That's not a point I ever made, fighting the king slime is engaging.
I farmed for the staff post plantera because it's necessary for the coin farm in the jungle ocean. I used loads of rubies and gold I got from extracting thousands of silt while trying to get the amber mosquito.
That's in a later game position where the slime staff becomes invalid. The slime staff seems designed for the fighter AIs and low roofs of the dungeon, and is great protection while you solve the puzzle-like mining in the underworld (if you don't have a hornet staff).
These points make 0 sense and contribute little to the discussion since you'd never ever find that much gold or ruby in one area. Mining that much gold and ruby would take days at that point in the game. And besides, when I farmed it only took me some 3 thousand slime kills before I got the staff, and I enjoyed farming for it.
Yes, that's why this suggestion is here.
Again, this is a point I never made explicitly. It totally misrepresents my point of engaging battling. (Ps. Shiny hunters end up just spamming the A button and running around, it's not that much more engaging than standing under lava or a statue to gain an item, yet people still love shiny hunting)
The way you misrepresented my argument (which I'll assume was more of a misunderstanding) is because you seem to have portrayed my example of fighting the king slime as "afk farming the king slime". When I fought the king slime I was doing it with weapons in an arena. If you choose to do an AFK farm, that's literally your choice, and if you don't find that engaging then just try a different way of farming. But again, I never used your example, it's only engaging if you make it.
At the appropriate tier for the slime staff, the lava trap is the only viable choice for farming king slime. Players will almost always choose the most effective option, even if it is less fun.
Again, if you choose to hold down the mouse button that's YOUR method of farming, NOT everybody else's. You should have factored other methods into this.
Since I was fighting him in hardmode, I was killing him in a matter of seconds. (and this is important to consider because the slime staff has a niché in even the late game)
Again, its use lies in pre-hardmode. If you want to farm it in hardmode it becomes a collector's item, but that's not what it's meant for.
Also again, people have spent literally months shiny hunting (You may be annoyed that I keep using shiny hunting pokémon as the reference here, but they are the complete same principle) and some people spend days or even hours hunting, it's all luck. I've been known to do a 6 hour walk in one day, so if it's a competition of endurance and patience to farm for it, then it's obviously very subjective. everybody has different tolerances to tedious tasks.
And their are also people who would like to play summoner but aren't in that group.
also again, in my experience I've got the staff within four thousand blue slime kills (+ all the other kills from other slimes, so possibly around 5k)
That's just luck. There's nothing else to say about it.
and the entire time it was enjoyable, if the slime staff is only a collectable, then it serves wonderfully as a "you have to work for it" trophy item.
If you want the slime staff to be more viable at the very start of the game, then just suggest adding a new early game summoner weapon that is pre EoC instead of trying to get the developers to change an, essentially collectable item. That's my opinion, that's how I see it, the slime staff is merely a rare collectable with a slight niché in some automated farms and is worth picking up for those reasons. Have you ever tried farming for a Lucky Coin or discount card? Yeah, it's literally just sitting under a lava tower (for me, that's my way of doing it) and maybe using a summoner item. and I still find enjoyment in it. It's subjective, so instead of potentially ruining the fun for those who like to farm for extremely rare items in Terraria (Which there are VERY few of by the way), it's probably better to suggest an entirely new item.
It's near impossible to give the reader a perfect vision of how an item functions without it being in the game already. Not just stats, but the way it moves is something hard to put in words that are read the same way by 2 people.