I like to think there’s always a reason behind everything, not everything that IMC does but, everything in general. Sometimes there’s no valid reason for things to be changed but you gotta look beyond the skill set of the class. Cannoners have huge aoe and an amazing damage skill, yes, if you look at Cannon Shot you’d think it’s a godlike thing to have. But you need some things in account before coming to this kind of conclusion. Cannoners are now unable to use any other damage skills outside its class except for a few due to weapon restrictions and also how its strongest mechanic works. As far as i’m concerned Bazooka plays a very important role on a Cannoners dps and the fact that the only skills they’re able to use during this stance are exclusively Cannoner’s would make them very lacking in comparison to something like a Mergen based build, or even a Musketeer who are still able to use other skills while they’re able to move. If it wasn’t for the fact that they make up for this with power, that’s why i think Cannon Shot is still a balanced skill. Hell, ask yourself how much effort a Cannoner will have to put after the update, or even right now to find a decent spot to not get absolutely demolished by a boss’ attacks. There’s also the case of Monk, but i won’t say much about this class because i am not a Monk player and i don’t know the class enough, but i think the new nature of Double Punch will lead to a great auto-attack based dps potential. Remember that not everything in a class revolves around content like Challenge Mode, there are many other sintuations in which classes will have highs and lows, and i think that’s fine.
Perhaps the problem within the Archer branch is not about the lack of classes, but the lack of situations in which a class is might “shine” instead. Which in fact not only affects Archer but branches in general. For example most of the time whenever i look up for videos showcasing a class’ skill set i never get to see each skill individually and how it’s utility might be useful in combat, but rather a mixture of everything randomly placed in a attempt to demonstrate the capacities of a class through things like Challange Mode. Which really, there’s just no correct way of soloing this thing without getting absolutely crushed in the process or getting into a really tiny place and pumping as many AoE abilities as possible, only a few classes are able to accomplish this successfully, so i think we need to get over this. I never get to see a video demonstrating things like how Howling might increase the overall dps of a party. How a Deploy Pavise correctly placed could improve the damage consistency of a Cannoner by giving them a better survivability tool. How skills like Pied Piper’s Hynotische Floete can smooth out dungeon objectives like the first and third part of Velcoffer’s Nest or how powerful the knockback immunity of Marschierendeslied can prove to be on any boss battle. I think that perhaps the main reason behind things like “lack of diversity” could be our own fault, since we are often more interested on how many numbers a class pull off by itself rather than how its abilities can be beneficial to a fight.
About the armor break thing, wait until the update or more informative videos are out and ask yourself if we really do need something like armor break after the update.