Ond handed and shield not very effective

[flynnkd]

Some rough figures from my tests.

Using a one handed mace and shield at 29 hits per min, and using ID2 and ACC1, I do about 129 damage on a good hit. This costs me 10 stamina a hit.

With a good 2hs I do about 224 dam and 21 hits min. Same 10 stamina

Dodges seem to be less than 50% but close enough.

So this means a 1h weapon will do 6.4 dam per stamina point. I 2h weapon will do 11.2 dam per stamina point.

The shield has a small influence on incoming damage, not sufficient to make up for the difference above.

Nobody uses a 1h weapon and shield... except me... and for good reason, they are crap. Stamina cost needs to be adjusted by weapon to make things a little more even. Or shields need to add significant damage reduction.

Well at least at the level I am, 55.

[michie7b]

Shields boost your parry chance. Maybe you need to change your defense when using a shield. ;o)

Though it seems: dodge > parry


On the other issue:

- damage over time is about equal
- damage per stamina is worse with faster weapons (cause stamina is used per swing)

The hit rate also has a high influence on the aggro you cause, more so than the damage (i.e. 2 daggers cause more aggro than a twohanded weapon).

That's why shields is for the tankers (don't have to use increase_damage) in teams, while 2hd is to inflict damage.

At the moment twohanded weapons seem to be the more efficient weapon for a solo fighter.

[mboeing]

First of, did you change to parry mode?

With a shield you are supposed to parry not to dodge. A good shield should be optimized for parry modifier so should all other items you wear/use.

Yes the Stam cost is the big downside to the one handed version because you need to hit a lot more often at the same stam/hp cost.

Not sure if that can be compensated with a hit after parry brick.

With more hit you have more chances to use the hit a special location bricks, so those that stun or whatever might be a good addition to 1H fighting.

You can't just compare plain monster bashing, because then smaller weapons will always loose out.

People always complain about fight not being versatile enough, but thats because they just don't think what they can change in their style.

[usinuk]

Some rough figures from my tests.

Using a one handed mace and shield at 29 hits per min, and using ID2 and ACC1, I do about 129 damage on a good hit. This costs me 10 stamina a hit.

With a good 2hs I do about 224 dam and 21 hits min. Same 10 stamina

Dodges seem to be less than 50% but close enough.

So this means a 1h weapon will do 6.4 dam per stamina point. I 2h weapon will do 11.2 dam per stamina point.

The shield has a small influence on incoming damage, not sufficient to make up for the difference above.

Nobody uses a 1h weapon and shield... except me... and for good reason, they are crap. Stamina cost needs to be adjusted by weapon to make things a little more even. Or shields need to add significant damage reduction.

Well at least at the level I am, 55.

First, are you using a buckler or a shield? Not very many people have the ability to craft bucklers, but even fewer spend the additional 30 points on the big shield plan. I can tell you from experience that bucklers are a waste of money. Shields, however, despite a +50 action penalty do act as if you're wearing another piece of medium armor...16-17% protection using choice mats is nothing to sneeze at. (They also are great for grinding shield crafting.)

Second, you're right. Stam use for 1h weaps is a legit concern; if you were to dual wield, stam cost would be roughly double for the same damage of a 2h weapon.

Third, if I want to kill something I usually will dual wield. If I want to tank, I use a shield and taunt and a specially crafted staff I have with high parry numbers and so-so damage. Its all how you play.

[kibsword]

In my opinion the "Shield" Stanza is very useful in group combat when used with a large shield. You may share someone else's damage, meaning the damage from a mob is shared and not taken by just 1 person.

That is a very useful skill in relation to a shield. =J

[krone9]

level 76 1h melee and level 58 2h melee. Normally I use 1h sword and shield.

This isn't balanced in the slightest and there is no point to using a sword and shield currently. I do it for cosmetic reasons only and cos I like being different. 8)

The stamina cost of using sword and shield (I craft up to q50 shields not bucklers) is way too high compared to using a 2h sword. The damage delivered is much less and whilst the speed of the weapon is faster its not enough to compensate. That in itself should be expected tho. The parry bonus makes no real difference as far as I can see, and whilst the armour bonus it gives does, its not enough. If someone has managed to make a shield which makes a big difference to parry then I'd be pleased to try it out but my q50 shields with choice ingredients do nothing.

I realise this isn't backed up by actual figures btw but I haven't been bored enough to work that out yet. This opinion comes from time spent lvling mainly as 1h melee and now doing 2h melee whilst I was waiting for a new sword - the balance you guys suggest, and what damn well should be there, just isn't at the moment.

I would expect, a 1h fighter with a shield vs a 2h fighter with a 2h sword to be pretty much balanced in a fight if they are of equal lvls. The 2h fighter should do more damage but the 1h fighter should be able to absorb more in armour/parrying and on average they should be pretty even.

This is not the case at the moment - I've posted this elsewhere - and it needs to be fixed. One of the more annoying points of the game for me.

Definitely use parry mode - absolutely no point in using dodge in hvy armour with a shield as far as I can see - and the comments above relate to being in Parry Mode. I use attack after parry - and that helps a lot, I rarely run out of stamina now - its a great skill. I don't use the shield skill tbh but I can see that being useful - this is an aside to the balance that needs to be made tho.

I'd agree with Sky that fight is only dull if you don't take the various stanzas open to you. If you max out in one area and just take extra damage, hit points and stamina then basically you're gonna be doing the same thing each time and yes, its going to get dull.

I'd disagree about plain monster bashing as I do believe it should balance. It might take you longer than a 2h user but in the end the shield user should be able to take the same monsters simply by virtue of how much more damage they can take. Thats not the case at the moment tho.