[0.97] Dual Blade

I beg to differ.
I am still using my 16 att bwg and 18 att maple shield, in GMS.
It's true that a 71+ warrior glove and shield *could* blow them out of the water, with sufficient scrolling and cubing luck, but since my budget is limited I preferred to use cubes on my top, bottom, shoes, earrings, scarlion hat, and of course weapon. Those gave me immediate damage improvement, instead of spending a lot just to match what I already have, in preparation for surpassing it.

Nothing anyone have said challanges this and every statement implies spending money on cubes or mesos on already cubed gear. Your 16 att BWG is still very much usable, only it rank far lower on the scale of epic gloves than it did before the system came.