Pure Melee PvM Weapon Selection

[Elizabeth Gold]

@Projectstfu Thanks a lot for the info, it is awesome! It also matches up really close to what I was seeing. Double Axe + LJ should do slightly more damage but you lose the utility of a one hander and/or the ability to poison which puts Katana way over the top for PvM.

I find it really interesting that the top 4 weapons are one-handers. Concussion blow and Crushing blow didn't really do very much in my experience vs. mobs making them rather useless in PvM. Landing a special hit in PvP is probably very useful although I've died more to purple potion spam than anything else so far but I see where this could be for balancing. I'm still surprised that there is an almost 40% damage difference between the Katana and the *best two hander.

*Not taking Crushing blow into account though the nearest weapon according to your info is already -13 damage from a katana and I couldn't find any information on the Crushing Blow damage. The only other thing I could think of for balancing this way (outside of PvP) would be if the magical attributes are calculated differently then just straight across the board. Are they per hit static damage modifiers as I assume because that would cause faster weapons to skyrocket even higher above slow weapons.

Edit: I also realize that part of the balancing on UOF for PvM is the Talismans although that would seem to still make the Katana unbeatable.

You are right, I'm considering to drop LJ skill and switch to katana's now. It's probably less frustration too when you are missing a few swings in a row due to the speed.

 

[Projectstfu]

You are right, I'm considering to drop LJ skill and switch to katana's now. It's probably less frustration too when you are missing a few swings in a row due to the speed.

Other than style over substance, there is really no reason anyone should use any weapon other than Katana or Bows (Bow beats Katana only if you cannot stay in range of the target consistently).

Even with the crushing blow damage the War Hammer damage numeric only comes out to 24.586875 (24.6).

The only weapon in the game that beats Katana is the Double Axe with Lumberjacking bonus which sits at 36.519. That requires you to sacrifice 100 skill points into Lumberjacking, has to be unequipped to use potions which is lower your damage and you cannot use a shield with it when you need extra defense, nor can it be poisoned in case a PK shows up to spoil your PvM adventure.

Katana is the pinnacle PvM weapon. There are less than a handful of weapons that are somewhat close, but the vast majority of weapons are so far behind that you are severely gimping yourself to even equip them.

 

[parsnip]

You are right, I'm considering to drop LJ skill and switch to katana's now. It's probably less frustration too when you are missing a few swings in a row due to the speed.

If you have a meta dexxer, try adding Arms Lore. It definitely helps with the misses on tougher monsters. Arms lore has to be 100 to get the effect though.

On the subject of other weapon damages, according to Lord @eppy on IRC:

<@eppy_work> katana and kryss are identical
<@eppy_work> people only see that the katana is more reliable damage
<@eppy_work> but after 10,000 swings the average damage will be the same
<@eppy_work> think of it this way
<@eppy_work> a katana damage curve is a bell
<@eppy_work> so you are very heavily weighted to something like 15 damage
<@eppy_work> you will basically never get the max or the min
<@eppy_work> a kryss is the same min and max
<@eppy_work> but with an even distribution
<@eppy_work> so naturally the averages must be the same
​

 

[Elizabeth Gold]

If you have a meta dexxer, try adding Arms Lore. It definitely helps with the misses on tougher monsters. Arms lore has to be 100 to get the effect though.

But the arms lore only works in PVM and while having a talisman, correct?
So armslore is now favored over lumberjacking if considering you only have room for one?

 

[parsnip]

But the arms lore only works in PVM and while having a talisman, correct?
So armslore is now favored over lumberjacking if considering you only have room for one?

Indeed it only works with talisman. Even if you have no interest in levelling the talisman, you might as well get one and enjoy the arms lore bonus. Given the slowness and frustrating missing with axes and LJ, I'd definitely opt for arms lore at the moment.