Hi folks, I decided to write up this short post in order to help a lot of you guys out there understand what type of weapon you want, and how to compare one
weapon to another and come out with the best one. About half of this guide is useful only for Melee weapons, the other half is useful for both Melee and
Ranged.
First of all, I'm going to list the various Melee weapons that a Weaponsmith can make, followed by the level of skill a Brawler requires to wield it
properly, and the level of skill that a Weaponsmith needs to make it. I will be using the numbers 0-5, 0 meaning Novice, 1-4 being Intermediate through
Specialist level, and 5 being Master.
Unarmed Weapons (yes, it's an oxymoron)
Vibro Knucklers, (No Cert required), Weaponsmith 2
One-Handed Weapons
Survival Knife, (No Cert required), Artisan 0
Dagger, Brawler 0, Artisan 3
Sword, Brawler 1, Weaponsmith 0
Gaderiffi Baton, Brawler 1, Weaponsmith 1
Curved Sword, Brawler 1, Weaponsmith 2
Vibroblade, Brawler 2, Weaponsmith 3
Ryyk Blade, Brawler 3, Weaponsmith 3
Stun Baton, Fencer 0, Weaponsmith 4
Two-Handed Weapons
Heavy Axe, (No Cert Required), Artisan 4
Two-Handed Axe, Brawler 1, Weaponsmith 1
Two-Handed Cleaver, Brawler 2, Weaponsmith 4
Vibro Axe, Brawler 3, Weaponsmith 4
Two-Handed Curved Sword, Brawler 4, Weaponsmith 3
Power Hammer, Swordsman 0, Weaponsmith 5
Polearm Weapons
Wood Staff, (No Cert Required), Artisan 1
Reinforced Combat Staff, Brawler 1, Artisan 3
Lance, Brawler 2, Weaponsmith 1
Long Vibro Axe, Brawler 3, Weaponsmith 5
Vibro Lance, Pikeman 0, Weaponsmith 4
As you may have noticed, there are quite a few weapons which the Brawlers can use very early that the Weaponsmith cannot make until very late. The most significant discrepancy falls along the Polearm line of weapons, where a Weaponsmith can make nothing better than a Lance for a Brawler until they hit
Master Weaponsmith.
Also, this list of weapons really means nothing. Although I listed the weapons in the order which the Brawler receives the Certs for them, there's no guarantee that a weapon requiring a higher level skill is actually better than the one before it.
Choose your Weapon... (or what you tell a guy prior to shooting him in the back)
The first thing to realize when choosing a weapon is that all the numbers in a weapon's stat block mean absolutely nothing in and of themselves. Those numbers are all relative. A weapon which reads 20-50 damage is not going to do 20-50 damage, but it will do more damage than a weapon which reads 10-30 damage.
The only use for these numbers is to compare weapons to each other, and to pick which one is right for your playing style! (More on playing style later)
The characteristic that just about everyone looks at is Damage. Let's face it, you want your weapon to deal the most amount of damage possible in the shortest amount of time. However, how can you tell which weapon is the biggest damage dealer? Is it better to have higher Min damage, or higher Max damage? What about speed? I'm about to answer all of these questions.
A) Min Damage - A weapon's minimum damage.
B) Max Damage - A weapon's maximum damage.
C) Attack Speed - The time it takes to swing a weapon.
This can also be thought of as the attack DELAY for a weapon. A lower Attack Speed results in a FASTER weapon. A high Attack Speed is a SLOWER weapon. This
is very confusing to a lot of people, and it is important to grasp this concept before continuing further.
Now, these 3 numbers mean absolutely NOTHING by themselves. Comparing two Weapons according to Min Damage is useless if you aren't taking into account
Max damage or Attack Speed. The same goes for trying to compare weapons based on Min-Max damage and leaving out Speed. A weapon which does 20-200 damage at 6.0 speed is worse than a weapon dealing 20-100 damage at 3.0 speed, even though it's not evident at first glance. In order to accurately compare two weapons, you need to figure out each weapon's DPS, or Damage Per Second. This is the rate at which a weapon deals damage...obviously, a higher DPS means a weapon is dealing more damage, quicker.
To calculate a weapon's DPS, first find the average damage. You do this by adding a weapon's Min damage, and its Max damage, then dividing by 2.
Average Damage = (Min + Max) / 2
Next, divide the Average Damage by the Attack Speed of the weapon, and you get DPS.
DPS = Average Damage / Attack Speed
Once you have this number, you can use it to compare two weapons. In fact, let's go ahead and try this out on the two weapons I used as an example earlier.
Weapon 1 - 20-200 damage, 6.0 Attack speed
Average Damage = (20+200) /2 = 110
DPS = 110/6.0 = 18.33
Weapon 2 - 20-100 damage, 3.0 Attack speed
Average Damage = (20+100) /2 = 60
DPS = 60/3 = 20
As you can see, Weapon 2 has a higher DPS than Weapon 1, which means Weapon 2 will deal more damage, faster than Weapon 1.
The next thing to know when comparing weapons is "How much better is one weapon over another?" To understand this, you first need the DPS from both
weapons, then you figure out the percent difference between the two weapons. You do this by:
Subtract the DPS of Weapon 2 from Weapon 1, that's the raw difference.
Difference = DPS2 - DPS1
Next, take the difference, divide by Weapon 1's DPS, then multiply it by 100. That will give you the difference as a Percent, which is a better way of comparing weapons than simple raw difference. A negative percentage means Weapon 1 is better than Weapon 2, while a positive percentage means Weapon 2 is better than Weapon 1.
Percent Difference = (Difference / DPS1) * 100
Let's go ahead and apply this to our previous example.
Weapon 1 DPS = 18.33
Weapon 2 DPS = 20
Difference = 20-18.33 = 1.67
Percent Difference = (1.67/18.33) * 100 = 9.11%
So, when comparing these two weapons, we can tell that Weapon 2 is roughly 10% better than Weapon 1.
So now that we have the ability to get DPS, and can calculate the percent difference between 2 weapons, we can focus on individual playing style, which is funny because there is no guide that I can write that can detail everything about all playing styles. What this guide provides is a method of comparing the damage between 2 weapons, so that you can choose the best damaging weapon that fits your playing style.
For example, if you are looking to spam Special Moves like crazy, you want to go for a weapon with low HAM costs, while still maintaining a high level of DPS. Hence, you could find 3 or 4 weapons with HAM costs you find adequate, then compare their DPSes, and pick the best one.
If you are in a group, and you need to deal as much damage as possible in 1 hit, then you can go with a "Charger's" weapon, and find a weapon with the highest possible damage, and disregard the Speed.
If you are soloing, and need to take a large group of mobs, then you need to find the fastest weapon possible with the highest DPS.
There are many, many, many more styles of playing out there, and since I can't declare myself an expert on them, this about the extent of my applicable advice. Hope this all helps you guys choose the absolute best weapons possible for you!
Regards,
D'Tox |
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