Strong rank weapon/armor - B rank sig spell
Legendary rank weapon/armor - A rank sig spell
Artefact rank weapon/armor - S rank sig spell
But wait doesn't that mean i'm losing a boost to melee attack and two extra spells/abilities for a single spell?
In a way yes, but you will also receive a single regular spot as follows:
Strong - 1 C rank slot
Legendary - 1 B rank slot
Artefact - 1 A rank slot
However, trade wisely young mage because a weapon signature spell must be offensive and an armor signature spell must be defensive. Also you can only have one signature spell per slot much like you can only have 1 weapon/armor per slot. Thus you can gain an extra five signature spell for either your primary or secondary magic. Plus an extra spell slot for either your primary or secondary magic.
Now let's see what a weapon gives you
Artifact Item - 2 Player-Ranked Effects (Up to S rank)
Legendary(+) Item - 1 Player ranked effect(UP to S rank) and 1 Player ranked effect(Up to A rank)
Legendary Item - 2 Player-Ranked Effects (up to A rank)
Strong(+) Item - 2 Player-Ranked Effect(Up to B rank
Strong Item - 1 Player-Ranked Effect (up to B rank)
Weak Item - 1 Player-Ranked Effect (up to C rank)
So giving up an artifact gives you one S-rank sig spell and one A-rank normal spell, whereas using an artifact gives you two S-rank effects that cost no MP. Weapons give you a damage boost and armor gives you a defense boost.
Giving up a Legendary slot gives you 1 A rank sig spell and 1 B rank normal spell, whereas a normal legendary item will give you two A rank effects, in addition to the other benefits of a weapon, and plus quality will give you 5% bonus MP.
The only point where it begins to become actually worth it to give up an item for a signature spell is when you get to normal old strong items (you still get less bang for your buck if you're giving up a strong+ item).
Shouldn't giving up an item give at least some sort of benefit over choosing to not do so? Because as of now, there's no reason to not just take your weapons and armor and have them just be enchanted rings or amulets that provide their spells. I think that giving up weapon/item/armor slots for items should give you more benefit than not using it, or at least give you the 5% bonus MP you'd get from using a + grade weapon.
I remember talking to weretiger about this a time ago, and here are his ideas on some other options for giving up weapons/items/armor.
weretiger5441 wrote:1.Users with magics that are physically based, these also involve some holder magics. Should these kind of magics receive a different perk since maybe the loss of a weapon would not be as great with them, or just leave them be?
Now regarding ideas for what to do for the perk.
1. in exchange for giving up on weapons entirely, the mage can gain a "Pure mage" perk similar to how slayers have the slayer perk. This perk allows the user a fourth more increase(25%) in permanent mana based on their rank, two sig spells which one can be used for both primary and secondary(Or just grant them a spell slot per rank on primary excluding H-rank), along with an additional ability regardless if its passive or an active on primary.