itt: let's give our thoughts on how the different melee weapons currently are and what that could be done to help balance it for the next patch.
Medium Swords:
Good, since I'm using these as "base" to compare with the other weapons. The spin charge-up however is miles better than the slash charge-up. Spin deals more damage, covers 360, knocks enemies back and can hit enemies multiple times. Strategical use of it allows you to hit multiple enemies as well, which more than makes up for the charge-up time. The slash charge-up has way too narrow area of effect, and on top of that there's the short recovery time where enemies can hit you because they magically went behind your character instead of getting knocked away and the element effect doesn't always proc either.
Jagged Swords:
see blades
Blades:
Both jagged swords and blades are better than the medium swords. They kind of fall into the "PSO syndrome" where the *weak but fast attacks* doesn't really do that much less damage than the *powerful but slow attacks* which simply translates into much more DPS dealt compared to their medium & heavy counterparts. As for the charge-up attacks.. what? there are charge up attacks for those? ;) oh and blades have no 5* variants yet.
Heavy Swords:
Pretty much the short end of the stick here. Lowest DPS to single target, have long recovery time after each swing, vs multiple enemies they bump into each other preventing knock back = get hit and lose hp, even vs single enemies they often glitch and somehow magically appear behind your character instead of getting bumped away = get hit and lose hp. The second attack in the combo makes your character spin 360, however the AoE area isn't anywhere near 360 - it's frustrating to see the weapon go through some enemy dealing any damage. The charge up attack is slow, it performs very slowly, it's extremely narrow, it's rock bottom DPS-wise and you'll never catch any enemy which you actually want to stun (gobbin bombers, the blue healy things) - doing it might as well as turn you into a sitting duck for a few seconds. The most dumb part is that heavy swords is awful (as in absolute slowest) at smashing minerals and blocks - "heavy weapon used to smash things" oh the irony.
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As for melee charge-up attacks in general, consider the following: The whole theory is:
"I can charge up a strong hit and don't have to be near the enemy while I charge up. The strong hit makes up for the DPS I lost for not attacking the enemies during charge-up time. I don't have to be near enemies during charge-up which gives me a defensive edge".
The actual performance in-game is:
"I can waste time to charge up and deliver some attack that may miss and in no way makes up for the DPS lost if it actually hits. The only times where it might be useful (when there are many enemies on the screen so a single charge-up can hit multiple targets) is also when it's dumbest to do so because running around doesn't protect vs super range spamming enemies (tier 2 gun puppy), it won't protect you from when enemies block your path(both that could easily be avoided using block but you can't block while charging) and getting hit cancels your charge-up.
That of above which is reflected in-game in how the charge-up attack is a semi redundant combat feature players use once or twice when they obtain that type of weapon for the first time, see the damage it deals and then completely forget about it.
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tldr: heavy swords needs buffs, jagged swords needs nerd, charge-up attacks needs buff. The changes doesn't necessarily have to be changes in attack values you could for example:
-Increase heavy swords damage and range making it useful for killing grouped enemies, while decreasing jagged sword AoE width making it best at dealing high DPS to a single target.
-Remove the taking damage interrupts charge-up would be nice, at least for weak hits (like those not done by huge enemies that stun you) or allow blocking while charging.
Also, since the weapons differ and all - I would suggest adding 0* or 1* variants of everything for players to try out before they invest in getting a 2* or 3* only to find that the weapon doesn't suit their "style" and that they can't get any refunds because the weapon has already been bound to the player after equipping it to try it out. I understand the thought that having different weapons that only are obtainable later in game would act like a motivation for people to keep playing, but with the spur and cutter at only 2* the result is often "damn I wasted a whole day of mist energy to gather materials and craft this weapon, why didn't I pick that other one instead? now I don't feel like playing this anymore."
I've only started playing SK recently and don't have *all* weapons yet. So feel free to add your thoughts.
"oh and blades have no 5* variants yet."
I don't really follow your classifications all that well but where do Wild Hunting Blade and Dread Venom Striker fall?