Fast weapons worth it?

[Infiltrator_SF]

I'm at Caed Nua, and had some time to experiment a bit with weapons and such. What is your guys opinion on fast weapons? As far as I can see, their damage output is considerably lower over the course of time, and the abilities that utilize damage use the base values so slower weapons have much more potential to one-shot something.

 

Case in point, I carry an arbalest with my rogue to "backstab" people with, as stilleto backstabbing is too weak. Its sad that the same problem that plagued BG2 also comes to haunt PoE.. I mean, a staff of the ram shouldn't be a better backstabbing weapon than a dagger, but it is apparently.

[Voss]

Fast weapons pretty much require the vulnerable attack talent, and as such, aren't really worthwhile until you can get that (level 4 minimum), plus one or two other talents to make characters worthwhile in fights.   Even then, however, against many enemies a stiletto+vulnerable attack is still coming up short on DR 12+ enemies, which aren't exactly uncommon.  

[revial]

I'm sure there's a mathematical point to fast weapons, but I'm level 8 now and pretty much every person in my party uses a slow+ and heavy hitting weapon due to damage reduction on enemies. :D

 

In the vein of the point of fast weapons, I have to wonder what in the world I'm missing on blunderblusses, which are super slow, but have the damage of a very fast weapon (ie: very low). :/

[KingsGambit]

The main downside is that many opponents have Damage Reduction comparable to the damage range from the one-handed, fast weapon category, so a lot of the time the majority of damage will be reduced. I imagine a percentage reduction over a flat one could have solved this at the design phase of development tho I suspect it is very much a conscious choice by Obsidian.

 

As it is, with 18 Might, two 10-15 damage fast weapons, doing max, non-crit damage against DR12 would do 2x 3 dmg = 6 dmg, vs a 19-28 dmg Two-Hander would do 28-12 = 16 dmg. Saying that, there are the other factors like DR vs different damage types, attack speed, talents, etc. Also worth noting is that every single point less in an enemy's DR equals two points of damage from two, fast weapons (double the benefit vs. a single weapon).

[KingsGambit]

The main downside is that many opponents have Damage Reduction comparable to the damage range from the one-handed, fast weapon category, so a lot of the time the majority of damage will be reduced. I imagine a percentage reduction over a flat one could have solved this at the design phase of development tho I suspect it is very much a conscious choice by Obsidian.

 

As it is, with 18 Might, two 10-15 damage fast weapons, doing max, non-crit damage against DR12 would do 2x 3 dmg = 6 dmg, vs a 19-28 dmg Two-Hander would do 28-12 = 16 dmg. Saying that, there are the other factors like DR vs different damage types, attack speed, talents, etc. Stilletos specifically would do 6 damage more total (12dmg) in this example since they have 3DR each. Also worth noting is that every single point less in an enemy's DR equals two points of damage from two, fast weapons (double the benefit vs. a single weapon).

[sleepofthejust]

Maybe sneak attacks and crits should have flat damage rolls instead of multipliers. That way accuracy and damage speed become the relevant factors. That would probably be pretty hard to change though. Maybe if there were more abilities that reduced DR, that might balance things, making your fast characters explosive under the right conditions.