What follows are a series of ideas regarding abilities, that would replace the basic Weapon Specialization abilities and work best with the removal of the "Basic Weapons Training". They way they're set up follows the idea that Mercenaries are not just the Master of a single weapon, but work at and train with a variety of them.
Instead of just one "Weapon Specialized" ability, I'd suggest working it so three Tier 1 Weapons, two Tier 2 Weapons, and only one Tier 3 Weapon.
Weapons
Tier 1
Chained Expertise
Requirements: 50 Chained
Bonuses: A small boost to Chained (+25), as well as a 1% skill gain increase. The user has a slightly better chance to ignore enemy blocks or parries.
Hafted Expertise
Requirements: 50 Hafted
Bonuses: A small boost to Hafted (+25), as well as a 1% skill gain increase. The user also has a slightly better chance to damage enemies when they block.
Polearms Expertise
Requirements: 50 Polearms
Bonuses: A small boost to Polearms (+25), as well as a 1% skill gain increase. The user also has a slight chance on a regular attack to inflict the "Pressed" condition on their opponent due to the length of the weapon.
Sword Expertise
Requirements: 50 Swords
Bonuses: A small boost to Swords (+25), as well as a 1% skill gain increase. The user also has a slight chance to reduce the amount of energy used on an attack or parry by 1 due to their ease of use.
Tier 2
Chained Specialization
Requirements: 200 Chained, Expertise
Bonuses: A reasonable bonus to Chained (+50), as well as a passive 10% bonus to accuracy and the chance of increased minimum/maximum damage.
Hafted Specialization
Requirements: 200 Hafted, Expertise
Bonuses: A reasonable bonus to Hafted (+50), as well as a passive 10% bonus to accuracy and the chance of increased minimum/maximum damage.
Polearms Specialization
Requirements: 200 Polearms, Expertise
Bonuses: A reasonable bonus to Polearms (+50), as well as a passive 10% bonus to accuracy and the chance of increased minimum/maximum damage.
Swords Specialization
Requirements: 200 Swords, Expertise
Bonuses: A reasonable bonus to Swords (+50), as well as a passive 10% bonus to accuracy and the chance of increased minimum/maximum damage.
Tier 3
Chained Mastery
Requirements: 500 Chained, Specialization
Bonuses: A good bonus to Chained (+100), as well as an increased chance to land additional hits. There is a further, small chance, to land one more additional hit than normal if nothing is used in the off-hand. You're also much more likely to ignore an enemies parry or block, and even if you fail to chances are they'll be slightly injured at least.
Hafted Mastery
Requirements: 500 Hafted, Specialization
Bonuses: A good bonus to Hafted (+100), as well as an increased chance to land additional hits. There is a further, small chance, to land one more additional hit than normal if nothing is used in the off-hand. You've a great chance of hurting an enemy through their block.
Polearms Mastery
Requirements: 500 Polearms, Specialization
Bonuses: A good bonus to Polearms (+100), as well as an increased chance to land additional hits. There is a further, small chance, to land one more additional hit than normal if nothing is used in the off-hand. Very few enemies will ever get a convenient moment to escape with almost every strike pressing an opponent.
Swords Mastery
Requirements: 500 Swords, Specialization
Bonuses: A good bonus to Swords (+100), as well as an increased chance to land additional hits. There is a further, small chance, to land one more additional hit than normal if nothing is used in the off-hand. Most strikes and parries don't drain energy as much.
Weapon Abilities
Sunder
Requirements: Hafted Expertise or Chained Expertise
Using the weight of your weapon, you attempt to at best smash your opponents shield to pieces. Success could mean destroying it completely, knocking it from their hands, or just injuring them through it. If you're wielding the weapon in two hands, you've a better chance.
Impale
Requirements: Polearm Expertise
You try to impale your enemy on your weapon. The attack suffers reduced armor reduction due to the focus on one point of impact and causing superb damage if the hit was strong enough to impale them as you rip your weapon back out.
Crushing Time
Requirements: Hafted Expertise
The huge blows from Hafted weapons can easily unbalance enemies. This attack, as long as it is not dodged, has a good chance of knocking an enemy down.
Entangle
Requirements: Chained Expertise, Disarm
Why try the finesse of knocking someone's weapon from their hands when your own weapon can do most of your work for you. This passive ability gives the user a chance to disarm their enemy whenever they wrap around a parry.
Weaponmaster
Requirements: Mastery in one weapon, Specialization in another.
Some are skilled with weapons, others become the weapon. Having trained and worked with many different weapons, the user is capable of picking up nearly anything and attacking with blinding speed. A chance of reduction in attack speed.
Haft Hands
Requirements: Hafted Specialization
You've spent so much time with awkward weapons in your hands, you can't tell the difference between them and a sword. This increases the balance of some one-handed hafted weapons.
Lunge
Requirements: Sword Expertise
The point beats the edge. Thrusting forward suddenly, your attack is much harder to defend against and has a good chance of piercing armor.
Note: This probably is all rather unbalanced, and likely needs work there. Even if that all gets scrapped/ignored though, I think the concept of specialization tiers with abilities that are specific to the different weapons might deserve a ponder at least? It would certainly make mercenaries more interesting.
