Comparing the damage of several high end weapons

[#Charlotte]

I recently tested some of the weapons that came with the expansion because I was interested in actual values of dps and dmg per hit. What I found is not really what I would have expected from weapon stats.

Here is how I tested the weapons and what I got as a result.

I was playing in singleplayer admin mode and spawned myself a blackice broadsword, a blackice longsword, a flawless starmetal hammer and a glacier crack. I had zero points on all attributes on the character and first tested the naked dmg of both normal hits and power attacks on sandstone foundations by hitting them just once, and destroying a whole foundation to measure the time it takes to do 10k pure normal attack dmg.

Results were as it follows:
(na: normal attack, pa: power attack, dps: damage per second; calculated as 10000 hp divided by the time it took to take down a sandstone foundation)
All damage is given in hp.

• blackice broadsword:
  
  • na: 181
    
  • pa: 385
    
  • dps: 312.5
• blackice longsword:
  
  • na: 181
    
  • pa: 405
    
  • dps: 312.5
• flawless starmetal hammer:
  
  • na: - (not measured)
    
  • pa: 189
    
  • dps: 185.2
• glacier crack:
  
  • na: 130
    
  • pa: 130
    
  • dps: 227.3

I obviously noticed that the damage was much higher then the damage that it says on the weapon description on all these weapons. What I find a little bit confusing is that blackice longsword and broadsword have terribly similar stats.

I then proceded to test the damage taken under the influence of armors. I took a lvl 4 fighter thrall named Frigga Falsehope and spawned her as a converted fighter. I then equipped her with the armor I wanted to test against the weapons above. The thrall has 280 hp which can be seen in her inventory.
Those are the armors I tested: naked, reptile armor, silent legion armor. I won't give a dps calculation because the thrall has only 280 hp, which would not give valid results for dps.
Instead I will give here hits, it takes to kill and seconds until the thrall died.

Here is what I found:

• blackice broadsword:
  
  • naked: na: 181; pa: onehit; onehit, 1s
    
  • reptile armor: na: 93; pa: 207; 4 hits, 3s
    
  • silent legion armor: na: 65; pa: 149, 5 hits, 4s
• blackice longsword:
  
  • naked: na: 181; pa: onehit; onehit, 1s
    
  • reptile armor: na: 93; pa: 197; 4 hits, 3s
    
  • silent legion armor: na: 67; pa: 141, 5 hits, 4s
• flawless starmetal hammer:
  
  • naked: na: 189; pa: onehit; onehit, 1s
    
  • reptile armor: na: 173; pa: 197; 2 hits, 2s
    
  • silent legion armor: na: 173; pa: 177, 2 hits, 2s
• glacier crack:
  
  • naked; na: 130; pa: 130; 3 hits, 1-2s
    
  • reptile armor: na: 111; pa: 111; 3 hits, 1-2s
    
  • silent legion armor: na: 106; pa: 106; 3 hits, 1-2s

The results above were quite consistant with the ones from the sandstone foundations. I am not entirely sure about the correctness of the damage, but the mistake shouldn't be too big.
The number of hits is unfortunatly not so interesting since the thrall has only 280 hp.

I also noticed that the flawless starmetal hammer did knock down on the reptile armor, but not on the silent legion armor equipped thrall.

Now taking attack speed and damage into consideration you might agree to this:
From all weapons tested above the glacier crack is the best choice to fight an enemy that is clad in medium to heavy armor. Only when fighting a naked to light armor equipped enemy the super high damage of both blackice swords is allowed to have its full effect.

The flawless starmetal hammer does not have very high dps, but is very useful against medium armor types due to the power attacks knockdown perk. However it does not knock down an enemy in silent legion armor, which is eliminating this advantage and makes the flawless starmetal hammer useless compared to the glacier crack. I see a great imbalance here. I think knockdown should appear on all armor types at least with the most powerful hammer in the game.

Give me your thoughts. Why is the damage overall so much higher than it says in the descriptions?

[Stone Spear]

Have you compared Kingslayer yet I would think it would be somewhere around Glacial crsck for damage?

[#Charlotte]

Originally posted by Stone Spear:

Have you compared Kingslayer yet I would think it would be somewhere around Glacial crsck for damage?

No, I did not consider it a high end weapon due to its description and lack of use on official servers. I think the polearm weapons are only good for fighting AI enemies... you know why.

[Fat-n-Slo]

Originally posted by #Olumat:

Originally posted by Stone Spear:

Have you compared Kingslayer yet I would think it would be somewhere around Glacial crsck for damage?

No, I did not consider it a high end weapon due to its description and lack of use on official servers. I think the polearm weapons are only good for fighting AI enemies... you know why.

You couldn't be more wrong. Polearm weapons are used, and used very effectively. Yes official PvP.

[Synthe]

Thank you for sharing the results. The Kingslayer is a popular weapon, in my experience on official PvP.

[#Charlotte]

I guess that is due to some damage stacking issues

[Limmin]

Nice report.

I'm still a newb. but have wondered how much actual damage is being dealt with by an iron sword...says 27 but I suspect it's higher, maybe 27 plus your strength rating?!

[#Charlotte]

Originally posted by Limmin:

Nice report.

I'm still a newb. but have wondered how much actual damage is being dealt with by an iron sword...says 27 but I suspect it's higher, maybe 27 plus your strength rating?!

It is basedamage + basedamage*(strenght/100). Then you have to consider the armor value of your enemy which will reduce the amound of dealt damage again.