[Poruku]

So a lot of people have pointed out time and time again that Ruler is too slow to get started, Ruler sucks, Ruler is not fun because it takes like 3 turns of doing a whole process before you get things rolling... Well, I agree to some extent.

I have played 4 different Ruler builds, focused on Ruler itself and not just using it as a little side thing. I can say that Ruler is certainly usable, and it's viable in 1v1 battles especially if your enemy can't punish you easily during set up. But it's certainly got many flaws and does feel slow overall. One of the biggest flaws of Ruler from a game design standpoint in my opinion is that when you fight with a team, the battle progresses faster than you can play. By the time you get your things out, your teammates might almost be dead, engaged with the enemy, etc. This is true in both pvp and PvE. When you're doing a 1v1 battle, it's actually not that bad because you can somewhat dictate the pacing with things like high tankiness, healing, or spacing tools like explosion. But that's not necessarily good when you're in a team battle, you have less control over the match tempo. You might be able to keep enemies away from you, but then your allies get blasted while you're still digging up rocks.

Thus, let's talk about ways to remedy this. I actually love Ruler, but I think it could use a bit of help with the set up phase. Here are a few ways we could do that.

1: More Geomaterial
Giving ruler one or two extra geomaterial would go a long way for sure. Being able to create one good unit without needing to dig would make you less forced to spend turn 2 on just gathering.

2: Resources spawn on battle start
I like this idea because it doesn't take away from Ruler's current gameplan and isn't that strong. Just spawn like 10-15 resources around the map. This would encourage you to move around to collect the good stuff, which would provide a refreshing change to just sitting in the same corner digging. The only issue with this version is that random resources might block passages in certain maps, creating walls that mess with AI. I think this wouldn't be a big problem overall though. Maybe an algorithm could prevent that from happening.

3: A skill that lets you cast multiple enchants quickly
I'm thinking what if we had a 0m skill that makes enchant spells 1m, allowing you to cast up to 3. This would allow you to cast 3 enchants for 3m, but with a large cooldown. This would help rulers buff their summons and allies in turn 1-2. Of course this could be take on a variety of different forms. Like maybe it could work like design alpha where it casts them all at once, to speed things up. Would be a great quality of life.

4: A gathering skill that isn't an offensive skill
So the idea here is that we could make a skill that gathers resources but is also intended for the setup phase instead of being used in combat. It could apply the first mage basic enchant in your list in an aoe, while digging 3 times in that same area. Alternatively, make cruel enchant also gather a resource... This would mostly make ruler stronger in long fights though. I think just making it use your first enchant automatically and having a long cooldown would make it like a stronger version of cruel enchant that you use occasionally... Sounds quite nice.

5: A better skill to summon resources
Currently the best way to get resources is by using stone dragon with galren. I feel like it'd be really nice if ruler had a proper skill that lets you make resources quickly without needing to be earth-based. I find that limiting in build variety. I think other elements are viable, but this part of it seems off. Ruler should definitely be able to make more resources quickly. Relying entirely on the pawns and maybe on dig order is not good enough if you want resources quick. This is alleviated by mono ruler's +3 geomat, but on non-mono you really feel it in the early game. Having to scrounge together the rocks for your rook is rough.

Let me know what you think, and if you have other ideas to make Ruler's setup phase less egregious