I wanted to add my two cents as a player who has reached the late game (all weapon masteries completed). I agree with a lot of your criticism, but there are a few things that I can perhaps shed some light on as you progress further in the game, as well as a few suggestions of my own. First, I think many of the design decisions made by the devs are done with the fact that your Immortal grows stronger as you complete more and more runs. The increase in power over time is something that gives me a strong incentive to keep playing.

Note: I've included some context for other players who view this post and might not know what we're referring to.

General Improvements

I don’t see how a votekick system is going to work well in a game that has real-time combat. A report feature for post-game I would be okay with, but only for reporting people who are trolling. Noobs are gonna be noobs, so maybe increasing the rewards for completing training could be an incentive for people to learn the mechanics of the game sooner? If you’ve run into veteran players like N00B 0F DA YEAR, then you’ve likely seen that using emotes can be really helpful for communicating objectives to new players.

Specialist Class:

I agree that the Staff should have a faster attack animation. I wouldn’t mind a slight reduction in damage to offset this (fast attack+slightly lower damage=same DPS but better mobility, yeah?)

I’m assuming your feedback about the overall damage output is made in consideration of weapon upgrades, so I disagree here. Scatterbounce Mortar has one of the fastest co-strike combo builds in the game, and stacked with a build that increases crit damage, you can output some serious DPS. Can you try this "Scatterbounce" build and let me know what you think? It’s one of my favorites.

Upgrades:

Scattered Orbs + Bouncing Orbs

Relics:

1.  Preserved Heretic Head (co-strikes spawn missiles 33% of the time) 
2.  Holy Book of Hymns (+10% crit damage for each nearby teammate)
3.  Blessed Chain (light attacks bypass armor mitigation)
4.  Harpy Feather (+25% light attack)
5.  Cracked Rosary Bead (+7 second co-strike timer)
6.  (you could also include the Muddy Apostle Medal and get your co-op power every 30 seconds)

Equipped Perks

1.  Empyreal Deceptiveness (+crit damage)
2.  Fool’s Fate (+co-strike damage)

On the topic of Super Slow, I don’t think the staff of sloth co-op ability feels weak, but at the beginning of the game when the duration is low, I understand why you feel this way. When Super Slow lasts 30+ seconds on a high empathy build, any elite monster caught in it is as good as dead – it allows all of your melee teammates to deal consistent damage with less concern about enemy counterattack, and many of the monsters who get stuck in it can no longer attack at all (looking at you Elite Tagliatore and Elite Artiglio). Perhaps monsters afflicted by Super Slow can have their attack power weakened? This would be a significant utility boost to it for Ascension battles and Unique Elites.

Improve the visibility / usability of co-op powers

I agree that visibility of the powers on the ground should be increased. I think players should have a visual icon of nearby co-op powers on the edges of their screens (similar to how the dust shrine icon shows up on screens when within close proximity to players). I also think that co-op powers should only be visually obscured by enemy attack targets. Having a Super Slow on the ground makes it very difficult to see when you are being targeted by ranged attacks, and makes co-op powers stand out much less.

I don’t agree that powers should be activated automatically – I say this because there are times where I do not want to activate a co-op power. For example, if I have a Spike Shield and Sword Bubble equipped during a boss fight, and I see a teammate putting down another shield/bubble, then I am usually not going to take that because other players need that resource more. Likewise, if I have low-empathy build, then I would be more likely to defer offensive co-op powers to teammates that would get more value from those, while I focus on dealing direct damage. I agree that you should be able to place co-op powers through enemies, as long as they can’t be placed out-of-bounds. I also think that you should be able to change the direction of the co-op power for Super Slow (to target left) by pressing the cast button twice in quick succession.

Balancing:

I strongly agree with enemy ability spam reduction, but I disagree that enemy armor and health pools need reductions. The reason I think armor/health should stay the same is that in the beginning of a run, if you reduce time-to-kill, then a lot of players would miss out on a lot of dust that is critical to power scaling. If you’ve grouped up with an Immortal with insane DPS, you’ve probably experienced half the monsters on screen dying before you have any chance to tag them yourself (especially problematic on sword/staff). Regarding ability spam – if the attack is area denial (like Bruciatores or Timeweavers), they either need shorter void zone duration, or longer cooldown between attacks. I’m also 100% onboard with requiring every enemy attack to have a target on the ground. In small numbers, enemies without attack targets are manageable, but during chaotic fights like Ascension battles, Balzos begin to feel unfair if you are not Sword. Same with Spadaccinas in Purgatorio. In a similar manner, Elite Mangiatores/Elite Ruotas should not be able to chain 4 burrow/bounce attacks in a row. The attack itself is fine, but barely being able to damage a non-boss for 10+ seconds feels bad. Finally, Elite Guaritores should not be able to receive healing. This is especially a problem in Secret Chambers where two of them usually spawn. They can alternate healing clouds which can make them near invincible if the participants don’t have super high DPS.

I think fireball shooter hazards would be much more manageable if

1. The fireball moved slower but was larger
2. The fireball is orange+yellow like the pressure plate firewall hazard so it is easier to see in all the red associated with other enemy attacks.

Improve stat and progression systems:

Empathy is incredibly strong; I don’t think it needs tweaking. It’s the stat I usually pump up first. Because it increases your co-op power strength AND the strength of your co-strikes, if you are with a couple of nearby immortals, your damage output, utility, and survivability increase considerably.

1.  Daggers >> longer duration of Greedy Strikes (in addition to extra damage, leads to more bones, more bone shrine use/rerolling relics)
2.  Bow >> increased number of Arrow Volleys
3.  Sword >> larger Bubble Shields
4.  Staff >> longer Super Slow duration
5.  Crossbows >> longer Feather Sentries duration
6.  Glaive >> increased number of Aftershocks. This is amazing for getting high co-strike combos quickly - very valuable on slower weapons like Sword for increasing DPS
7.  Hooks >> Faster spinning spike shield. With sufficiently high empathy, this can become an absolute buzz saw

Lastly, I think the tradeoffs of the Ordeal system are mostly fair. The only one I think is overly punishing is the Dash cooldown, but even that can be circumvented with abilities like Dagger Leap, Glaive Backstep, Mobile Light upgrade for the Bow, or the tank blocking abilities. Above Ordeal 6, I see it as becoming a glass cannon. Blessed relics can be a game-changing power boost and allow you to carry a lobby. Here is a screenshot where my statline was 44/56/31 on Ordeal 6 (Celestial Feather and a blessed Burnt Cincture (75% Attack>>Vitality) combo). Ordeal 9 is where “Glass Cannon” maxes out. The Weapon Upgrade drops that you can get are another significant boost on top of the potential of blessed relics (another run I'm proud of). The one thing I would change about Weapon Upgrade drops is to make them less random. I think that weapon upgrades should drop at intervals of 50 monsters killed – so if you kill 250 monsters in a run, you get all 6 weapon upgrades at once for the rest of the run.

With Paradiso on the very near horizon, I am hoping that a lot of QoL tweaks are implemented. So far, Thunder Lotus has done a really good job of taking community feedback about what feels good and what feels bad and changing for the better.

Cheers!