Proposal
Several weapons, obtainable from world exploration, miniboss and boss fights should have their levels lowered, to not be a downgrade to their stock versions, despite the player being required to put in additional effort to obtain them.
In-Depth Explanation
These are stock weapons of Poor, Average and Good categories. A player can obtain them from literally anywhere. They don’t require any actual time investment to find, it is just rng on the chest loot. These weapons are a baseline for any unique versions of themselves, and so are their skill requirements.
The amount of weapons stat points you need to have in order to use a skill on a weapon depends on its Level, and the amount of skills you can put on a weapon depends on its Quality.
This is the Samerian Scimitar, one of several weapons from a group of kingdom-specific weapons, that all share a common trait. They are of Average quality, but their level is 20 - earlier than the intended 50 for Average stock weapons. This is a valid trait, however - the player needs to spent more time and effort to loot chests specifically on the islands that belong to the said kingdom, or to defeat NPCs that wield them. And, for a level 20, this is a challenge. It is only fair that they receive a reward that lets them access better abilities much earlier than they would have got without spending time on exploration. This is a good example of exploration being rewarded with better gear.
This is the Atlantean Shield - a weapon from the Atlantean group. It has the same level as Good weapons, and it has no unique skills to itself. However, certain other weapons of this group like Atlantean Greatsword or Scald Tooth Dagger have status effects, while still having the same level requirement, therefore all other Atlantean weapons should remain of the same level for consistency. There are no issues with these weapons, aside from the drop rates, but this isn’t the today’s topic.
However, this is the weapon that has a problem. The Greenwish Cultist Staff. It is level 60, above the stock Average’s 50, but it is still of Average quality. You spend your effort on defeating multiple dozens of Greenwish Cultists to obtain a weapon that is directly worse to its stock counterpart. Those minor stat differences do not justify it.
These two weapons, Scimitars of Storm and Commodore Kai’s Sabre, are boss drops. You must defeat a powerful foe to have a chance to obtain them (again, the 1/10 drop chance is not the elephant in the room I am addressing today). It is logical that they grant you extreme benefits for your accomplishments. These weapons are of Good quality, while only being 10 levels above stock Average’s 50, or even equal to them. Again, the player receives benefit from spending additional effort. However, already there, an inconsistency emerges. Both are drops from bosses in the same sea, designed for use by Hybrid builds, and yet, the levels are different. This will be returned to later.
Now, the most atrocious case. Fossil weapons and Skyhall Captain’s Spear. In case somebody doesn’t know, you can obtain Fossil Spear, Fossil Club and Skull Greathammer from the Grey Ones - a highly remote “faction“ in the Nimbus Wilds, with low drop rates, and the Greathammer even being a miniboss drop - and their Quality is still Average, while being level 80. Why? Mind you - the Skyhall Captain’s Spear can just be bought at Ivoris, needs 10 less levels to use, and is of Good quality. Pointless.
This suggestion only speaks about non-Warrior-exclusive weapons. There are, still, several cases of the weapon being far above the stock Good quality’s level, while not giving anything meaningful to justify such increase, like the Atum. These cases must be fixed too, but they won’t be addressed later on. Also, Strenght weapons are excluded too.
The Changes
Anything not listed here remains as is.
Scimitars of Storm, Stormcaller, Noble Thunderspear, Commodore Kai’s Sabre, Silent Blades, Sanguine and Poison Tooth Dagger: the level is set to 50, unless it already is 50. These are boss-exclusive weapons, or just a weapon type that needs consistent level with a boss-exclusive weapon (Poison Tooth Dagger). Yes, half of what I just named were already level 50, but I had to mention them as a reference. The Poison effect of the PTD isn’t significant enough to warrant a +10 levels cost, as it doesn’t synergise with any other effects, the weapon suffers a damage reduction for it, and its alternative, the Sanguine, has higher base damage. These two are sidegrades.
Beast Bone Cleaver, Poison Axe, Swiftshot and Sinbane: the level is set to 60, and the quality, if it isn’t yet Good, is set to such. These are miniboss-exclusive weapons, therefore they deserve to be a bit harder to get use out of than proper boss weapons, but still usable early on, to reward those players who are ready to spend time on them.
Greenwish Cultist Staff, Swiftrider Flintlock, Swiftrider Dual Flintlocks, Fossil Spear, Fossil Club, Skull Greathammer and Skyhall Captain’s Spear: the level is set to 60, and the quality, if it isn’t yet Good, is set to such. These are weapons, obtained from defeating certain faction members. On par with the miniboss weapons, since the miniboss in question often belongs to the same faction, therefore the levels must remain consistent. Also, as a Nimbus Sea boss, and one found in a near-endgame location for that sea, Grey Ones Chief should have a unique move that he can use in a fight, which you can obtain too, being a weapon skill unique to the Skull Greathammer. The Chief loves to jump up and down, therefore combine Blitz technique with Devastate weapon skill, and that’ll do.
Ravenna Greatsword and Ravenna Greataxe: the level is set to 20, to be consistent with every other kingdom-exclusive weapons, but the quality is set to Average. Ravenna Tower Shield is not included, for that weapon type is locked behind level 100 weapons, and isn’t unique enough to lift that restriction.
Shadow Daggers: the level is set to 60. Dual Daggers is a new and unique enough weapon type, and it shouldn’t be locked behind being a Warrior. The hybrids must be allowed access, but with a +10 to its level requirement, as it is a miniboss weapon.
Well, that is it. I had made a discussion topic about this problem before, I will put a link to it.
For instance, I do not think badly or in a negative way of you