Slayerj
Posts: 121 Joined: 03-22-17
Last post: 1312 days
Last view: 297 days
I'm going to spend most of this post throwing calculations at you all. So, yeah. Just getting that out of the way. By the end, you'll understand where I am coming from.
First, how does Dual work currently? For normal attack, it's simple.
Swing of weapon 1 = Weapon 1 dmg + Skills bonus (CM and SM) + Str dmg = Weapon 1 dmg. Same for weapon 2. So if you're using two weapons that are exactly the same, like for this example, and base Gladius, you get 15-32. To cut out some calc, we'll be focusing on the max.
32 + 18(CM) + 20(SM) and let's use 50str, so 20str max = 90max. Now, a gladius hits 4 times. So, 90x4 = 360. For sake of simplicity, we'll NOT factor in crit dmg and chance of crit. (Just know, that obviously, because you hit 4 times, you have more chances to crit in a normal attack around.)
But what about skills? Skills are calculated as Str Dmg + Weapon 1 + Weapon 2 = dmg x skill multiplier.
So for this, 20 + (32+18+20) + (32+18+20) = 160dmg. This would result in 800 for smash and 400 for wm.
So, let's get down to the meat of things, shall we? Let's discuss why Dual is far too powerful. How it is the original power creep that no one really questioned and everyone loves. (I'm sure many of you have already turned away, but for those of you who didn't, bravo.)
For this first example. Let us compare two easy to get weapons. Let's stick with the Gladius from before, and now compare it to a 2h weapon, a claymore. This time, we'll max them out with upgrades.
Max Glad is 67dmg. Max Claymore is 93. We'll still use base 50str.
Dual Glad Normal attack around = 67+18+20+20 = 125x4 = 500max dmg potential (and room for more crits)
-------------------------------------------------
Claymore normal attack around = 93+18+20+20 = 151x2 = 302max dmg potential.
Claymore smash = 151x6 = 906max smash potential
Claymore wm = 151x2.5 = 377max wm potential
Let's compare.
Dual beats 2h in normal attack by 198dmg.
Dual beats 2h smash by 244dmg.
Dual beast 2h wm by 423dmg.
I will say in advance, that these calcs are for HUMAN. Giant Smash is higher and does beat dual faster. Smash with a 2h DOES beat dual in the end, after it reaches a high enough amount of str dmg. It also beats it by a wide margin by the end. Is that worth the payout of lacking a great deal of dmg in both normal attacks and everyone's bread and butter, WM? Not to mention assault slash? No, not really, unless you're a giant and can pump out smashes faster and for even more dmg.
But I hear you, I'm comparing a basic ass claymore. Well okay, let's go with the highest max damage 2h in the game. The Dragon Fang. HOWEVER it MUST gain a max str roll and has NO OTHER OPTION. It's max is 120 with a max artisan of +70str A highlander claymore (non artisan) is 104, and 108 WITH max artisan. So this is a difference of 16max dmg.
Max Dragon fang is 120dmg (that's with the +28max dmg from it's 70str) So let's throw it in.
120+18+20+20 = 178. That is 1068smash dmg and 445wm damage. Would you look at that, Dual still wins by nearly 2x on the wm, and 82dmg for smash. Wow, the BEST 2h still falls short massively to a standard store bought gladius pair. I didn't even have bring in the unholy hell that is the BEST 1h weapon with it's max roll.
"But enchants! 2h have high max dmg enchants, you're not doing this fair, you're favoring the dual for the sake of your argument." First, if I was doing that I'd be using Max artisan Battle swords to COMPLETELY stomp 2h into the ground. Second, I'm getting there, hold on.
Let's talk enchants. For 1h and 2h, they're simple. For dual? They're a little tricky. They work drastically different. For starters, Max dmg from gear OTHER than the weapon, for the sake of skills, applies it to the STRBASE dmg. If the enchant is on a weapon, it ONLY applies to that weapon. As for with Strength increasing enchants, it effects both.
Now, let's get into the meat and potatoes of this. The BEST max dmg enchants for each weapon type.
