Your arguments are valid Stabbey,
As I stated dos 2 is an excellent game and in my opinion not too balanced. I also, of course believe in some balancing (strawman argument?) even though a game like Arcanum is still one of my personal favourites. Bugs or obvious mistakes can be balanced in my subjective opinion as well as some additional adjustments, however not frequently and not arbitrarily.
The "all skills should be roughly the same" is taken from people in this very forum and not something I just threw out. User CatR among others (i will not provide further quotes search the forum):
"Because when all abilities are roughly around the same power level every ability is satisfying, rather than just a handful abilities or tactics which are disproportionally powerful."
I don't know exactly what you are getting at with assassinate.. I am not updated on all patch notes.. I understand how balancing works. I assume assassinate has been tweaked? I'm sure the balancing was executed correctly but as I have been trying to state.. My opinion is that the game should not be more balanced. Larian changing assassinate makes for another skill that is more tinted towards the normal strength level of the average skill. Which in extension will make all skills viable and if all skills are viable they are most likely similar, or in the least it won’t matter much which skills you use.
If you extrapolate it, it means that the difference one skill from another is its name.
Yes but the Issue is... that the sword is too balanced! The sword was probably too strong in alpha and they chose to play it safe and nerf it. I can be pro making after release changes to lessen the balance sure. As long as they are done responsibly with such a great game as this.