you can’t argue that “the low RoF of means you miss a lot of damage, so missing one shot makes this not worth it” - the nature of a higher rate of fire is that you miss more shots, whereas if you miss with a lower RoF item, those fewer shots will roughly equal the damage of all the shots you would’ve missed. And if that one shot somehow equals more damage than all the shots you would have missed using that other bow, that means that bow does more damage at that range, doesn’t it? the only place dbow really doesn’t excel, is like… abyss, where you can one-shot everything with a leaf bow. The shorter range from dagger classes and the ninja means that, even with their higher speeds, mobility and +20 max health, bow classes having longer range, piercing and slow/paralyze (in the context of how status immunities have progressed) has been far superior/more survivable for a while now.
Well, aside from people seeming to a) vastly underestimate piercing, and b) not realizing that it’s more effective the more range you give a weapon, priests don’t really get fucked over for having a good ability. Like, priests gets range, piercing, and a decent damage per shot for both of those things AND for still having tomes (which can heal an entire group, armor yourself, give yourself speedy or remove status debuffs from yourself and everyone in your heal radius). I don’t think I can make a case that wands are underpowered, because both classes have solid stats/abilities to go alongside their high range, piercing, low damage wands. Daggers only have 20 more damage than wands, with no piercing and little to no range to speak of (leather classes without the speedy ninja gets). For what it’s worth, I’d have to say rogues are probably fine, because their invisibility allows them to get close to anything, and they don’t really get punished for using the UT daggers (which sacrifice a fair bit of range for a wee bit more damage), especially the stinger. While tricksters can re-direct a lot of bullets if timed correctly, you also have to get it to move the right direction without getting it to simply stop at the wrong place. Is that an incredibly useful tool? definitely. Is it something the daggers seemingly deserved to get nuked over? no.
**note: I know daggers have never been nerfed, at least to my knowledge. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure every other tiered weapon has been buffed since the beginning of the game, the sole exception being staves, which never got one because the two classes lacking in power got major buffs to make up for their deficits when compared to the wizard. Heck, even the tiered katanas got a noticeable buff before the daggers changed.