I ended up playing Warfarer for the last bits of Dragon's Dogma 2, using a mix of Magick Archer, Thief, and Sorcerer skills (Mainly Ricochet Hunter or Sagittate Avalanche, Skull Splitter, and Augural Flare), and while I did enjoy it and think there's potential for interesting and effective setups, it does still feel like it gave up way too much for what it gets in return.
I think there's two ways I'd like to see the class get fixed:
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Make it so that pressing the button for a skill instantly pulls out the weapon and does that skill, so you can have all four skill slots instead of three plus Rearmament. Rearmament would still be useful to switch to weapons you're not using the skills for or between weapons of the same type, but you'd have more versatility overall. In addition, give it some stat buffs based on the weapon in hand so it doesn't feel quite so weak.
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Let it take one or two skills per weapon type instead of three skills overall. This way, you'd make up for the significantly lower stats and lack of maister skills with actual versatility. Maybe cap the total number of skills at 6.