Avowed's huge 66GB update includes major improvements for the game's whole progression system, along with key bug fixes and buffs for companions

pcgamer.com:

As I was playing through Avowed ahead of release, probably my least favourite element in an otherwise very charming RPG was the tier system. Basically every weapon or piece of armour has a tier, and so do enemies—and this is what determines relative power, rather than levels, almost like a simplified form of Destiny's gear score.

As it was, using a piece of equipment lower tier than a foe meant that blows practically bounced off them, even if you'd already given it several upgrades. The result was an annoyingly stop-start progression, where you'd suddenly hit a wall of feeling completely powerless (often after moving into a new area) and either have to swap your gear around with whatever random higher tier equipment you'd found, or scrabble around for rare upgrade materials to get yourself back in business. In an otherwise smooth and accessible action-RPG, it was an unwelcome wrinkle.

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The good news? They've already fixed it, or at least made serious improvements. The newly released patch, 1.2.2, softens the whole system, making the jump from one tier to another much less severe and better accounting for how close your weapon is to the next tier. Where before enemies at a higher tier would receive a huge defence bonus against you and have no reaction at all to your attacks, now those bonuses only kick in if there's a major gulf in upgrades between you, and enemies at least flinch when hit with a lower tier weapon instead of ignoring it altogether.

I've not been able to test the changes exhaustively myself yet, but I had a go at exploring Shatterscarp with lower tier weapons, and it did feel much better. My «Fine» pistol still does noticeably lower damage to «Exceptional» enemies, but it doesn't feel completely useless anymore, and I can win fights with it just with