Weapon options - (Two handed, dual, 1 hand etc) how do they work?

[wanderon]

How exactly do these different options function in PoE? It doesn't appear to me that any of the stats shown in the inventory screen change at all regardless of whether you equip a two hander, one hander, dual weild or even a ranged weapon. Are there differences in accuracy, speed, number of attacks or anything else outside of the damage stats of the weapon itself? 

[wanderon]

Hmmm.... 66 views - no replies - does this mean we don't know how they work or does it mean I should be able to figure it out by myself and not bother people with silly questions??

[Ztirual]

I have the same question myself. Don't know if I understand quite explicitly how the mechanics work with the two-handed, the dual wield or the singe wield.

[Ganrich]

Weapon speed is governed by size. Two handers are slower than one handers, and larger one handers are slower than daggers and the like. However, bigger weapons deal more damage.

 

All weapons have different capabilities. Swords, for instance, can deal piercing or slashing damage. Axes deal +10% crit damage. Etc. Some of these differences should be viewable on the wiki. http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Weapon

 

Speed of ranged weapons are (fastest to slowest) bows, xbows, guns. I haven't run across a pistol so I am unsure at their speed in relation to others.

 

I do believe that dual-wielding gains secondary attacks. Since the system isn't round based like the IE games you don't get more attacks outside of dual wielding.

 

I haven't really looked too deeply into the differences between dual wielding, two handed, or one handed weapon styles to say much more or I would. I may look into it as best I can some time today.

[Oneiromancer]

Weapon speed is governed by size. Two handers are slower than one handers, and larger one handers are slower than daggers and the like. However, bigger weapons deal more damage.

 

All weapons have different capabilities. Swords, for instance, can deal piercing or slashing damage. Axes deal +10% crit damage. Etc. Some of these differences should be viewable on the wiki. http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Weapon

 

Speed of ranged weapons are (fastest to slowest) bows, xbows, guns. I haven't run across a pistol so I am unsure at their speed in relation to others.

 

I do believe that dual-wielding gains secondary attacks. Since the system isn't round based like the IE games you don't get more attacks outside of dual wielding.

 

I haven't really looked too deeply into the differences between dual wielding, two handed, or one handed weapon styles to say much more or I would. I may look into it as best I can some time today.

 

Should be dual wielding>one handed with free hand>one handed with shield>two handed from fastest to slowest.

Weapon types complicate this a bit as I have no idea if, for example, a sword plus stiletto combo is faster than a stiletto plus shield.

 

Dual wielding is the "fastest" melee style because of the off-hand attacks while one handed with a free hand gets an accuracy bonus (15 right now in the beta iirc). As you wrote it also depends on the type of weapon you are using. For example a rogue using a rapier in the main hand and a stiletto in the off-hand will attack much faster than than the same rogue using a sword with a free hand but he will also be (technically) less accurate and thus hitting more grazes and less criticals. BUT because rapiers increase accuracy (not as much as having a free hand though, iirc) and stilettos ignore an amount of damage threshold the difference is not as big as you would think. Except swords, unlike rapiers and stiletto, always deal the most adavantegeous of either piecing or slashing damage thus making them generally more flexible in different situations.

 

Of course we're still in beta so specific numbers will be tinkered with constantly and a difference that might be negligible right now might be much higher in a month or two. I hope they either buff precision or the one handed with free hand combo, making it deal more damage on average than dual wielding but with less interrupting power, making it something of a middle ground between dual wielding and two handed weapon style as far as damage option go.

[Sensuki]

The game animation speed is 30 FPS.

 

Fast melee weapons have a 20 frame animation followed by a 20 frame recovery time

 

Every other melee weapon has a 30 frame animation followed by a 30 frame recovery time.

 

Weapon styles, shields and armor influence the recovery time:

 

1H No Shield - +15 Accuracy, +50% Recovery time

2H Weapon - +50% Recovery time

Armor and Shields increase recovery time by the amount listed on the item

 

Don't know how two weapon fighting works.

[DigitalCrack]

I ran with a sabre/pistol combo that work pretty well.  Basically when you targeted an enemy you would shoot first then attack with the sabre (at what felt like stiletto speeds) and then took one round to reload where you weren't attacking at all.  However it never felt like that was crippling since I did so much damage on the round I attacked.

[Sensuki]

That actually works? Awesome. Do you incur a damage penalty from TWF?

[DigitalCrack]

That actually works? Awesome. Do you incur a damage penalty from TWF?

Honestly don't remember.  A lot of the weapon mechanic feedback seems somewhat glitchy/broken.  Honestly it felt more like each weapon rolled as single handed, due to how fast the sabre swung.

Edited August 28, 2014 by DigitalCrack

[Ganrich]

I didn't include dual wielding when discussing weapon speed. I am sure you will attack more frequently when dual wielding. However I don't know if dual wielding 2 swords will be as fast as as a single dagger. Weapon speed is tied to the weapon, and that makes more sense than tying it to the weapon style in use. It would create balance issues if dual wielding swords was the same speed as dual wielding daggers. Who would use daggers? On the same note who would use a single sword with no shield if dual wielding wasn't without some penalty.

