Weapon Rebalance (Round 2) is coming, let's post some ideas.

Amputator and CIV need damage to be on par with the Combuster

Leviathan Blade and Final Flourish need damage to be on par with the Acheron

Shard bombs needs to mechanically evolve kinda of like the Alchemers with more shards with every star level, and at 5 star have 2 rings of shards instead of just 8 individual shards... I do think knockback could be removed or more heavily reduced for the Salt and Sun shards with more emphasis put on flinch. Along with an Elemental variant for killing undead...

Tortogun charges need to be a fixed landing pattern with the center crystal landing on the monster targeted.

Spur line swords need a total overhaul, aside from the flashy effects it really has nothing going for it.

Magnus type guns need knockback of enemies not be reliant on which way the enemy is facing but the path of the bullet... so shooting an enemy facing any direction carries it along the path of the bullet... (may need a damage nerf to compensate for this buff)

Antigua guns need to fire one bullet for a button press and another for the button release resulting in still 6 shots but only 3 presses needed to use the clip instead of 6.

Catalyzer tags should be set off by any charge attack used.

Also realign all low star equivalents with the high star lines. Troika buffs should also show for Thwack hammers and Hatches, Cutter buffs should show for the Red Saber, Magnus mechanics for the Punch and Pummel gun, Spitfire should deal status on the regular shots like the Frost Gun, Super Stun Gun, and Zapper

@Holy-night

Agree with most, couple notes:

Current magnus charges requiring enemy alignment is a nice gameplay skill test, I'd vote to keep current behavior and no nerf. Better than mindless brandish charge spam.

Antigua, you can already spam 6 shots with 3 button presses, just work on your timing.

Caliburs :

They are pretty underwhelming because of the way their charge attack works.
Currently, the whole charge damage can only unfold if the enemies are either in a vortex bomb or against a wall.
Imo, it should deal no knockback until the last hit and get and extra hit just like fang of vog has, it could maybe use a slight damage buff too.

Cold Iron line specifically, I think should become elemental and maybe apply freeze.
Leviathan line should like its reskins (Celestial Saber, Sweet Dreams) apply Stun as well. Reskins should remain reskins and should not have bonus perks.

Flourishes :

Since WHB got buffed, flourishes are kind of a weird spot. I think they could use a little more damage on swings. The charges of all flourishes crucially need to be buffed, they are pretty terrible damage wise as is, espeically Barbarous Thorn Blade.

I also think the other flourishes sharing the same charges are quite clunky and their animation time should be quickened.

Flourishes with status should really have their status apply more. The chances of the status applying look abysmal and really does not make up for the damage loss over the regular Final Flourish.

Sealed Sword :

The most recent Sealed Sword changes were good and very much appreciated. I think they could use more tweaks though, they should do more damage per swing. It's nonsense to have Gran Faust dealing the same damage as Acheron on the first swing.

Troika :

Again, Troika's recent changes are good too. I would really see that sword with a heavy hitting identity disable shields from armored enemies for a few seconds. Very powerful and useful use case.
I would also see Triglav becoming fully elemental as well.

Spurs :

Spurs are really underwhelming damage wise, it could really use some buffs to it's swings to be on par with brandishes. Its charge should also be longer and have more damage.
Turbillion is also not buyable from the depot despite the 2*, 3*, 4* versions being available.

Magnus :

Magnus line is very powerful and mostly fine as is. I think the charged bullet should go through Vanaduke, Minis and armored enemies from the back entirely the same way it goes through the Jelly King or regular enemies and not just disappearing after one tick of damage.

Alchemers :

Alchemers are good, I think it would be extremely useful to make the bounces more predictable. Some suggested it would be great to have them autotarget nearby enemies.

Antiguas :

Antiguas are... pretty bad right now. They are really overshadowed by blasters as sidearms. One change that would actually make them good would to make their shots pierce through enemies, that would really open up a new use case and account for their lack of damage.

Pulsars :

Pulsars are really good at their job of providing crowd control. Their shots could maybe use some more damage. Their charge damage should really deal way more damage too and have a way bigger area of effect.

Neutralizers :

Neutralizers are kind of a gimmicky weapon. I think Neutralizers should not need to reload and should have the orbiting shots capped at a fixed number rather than disappearing after some time.

Shard Bombs :

Shards Bombs should really benefit from having their knockback reduced by half. They're really unreliable.

Big Angry Bomb :

Big Angry Bomb is a really bad bomb. It takes a long time to detonate only to deal an underwhelming amount of damage. It's area of effect needs to be a little bigger and the damage needs to be buffed by a lot if the detonation time is not reduced.

Deconstructor :

Needs a 5* upgrade, it's currently stuck to 4*

Upcoming variants :

And finally, if we ever get upcoming variants of more weapons, looking at mandolins specifically, I think it would be really interesting to break from the classic Shadow Poison/Freeze, Elemental Fire/Shock, Normal Stun designs.
I'm dying for Elemental/Poison or Shadow/Fire combinations for example. That would be great additions.

