Skull splitter and A thousand cuts are both talents that shoehorns the player into specific weapon loadouts, on a class that is all about weapon diversity. Slayer wields two melee weapons, and I think diversity in what you want to bring should be encouraged as it is a core concept of this career.
I suggest that both talents should be able to work regardless of loadout, but should only apply when a two handed or one handed weapon respectively is currently in use.
So if I use Skull splitter and bring the two handed hammer and the dual hammers I would get the bonus power while swinging the two handed hammer, but not while using the dual ones.
While this could be interpreted as a buff, it is also true that we are willingly bringing a weapon that gains no advantages from the chosen talent. I see this as a way to increase diversity in weapon loadouts and builds without making Slayer too powerfull.
As a +900 bardin i actually love this idea, it draws from the core of what makes the slayer class stand out and makes a talent row that is currently working against the defining characteristics of the class a lot more streamlined and aligned with the career as a whole.
Agree there is no incentive to use those talents when your stuck using weapons you don’t want too… the buffs even seem backwards for 2h’s I could play much better with attack speed and 1hs going as fast as you want +ability speed would rather have damage. Regardless crit is the only talent that lets you play how you want, unless you were already going for sed weapon combos.
IF you have 2handers that are about as fast as 1handers and 1handers that are about as strong as 2handers, then where is the diversity? I prefer the way the buffs are distributed now but also agree with OP that we need more freedom in weapon selection. I would go a step further and put skull-splitter and thousand cuts on the same talent without the homogeneous loadout requirement and then make new talents to replace the other two spots.
Agree with the post. I don’t think anyone likes that row as it is.
I’d just add change the 5% crit chance to every 5th hit is a crit (letting you spec more defensive with your properties if you want and still reaching an effective 20% crit chance) and combined with your suggestion now we have a row where every option is competitive.