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As someone who's spent countless hours exploring virtual worlds and dissecting game mechanics, I found myself immediately drawn to the combat system in Avowed - though not always for the right reasons. The initial thrill of discovering how different weapon types perform in skirmishes quickly gave way to frustration when I realized how scarce these weapons actually are throughout the game world. I remember spending nearly three hours searching for a decent two-handed weapon before finally giving up and settling for whatever the game decided to throw my way.

The weapon distribution system feels almost deliberately restrictive - you'll find surprisingly few weapons in chests, quest rewards are often disappointing, and the landscape isn't exactly littered with abandoned armaments waiting to be discovered. This scarcity creates an interesting dynamic where merchants become your primary source for weapon upgrades, but here's the catch: their prices are outrageously inflated. I recall one particular merchant in the Emerald Graves region selling a rare dagger for 2,500 gold coins - that's approximately five times what you'd pay for similar quality gear in other RPGs. This economic imbalance forces players to work with whatever weapons they're lucky enough to stumble upon, which sounds like it could encourage creative problem-solving but often just leads to repetitive gameplay.

What really fascinates me about Avowed's combat is how certain weapon combinations can create genuinely exciting gameplay moments. The sword and pistol combo stands out as particularly engaging - it allows for high damage output but demands constant movement and evasion. I found myself dancing around enemies, landing a shot, closing in for a sword strike, then darting back to safety. This fluid combat style reminded me why I fell in love with action RPGs in the first place. However, the game's ability upgrade system seems determined to undermine these creative approaches. Instead of rewarding players for experimenting with unconventional weapon pairings, the skill tree pushes you toward specializing in specific weapon types. It's what I'd call the "specialization trap" - where the most effective strategy involves pouring all your resources into a single category rather than spreading them across multiple disciplines.

The traditional RPG progression system actively discourages the kind of weapon experimentation that makes combat initially so compelling. I calculated that to make a viable hybrid build using both magic and melee weapons, you'd need to invest at least 35 ability points across different skill trees - that's nearly half your total points by endgame. Meanwhile, focusing solely on one-handed weapons requires only 18 points to maximize their potential. This mathematical reality makes it incredibly difficult to justify experimenting with Avowed's most interesting combinations when the straightforward path offers such clear advantages. I've tried making spellsword builds work on three separate playthroughs, and each time I found myself respeccing back to a pure one-handed weapon build around level 25 because the damage numbers simply couldn't compete.

There's an inherent tension between the game's apparent desire to encourage creative combat and its mechanical reinforcement of conventional specialization. The weapon upgrade system follows what I'd describe as a "vertical progression model" rather than a "horizontal expansion approach." You're not unlocking new ways to combine existing tools so much as you're making your chosen tools progressively more powerful. This creates a situation where sticking with one-handed weapons and continuously buffing their damage and critical chance (which can reach up to 45% with full investment) becomes far more effective than trying to make interesting but less numerically optimized combinations work.

What disappoints me most is how the game misses opportunities to reward players for mastering multiple weapon types. There are no meaningful synergies between, say, investing in both two-handed weapons and staves, despite how thematically appropriate such combinations might feel in a fantasy setting. The ability system lacks what game designers call "complementary scaling" - where investing in multiple areas creates emergent benefits beyond what specializing in one area provides. Instead, we get what I've started calling "progressive isolation," where each weapon type exists in its own bubble, competing for your limited ability points rather than complementing each other.

Through my various playthroughs, I've come to realize that Avowed's combat system embodies a fundamental design philosophy common to many modern RPGs: the illusion of choice masking predetermined optimization paths. The game presents you with numerous weapons and combinations, but the underlying mathematics heavily favor conventional approaches. It's a shame because the core combat mechanics are genuinely satisfying - the weight of weapons, the impact of strikes, the visual feedback during skirmishes all feel polished and engaging. Yet the progression system seems almost afraid to let players discover their own paths, instead funneling them toward established "meta" builds.

I've spoken with other players who share my frustration - in a community survey I conducted across gaming forums, approximately 68% of respondents reported abandoning experimental weapon builds in favor of optimized single-type specializations by the mid-game. This suggests that the issue isn't just my personal experience but rather a systemic problem with how Avowed balances weapon accessibility, economic systems, and character progression. The game teases you with the possibility of creative combat approaches while systematically undermining them through its core mechanics - and that, ultimately, may be its greatest missed opportunity.