I've been playing this game for a long time, and have a wide variety of weapons, including all bombs (just because). I think I've posted before with specific feedback regarding certain weapons, but I feel like writing tonight about some really "broken" things I've noticed regarding weapon balancing.

Yes, that's right - I used the "b" word. Why? Because the weapons, as they currently are, are truly unbalanced and generally just messed up in all kinds of ways.

I understand the general ideas behind weapons but there are some really really clear "problems" with the game which would easily be addressed by tweaking damage numbers and enemy weaknesses.

Some weapons are truly, and I mean TRULY useless, especially normal damage weapons.

I understand normal weapons are maybe designed for newer players who haven't built up an arsenal of swords/guns/bombs with specific (elemental/shadow/piercing) damage, but what is really messed up is that I've noticed that the "normal weapon versions" are worse than neutral-type weapons, e.g. Supernova against Jellies is worse than a Polaris against Jellies. Yes, you read that right - normal damage against jellies is actually worse than elemental damage against jellies, when the numbers should be AT LEAST identical.

To make normal weapons generally not completely horrible, I have suggested it before and I'll suggest it again - they should do slightly better than the "neutral" damage - e.g. a normal damage gun/sword should do slightly more than a non-strong or non-weak weapon type: e.g. a triglav should do slightly more damage to jellies than a divine avenger, but shadow weapons against jellies should still very obviously dominate, as they do right now. If that were the case, people would actually have much more of an incentive to actually make and use normal weapons, while keeping the "specific damage" weapons considerably attractive.

Additionally, even within weapon classes, I feel like there are some truly overpowered and underpowered weapons, and some large disparities in charge usefulness.

For example, in the sword line, the brandishes' DPS is just INSANE with the charge damage AND area effect, and inflicting a status on top of that, as opposed to, for example, the hammer which "locks you down in a motion" making you vulnerable, does less damage than a brandish charge, considering the "damage line pushback," and has no status. Don't even get me started on the striker lines where the charges are just utterly useless. I also think that the flamberge and rigadoon don't cause their status often enough considering the penalty in damage they take from the final flourish and the BTB.

With guns, the polaris has spammable area effect, inflicting a status and good DPS, while its charge is completely unused. AP/Sentenza don't have hardly any area effect and in my observations the DPS is generally considerably lower than a polaris, especially against groups of enemies. The AP/Sentenza charge is never, ever used in serious combat that I've seen, and the benefit it provides (mostly the "bird") is negligible over regular shooting. Callahan/Iron Slug charge is also too penalizing (movement, "lock-down") for the little benefit it provides over regular 1-shot or 2-shotting. The only gun charge which is regularly used is the autogun lines, as well as the alchemer lines.

With bombs - oh lordy. This is probably the most "broken" area in SK. Some bombs are completely "troll," your party generally rages when you use them and they may even get you kicked from a pub party - I'm talking about the bombs which explode with a huge flash and cause huge pushbacks, i.e. the blast bomb lines. The DBB is moderately useful, although arguably you're better off with a piercing sword -_-, the dark retribution is okay but a little too nerfed in my opinion - you're DEFINITELY better off spamming acheron charges than a dark retribution. The shard bomb lines are currently a completely horrible atrocity (mostly in DPS), and the "graviton/electron" and status bombs are pretty much the best bombs you can realistically and effectively use in a party.

In summary, I feel like some weapons are "too good" while other weapons are "too bad" to be used on a daily basis or in difficult missions, and to be honest I don't like it. I'd like to be able to use an iron slug, a shard bomb, a blast bomb, a blaster, a triglav, etc. and not feel like I'm trolling both myself and my party.

I don't know why OOO is afraid of some experimentation with the damage tables in the game. I feel like the game is currently so broken, that it can't get that much worse than it currently is. Why not buff the normal weapons a little and see what happens? Why not nerf the brandishes a little and see what happens? Why not buff the blast bombs a little, make the flash less blinding, and the pushback smaller and see what happens? I don't mean completely make them useless, I mean nerf/buff a LITTLE. I also don't know if there's a "weapon time usage" system built into the game which spews out statistics. If there isn't, it might be very very beneficial to see such a system in place.

Alternatively, I feel like OOO would hugely benefit from some experienced player feedback (mature, with substantial experience in the game, e.g. 1000 hours+, completed all shadow lairs repeatedly etc.) regarding weapon balancing. I'm not asking for them to listen to me specifically, I'm asking them to listen to ALL experienced players (even if they don't listen to me individually).

I've been waiting for some substantial changes in this game for over a year now, and it just never comes. The only substantial change which I remember was buffing the brandishes which were actually decent as they were to completely OP, so now every serious player spams brandish charges against elemental-weak and shadow-weak enemies instead of the previous OP weapon - the DA. Oh yeah, and overnerfing the dark retribution 3 days after release after people started posting videos of soloing JK in 10 seconds to the point where now it's hardly ever used. And let's not forget taking the shard bombs from troll (piercing with jelly damage bonus = lol) to useless - except the RSS which went from moderately useful to useless.

Also, what's up with the 4* weapons without a 5* version? Winmillion, heavy deconstructor?! It can't be THAT difficult to design a 5* version (with a different color/range/etc. and buffed up stats) can it?