Whips feel a bit refreshing to use and make dodging a lot better on laggy servers like official european ones when at more than half capacity 6/12.
You don't get to use them often because cat tail isn't worth the hustle, not always you want to play wanda, and using bull stalks feels like a waste, they can break randomly even if fresh.
Perk could look like this: Craft tough bull kelp stalk.
- Tough one acts as normal kelp when planted but if used for combat it doesn't break randomly and maybe does battle spear's damage tough this could be depending how hard it is to make.
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And following rule it would cost 8 kelp but depriving others of food is the unfun part as it is with other plant crafts.
(wow now instead of 16 bushes and 16 berries we have 16 bushes and 2 juicy bushes and no food while the bushes are empty, thanks wormwood) - So instead it could cost 1 compost wrap +1 kelp+ 1 living log. Makes sense and seems like some effort without making team members forget about having some of that kelp.
Generally the left branch would be good if each perk was more than just a plant that you can more easily and faster get with just a flint shovel 20 times.
When you think about it, most praised perks save time/resources in some way.
If it happens please consider making the main part of the branch be made of good perks while the perks that are branching out of main path would be those that are not so good so they could stay optional for those who like them for some reason. For now I'm sure many of us would agree the whole left branch feels optional or dedicated as "swappable character" features.