With the Sha-touched weapons, we obviously get a major primary stat boost from them with the legendary gem, but will they remain useful once weapons from Throne of Thunder are released?
I am seeing two problems with the way that the legendary quest line has happened as we move forward:
1. If our sha-touched weapons remain more powerful than the new 5.2 weapons, then the major downside is basically eliminating the usefulness of what is generally considered to be one of the most important items: the weapon. Having no incentive to look for a weapon from 5.2 because the sha-touched weapon is better would be poor design choice in my opinion.
2. If the 5.2 weapons are more powerful and generally more useful than the sha-touched weapons, it renders all of our efforts on the legendary questline useless, save of course for the simple progression of the questline to get the newest upgrade. All of the players that spent 10,000 gold on a new gem or a new socket would see their purchases become useless, which would be painful to say the least.
The only possible solution I can see which rectifies both issues is to have some weapons in 5.2 sha-touched as well, or at least accept the sha gems. That way, we could get newer, more powerful weapons, still feel like our efforts were worth it, and retain the bonuses from those gems as well.
Thoughts on this issue?