I forged one just the other day that seemed pretty cheap. Maybe I'm just numb to the concept of throwing 100 steel into a forge and really remembering what that means. Meh.

Your level makes no difference. Here's how the math works out. Suppose that you hit for A damage with a two-handed weapon. You strike B times in a minute. The odds of getting a critical hit are C, the odds of getting a 4x critical hit are D, the odds of an 8x critical hit is E, and the odds of a normal non-critical hit is Z. (Assume 3 levels of critical hits to make the math easier; it doesn't change anything to add more levels.) The total damage you do in a minute is A * B * (2C + 4D + 8E + Z).

Now switch to two one-handed weapons. Each weapon will hit for half as much damage as the two-handed weapon (A/2), but you will hit twice as many times per minute (2B). This results in the equation (A/2) * 2B * (2C + 4D + 8E + Z). The coefficients of A and B simplify into the equation in the above paragraph. So there is no difference at all.

The Higher your level, the more chance you have of a CRIT hit...

Atleast according to HELP ARTIFACTS OFFENSIVE which says that at level 50 you get a crit 1.6% and at level 65 6.4% and at level 80 16.6%

But he's saying that the netdamage, over all, is identical. You may hit Crits more often, but you do more damage when you hit them.

If Knight A uses 2 weapons each one doing 5 damage.. He attacks 20 times and hit 10 x2 crits. He deals a total of 150 dmg.

If Knight B uses 1 weapon, each one doing 10 damage... He attacks 10 times and hit 5 x2 crits. He deals a total of 150 dmg.

There is no difference, except that Knight A goes through more endurance to deal the same net damage.

I realize that part, but mobs only have a finite amount of health and damage does not get transfered to your next hit. an Anhiliating Crit will kill a mob with just one sword, you don't need to get both strikes to hit a crit to kill the mob. So the more often you hit your crits, the more likely your damage is able to transfer to the next mob.

Its been proven time and time again in IRE realms that damage over time will outweigh immediate massive amounts of damage, I.E. Claymores, waraxes, broadswords. Speed has always been the way to go. BMs and BCs WILL bash faster than Pureblades or Axelords, even if the criticals do half the damage, they'll do double the criticals. Two obliterates at 50 damage will do better than one obliterating at 100 damage because you're going to get MORE of those obliteratings becaues you're hitting double time and the odds of getting obliteratings are being set to more often than the single time from a katana or whatever.

If it's balanced, the ONLY thing that would matter is if you're fighting multiple mobs, you second swing could carry over to another. That's ALL.

You just don't listen, Sylphas. If X Beast has 5k health and I'm rounding attack time at 2 seconds with double the odds of getting criticals, due to two blades, versus 1.5 second attack time on one blade, that .5th of a second won't even out because I'm sacrificing much less than I gain. I'm giving up a fraction of attack time for double the chance. Now, to more specifically respond to your pointless, empty post Sylphas: No, it's not balanced.

let me have a go....

your 1h rapiera do 500 damage EACH to a 4k hp mob.
your 2h katana does 1000 damage to a 4k hp mob (since 2 handed weapons are pretty much double the damage is what roark is trying to say)

so each time your blade strikes you have X% chance at a crit. lets say you get 1 crit in a combo...

your 1h rapiers total damage are 1000 + another 500 from one critical (since a normal crit = 2X damage) giving a total of 1500 mob damage.

your 2 katana gets a crit and you get 1000 damage + 1000 for the crit.

IF your 1h rapiers both hit for criticals, you'd get 2k mob damage.

So, your rapiers are hitting twice as much, doubling your crit rate, but halving the critcal damage for each hit, compared to the katana.

And we all know is you double something then half it you are left with the original amount.

The above explanantion compounds itself with higher levels of critical

EDIT: This is assuming your rapier combo is the same speed as your katana attack

Terenas has two 280+ speed rapiers, and I doubt Katanas will go above 400, if even that, in speed on masterworks (Sure, I could be wrong, we'll find out). Overtime, his damage will pull ahead of the katana's because the odds are in his favour, even if damage is not. I once did three crushing criticals in a row. I get far more chances to do 4x my base damage than a two-handed blade gets to do 4x their damage. Say I do 500, and the two handed does 1,000, like you said. In the time I did those three crushings I pulled 6,000 damage. The katana would've pulled 4,000 and I'd still be attacking regularly. I will pass that damage up. I bash twice as fast with rapiers than I do with broadswords, perhaps elemental runed blades can talk differently, because I deliver my base damage that's half of the broadswords, in most cases, nearly twice, if not faster than that, as the broadswords.

1. Katana's only need to be 280 speed to keep up with terenas' combo speed. You don't attack twice as fast with 2h weapons, you just do 2x damage at the same speed.

2. If you get 2 crushing criticals in one combo, you will 4x your rapier damage.
If you get 1 crushing critical on a katana, you will 4x your katana damage.

If you do 3X crushing criticals over 2 rapier combos, you will do 4k on the first combo and 2k on the second. (each critical hit being worth 2k damage) Total = 6k

if you do just 2X crushing criticals over katanas, you will do 4k on the first combo and 4k on the second combo. Total = 8k

and thats only doing 2 crushing criticals.

EDIT: another scenario:

100 attacks.

Rapier = 200 swings
Katana = 100 swings.

Rapiers = 500 damage
Katana = 1000 damage

Total normal damage over 100 attacks is 100000 for rapier and 100000 for katana.

CRITICALS

over 100 swings, lets say you get a crushing critical 50% of the time.

Rapier = 200 X 50% = 100 criticals.
Katana = 100 X 50% = 50 criticals

Rapier criticals are worth 3 X 500 (with the extra 500 damage already accounted for above) = 1500

Katana criticals are worth 3 X 1000 (with the extra 1000 already accounted for above) = 3000

THEREFORE

Rapier's critical average = 100 X 1500 = 150000
Katana's critical average = 50 X 3000 = 150000

Apparantly people can't just do (X * 2) / 2 = X

That's a fine formula, and it surely is right on the drawing board, but I've never seen speed get outdone in an IRE realm when compared to equivalent strength, despite how fair it's coded to be. I think it should be moved in favour of 2handers.

I was hunting some critters that one average took 7 hits to kill... not 7 combos, but 7 hits.

I rarely find myself always hitting the last blow on my second flail.

This means that a Two handed weapon will either be faster, or slower, but unlikely to be the same speed, given the same "bashing area."

If the two handed weapon only requires 3 hits, and not 4, then the 2 handed weapon is faster, assuming you only fight one mob per room. But if it requires 4, then it will be slower when you do have more than one mob per room, and the same if there is only one mob per room.

That reminds me... Being a massive level 80+ and having a level 3 critical hit artifact plus a +3 INT artifact and the +3 magical damage artifact, I was targetting guards. Then I got distracted and returned to the gates of the city in which I was on the city council. After getting distracted again I forgot that I was no longer in front of the guard I wanted to kill and smacked the hotkey to attack. Unfortunatly, I got a massive critical hit and instantly slayed my own city's guard in a single stroke. Needless to say, it was not easy to explain why a city council member was seen in the logs slaying the city's own defenders...

... Dji?

That would make me laugh so friggin' hard.



And cry at the same time.

Nooooo way is Roark Dji. Roark hates player combat. >_>

And that's why he was bashing guards?

..............yes.

Roark, I am now confused. Explain!

EDIT: Wait, I would swear Dji was a monk. I.e no magic attack on a guard. Ne?