"PLAYER CRAFTED WEAPONS
Before we integrate the above concepts into an optimal set of equipment for the most common situations, we will consider the option of high level player-crafted weapons. Choosing player crafted weapons instead of rare drop or quest weapons affects our stats and therefore affects the best choice for the rest of our gear. Based on my arguments presented in the Technical Guide to Weapons, I will consider 2H weapons for the following analysis, although I suspect the conclusions will also apply for 1H weapons. Around level 45 a quest weapon for most players provides a very good weapon. In the case of 2H hammers, that quest weapon is the Hammer of Black Ice (15.0 dps, 100% qual, +4 hammer, +6 str, +15 hits, 88 DD proc). The two "best" rare drop 2H hammers known in the game are the Great Ice Breaker (drops from the Wretch of Winter, 16.2 dps, 93% qual, +6 hammer, +6 str, 6% cold resist, procs damage shield), and the Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner (drops from the Darkness Falls Prince, +10 str, +9 qui, +3 hammer, +3 parry, procs +56 dex/qui buff). The two best player crafted 2H hammers are the arcanium great hammer (16.2 dps, level 50) and the arcanium great spiked hammer (16.5 dps, level 51). How do these five 2H hammers stack up?
Since I only own the Black Ice hammer, Mugin and Gunnarr generously provided the other four weapons to test (thanks guys!). The arcanium weapons tested were both 97% quality. I tested all five weapons in a very rigorous way. First, to allow the rare drop weapons' stat bonuses to have their full effect, I was careful to leave my str enhancement from items at +65 (10 str below the cap) and my hammer skill enhancement well below the cap. Second, I compared the weapons two at a time on monsters of not only the same type and same, but actually on the SAME MONSTER. I picked a blue con monster, took its health down to 50% with weapon A, then switched to weapon B and finished it off. I recorded the damage of every swing for a very large sample size (typically at least 60 hits for each weapon) and compared the average damage per swing and damage per second for each weapon against each mob. Here are the averaged and normalized results:
Hammer of Black Ice average damage per swing: 266.6
Hammer of Black Ice dps ignoring proc: 50.3
Hammer of Black Ice dps including proc: 52.1
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Blud average damage per swing: 239.6
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Blud dps: 47.9
Great Ice Breaker average damage per swing: 262.5
Great Ice Breaker dps: 52.5
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer damage per swing: 239.0
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer dps: 46.0
Archanium Great Hammer damage per swing: 258.3
Archanium Great Hammer dps: 48.73
This was surprising on many levels. First, the Hammer of Black Ice, something most people get at level 44, was superior to, or within statistical noise of, EVERY OTHER HAMMER IN THE GAME. Even if we artificially bump up the quality of the crafted hammers to 100% and add 3% dps to the two crafted hammers, we still don't best the Hammer of Black Ice. In fact both player crafted weapons as tested were near the bottom of the heap in damage per second.
Second, the Archanium Great Hammer did significantly better in these tests than the Archanium Great Spiked Hammer. The difference, about 5.6%, is way beyond the standard deviation of the data and therefore is not simply statistical noise. Although the Great Spiked Hammer is level 51 and therefore one level higher than me, the lore has always been that weapons slightly higher than you simply cap your weapon damage (at 16.2 dps aka "1602" for level 50) but do not penalize you significantly. This is clearly wrong; although both weapons capped my weapon damage at 1602, the level 50 weapon hit 5.6% harder per second than the level 51 weapon.
I did not factor hit/miss ratio into the above tests because I did not bother to enchant the crafted weapons. After all, Mythic has stated clearly that the bonus of a weapon affects only the hit/miss ratio, not the damage per hit of the weapon. Recall the 11-30-01 Herald article which discusses weapon bonus:
"Bonus - This takes into account any bonuses on the armor of the person you're hitting. I'll use the simplest possible example. Let's say your opponent is wearing a shirt with a 10% bonus. You have a sword with a 15% bonus. What you then have is a 5% addition to your "to hit" (which is simply your chance to hit the opponent). It doesn't affect how MUCH you hit for, it increases your chances of landing a hit on him at all."
