Not trying to criticize or make this a complain-ey post, but was thinking about it and just curious on the reasoning behind Nature bane on the belt. Banes to me seem already a little bit out of wack, just with the sheer amount of banes needed for different monsters in this game. My ranger carries a bag and a half of quivers, but at least doesn't have to worry about them being different levels of strength. So with this wide range of banes, it would seem fit that they'd be spread out over a wide range of mobs / zones. I get that this list of possible encounters / items / zones diminishes once you reach the threshold of high tiers, but I just wanted to compare a few examples.
As of right now
Prime Twins arms are the
only 13 Dmg bane item in the game and they happen to be Nature, which is probably the least used bane as far as bosses go (which isn't the ONLY purpose for banes, I know). I believe Essence of the Mother and Old Overgrowth are the only two aside from Adept mobs and various mundane mobs.
Historically it seems like a majority of bane items come from mobs of that bane type.
The top (melee) Planar Elemental bane comes from a Planar Elemental mob,
the top Dragonkin bane comes from a Dragon,
the top Ancient Race bane comes from Ancient Race mobs,
the top Undead bane comes from an undead mob, and so on and so forth. I get that in some cases there are alternatives due to class limitations, etc. but overall it shares a decent pattern.
With all that said, there seems to be a pretty decent difference between a 13 bane damage item on a not-so-frequently used bane type and a 9 damage bane item on a very frequently used bane type. Yale is a Planar Elemental mob; why not make it Planar Elemental bane instead of adding one more point to an already unheard of bane dmg that is Nature? Especially when Planar's current best-in-slot item is only a 9, and there's already the highest bane dmg in the game, let alone in its bane type, that drops from another mob in the same zone. This is just one example and could apply to a few different bane types that are lacking a higher tiered, double digit bane dmg, item.
I know balancing items in this game is tough and there's always gonna be someone complaining about some sort of imbalance one way or another. Banes are a special breed of work and I give credit to the devs that have managed to maintain and balance them so far in the game. I'd like to think this post isn't a complaint but rather a suggestion, since I'm not directly affected to banes as a Cleric and Ranger. I just know there's a lot of classes that do depend on banes to make the most of their numbers.