Axes and Mallets and Swords oh my!

[Caracal]

Which do you prefer for Warriors? My last two playthroughs I've gone with 2H swords. I really like the extra shielding and the damage is good but the AI is smart enough to mostly avoid the horizontal splash damage. My current game I found a very nice T2 mallets (Ruby + Monster Bone) The damage is great and the AI mostly can't avoid the splash damage. On the other hand I never really tried high end axes. Even with no splash damage they seem pretty awesome. I'm just about ready to invest three points in a weapon for my two warriors, leaning towards mallets.

[was_fired]

For me its:

1. Javelins / Spears: These can dominate early game since with high strength you can often kill enemies before they have a chance to act using first strike + poison throwing dagger. They also are useful in mid and late game, but against multiple enemies with 100+ health not being able to kill them in one round can cause problems.

2. Axes: These are great for high health enemies since they have the highest damage multiplier in the game and can be fairly fast. Make sure you use stone one of the materials when making elemental or legendary axes since adding three times your strength as shielding AND acting before your enemy does makes for easy wins.

3. Swords: Sometimes you have a character who needs more armor so you give them a sword. Two-handed swords are have a decent damage multiplier, but it can't compare to an axe.

4. Clubs / Mallets: I consider these junk. They're always slow so the enemy gets to act before you do. They have a damage multiplier that's as bad as swords, and their only redeeming feature is splash damage. The problem is that multi-target damage is done faster, more accurately and with a higher multiplier by spells like random blast.

[madrigal]

I haven't tried them all yet. So far I favor faster hits rather than max damage so haven't used mallets and clubs. My crafting has been mostly axes since they are fast enough with Zorya's speed bonus. My current Zorya run I have an Orc crafter, an Orc bandit and a human bandit with axes. Then I got another Orc from an event who is going the crafter/wisdom route. I got some amazing RNG this time. I do like the extra shielding from swords and used those with Svarog. I would probably go with swords on warriors since they are slower than bandits. I really want to test out the polearms and spears branch next since they have that first strike abilty.

[tiamats4esgares]

I like 1h sword and shield for maximum tankiness. Let your other characters do the bulk of the damage.

[Caracal]

Originally posted by tiamats4esgares:

I like 1h sword and shield for maximum tankiness. Let your other characters do the bulk of the damage.

I might try this. My current game I have four decent T2/T3 shields from loot so I won't need to unlock shields for a while.

Originally posted by was_fired:

4. Clubs / Mallets: I consider these junk. They're always slow so the enemy gets to act before you do. They have a damage multiplier that's as bad as swords, and their only redeeming feature is splash damage. The problem is that multi-target damage is done faster, more accurately and with a higher multiplier by spells like random blast.

Yep, I noticed the slow speed thing, not good. Nope, not good at all.

[Myth Alric]

The more I have played, the more attention I been paying to the special abilities characters have, and then giving them weapons complementary to those. Some times if you get a really good ability and got the right stats, you deal more damage without a weapon than using the weapon. So in those cases giving a spear for first strike or a sword for extra shielding seems good.

Of course high quality two handed weapons can do crazy damage. So I tend to either go with what gives the best utility which might be something like one handed spear and shield and rely on their special ability for damage, or go for the heavy hitter weapons like the two handed axe.

[Imricdaelf120741]

+1 for character dependence. Every character and playthrough will be different. Learn what works best for your particular game.

Orcs/Dwarves & High Strength: 2h Axe/Sword (Shield/Life leech preferred).
Humans & Medium Strength: 1h Sword/Shield (Max Shielding)

High Wits can somewhat negate the slow speed of mallets.
Skills better than your weapons? Give them a first strike weapon.
Axes do the most damage, Swords give plenty of shielding, and all else are weak compared.

[dergefata]

Sword and board, all day, err day. The special ability granted by shield is huge; once you couple it with heavy armor and a one-handed sword, you can be throwing well over 100 points of shielding onto the board, easy. Double that, with high-end gear. And shielding is free; you don't risk death, you aren't weaker going into the next fight.

One or two main-line attackers with something other than a sword is just fine. And probably you'll have one or two backrank characters using codexes or relics. But mostly, sword and board. High damage numbers are nice, but nothing beats not being dead.