I decided to enchant the Archanium Great Hammer and the Archanium Great Spiked Hammer to 35% bonus and redo the tests. The results were hard to believe, so I redid the tests again. And again. And I always got the same result. After more than 250 swings comparing the Hammer of Black Ice to the enchanted and unenchanted Archanium hammers, here are the very surprising results:
Hammer of Black Ice, 25% bonus, average damage per swing: 266.6
Hammer of Black Ice, 25% bonus, dps including proc: 52.1
Archanium Great Hammer, 0% bonus, damage per swing: 258.3
Archanium Great Hammer, 0% bonus, dps: 48.73
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer, 35% bonus, damage per swing: 290.7
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer, 35% bonus, dps: 54.9
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer damage per swing: 239.0
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer dps: 46.0
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer, 35% bonus, damage per swing: 278.2
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer, 35% bonus, dps: 53.5
The most surprising finding is that 35% BONUS INCREASES THE DAMAGE PER HIT of the crafted weapons by a huge amount (12.7% and 16.3%)! This contradicts the information in the Herald but is a simple fact (and thank god for crafters that the Herald is wrong or there would not be much reason to buy your high end weapons). Enchanting also, as expected, decreases misses by a large margin (not easily quantified because the sample size of misses is small). Since miss/hit factors directly into dps, we can correct the effective dps of each of the above hammers AGAINST EVEN CON OPPONENTS by the difference between their bonus and the Hammer of Black Ice's bonus of 25%. This gives the shimmering archanium weapons a 10% boost and the Great Ice Breaker a 5% boost against even con opponents. So now the best 2H hammers in Midgard are the following, listed by normalized RELATIVE dps:
Against lower opponents (assuming miss rate is zero):
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer: 54.9
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer: 53.5 (2.5% worse)
Great Ice Breaker: 52.5 (4.4% worse)
Hammer of Black Ice: 52.1 (5.1% worse)
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner: 47.9 (13% worse)
Against even con opponents (reflecting the bonus to hit differences):
Shimmering Archanium Great Hammer: 60.4
Shimmering Archanium Great Spiked Hammer: 58.9 (2.5% worse)
Great Ice Breaker: 55.1 (9% worse)
unenchanted Archanium Great Hammer: 53.6 (11% worse)
Hammer of Black Ice: 52.1 (14% worse)
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner: 47.9 (21% worse)
The very large margin of difference between the player crafted, ENCHANTED archanium weapons and the next best rare drop weapon makes me believe that in all realms, across all weapon types, it will be very hard to beat the player crafted, high quality archanium weapons, AFTER they are enchanted. Casters rejoice; your hard work has paid off; I hope you don't mind the deluge of tells that are incoming... "
Johanas
Before we integrate the above concepts into an optimal set of equipment for the most common situations, we will consider the option of high level player-crafted weapons. Choosing player crafted weapons instead of rare drop or quest weapons affects our stats and therefore affects the best choice for the rest of our gear. Based on my arguments presented in the Technical Guide to Weapons, I will consider 2H weapons for the following analysis, although I suspect the conclusions will also apply for 1H weapons. Around level 45 a quest weapon for most players provides a very good weapon. In the case of 2H hammers, that quest weapon is the Hammer of Black Ice (15.0 dps, 100% qual, +4 hammer, +6 str, +15 hits, 88 DD proc). The two "best" rare drop 2H hammers known in the game are the Great Ice Breaker (drops from the Wretch of Winter, 16.2 dps, 93% qual, +6 hammer, +6 str, 6% cold resist, procs damage shield), and the Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner (drops from the Darkness Falls Prince, +10 str, +9 qui, +3 hammer, +3 parry, procs +56 dex/qui buff). The two best player crafted 2H hammers are the arcanium great hammer (16.2 dps, level 50) and the arcanium great spiked hammer (16.5 dps, level 51). How do these five 2H hammers stack up?
Since I only own the Black Ice hammer, Mugin and Gunnarr generously provided the other four weapons to test (thanks guys!). The arcanium weapons tested were both 97% quality. I tested all five weapons in a very rigorous way. First, to allow the rare drop weapons' stat bonuses to have their full effect, I was careful to leave my str enhancement from items at +65 (10 str below the cap) and my hammer skill enhancement well below the cap. Second, I compared the weapons two at a time on monsters of not only the same type and same, but actually on the SAME MONSTER. I picked a blue con monster, took its health down to 50% with weapon A, then switched to weapon B and finished it off. I recorded the damage of every swing for a very large sample size (typically at least 60 hits for each weapon) and compared the average damage per swing and damage per second for each weapon against each mob. Here are the averaged and normalized results:
Hammer of Black Ice average damage per swing: 266.6
Hammer of Black Ice dps ignoring proc: 50.3
Hammer of Black Ice dps including proc: 52.1
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Blud average damage per swing: 239.6
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Blud dps: 47.9
Great Ice Breaker average damage per swing: 262.5
Great Ice Breaker dps: 52.5
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer damage per swing: 239.0
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer dps: 46.0
Archanium Great Hammer damage per swing: 258.3
Archanium Great Hammer dps: 48.73
This was surprising on many levels. First, the Hammer of Black Ice, something most people get at level 44, was superior to, or within statistical noise of, EVERY OTHER HAMMER IN THE GAME. Even if we artificially bump up the quality of the crafted hammers to 100% and add 3% dps to the two crafted hammers, we still don't best the Hammer of Black Ice. In fact both player crafted weapons as tested were near the bottom of the heap in damage per second.
