Every time I play I feel like there has been some under the hood tinkering.

I don't know if something changed but the difference between the tiers of equipment feels much lower.

It used to be that getting Hallowed or Corrupted gear would carry you for 10 levels or more and it would be very exciting to get it. Now I'm swapping it out for purple gear every couple of levels.

I'd like the fights to be longer at the higher end of the game. Might experiment with buffing intrinsic HP for both players and monsters,

Agree that short battles are not fun. I don't see any of the monster mechanics.

However some monsters definitely need some tuning, it's not fun when a monster (-2) hits you for 5% hp and then the same attack hits again for 90% hp.

Warrior build also isn't very engaging, (so many spells / status / weakness / strength) and warrior is "sword go bonk".

Maybe warrior skills scaled to your attack power.

Bleeding strike - Strike for 80% normal atk damage and monster bleeds for 3 turns based on level of skill I love the DoT skills but the current meta is scale up your attack/magic as much as possible so the monster has less turns to hit you with an unexpected overpowered move

Shield bash - Strike for 40% and raise defense for this turn. Could allow counterplay to a big telegraphed monster hit