weapon guide: MACES and WARHAMMERS, damage scaling tips and combos.

[TheKingmario2]

When it comes to back-headstabbing and dealing with heavy armor plated opponents, nothing can be more incisive than maces and warhammers, brute strength at their finest.

The reason why im talking of maces and warhammers separately is because despite their functions are basicly the same, warhammers tends to be more versatile due extra stab or slash damage, making em a sort of blunt damaging kind of axes.

******************************************************************************

PROS: reliable from start, mid and endgame, perfect for trigghering headcracking perk, without a shield and a successful masterstrike it may deal massive damage or ohko opponents, high durabilty. maces can be easily found in weapon shops.

NEUTRAL: poor combo potential, horrible during horseback fighting. can't be repaired manually without the aid of a merchant or kit. can't make use of serrated edge and tin opener perks. using a shield disable one of the killing animations.

CONS: warhammers can't be bought anywere thus are rarer to acquire, low defense stats, extremely bad range, slower than other weapons, the best maces and warhammer require a minimum of 10 strength to be used, using a shield disables the
potential ohko massive damage masterstrike.

******************************************************************************

FROM BEST TO WORSE (considering level scaling + son of the blacksmith's perk)
*weapons* can only be obtained via console commands

MACES: *Runt's club*, Baliff's Mace, Ceremonial Mace, *Club*, Captain Mace, Warhammer, Mace, Spiked Club, Club.

WARHAMMERS: Heavy Warhammer (full iron variant), Heavy Warhammer, Raven's Beak, Spiked Warhammer, Pernach, Morgernstern.

BEST CHARISMA AND DEFENSE:
MACES: Ceremonial Mace.
WARHAMMER: Raven's Beak.

******************************************************************************

TIPS ON USAGE:

If you wish to use combos then the preferred choice between maces and warhammers would fall on warhammers due their split damage in blunt and stab categories.

Not using a shield with maces/warhammers sounds risky, but if your masterstrike Kicks in It may heavily damage your attacker or knock him out directly, just be sure of fighting in a 1v1 scenario or the other opponent would burn down your defense and potentially damage you heavily. If you smells a dangerous situation pull out the shield in order to prevent deadly situations.

******************************************************************************

NOTE: combos can be pulled easily only on some opponents and scenarios and are mostly seen as an added flavour

BEST LONG COMBO: Fehler: Blinding Strike: left slash, right slash, left lower slash, right slash. (at higher strength levels may even ohko an opponent)

BEST SHORT COMBO: Blunt Strike: central stab, left slash, right lower slash.

[danilo.schoeneberg]

heavy warhammer without shield is all you need to deal with even 4 or 5 heavily armed opponents, provided you have the warcraft and mace stats for it. However, it also leaves noting to loot as you literally smash everything to bits.

If we are talking non-ambush encounters, like the fights in Skalitz or the Bandit camps during "Interlopers", you're better off using sneak attacks and dollmaker spiked arrows.

[DargonBlak]

The only weapons i rely on are as follows:

Heavy Warhammer
--> it's strength stats are below Raven's Beak, but it has a higher damage rating. Stab damage is higher also. Normally acquired as loot from top tier skirmish location
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Mace_(Weapon)

Metal-plated battle axe (the second one, with the point)
--> this is my go-to weapon - the high slash damage with high blunt damage makes it very pleasing to use, plus high stab damage makes it my favorite all-around weapon. Normally i buy this from the Weaponsmith in Rattay.
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Axes

I also use short swords for the look and minor engagements - Stalwart for the look, Master Hunting Sword for any engagement. Blunt damage is a must have.

I never use Long Swords outside of training.

[kris.aalst]

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

Metal-plated battle axe (the second one, with the point)
--> this is my go-to weapon - the high slash damage with high blunt damage makes it very pleasing to use, plus high stab damage makes it my favorite all-around weapon. Normally i buy this from the Weaponsmith in Rattay.
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Axes

My favourite melee weapon and the only melee weapon I've been using since I found it. I understand the benefit of maces and other types of weapons from training with Bernard, but never felt the need for a secondary weapon. Mind you, I'm not playing hardcore mode. I can imagine hardcore mode requires some more diversity in your arsenal.

[Judeo-communism]

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

I never use Long Swords outside of training.

