Question about weapons and damage

[Salem Graves]

Is a maxed damage bar on a heavy weapon more damage than a sword with a max damage bar? If not, then what's the point of heavy/long weapons when swords are faster and do the same damage? Reach seems useless to me.

[Fyndir]

I believe the long and heavy weapons deal more damage than swords, yes. Although the game seems to want to compare the stat bars between categories when you examine equipment it doesn't really work. As an aside the design of weapon statistics seems to be something the developers have been struggling with for several games now, there was that confusing mess of wanting a lower score in one stat in AC 3 for example which is just unnecessary and confusing. They seem to have fallen into a similar trap here.

Anyway.

I tested the first weapons in each category, dull cavalry saber, guisarme, and pickaxe, I tested them on a pair of pretty basic low level enemies with a consistent spawn (Arsenal, next to Hotel De Sens), additionally I did not make use of counter attacks, just swung at the enemy repeatedly, dodged or parried their attack, and repeated my attack once we were both standing ready again.

The dull cavalry saber took 8-9 basic hits to kill the enemy, the 9th hit being the finishing blow as he was staggering and preparing to fall down incapacitated.

The guisarme took 6-7 basic hits to kill the enemy, again the final blow being a finishing blow.

The pickaxe took just 4-5 basic hits to kill, same as the others with the final blow being kind of optional.

This is easily repeatable early in the game as you should have access to all three basic weapons shortly after arriving in Paris, and they appear to have the exact same damage rating according to the visible statisics.

As for the top tier weapons, I can only presume the same holds roughly true (although the difference may be irrelevant when used against basic low level enemies like the ones I tested on), I haven't gotten that far yet so I can't do any sort of test with them.

[Salem Graves]

Ahh, well thanks for the long explanation! I found myself favoring long weapons even though I sill don't know the point of reach. I just like the animations for them. Also, who doesn't like making baddie shish kabobs?