Like everything else, I don’t know if Digital Extremes has larger plans for weapons that could change my opinion later, but based on what we currently have, this is how I feel about the weapon system.
Looking at base damage, charged damage, virtue requirements, attunement and smite chance, the differences between weapons of the same type are generally very small. Right now, most weapons within the same category feel too close to one another.
Virtue requirements are not necessarily a problem. In fact, reaching a point where all requirements are fulfilled can feel like a reward for mastering many weapons, allowing players to freely choose what they want to use. However, this is also where another issue becomes more visible.
Once those constraints are gone, most weapons of the same type end up feeling nearly identical in performance. Attunement also loses impact over time, since many builds will naturally reach the 1.5x bonus damage cap in late game regardless of the weapon’s pip distribution. Combined with very small differences in base damage and low variation in smite chance, this creates a strong convergence between weapons.