Discussion is a bit slower today. So, let's talk about something we've historically struggled with: Planning.
With Uttermost winning, we now have immense striking power. At this stage, I think we need to stop investing in offense. It's already so high that we're only going to see marginal improvements from upgrading it further. This will continue to be the case until we start to encounter opponents against which Thousand Cuts on every single attack is insufficient. I believe it's going to be a very long time before we hit that point. The only offensive upgrade I think is worth considering is Ruinous Valor, for two reasons. First because Hunger has stated he needs the other arm back to make full use of his restored blade, and second because our strength is so high that Ruinous Valor provides a huge boost, enough to overcome the decreasingly marginal benefits of more offense. Other then Ruinous Valor, I think any offensive upgrades will provide low comparative utility, because we honestly don't need them.
Our durability and mobility are also very high thanks to Quickening and the various stat boosts we've picked up. Improvements in these areas are still valuable at the moment - there are likely some things in the Inner Temple that are faster then us, and since we dumped Form of Rage we don't have that safety net any more, and as such increased durability has higher marginal utility. Still, these areas are not where we are weak. They should be a lower priority then things we actually have a weak spot in.
Now, in terms of social ability we're in dire straights. We have the massive Charisma debuff from Uttermost, and can't mitigate Doom of the Tyrant ever. This is not a problem for short-term survival, but we're going to need to rule an empire eventually. We direly need some method of overcoming our social deficiencies. The only option we have to do so right now is "more stats," but more stats is suboptimal thanks to Uttermost penalizing Charisma gains. This is not a short term problem, however, so we don't need to fix it right away. However, we should keep an eye out, if something that provides a large social benefit that isn't penalized by our current build appears, we'll want to jump on it. Otherwise we can wait on fixing social until after the Temple of the False Moon is complete.
Our other big problem is Versatility. All the arguments I made last vote about how we need versatility still apply. At least with social we have some charisma and Gisena, for utility effects we've got Chief Dominion and that's it. Chief Dominion is good, don't get me wrong, but so far it only gives buffs and debuffs to living creatures, and healing. Those are great effects but they don't cover everything we could possibly need.
Now, anyone who knows me at all will expect for me to argue for a magic system here. And I am going to, because that would solve the utility problem, is awesome in general, provides an alternative method of scaling, and we can get cross-system synergies a la EFB. However... Looking at things completely objectively, there are alternatives to a new magic system. Ruling Ring would expand our Chief Dominion utility effects greatly, and while it wouldn't get everything I want out of a magic system, it would get us enough versatility to cover our needs in that category for a while. I utterly despise Null Slice for being "SORD solves everything," but in the long term it provides a variety of utility effects. Increased rank can substitute for versatility in a pinch (see immobilizing Vanreir in that fight). Rank does not solve our utility problem because using it like that is exhausting (see the Vanreir fight, again), but it at least somewhat patches the problem.
In conclusion,
We don't need more offense. We have Thousand Cuts on every attack. Don't take it unless it's Ruinous Valor or something really amazing and limited-time comes up.
We're pretty good on Agility and Durability, but could still use improvement there. Take this if there aren't more pressing options.
We really badly need something for social, but that's a long term problem. We can put it off until after the Temple of the False Moon, unless a really good solution that is limited-time comes up.
What we most badly need, and more immediately then social, is versatility. We should get this as fast as possible. My preferred choice would be a new magic system, but Ruling Ring can mostly solve the problem, and increased rank can provide a bandaid, at least. If ya'll take Null Slice I'm probably going to cry, but it will cover the issue in the long term.
