So why bother with alternate weapons?

It's not bugged, it was designed that way.

Where design implies intention, it's funny you mention it in a game that is seemingly without. I'm imagining the situation in the office where the coder grabs a donut and accidentally types a 5 instead of a 4. There's your shinkita speed. I'd like to believe that most things in the game were well designed and planned out ahead of time, but I realized late into playing that the chimps at Nexon have no frontal lobes. I don't know how anyone could subscribe to that argument. Bugged is a better way to put it. Outright mistake is an even better way to put it. Just like Nexon "designed" axes and blunt weapons to be so horrible for 6 years. Clearly they had us all fooled.

Not to undo the contents of this thread, but one should ask why such a large patch is necessary in a game designed so well in the first place. Should I predict catastrophe in the coming days?

Strength bandit was my first class, typically everyone lived in the fallacy that you could substitute a str scrolled item instead of a luk one and save money. Though such argument has no presence here as beta barely had any impact on the strength dit population. Especially after the first anniversary. Many players will over look the slight DPS gap to use an axe instead of a sword. Just like many players chose the cursayer over the varkit.

Players chose cursayer over varkit? When was this? I have seen maybe two cursayers, and I'm not sure that 2 atk was the reason that they were used, but your save money argument seems plausible. I have also seen someone go from dex dit to str when given the option to use a godly scrolled (as in hacked) dragon knife.

They might overlook a slight dps gap temporarily, yes. I'll probably be switching to the 109 atk duck tube that's been sitting in my inventory for the last 2 years just so I can finish my shield quest. I may even consider forging a blunt weapon, seeing as I'm so poor that I beg for etc items from monsters. All the while I will be massaging my lower region to a picture of a nicely scrolled sword. Oh, you will hear the quacking from miles away (from the tube anyway).