new items are counter productive?

[Buuul]

EDIT: Agreed, according to how it's worded out in the patch notes, the new equips appear to be class specific, but I am still guessing (hoping?) that we are misinterpreting that.

I highly doubt the weapons are "class-only". You are misinterpreting that. Here is the quote:
"New weapon recipes planned for patch 1.22 are for gladiator, pugilist, marauder, and lancer classes only."

I think what they are saying is that the mage weapons and bow are not yet available. The word "class" was just used as a catch-all, instead of naming all of the corresponding jobs.

But hey, I could be wrong.