how do u compare weapon strength ?

[Shyfx]

I wish the devs made it visually apparant wether or not a piece of eqiupment was an upgrade or not any plans for this in a future patch?

[Mhblis]

Not really sure what more you want. It clearly tells you how much damage the weapon will deal.

ie. 1d8 or 1d10.
ie. +2 or +3

The damage formula is "weapon damage die+Ability Mod (STR or DEX)+Weapon Enhancment bonus(+ value)+ special additions (extra die to Gaints)"

If you mean a detail panel that says increases damage by +3 then no and no. And to be honest that is never going to be needed and is unsuited to the system and game.

Also no one weapon is best in every situation due to immunities and variety of the enemies you face.

Like the "Hammer of Gaints" in general it is awful but when you are facing gaints its damage output is unbeatable.

[Matuse]

As Mhblis says, but there are also other factors. Belm for example is a statistically mediocre +2 Scimitar. Until you put it in the offhand of a dual wielder and it gives an extra attack per round to your main hand. Then it's one of the best weapons in the game.

[Mhblis]

Hehe I mentioned that with the Hammer of Giants example. but yes there are so many variations on that theme would be too hard to list them all.

[AlexMBrennan]

By looking at the +Number after the weapon. For example, the Flail of the Ages +3 is better than the Flail of the Ages +2, which in turn is better than the Fail of the Ages +1.

As for the rest, it really depends on the situation and there is no easy to way to combine the numerous effects into an easy number (e.g. a weapon that makes you immune to hold is very useful when you are fighting enemies that cast hold a lot, and much less useful when you fight enemies that don't use hold).

[Improper Use]

Just break the +weapon gating. the more +damage the better the weapon.

Plan ahead select weapon pips based on what you know you will be obtaining.
someplace like here http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate2/weapons/axes.html

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Damage type is also a concern.

Blunt is the best damage type in the game overall, since nothing is immune to it, very little is resistant to it, and only splint mail gets a ac bonus vs it. Also skeletal enemies take full damage while other types are 50% or more reduction. It's also the only type that can harm Clay Golems.

Slashing is a pretty decent damage type as well, and is probably the most common overall due to the huge amount of longswords. Clay Golem are immune to it, but that's a bout it...though more stuff is resistant to it then blunt, but not as bad as piercing or missile. It does however suffer from more armors getting an AC bonus vs it, but it's fairly minor over all. Only plate and full plate have a significant amount.

Piercing tends have fewer penalties vs armor (though not as good as blunt) but immunity or high resistance to piercing is much more common then blunt or slashing, but nor nearly as bad as missile.

Missile is flat out the worst damage type in the game, though it's still passable...just the number of enemies immune or heavily resistant is even higher then vs piercing. So if you're a ranged weapon user try to carry a blunt or slashing weapon as a back-up, unless you're prime caster, in which case don't worry about it.

As far as elemental types.

Fire is the most common immunity/resistance, but you need either fire or acid for killing most trolls.

Cold is a relatively neutral element with few things resisting it, though cold resistance/immunity tends to be common among undead.

Electricity is a pretty solid element with very few things resisting it, but on the other hand, not many spells (that are easy to use) or weapons have electrical damage.

Acid is solid all around element with only a tiny handful of things resistant/immune and it can kill all varieties of trolls, but is harder to find on weapons or spells, about as rare as electricity.

--------------------

As far as plus modifiers higher is generally better though if they have a special ability, bonus damage, or passive effect, it might be more valuable then the bonus damage, depending on how it fits into your party and playstyle.

+2 is sufficient for 90% of enemies in the game. +3 is only needed for about 9%. +4 only about 5 enemies need it. +5 is only required for 1 enemy (the Void Wraith summoned by drawing the Void card from the Deck of Many Things, which almost never happens) or by-passing some combat protections (never required but can speed up the fight if you lack the ability to remove them by other means), and +6 or higher is another optional milestone for by-passing certain combat protections.

So in short...+2 is fine for most things, but you do want to hold on to a few +3 or +4's with a decent spread of damage types or interesting special abilities for the small numbers of enemies that require them.

Though the Flail of Ages+3 can own pretty much anything though you have to wait until ToB before you can upgrade it to +4 or higher so it can hit everything, but at +3 it can utterly destroy 99% of enemies in the game with ease, and if upgraded to +5 is the flat-out single strongest weapon in the game (though the free-action passive unique to the +5 version prevents the use of haste effects unless you mod the game), with the +4 version compared to the staff of the ram +6 at #2.

[best bulliet target]

just a minor add to kaiyl's good post is weapon speed and attacks per round. they are minor stuff (exepct blem with a set of gloves) which might land you 8 attacks per round but then again agist a taget that's imu to the +2 effect renders that combo null and void. so hav diffent weapn sets but try to stick to your weapon preforence aswell (i say fails and maces for bg2 tob) but longsword and katana for the rest. (i just love celiesty fury and blackrazor

[Mhblis]

Comeone what rogue doesn't want to wield the Holy +6 Avenger and sneak attack with that puppy. I say demon goes BOOM.

[AlexMBrennan]

All rogues want to do that, but none are able to - only weapons legally equippable by thieves can be used for backstabs (e.g. Carsomyr results in the game telling you that the weapon is "unsuitable for backstabs").

This actually makes the limited weapon slots of multiclass characters more annoying - you need Carsomyr (for hitting enemies when you can't stealth), Staff of the Ram (for backstabs), Staff of the Magi (for invisibility) and a regular sword (for enemies immune to magic weapons). Oh, and maybe a bow or something ranged.

[Mhblis]

That is my bad. Throne of Bhall mod let me use UMD skill to equip non legal weapons as long as they are magic. Totally forgot I had that running.

And yes it was for that reason.