We need either a guaranteed artifact whip somewhere hard to reach, or powerful and somewhat reliably findable new type(s) for regular use. As it is, whips might as well not even exist in the game. Sure, whip of the snake/slaughter aren't completely useless but its randomness and the existence of so much better weapon options means no one ever thinks of using whips.

Better new whips would mean the chance of stumbling into a powerful weapon and starting to use it. Guaranteed artifact whip means you can have a plan of being a whip fighter from start. Random artifact whip would mean neither and wouldn't be all that much of an incentive to say I'm totally gonna play a whip dude this game.