1h holds Wyllow and Spike (If we have horn, then it's even better because Horn is just a better Spike)
Wyllow is a rank 6 prefix that gives a max roll of +12max. It personalizes the item and causes -70sp and +100% repair cost.
Spike is a rank 5 (Same as horn) Suffix that gives +10max and +10str with +10% repair cost.
2h holds Demi Lich and Alligator.
Demi LIch is rank 8, +20max dmg Prefix that also takes -100hp.
Alligator is a +29 max suffix, rank 7, that takes -5def, -40hp, and adds 50% repair cost.
The combined effects are +22max, -70sp, +10str for 1h.
The combined effects are +49max, -140hp, -5def for 2h.
So, let's throw these things down. Because we already know that the normal attack will blow everything out of the water, let's not waste time calculating that.
Because the base str is 50 and is now changed to +20, we have 70str = 28base max dmg.
67+18+20+22 = 28 + 127 + 127 = 282. That's 1410smash and 705wm with maxed glad dual.
120+18+20+49+20=227. That's 1362smash and 567wm with maxed dragon fang enchanted.
Even with all the help, smash still needs that extra STR dmg to pull through. If we increased things to 100base str, we'd see that 2h smash pulls ahead much better.
But boy oh boy. Let me slap this even harder. Introducing, one of the most broken weapons in all of current times. The Battle sward!
See, the battle sword is easy as piss to obtain, and can even be smithed for slightly more damage.
The maxed Battle sword has the following stats.
36-54dmg, +70str +75luck +5hp +5sp -40dex (because let's max everything) TWO of these alone is +30% crit rate. BUT, let's ignore EVERYTHING but the str.
Fun fact before we continue. This is the ONLY 1h sword to beat 35str in it's artisan. It is also one of TWO swords to reach +70str. The other being the dragon fang.
Let's throw this baby into the formula and watch the damage SKYROCKET. Remember, our base is 50, but now we have +140 and another +20 from the enchants. = 210str = 84base max dmg.
54 + 18 + 20 +22 =114. 84 + 144 + 144 = 312. That's 1560smash dmg and 780wm dmg. Jesus, fucking, Christ.
Fun fact, the War Sword can be store bought in many locations, and at it's max, beats a Falcata by 10max dmg. At it's NOT max, loses by only 12 dmg. Lovely how a peaca int sword doesn't even win against it and when it does, by very little.
Now, are these all using MAX settings? Yes. They are a possibility, therefore they are used. They are used in FAVOR OF BOTH, Dual and 2h. Why did I compare dual and 2h? Before dual came out, 2h was the heavy hitting choice that had the downside of lacking in defense. Now dual does that too, but better. Loads better. "But special upgrades!" Listen here, I'm not going to calc that just to show you it STILL beats it, if not HELPS it beat it harder. BOTH R and S ultimately favor dual over 2h, despite trying to give 2h better upgrades. Now can it.
Why am I bringing this up? Because someone has to. Content after dual came out heavily favored speedy gameplay and finishing content asap for max rewards. Shadow missions favor killing AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Everything does really, but more so missions as they are rock solid grounded in location. Even the more open Tail missions are more grounded in structure than a dungeon.
Why point this out? This is the reason we didn't care about this overly powerful crap being shoved at us in the past. We only cared about power creep of new skill sets when they were built to help clear things asap flat out. We already had our fast way to clear stuff, anything more that could overshadow it? Fuck that, this game doesn't need that. That's dumb.
Why is THIS okay? Why do people DEFEND this? Because they spend time on it like everyone else and don't want what they've done to be overshadowed by something else or taken away from them. Honestly, aside from the battle swords COMPLETELY breaking this, dual is fine. It just needs some changes to make it less insanely powerful.
How do we fix this? Can this even be fixed? Even if you cap both weapons by 50% of THEIR dmg (not str dmg), by 100str, they jump ahead +150-400dmg, depending on the skill used, while just at 50 they were all in the same ballpark.
Can we somehow fix this in a way that doesn't result in dual being overshadowed instead?i'm up to hear what EVERYONE has to say on how to fix this.
