Hot Take: Mistlands

I agree to disagree, but I'm on the side of the fence where there's a difficulty gap from Plains to Mistlands. I almost think it's entirely on purpose, and not something that needs to be "fixed". Here me out… this is either a prediction or a suggestion to devs. Let me present it as a suggestion:

What if the next area after Plains is a "choose your own adventure" of either Ashlands or Far North? Assuming Mistlands mobs are weak to elemental*, part of your next quest in either Ashlands or Far North is crafting weapons and armor for fire or ice damage. Check it out…

Ashlands: Flametal weapons and armor. You'd probably need linen and/or hides to protect the player from burns while wearing/holding, maybe some berries to hide the smell of burning sulfur (just playing, unless ya gonna do it). If you have a full set of armor you get a small AOE fire damage plus additional fire damage on impact. By that I mean if a mob hits you, they get burned. If you whack them, they get burned.

Far North: Rinse and repeat, but with ice damage.

But what if I want to overachieve and do both? Perfect. I'm sure there's a way to have frozen fire armor and weapons. No additional armor points, but a combo of effects.

Long story short, keep Mistlands as difficult as it is. We simply need to bridge the gap for those that want/need it. The only change to Mistlands might be beefing up the Carapace armor so it's still a progression for the new tier I just fabricated.

(*) I still can't find definitively what these bastards are weak to. We're assuming that with the Dvergr having fire and ice mages that the mobs are also weak to fire and ice. Maybe some of fire, the others ice?