I mostly mention the Magnus just because it "feels" buggy with they way it figures knockback... there's definitely skill involved in lining up shots but it still feels wrong to shoot something from behind and have it pulled towards you

As for the Antiguas I'm talking about having it be the regular mechanic of the main shot... not some gimmick you can technically do by cancelling the charge of a combo... kind of like the Tigris in Warframe. https://wiki.warframe.com/w/Tigris

"...pressing and holding the fire button will fire one shell, while releasing the fire button will also fire a shell; tapping the attack button will fire two shells in rapid succession..."

flourishes definitely feel less impressive after WHB's buff, but they do at least have the niche of being safer to use because of their higher range. balance aside, i don't think final flourish and BTB are differentiated enough; they're identical except BTB has a faster and cooler charge attack, but both charge attacks are mediocre so in practice they're both just basic flourishes. i think it'd be nice to give BTB another property like poison chance or shadow damage. (and also reduce charge time of both)

antiguas SHOULD be a nice exploration weapon - quick and precise and with no worries about reloading. but their janky hitboxes ruin it, they're extremely unreliable at actually breaking the blocks you shoot at and are inexplicably totally incapable of shooting into 1-block gaps. making their hitboxes more reliable and their block damage AoE more generous is the #1 thing i'd do to them, that alone would make them feel way better to use!
their charge attacks are also clunky and extremely impractical in almost all circumstances (there's like, exactly 1 room in the entire game where i think using an antigua charge over normal attacks is actually better); i think they could reasonably drop the 5 initial shots and have the charge be exclusively the bird.
as an aside, i strongly dislike the idea to make them shoot 2 shots per click, that would remove a lot of the precision and remove the uniqueness of being a 6-clip weapon; it sounds like purely an annoyance that makes them worse at their ideal purpose without actually making the weapon better

amputator i've previously suggested could gain sleep status, themed after anesthesia! damage bonus slime is pretty pointless on a normal weapon (acheron still wins), and unlike WHB, changing it to shadow would actually make the weapon more useless; giving it a status effect would give it a real purpose. sleep would feel thematic, be fairly unique and interesting... and would also match the update in which it was introduced, im kind of surprised it didnt have sleep to begin with since it was introduced in the sleep update! (also its damage still needs to be boosted obviously since it's inferior to the neutral hits of all other brandishes.)

fang of vog could use a boost too, but balance aside, i'd also like to see it get a new model; it's a reskinned cutter yet isn't a cutter! i was totally expecting it to be an elemental cutter when i bought it for the first time... (although to be clear, i don't want it to actually be a cutter and i'd oppose the addition of any elemental cutter)

Amputator should be split shadow damage... don´t tell me that it would make the obsidian one redundant, that one has toxic, this one has Slime vs bonus. There are already many elemental brandishes, i don´t have and see any problem in making it split shadow damage, Acheron would still overkill it in raw power.

On second tough, the Polaris charged attack, should let the projectile become even bigger after traveling, i mean, its the whole gimmik of it, its bullets become stronger the further they travel, so, the charged attack should also become even more powerfull afer traveling somewhat more, am i right?

It makes absolutely zero sense to make Amputator split shadow when Acheron and Obsidian Edge exist, especially if it's just going to be a worse Acheron with a useless damage vs slime bonus.

Really interesting thought though about the Polaris charge attack getting even bigger and dishing more damage.

It makes absolutely zero sense to make Amputator split shadow when Acheron and Obsidian Edge exist, especially if it's just going to be a worse Acheron with a useless damage vs slime bonus.

Really interesting thought though about the Polaris charge attack getting even bigger and dishing more damage.

Amputator needs some boost, so people can complaint about it like any other brandish... i mean, it can be useful instead of be a niche option for "fun" play.

More crazy idea, What if its Split Pierce/Shadow?

A good start to Amputator is simply buffing its damage. Making it Normal/Shadow would be useless with Acheron around and making it Pierce/Shadow makes damage weaknesses and resistances moot, and makes Normal-only swords more useless in the current game. Also making it Normal/Piercing or even just Piercing would end up outpowering the Flourishes and the buffed WHB

Neutralizers might be fun if they tied into a hybrid bomber style of play, with timed detonation rather than charge detonation and some kind of chain reaction property. Limiting the max stack before a blast could play into this and make them a very powerful weapon IF you can get past the peculiarities of its setup phase. As for the fact that minis eat Magnus/Grave charges... it's a choice I understand, but it's a choice I also disagree with. I don't mind it plinking off a shielded enemy and doing zero damage but multiplied knockback - that feels fair enough - but the peculiar selectiveness of penetration is sort of a sticking point for me. (Knockback directionality is the other thing I don't really like but I've been convinced that maximising the damage of a magnus shot is a skill check of its own so I think I'm finally okay with not whining about that, personally.) Being able to pierce Vana would be a good step towards giving players options over the Blitz Needler - not that I especially want to see that nerfed any time soon...

My other complaint is that I have just crafted some tortofist weapons and they're real fun but I cannot STAND how enemies become invulnerable to the contact damage after a short time! That's garbage, that's nonsense, that's inconsistent, and you will become back my crowns. If you land the shots you should do the damage, come on now... and no, I'm not actually as mad as I'm pretending to be, but it was just such a "huh??" moment. I can't figure out the design intent behind that; the spikes don't last that long as it is, and should only become ineffective when they... stop existing, right? That one change would make them a lot of fun to run with parties that have good CC, I think. Rewarding team-attack style play. As they are *now* they're mostly just a fun novelty with niche use in a well coordinated team, and given that each one effectively costs a lot more crowns to craft with consideration paid to their material requirements, that's not quite enough for my tastes...

Oh, and I'd also love to see a 5* version of the Thwack Hammer and Heavy Hatchet weapons just for funsies but that's probably out of the post's scope. "Reinforced," perhaps? :)

I agree in general with the idea of bringing the Amputator's Normal damage output in line with its counterparts' - Normal weapons, especially at 5*, lack viability compared with split-damage ones unless they can make up for it in abilities. Relatedly, I think making the Ascended Calibur and Leviathan Blade a relible source of Stun might help even things out, but I believe Normal weapons deserve a base damage boost across the board.

(...for that matter, Piercing weapons don't get split bonus either as far as I know, so maybe they need a boost too; however, dealing non-Normal damage means they do decently well against monsters with the relevant vulnerability.)