How do the current weapon styles work?

 

One handed melee weapon vs two handed weapon vs two weapon styles vs one hand + shield?

 

There is a listing of weapons and how they work in the official wiki but no information about one handed vs two weapon style.

 

I gather the main difference between one handed vs two handed is speed and recovery but I have no idea how two weapon styles work.

1H weapon and no second weapon or shield gives +10 Accuracy. The weapon style talent for 1H weapons converts some grazes to hits, giving better damage, IIRC. I think it works globally on 1H weapons, even when using shield or a second weapon, not sure about that, though.

 

1H weapon and shield usually reduces accuracy depending on shield size (-5 Acc for medium shield, -10 Acc for large shield I think), while raising deflection, again depending on shield

 

There is a talent to give more deflection and also more Reflex for this weapon style.

 

I believe the talent for two weapon style is supposed to give faster attacks when equipping two weapons, not sure if it is working as intended yet (as of BB v392). Characters attack first with one and then the other weapon, I did not really compare speed.

 

Two-handed weapons deal a lot more damage per hit usually, getting better through armor with high damage reduction. The weapon style talent gives +5 Deflection while using such weapons.

 

Edit: Oh, and of course the big 2H weapons are supposed to be slower than smaller 1H ones.

Edited January 26, 201511 yr by cmergler

So for two weapon vs one weapon you get one attack each with two weapons in a similar time span as one attack from a one hand weapon (assuming they are comparable speed)?

 

So dagger and stilletto would attack once each as quickly as a single dagger? Or would it perhaps be as quickly as a single long sword instead?

There are potentially some interesting interactions between dual weapons and some of the abilities based on some comments by JS. If an ability says full attack and then does something like blind the target with dual weapons you get two chances to apply it, as a full attack with dual weapons is an attack from both.

 

So say you used a full attack ability with blind and the first weapon got a hit with a 4 second duration, then the second weapon got a critical hit with 6 secs duration then it will replace the first effect extending the duration. However if the order of crit and hit was the other way round you'd still get the 6 second duration as shorter versions don't replace longer ones. With single weapons and two handed your'd only get one chance.

 

Also sword + shield talent should make your characters a lot harder to hit one they properly balance every thing with a large shield shield you would exchange 10 accuracy for 30 deflection and 20 reflex compared to the two handed and dual weapon styles though -20 acc compared to one handed. While for a small shield that'd be 20 deflection and 10 reflex for no access difference vs two handed or dual weapons and only -10acc vs single handed weapon.

Which considering base accuracies are between 15-30 at first level is fairly impressive.

I cannot really say just how fast two-weapon style is compared to a single weapon, I never really bothered to compare yet. Also this stuff has been tweaked a lot or fixed maybe as well as far as I read, and our current Backer Beta is from around Christmas, hopelessly obsolete.

 

The base accuracies from v392 have been actually from 15 to 25 at perception 10 and first level, depending on class (I got curious and checked all 11 classes). Druid, Priest and Wizard had 15, Barbarian, Chanter, Cipher, Paladin had 20 and the others 25.

 

But in v392 perception would bump up accuracy, and the low acc classes usually could make good use of a healthy dose of perception. Actually perception was so helpful overall that things got changed already and accuracy is not be adjustable by stats anymore. Until we get the next BB update I have no idea how it will be.

 

Edit: I just did a little experiment with the BB Rogue, who has Two Weapon Style talent:

 

1 fast weapon 1 strike/2 secs

2 fast weapons alternate strikes, strike each about every 2 secs

1 normal weapon 1 strike/3 secs

1 normal, 1 fast weapons alternate strikes, take maybe 3 secs or slightly longer, hard to tell

2 normal weapons alternate strikes, not sure if they take 3 secs or maybe slightly longer

1 2H weapon 1 strike/3.5 secs or such

 

No idea how it is with a character with lower dex and without the style talent, but I think I read somewhere the style is supposed to give a 30% speed increase?

Edited January 27, 201511 yr by cmergler