There is also another issue: the Katana’s values seem inconsistent. Since the Quarterstaff, as a tier 2 weapon, provides 0–2 block, then shouldn’t the Katana, as a tier 4 weapon, provide 0–4 block instead? Why does the current version only give 0–3 block?
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Weapons are balanced partly based on analytics data, and believe it or not both of those weapons are doing quite well.
Runic’s damage vs. other T4 weapons is only slightly higher once upgraded, but that’s enough to make it one of the strongest T4s. Being able to equip it earlier is a huge benefit vs. other T5 weapons.
The Katana is much more likely to be highly upgraded by the player vs. the quaterstaff, and so it doesn’t need as large of a base defensive benefit to offset its reduction in base damage.