Best ranged weapon for PotD post 1.03?

[Moribunny]

A lot of people favor the Arbalest because of the prone on crit effect, rather than DPS considerations. There is actually a scepter in the game, the Puitènte med Príncipi, which has that effect - and is much faster (Scepters are "Fast" speed). Wouldn't that weapon provide a far higher rate of knockdown?  Has anyone played with that one?

Edited April 8, 2015 by Moribunny

[cdd]

Pliambo per Casitàs does 35-52 base damage, Hold-Wall does 29-42. On average that is 43 damage for the rifle, 36 for the arbaleste. So yeah, the rifle does 7 more damage per attack, but also has very slow attack speed instead of slow. Though I don't know what the exact difference between the two ist. Now the gun also has built-in DR bypassing of 6, but also -5 accuracy (which means less crits, less hits, less grazes, more misses). The impact of -5 accuracy on damage is rather hard to gauge, and the +6 flat damage isn't as much as one might think because the attack speed is so low.. what makes Hold Wall still good is the x1.2 attack speed. The rifle comes with +10 accuracy for an ally, which can be great if it works on another ranged DD, but which can also completely go to waste if noone else attacks the target or only your supporters/tanks.

 

1. your math is wrong, the base damage difference is 8 not 7 (you rounded down for PpC and up for HW )

2. ... that's only base damage, which will get heavily modified by Might and other modifiers like Soul Whip/Biting Whip (144%) and Sneak Attack, so the actual damage difference is much bigger than 8

3. -6 DR is amazing and much better than 5 accuracy, obviously

4. combat in this game favors slower, harder hitting weapons because of the flat DR effect; this is no exception

5. PpC has additional beneficial effects like +10 acc for ally and -5 def, -5 fortitude, -5 reflex, -5 will

6. firearms go through arcane veil, arbalest doesn't

 

All of this assumes that Hold Wall has endgame enchants of course, in the vanilla state it cannot compete at all

Edited April 8, 2015 by cdd

[Eos]

A lot of people favor the Arbalest because of the prone on crit effect, rather than DPS considerations. There is actually a scepter in the game, the Puitènte med Príncipi, which has that effect - and is much faster (Scepters are "Fast" speed). Wouldn't that weapon provide a far higher rate of knockdown?  Has anyone played with that one?

 

But then you'd need your caster to crit a lot, i.e. to have high accuracy/high hit-to-crit AND to attack a lot. Seems a bit strange for a caster to do that, when he could just as well be casting his spells at the same time. Nevertheless, the wand is useful just for the occasional knockdown, but I wouldn't build my caster around it. The result doesn't seem to be worth the investment

 

 

 

Pliambo per Casitàs does 35-52 base damage, Hold-Wall does 29-42. On average that is 43 damage for the rifle, 36 for the arbaleste. So yeah, the rifle does 7 more damage per attack, but also has very slow attack speed instead of slow. Though I don't know what the exact difference between the two ist. Now the gun also has built-in DR bypassing of 6, but also -5 accuracy (which means less crits, less hits, less grazes, more misses). The impact of -5 accuracy on damage is rather hard to gauge, and the +6 flat damage isn't as much as one might think because the attack speed is so low.. what makes Hold Wall still good is the x1.2 attack speed. The rifle comes with +10 accuracy for an ally, which can be great if it works on another ranged DD, but which can also completely go to waste if noone else attacks the target or only your supporters/tanks.

 

1. your math is wrong, the base damage difference is 8 not 7 (you rounded down for PpC and up for HW )

2. ... that's only base damage, which will get heavily modified by Might and other modifiers like Soul Whip/Biting Whip (144%) and Sneak Attack, so the actual damage difference is much bigger than 8

3. -6 DR is amazing and much better than 5 accuracy, obviously

4. combat in this game favors slower, harder hitting weapons because of the flat DR effect; this is no exception

5. PpC has additional beneficial effects like +10 acc for ally and -5 def, -5 fortitude, -5 reflex, -5 will

6. firearms go through arcane veil, arbalest doesn't

 

All of this assumes that Hold Wall has endgame enchants of course, in the vanilla state it cannot compete at all

 

 

1. true, just did it in my head and adding something to 29 is so tough D:

2. yes, but the base damage on both weapons is equally affected by might and everything else (which is %-based) so we can just ignore those factors

3. yeah, guess so

4. true as well

5. the -5defense actually counterfeits the -5 accuracy quite nicely, but the ally-buff.. nah, don't see it as useful

6. who cares about puny arcane veil, caster die during the first second of they fight anway :D

 

But I guess the discussion is moot by now. What could've been said, had been said, rest is up to personal taste. I use both weapons anyway, together with Leadsplitter and Dulcane. Slow firing, hard hitting ranged weapons is where it's at when it comes to reliable, sustainable 'this does way too much damage'-damage, so might as well just take all of them )

 

Interesting discussion though