I agree that RNG is bad. That's why I was excited about the new armor system because it removed a huge RNG element from the game. I think the new armor system is a step in the right direction, but it's not perfect. I think a well designed class with this armor system is scoundrel. Scoundrel has attacks that deal magical damage based on finesse and apply powerful debuffs/CC to enemies without magic armor, while most of their attacks are still physical based. Scoundrel also has a powerful piercing attack option to strategically switch targets to something that may have high phys armor still, but has had its health and magic armor stripped away to the point of near death. Scoundrel has an option for that. I'd like to see the design philosophy of the scoundrel applied to other schools of magic a bit more. I'd remark on something like pyro's corpse explosion as a good idea, but flawed in execution. It's a pyro school skill that does good physical damage, but scales like ass because it scales with warfare. I'd remark that the way skills scale is also one of the core flaws that needs improvement with OS2.
Scoundrel did get it right in this armor system, and I'd say so did ranger. Ranger has interesting option for crafted arrows vs. no armor targets, has access to piercing damage elemental arrowheads etc. And here exempifies why physical parties are considered generally better. Not just because battering ram/battle stomp are so good and it's easier to set up AoE CC chains on enemies, but also because physical damage is a bit more versatile, consistent and less resisted by enemies. Magical schools need more options to access piercing damage, need not to be so limited in scaling to purely a single school of magic, and could benefit from more effects that are powerful against targets without phys armor. (Geo is the notable exception with earthquake/impale).
