CL: Weapons

Taryn <taryncl.TakeThisOut@attbi.com> wrote:

 > Weapons add or subtract a fixed amount of "damage,regia,atkus,etc".
 > The higher level fighter you are, the more the difference between
 > weapons will be a smaller fraction of your abilities. Which either
 > means the difference they make has a proportionally smaller effect
 > (e.g. damage), or will less frequently and more unpredictably matter
 > at all (e.g. atkus).

Atkus is atkus, at any level. The Atkus that a GS adds will let you hit
something well that you can just barley hit without it. Even at upper
levels this holds true (it just gets harder to time because critters
with more atkus use more defence to swing and recover more balance in
each frame so a 1 frame difference can add 200 defence).

Michael<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: CL: Weapons 

mike17032.RemoveThis@aol.com (Michael) wrote in message news:<1g6m4mn.1v38m7k1jpcf6qN%mike17032@aol.com>...
 > Taryn <taryncl.RemoveThis@attbi.com> wrote:
 >
  > > Weapons add or subtract a fixed amount of "damage,regia,atkus,etc".
  > > The higher level fighter you are, the more the difference between
  > > weapons will be a smaller fraction of your abilities. Which either
  > > means the difference they make has a proportionally smaller effect
  > > (e.g. damage), or will less frequently and more unpredictably matter
  > > at all (e.g. atkus).
 >
 > Atkus is atkus, at any level. The Atkus that a GS adds will let you hit
 > something well that you can just barley hit without it. Even at upper
 > levels this holds true (it just gets harder to time because critters
 > with more atkus use more defence to swing and recover more balance in
 > each frame so a 1 frame difference can add 200 defence).

A greatsword has about a +.15 chance to hit over a longsword or axe.

If you're barely able to hit something with a longsword, say 0.15
chance to hit, then a greatsword will double your chance to hit that
creature. So yes sometimes the atkus bonus of some weapons make a big
difference.

However, more difficult creatures will probably have a larger range of
defence. Hypothetical example: vermine may have 10 Balthus +/- 1,
and wendies 100 Balthus +/- 10. The percentage of the range is the
same (10%), but the range in chance to hit is 10 times. So against
more difficult creatures, it will less frequently and more
unpredictably happen that you are in the "sweet zone" where a +.15
chance to hit makes a dramatic difference

Moreover, more difficult creatures will swing much more, and thus
change their defence more by losing more balance when they attack.
Indeed, at Michael's level, they might swing so much that their
defence changes from only being luck-hittable to only being
backluck-missable. So I would think that timing and tactics would
matter much more for high level fighters than choice of weapon
(excluding goss, fell, bloodblade).

Note that this analysis is mirror to whether or not a shield helps a
high level fighter. A shield decreases your chance to be hit by about
-0.10; but the higher-level fighter you are, the less frequently and
more unpredictably will that make a significant difference.

Taryn.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: CL: Weapons 

On 27 Dec 2003, Taryn wrote:

 > backluck-missable. So I would think that timing and tactics would
 > matter much more for high level fighters than choice of weapon
 > (excluding goss, fell, bloodblade).

This is generally true, except that while fell and BB make a huge impact,
their efficacy is even more highly influenced by timing and tactics than
normal weapons, so timing and tactics tend to be important at all times at
that level, regardless of what weapon you are using.

I'm not quite sure what the story is with goss though.

Ian

---------------------------------------------------
Ian Ollmann, Ph.D. iano.DeleteThis@cco.caltech.edu
---------------------------------------------------<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: CL: Weapons