Weapon Stats

[Mirrian]

Kind of a newbish question here. When looking for a good weapon, other than stat bonuses and processes, what is the stat to look for, is it just the number that shows the weapons effrectivness, which I assume is based purely on the damage vs delay of it, or is there more to it than that. I was looking at 2 2h swords today and the damage and delay were identical yet one had a larger number than the other and I cant figure out why. Is there any difference between hammers and swords?

[Karlen]

<span class="postbody">>>>I was looking at 2 2h swords today and the damage and delay were identical yet one had a larger number than the other<<<One possible difference is the variance between the maximum and minimum hit numbers.   For example, a sword that does 20-60 has a 1:3 ratio between lowest and highest, while a sword that does 10-70 would have a 1:7 ratio.   Assuming the same delay, the first one would show a higher damage rating.A high variance means that some hits will be very low while some will be very high, while a low variance means more consistency in the hits.   It becomes very important to consider if you have a good chance to land critical hits -- when you land a critical hit, 30% is added to what you roll and then if the result is less than the maximum of the weapon, the hit is increased to max damage +1 (the increase to max +1 does NOT happen for spell crits).   This means that, for high crit percentages, a large variance weapon can do much better damage than a weapon with a similar damage rating, but lower variance. >>> Is there any difference between hammers and swords?<<<Hammers do crush damage and use your crushing skill, swords do slash damage and use slashing skill.   While Paladins have both skills, not all classes do.   I don't actually know if there is a practical difference between crush damage and slash damage on mobs.</span>

[Wildorf]

<p>There is an awful lot of science behind it all, in my opinion the simplest answer for 'what makes the best 2hander' would be this. Get the slowest (delay) weapon you can that has the highest maximum damage rating (often large variance).</p><p>My reasoning: </p><p>1. With a slow weapon you will still proc the same number of times in a minute as you would a fast weapon so no change there.</p><p>2. Assuming the same percentage of critical hits, the weapon with a higher maximum value will crit for substantially more each time and more than make up for the low normal hits.</p><p>And the main reason:</p><p>3. If your sword only swings once every 6 seconds you have 6 seconds to cast ca's and spells before you need to pause to let your next swing come in. With a fast weapon many spells you cast will be interupting your swings and lowering your overall autoattack damage output.</p><p>Wildorf</p>

[Arkinon]

When I solo i ALWAYS use a mid to high delay weapon 2hd. 3 to 4.5 delay so I have enough time to cast in between. at 66 im still using The one that comes off the the first boss in Acad. that Ginormous club thing. I generally go for weapons with high str and stam to help increase DPS. Im also speced for crit in the stam line and haste in the str line. I also have a claymore i just got that im trying out. Lower max damage with a 3.0 delay. 

[Rast]

<p>the damage rating is</p><p>(Min damage + max damage) / delay</p><p>Thus a 100-574 weapon with a 6 delay is statistically the same as a 84-253 weapon with a 3 second delay. (both would be DR 112.3 weapons btw)</p><p>As paladins, we can get some a pretty good melee crit (24ish %) with AAs (STA line).  </p><p>Where the real difference comes is when you are hasted.  While you can get the same 'theoritical' damage out of them, the lower speed one will begin to feel 'crunched' when you are casting CAs and you can lose more damage due to delaying out your auto attack, you suffere less from that with a large delay weapon.</p><p>My advice is find a long delay weapon with the highest variance (the first one above is a 5.74 variance, the second is a 3.01 variance which is a normal standard) you can find.  To be honest, the chances of you finding much variety in the lower levels is actually pretty slim, unfortunately.</p>