A-net did something pretty good with weapons in how each weapon has its own unique set of abilities, but I think a few other things things, they didn’t really utilize that to the full potential they could have. Here is what they should have done.
They should have made each weapon have a set of attacks that was the same no matter what class was using it. Now hold up, I know what you’re thinking so let me head you off. You’re thinking “Thats a terrible idea! Way to kill class uniqueness!” And I agree that right off, if that was the only thing they did, it would in deed do that, but hear me out.
First of all, classes have two things that make them unique. One is simply the items they can use. You’ll never see a thief with a two-handed sword. That already makes them somewhat unique. Two handed swords will always be sweeping attacks, one handed swords will always be quick strikes. Daggers will always be agile attacks, etc.
Second is the skill slots. If you’re making unique things for each class, that’s what these slots are for. You can add more things in here that are conditional per weapon too since weapons themselves do the same. Make abilities here that you’ll be using as much as your weapon abilities. You can add things like cloak and dagger as a skill slot skill. So in the end, you still have a ton of variation on skills per class.
Ok, so what is the benefit of this?
Uniqueness in weapons. Imagine if a sword had the same skills no matter the class as long as they could use it. What could they do with this? Well a big thing is magic weapons could actually have magic abilities. For instance, if you find a magic flaming sword deep in some dungeon, it could have a unique ability where instead of slot 3 being the standard sword ability, it is changed to a fire slash ability.
Suddenly weapons aren’t just a stat stick. it’s not just valuable because it has stats+1, it is actually unique and different than other weapons. This would be a huge opportunity for developers to get creative too, because no longer is a sword a sword a sword necessarily. A rapier might have a slot or two switched from a longsword. Instead of the third ability being, for instance flurry, now it could be parry. If instead you’re using a cutlass, it might be wild swing. And then the other two abilities are the same sword abilities.
Furthermore you can add weapons that push the boundaries of strict weapon types. You might find a pike that has the axe slot one and two but a spear slot for 3 for instance, or a flail that has hammer slots but also slots that do other things.
If they had done weapons this way, it would be almost endless the variety of weapons they could add to the game, and easily too! Whips, spears, nunchuks, ninja-to, throwing stars, you name it.