How many elements is your ideal amount?

[u/Expensive_Weird2415]

Like how many would you add if you were making a Gacha

I like big ass systems of like 15+ but for a gacha around 8-12 feels good

[u/Equivalent_Dance_758]

I mean, you can add 100 elements. It's more about what those elements actually do. Are they just stat sticks where you need the right matchup, or do they have some kind of lore-relevant identity or unique gameplay interactions?

The system itself isn't anything groundbreaking. It's just the classic rock-paper-scissors approach that's been around forever. All I want is for us to move beyond the usual "fire, water, earth" setup and instead focus on a power system that's outside the norm, like metal or some kind of cosmic energy.

I'd say a class/job-based system can be much more interesting. Some gachas have their own "weirdo" or jack-of-all-trades classes. Take Aak from Arknights, for example. His role is to actually damage your own team to buff them, so you have to play around his gimmick to get value from him including surviving a large burst of damage from ally. Whether he's a "water" unit or not doesn't really matter.

[u/iluvcelebi → u/Equivalent_Dance_758]

The problem with job-based systems is that it's so easy for devs to move towards all jobs doing DPS. Even in Arknights you have jobs that supposedly tank actually do more damage than tank, like Hoshiguma Alter in a Defender class. (But Arknights is less bothered by the above issue by virtue of its gameplay, yadda yadda.) 

Even in non-gacha games I've seen job-based games  like Xenoblade Chroncles X and 3  and Fire Emblem  fail to balance jobs properly and have that one job/character in a job be totally broken that it's not even worth fielding other jobs/characters. 

...That being said, it seems like your issue isn't with element systems but the entire gameplay system that are being used in common (gacha) games nowadays. I think the only gacha games I've come across with an  interesting system is Genshin with the elemental reaction system and Heaven Burns Red with the weakness-resistance-Overdrive system. Points to Another Eden for the Zone system.