Jinforrver
Posts: 14 Joined: 01-11-18
Last post: 2042 days
Last view: 111 days
So i'll start by saying I don't think there is a problem with dual-wielding.
I also spent my time playing live, g2-g15, pretty strictly using a bow/warhammer-sheild. So im not defending it because im worried something im using will get nerfed.
Dual-wield is better at windmill
Two-handed is better at smash
Good this is perfectly fine.
50 str? You based all of your math on 50 str, the difference for smash numbers would be massive between 2h and dw with higher str. 300 would have been a better base to work with.
You gloss over the efficiency of the enchants pretty quickly.
For 2h I need to get a weapon with a r8 and r7 enchant and a max strength artisan roll
For dw I need to get a weapon with r6 and r5 enchant plus max strength roll, twice. And, even then its -140sp THATS NUTS.
However there is a probelm I will agree with here. Battleswords are way to powerful but not solely because they are just better than most weapons but because artisan rolls were never meant to be such a small cost to roll.
They should be far more thought behind if the potenial benifit fits the cost to them.
I don't think theres any problem with dual-wielding. Dual-wielding is better at something than two handers and thats ok.
The fact that windmill is meta is what is making it seem like a larger issue than it really is.
Artisan rolls cost needs to be reevaluated or potentially their effectiveness.
I know I used 50str for all the calcs. I also know that I said that with higher str, 2h smash wins over dual. (However, rereading it, I didn't put it in as many times as I did on the prior type up I did. I apologize for not stating it more times and will fix that, thank you.) I mainly used 50str to show that even at low str, dual is a heavy force.
2h weapons were what I compared to because prior they were the heavy hitter. But this also hurts 1h and shield too. I didn't bother stating that because no one really cares about defense. It's a great skill and it does work, but it's awful for later things and multi agro and is much less desirable compared to just killing things quickly instead.
2h weapons offered high dmg, splash range and dmg, and a smash bonus, while removing your ability to use a shield for extra def. This results in higher skill dmg for everything as well.
Dual offers MUCH higher dmg, higher smash dmg (until you gain higher str for 2h OR are giant), and other skill dmg than 2h weapons as well as much better normal attack dmg and more crit chances when done.
I'm completely fine with dual being the better choice for normal attack. It's the main thing about it if you ask me. The insanely high skill dmg is an after effect that was only amplified farther by stronger 1h weapons and one with an amazingly broken artisan that rivals, and completely crushes, a 2hs.
Also, you are right. the WM meta makes it even more noticeable, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists even without wm.
-test- okay, It seems I cannot edit the original post. I do not know why, it just will not complete. It always fails and loads a white blank page. *shrug*
jumpshotarch
Posts: 14 Joined: 02-16-18
Last post: 1576 days
Last view: 1529 days
(My bias is sword&board. Tanking isn't in the cards for this game, so I dual wield)
I've always thought something similar. When I open a weapon shop, there aren't many choices in weapon shops when it comes to 2h swords, and the damage ranges on a pair of 1h swords usually ends up higher. 2h weapons should be absolutely devastating to be hit by. Actually, most people would be doing n+1 when normal attacking. In your first comparison of max damage normal attacks, 125x6 =750, and 151x3=453. The difference grows from about 200 dmg to about 300 dmg when you n+1. I just don't think that makes sense.
Maybe what Nickel said was right, simply cap off the balance when dual wielding. You wouldn't really have as much control swinging two weapons around as you would with two hands on a single handle. The trade off for dual wielding would be higher highs, and lower lows if you cap the balance.
Another idea is to tweak WM, since it is the meta and makes DWing the obvious choice. I always thought WM was something to shake an opponent's footing or put some distance between you two. I'd suggest giving 2h weapons a larger radius, but the R1 radius is already pretty large for 1h swords. Maybe nerf the skill damage a bit on WM (I can already hear cries of indignation if that actually happened).
Or maybe do nothing. Like how bows are the elf go-to, 1h swords are the human go-to and 2h swords are the giant go-to.