Purple, Blue and Masterworks Gear are not in a good state related to each other,
(if i understood correctly the blue items and the masterwork are suppose to be at the same Power and Purple should have the potential to be more powerful if u are able to overcome the curse) if you use the reroll mechanic to its full potential masterworks are always the weakest then Blue then Purple with the Purple items completely missing their fantasy.
Purple items are supposed to be a bit stronger but with a condition that you have to play around but right now about 60% of the curses make the item completely useless (or at least worse than a normal item) about 30% are okay to deal with in particular circumstances and the remaining condition are easily counterable like the unrepairable and indestructible combo, you never play around the curses like rings and unique items make you do but you always try to counter the curse with a positive effect. This leads to builds that are incredibly strong with no negative effects.
My solucion to this problem is to have the curses already connected to a specific counter for example: Drain health in combat + healing increased; Only heavy roll + Shoulder Barge has more range and deals damage; Take Damage on Focus Use + Lifeseal; lose xp when you die + indestructible; etc. and of course purple items with this change have only 4 enchantments instead of 5 because the curse now counts for 2.
The reaming 3 enhancements should have the same pull as the Blue Items with the same intensity for example stamina recovery should be to 7%-20% for both items instead of being up to 25% for Purple items, in this system the only difference between Blue and Purple items is the curses so if players are fine playing with the playstyle that the curses encourage they do that and be a little stronger as a result or they can keep it simple by using a blue item without feeling they are missing the true potential of the build.
Regarding Masterworks the first problem they have is that Some gems are really underpowered or do nothing of interest for example why should i use 1 gem slot for heaving 5% elemental damage reduction and a second gem slot to have 5% Physical damage reduction to have 5% damage reduction when an enchanted item I can reach 10% with a single enchantment also how can a player understand When is better to have 12% armor increased over 5% Physical damage reduction? In my opinion Chipped Shield emblem should give 5% damage reduction Chipped Meteorite could increase your elemental damage and elemental buildup, Chipped granite could increase your poise whale attacking if pleased on a weapon, Chipped diamond could It might self-destruct when you reach level 30 so it doesn’t take up a random slot etc. To reach the blue items power i think the when you insert the 4th gem the overall item should become stronger for example elemental build up becomes 15-20% (same max stats as blue items) instead of 4%-15%.
I want to point out that in late game at the moment there are a lot of ways to have incredibly strong builds and trivialize the game through enhancements and rings. So the numbers of the whole system should be rethought, it’s ok if the game has a couple of builds that are incredibly strong but if you can reach that level even with just a couple of good enchantments on armor and rings it’s a problem, so take the numbers I’ve shown you with a pinch of salt, they’re just for the examples.