 

At present, from what I have seen, nothing completely out strips another weapon, or weapon style, 100% of the time. There are some issues at the moment, but nothing major. One is that guns hit really hard in a lot of situations. While bows fire faster... they tend to tickle the opponent. This isn't 100% of the time though. An argument I have seen is that heavier hitting weapons seem to always be better at bypassing high DT. Which makes sense, but seems overly prominent at times.

 

You are right, though. Things will likely change.

 

edit: Sensuki seems to have done much more homework than I have on the subject. Glad you chimed in lol.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Ganrich

[Sensuki]

Honestly don't remember.  A lot of the weapon mechanic feedback seems somewhat glitchy/broken.  Honestly it felt more like each weapon rolled as single handed, due to how fast the sabre swung.

You may have found an exploit, or that's by design. Either way - screw single weapon style - Pistol and 1H all the way.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Sensuki

[Oneiromancer]

I ran with a sabre/pistol combo that work pretty well.  Basically when you targeted an enemy you would shoot first then attack with the sabre (at what felt like stiletto speeds) and then took one round to reload where you weren't attacking at all.  However it never felt like that was crippling since I did so much damage on the round I attacked.

 

I hope it's not some kind of bug because that would be a pretty cool option to have. Especially if there are some talents to support it.

[Sensuki]

Pirate weapon style

[DigitalCrack]

 

I ran with a sabre/pistol combo that work pretty well.  Basically when you targeted an enemy you would shoot first then attack with the sabre (at what felt like stiletto speeds) and then took one round to reload where you weren't attacking at all.  However it never felt like that was crippling since I did so much damage on the round I attacked.

 

I hope it's not some kind of bug because that would be a pretty cool option to have. Especially if there are some talents to support it.

 

agreed kind of makes sense to both be rolled as single weapons since one is ranged and the other melee. *crosses fingers*

Edited August 28, 2014 by DigitalCrack

[Mayama]

Do you get negative modifieres if you use a ranged weapon in melee? 

[DigitalCrack]

Here's a cool thought what if pistols could be a ranged/melee damage type.  Upon entering combat you fire pistol since its pre-loaded then it would engage in melee as a sort of dagger version of a club?

[Ganrich]

Here's a cool thought what if pistols could be a ranged/melee damage type. Upon entering combat you fire pistol since its pre-loaded then it would engage in melee as a sort of dagger version of a club?

I like this as it would allow a rogue to sneak attack with the pistol and commence in melee from that point forward. Very pirate-esque.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Ganrich

[Sensuki]

You can already do that if you have a second weapon equipped though.

[Gfted1]

I ran with a sabre/pistol combo that work pretty well.  Basically when you targeted an enemy you would shoot first then attack with the sabre (at what felt like stiletto speeds) and then took one round to reload where you weren't attacking at all.  However it never felt like that was crippling since I did so much damage on the round I attacked.

 

In this case, weren't you then standing in melee range while reloading the pistol? Didn't you take a beating / interrupts while reloading?

[Matt516]

The game animation speed is 30 FPS.

 

Fast melee weapons have a 20 frame animation followed by a 20 frame recovery time

 

Every other melee weapon has a 30 frame animation followed by a 30 frame recovery time.

 

Weapon styles, shields and armor influence the recovery time:

 

1H No Shield - +15 Accuracy, +50% Recovery time

2H Weapon - +50% Recovery time

Armor and Shields increase recovery time by the amount listed on the item

 

Don't know how two weapon fighting works.

 

Unfortunately, there is almost no difference between 1H no shield and 1H with shield dps. At least in a lot of cases. The recovery time penalty and the accuracy boost almost exactly cancel each other out. So if they want 1H no shield to do more damage (in exchange for not having a shield to defend), they need to increase the accuracy bonus.

[Sensuki]

I believe you have encountered

B a N a L c E
 

[DigitalCrack]

 

I ran with a sabre/pistol combo that work pretty well.  Basically when you targeted an enemy you would shoot first then attack with the sabre (at what felt like stiletto speeds) and then took one round to reload where you weren't attacking at all.  However it never felt like that was crippling since I did so much damage on the round I attacked.

 

In this case, weren't you then standing in melee range while reloading the pistol? Didn't you take a beating / interrupts while reloading?

 

yes I was but it never seemed to make a difference granted I had a fighter taking most the heat.  So maybe if surrounded by multiple enemies alone it would have been a problem.  No encounter ever came up that exploited the reload phase though so not sure.

[DigitalCrack]

Also I was running a resolve heavy chanter build which could have made the difference for why I didn't notice interruption.

[Ganrich]

You can already do that if you have a second weapon equipped though.

Yeah, but you don't have to swap weapons. It's a flavor thing more so a mechanical thing.

[Gfted1]

Also I was running a resolve heavy chanter build which could have made the difference for why I didn't notice interruption.

 

Ah, that must be the secret sauce. As an experiment, I equipped BB Fighter with an arbalest and I noticed he would get interrupted fairly frequently while furiously trying to rewind the crossbow. Im not sure what BB Fighter's Resolve level is but interesting to see that it does make a difference.