I've made longsword work through an entire hardcore playthrough, but it did take some effort. I find short swords to be even more difficult to use by a significant margin. Raven's Beak makes the game much easier, but there's no problem with that. I think the blunt damage on war hammers/maces on low armor is still better than trying to force longsword/short swords to work on armor.

Of course, you can just level up multiple weapons and switch as the situation demands. I did that on my normal playthrough, it's just much harder with reduced EXP. gain negative perk.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Google metzitzah:

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

I never use Long Swords outside of training.

I've made longsword work through an entire hardcore playthrough, but it did take some effort. I find short swords to be even more difficult to use by a significant margin. Raven's Beak makes the game much easier, but there's no problem with that. I think the blunt damage on war hammers/maces on low armor is still better than trying to force longsword/short swords to work on armor.

Of course, you can just level up multiple weapons and switch as the situation demands. I did that on my normal playthrough, it's just much harder with reduced EXP. gain negative perk.

All good points.

The longsword simply feels clunky to me - and since the devs did such a terrible job with spacing during combat, i'm more comfortable using a close combat weapon.

And i agree, shortswords in game aren't really good for much once you encounter an armored opponent. Even Stinger or a Master's Huntsman Sword is tough against an armored opponent with an Axe or Hammer - takes a long time to get through their armor.

oh - but i do use a longsword against Runt - simply to match the cutscene. :)

[MacSuibhne]

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

The longsword simply feels clunky to me - and since the devs did such a terrible job with spacing during combat, i'm more comfortable using a close combat weapon.

It's the opposite for me. I start with the longsword in tourneys every single time. The spacing and the mechanics in the tourney is no different than in melee. Every combat situation is fundamentally you against the opponent directly in front of you--1v1, just like in the tourney.

Yes, opponents will try to get around you. And yes, that makes it confusing and difficult, esp. for newbies and those unable to focus. But it's still one on one--as all hand to hand combat is.

IRL, no one can decapitate, or take out, two or three or ten opponents with one swing as in some fantasy games. You have to deal with / defeat the guy in front of you and then turn to the next guy.

That's true across the board even for the game as a whole--you have to deal with the problems in front of you and not conflate one with a slew of others. Also true for RL.

IMO.... FWIW....

On edit:

PS. I have used the long sword for most of two runs (as soon as I was strong enough and actually owed a decent longsword.) I have beaten Zoul with the longsword even on hardcore. Sometimes I just find battle axes and maces slow.

[danilo.schoeneberg]

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

Metal-plated battle axe (the second one, with the point)
--> this is my go-to weapon - the high slash damage with high blunt damage makes it very pleasing to use, plus high stab damage makes it my favorite all-around weapon. Normally i buy this from the Weaponsmith in Rattay.
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Axes

No need to buy that one. You can collect that one from a treasure during the prologue, unless you do play a strict playthrough of not collecting treasures without the accompanying map.

[MacSuibhne]

I suspect it would be both interesting and revealing to compare the damage given/taken stats from a play-through by someone like DargonBlak (with lots of hours and lots of familiarity) using exclusively the metal plated axe vs the longsword. Of course, the comparison would have to exclude the early parts of the game when Henry simply doesn't have enough strength to wield the heavier weapons.

Maybe esp. revealing would be the ratio of damage taken to damage dealt.

I suspect that damage taken would be at a higher level with the axe simply because since it is heavier and thus slower, there might be an opportunity for an opponent to get in more master strikes and parries.

[danilo.schoeneberg]

MacSuibhne,

My experience (at least on normal, where you can easily max your stats), once you have strength, warcraft, agility, vitality and the weapons stats on 20, it doesn't really make much of a difference anymore what weapon you wield, unless you deliberately choose an underpowered one, like the Fearnot longsword instead of the St. George's. Even heavily armoured knights are not much of a hassle anymore.

[Yuz]

Originally posted by DargonBlak:

Heavy Warhammer
--> it's strength stats are below Raven's Beak, but it has a higher damage rating. Stab damage is higher also. Normally acquired as loot from top tier skirmish location
https://kingdom-come-deliverance.fandom.com/wiki/Mace_(Weapon)

The page says the Raven's Beak as "One of four maces in the game that deal all damage types when swung", while Heavy Warhammer, "This mace has the best Stab damage in the game, but can only be applied during stabs".