About non-raid weapon path: why don't you just merge both weapons together?

[Kozuki]

After seeing the upcoming arrival of Skyforged/Shadowforged weapons, the new non-raid weapon path after Exalted/Storm Dragon, I wonder why NCSoft keeps developing two non-raid weapons. I don't see the point of having two different weapons for non-raid path, aside from showcasing the their skins.

 

Certainly, they offer different skill bonus, players are pretty much shoehorned into a single choice:

-Summoner: the higher gear they become, the less they depend on Flying Nettle cooldown reduction. Earth Summoner doesn't even need this since their VT combo reset the Nettle cooldown itself. In future, it will become Flying Nettle damage, but the DPS is still pale compared to sunflower/bee damage.

-Destroyer: if they ever go non-raid path, they will go rift/storm dragon/shadowforged

-Force Master: both of their weapon bonus are meh, but dawnforged/exalted/skyforged is still a better choice than nothing.

-Warlock: it is an unspoken rule to immediately kick any WL that does not use seraph/riftwalk/stormdragon/shadowforged in F8, cuz it demonstrates these WLs do not know about what their class needs, thus subpar DPS. Unless it is a low-level dungeons and whatever fits the bill.

-etc.

 

So yeah, why offering two choices when everyone just choose one? It is a waste of resources/efforts, and may misleading new players into choosing wrong one (like Warlock). I think NCSoft should just merge the two weapons into a single one that offers bonuses of both weapons, and then sell weapon skins of the removed weapons instead. Strangely, the design of non-raid weapons are pretty good compared to subpar raid weapon post-Raven stage.

 

I think the weapon unison should begin from Baleful/Seraph, where players tend to make mistake in choosing their weapons since they have different way to reset skills (in case of Seraph: it doesn't even reset), and may cost them an oil to fix the mistake.

[Lyn Thunderfox]

I'd say remove the dark path since it's literally the same modifiers as raid path but only 10%. Simply keep light path bonus since it's normal that raid path is stronger than non-raid one. 

Maybe tweak some of them, like Bangle, because 50% on Short Fuse yeah... could do a lot better.

 

In terms of skins it's fine, Baleful is just a red/orange Windshock weapon anyway and dragons fits the game more than birbs.

 

[Dlacik]

There might be changes in future that would make the other weapon usable or even better than the one that is currently commonly used.

 

I think better solution would be to remove the pristine oil cost when changing lower tier non-raid weapons. 

[MassiveEgo]

I'm pro choice. Let people pick whatever, then if they made a mistake, correct it.

[Grimoir]

22 minutes ago, MassiveEgo said:

I'm pro choice. Let people pick whatever, then if they made a mistake, correct it.

Agreed. Everyone has their own preference. Plus they can switch any time they want.

The paths are a cheaper road to the destination raid path, so as payment for the cheaper upgrades they need to choose either of the skill modifiers.