[Wendek]

For ranged I really like Javelins because I'm almost always using Double Toss (or maybe Ghostly Axe if I never got Double Toss) anyway due to its speed, so free damage is welcome.
Same reasoning applies to a Warrior with good Poison-throwing Dagger, a polearm is really nice in that case. In a recent playthrough I had several such characters so I actually researched the 3 points of Polearms and got pretty crazy ones for the lategame.

My go-to choice is two-handed swords though, it's a nice compromise between speed, damage and the added shielding can get really high in Elemental and Legendary weapons. I still think Axes are pretty damn good with their huge multiplier (I think I've seen 4x at most), but Warriors are often here to tank while a Witch/Wraith/Shaman deals the actual damage so Swords end up being better for me.
Mallets and Clubs are absolute garbage as far as I'm concerned, literally never use them unless I have nothing else.

[Megrim]

Hmm, I ve no real favourite, all weapons have their advantages and disadvantages. I ´m not using first strike weapons normally, as their damage value is too low imho, they ´re nice at easier encounters, but we talking about lightbringers and demon stacks of doom right?

I use sword and board mainly for my city defenders to boost their defence together with armory or on tanks with low hitpoints (bandits, warriors, undead corpses for example).

For my high str. chars I prefer axes to have the biggest damage on nasty enemies and also some chars have mallets, if I can lure enemies standing together when putting an backrow char with enough shielding and hitpoints first on the field (for example Bloodtracker or dwarf gatherer) mallet user are nice to have.

[metalvile]

Everything except 1h Clubs can be useful in the right situation, although 2h Mallets and Wands are often also lackluster due to their pathetic speed not making up for their damage output and need very specific situations to be considered worthwhile.

A good late game strategy if you end up with an all physical party with few to no casters is to run Halberds/Javelins in the back with epic True Damage weapons to ensure you damage the health of as many enemies as possible before combat actually starts. Then your front line consists of either 2h Swords or Axes with Poison/Shield Leech to lay down big damage while leeching absurd amounts of shields from the enemies.

This strategy is also fairly easy to execute since Stonewood exists as the perfect material to set up your front liners' weapons. With the right characters, this setup can even win Yellow challenge battles fairly handily, as Stonewood allows your weapons to be used in Mental Combat (albeit with Int instead of Str) if built properly. This extended strategy works best if you have at least 1 Elf in your party to use Ancestral Voice to spread the epic True Damage effect early in the fight to set up your front liners.

[Caracal]

I went with Axes and I'm quite happy with the results. The speed is a bit slow, so I a crafted a Codex or two with Quick Cover and gave them to my support troops (Crafters and Gatherers). That helps a lot. With a higher level Codex I can get my axe wielders speed negative

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Imricdaelf120741:

+1 for character dependence. Every character and playthrough will be different. Learn what works best for your particular game.

Orcs/Dwarves & High Strength: 2h Axe/Sword (Shield/Life leech preferred).
Humans & Medium Strength: 1h Sword/Shield (Max Shielding)

High Wits can somewhat negate the slow speed of mallets.
Skills better than your weapons? Give them a first strike weapon.
Axes do the most damage, Swords give plenty of shielding, and all else are weak compared.

How should Elf Druids be equipped? Their high Mysticism make me think as casters, but they have a decent enough stats to be melees as well. I am really conflicted.

Originally posted by dergefata:

Sword and board, all day, err day. The special ability granted by shield is huge; once you couple it with heavy armor and a one-handed sword, you can be throwing well over 100 points of shielding onto the board, easy. Double that, with high-end gear. And shielding is free; you don't risk death, you aren't weaker going into the next fight.

One or two main-line attackers with something other than a sword is just fine. And probably you'll have one or two backrank characters using codexes or relics. But mostly, sword and board. High damage numbers are nice, but nothing beats not being dead.

How do you keep casters alive? With codexes, and - most likely - light armor - they explode in one or two hits in harder fights. Even my Druid cannot stay alive - in spite of his large HP and shielding pool - so I am thinking of just turning him into a melee.

Originally posted by Wendek:

I still think Axes are pretty damn good with their huge multiplier (I think I've seen 4x at most), but Warriors are often here to tank while a Witch/Wraith/Shaman deals the actual damage so Swords end up being better for me.

Same question. How are you guys equipping your casters for them to stay alive? Or perhaps it's the combination of skills you use? I don't get it. My casters cannot survive difficult fights.