staff is used. If you see them, but you are not wearing the Bone Helm, they will obey the Staff, but will still be hostile towards you.



Dreadstone and Void gear
To not repeat myself all the time, i will list all features that apply to ALL those gear pieces
- drains your sanity slowly
- initial stats are nerfed compared to current
- the lower your sanity, the higher the stats get
- repair itself slowly, draining more sanity while doing so
- can be repaired with nightmare fuel (barely repairs), pure horror (repairs a bit better), dreadstone/tatters (restores fair amount of durability) 

Dreadstone Helm and Armor
Each piece:
- has highest armor and durability among the shadow gear
- drains sanity slower than other shadow gear, even when repairing
- when you are insane, has some of the highest stats in the game
- repairs a bit faster for each other Dreadstone piece equipped
- slows you down a little bit
- gives some wetness resistance
also
- please remake the art of the Dreadstone Helm, it's so ugly. Give it some dark / shadow / dread stone vibes, not caveman vibes, please

Every hit you receive builds up a shadow force field around you, which further increases your armor. The lower your sanity, the stronger the shield. Lasts for a few second, then dissipates.
When both are equipped, instead of dissipating the shield explodes, dealing AoE damage depending on the damage received when the shield was active.


Dreadstone Hammer
A new "warrior" item to support the role idea.
- acts both as a weapon and a hammer tool
- has slow attack speed and low damage
- the lower your sanity, the greater the damage. Attack speed grows much slower. At max stats you feel that you hit hard but slow
- repairs a bit faster for each other Dreadstone piece equipped

With each hit it weakens and slows the target, up to a cap. Hard to dodge hits in that Dreadstone set? Well, now enemy is even slower.


Void Cowl and Robe
Each piece:
- has medium armor and durability, somewhere between the Bone and Dreadstone
- gives some wetness resistance

Makes you Stealthed, which greatly reduces the aggro range of mobs and makes them less likely to re-aggro towards you in combat. Also increases your movement speed the lower your sanity is.
Similar mechanic was in Hamlet, and I liked it a lot.

When both pieces are equipped, every attack increases your attack speed for a moment, up to a cap. So, as soon as you stop attacking, you lose the stacked bonus quickly.


Umbralla
It looks like a spear. And giving a regular umbrella as a top tier end-game content is a bad joke.
- same as it is
- is also a weapon

Soaks up the acid rain and stores that acid, changing its color to reflect that. As long as the Umbralla holds acid, every hit applies that acid to the target, reducing armor and applying small damage-over-time.


Shadow reaper
- same as it is

The damage stacking buff happens regardless of equipping other Void items. Also adds a little bit of lifesteal at max stacks.