The Anneal Blade example's design is based off the Elucidator just for anyone's information. We have seen the stats for two weapons, but that's about it.
Also it appears that SAO doesn't use dex. It uses only two stats, Strength and Agility, you get 3 stat points per level (unsure if this number changes). I do not have info about if there are weapons with an Agility requirement or not though.

I am unsure about that idea about the weapon ranks and grades. That is similar to El_Tigre's idea already, just expanded. But, there is also the chance of a super rare item that is actually really weak. And there is no guarantee there isn't any weapons like that in SAO. There are weapons like that in most games.

Well, I won't say anything about the Maginogi system. It does seem similar to the original system. And it is used similarly in a lot of other games in the first place. We were discussing whether we should actually use it really. Because it would get complex and we were afraid some RPers would shy away from it.