Second, the Archanium Great Hammer did significantly better in these tests than the Archanium Great Spiked Hammer. The difference, about 5.6%, is way beyond the standard deviation of the data and therefore is not simply statistical noise. Although the Great Spiked Hammer is level 51 and therefore one level higher than me, the lore has always been that weapons slightly higher than you simply cap your weapon damage (at 16.2 dps aka "1602" for level 50) but do not penalize you significantly. This is clearly wrong; although both weapons capped my weapon damage at 1602, the level 50 weapon hit 5.6% harder per second than the level 51 weapon.
I did not factor hit/miss ratio into the above tests because I did not bother to enchant the crafted weapons. After all, Mythic has stated clearly that the bonus of a weapon affects only the hit/miss ratio, not the damage per hit of the weapon. Recall the 11-30-01 Herald article which discusses weapon bonus:
"Bonus - This takes into account any bonuses on the armor of the person you're hitting. I'll use the simplest possible example. Let's say your opponent is wearing a shirt with a 10% bonus. You have a sword with a 15% bonus. What you then have is a 5% addition to your "to hit" (which is simply your chance to hit the opponent). It doesn't affect how MUCH you hit for, it increases your chances of landing a hit on him at all."
I decided to enchant the Archanium Great Hammer and the Archanium Great Spiked Hammer to 35% bonus and redo the tests. The results were hard to believe, so I redid the tests again. And again. And I always got the same result. After more than 250 swings comparing the Hammer of Black Ice to the enchanted and unenchanted Archanium hammers, here are the very surprising results:
Hammer of Black Ice, 25% bonus, average damage per swing: 266.6
Hammer of Black Ice, 25% bonus, dps including proc: 52.1
Archanium Great Hammer, 0% bonus, damage per swing: 258.3
Archanium Great Hammer, 0% bonus, dps: 48.73
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer, 35% bonus, damage per swing: 290.7
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer, 35% bonus, dps: 54.9
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer damage per swing: 239.0
Archanium Great Spiked Hammer dps: 46.0
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer, 35% bonus, damage per swing: 278.2
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer, 35% bonus, dps: 53.5
The most surprising finding is that 35% BONUS INCREASES THE DAMAGE PER HIT of the crafted weapons by a huge amount (12.7% and 16.3%)! This contradicts the information in the Herald but is a simple fact (and thank god for crafters that the Herald is wrong or there would not be much reason to buy your high end weapons). Enchanting also, as expected, decreases misses by a large margin (not easily quantified because the sample size of misses is small). Since miss/hit factors directly into dps, we can correct the effective dps of each of the above hammers AGAINST EVEN CON OPPONENTS by the difference between their bonus and the Hammer of Black Ice's bonus of 25%. This gives the shimmering archanium weapons a 10% boost and the Great Ice Breaker a 5% boost against even con opponents. So now the best 2H hammers in Midgard are the following, listed by normalized RELATIVE dps:
Against lower opponents (assuming miss rate is zero):
Shimmering Arch. Great Hammer: 54.9
Shimmering Arch. Great Spiked Hammer: 53.5 (2.5% worse)
Great Ice Breaker: 52.5 (4.4% worse)
Hammer of Black Ice: 52.1 (5.1% worse)
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner: 47.9 (13% worse)
Against even con opponents (reflecting the bonus to hit differences):
Shimmering Archanium Great Hammer: 60.4
Shimmering Archanium Great Spiked Hammer: 58.9 (2.5% worse)
Great Ice Breaker: 55.1 (9% worse)
unenchanted Archanium Great Hammer: 53.6 (11% worse)
Hammer of Black Ice: 52.1 (14% worse)
Brilliant Baln's Mephitic Bludgeoner: 47.9 (21% worse)
The very large margin of difference between the player crafted, ENCHANTED archanium weapons and the next best rare drop weapon makes me believe that in all realms, across all weapon types, it will be very hard to beat the player crafted, high quality archanium weapons, AFTER they are enchanted. Casters rejoice; your hard work has paid off; I hope you don't mind the deluge of tells that are incoming... "
Johanas
