Andor's Trail

Been playing a year now, and love the game. But I am curious on why there is a glaring disparity within the rarer weapons. Simply put, there is a decided edge on two-handed swords.... and very few rare / good / decent one-handed gems.

Why is this? If there is intent on bringing forth new content.... can this somehow be addressed? I would honestly prefer to build a 1hd sword character for fighting... than to drop my shield in favor of extra damage points.

Thoughts? Ideas? Am I crazy?

As your character advances in level, the higher ac and damage that the two handed swords carry become less and less important, and you start to see that weapons with low AP cost, and therefore more attacks per round, start to dominate. These are usually daggers.

I get you on that, Tomcat. the Barbed dagger is pretty nice in that respect.... but daggers are so... thieves / assassin for character build. While I'd love a nice bow (I've used bows on every character since the original Diablo) --- barring that I can't do that here, a nice one-handed warrior is what I am aiming for. I'd love to see something more akin to Flagstone's Pride, but with a decent malady added. (BLEEDING!!!!)

It just really sucks that all the decent / rare weapons are all 2 hander's, meaning you become the hulk or tank.

There's a legendary one-handed sword that heals you, just revisit the kazaul temple to the bottom again and hope for a quick dropping.
Together with the blade of the defiler and dual wieled maxed you will be hard to kill.

BethelAbba wrote:It just really sucks that all the decent / rare weapons are all 2 hander's, meaning you become the hulk or tank.

You are missing the point that Tomcat is making. Your damage per hit is made up of your base damage, damage from equipment bonuses, and weapon damage. The damage per round is the damage per hit multiplied by the number of hits per round. As you get to higher levels the damage from the weapon becomes an ever smaller fraction of the total. Also, all two handed weapons have a high attack cost, so a limited number of attacks per round. Example:

Base AD 10, Equipment AD 10, Weapon AD 30, 2 attacks per round. Max damage per round is 100
Base AD 10, Equipment AD 10, Weapon AD 10, 4 attacks per round. Max damage per round is 120

So the lower AD, lower attack cost, weapon is better. You are correct that the weapons in the game are unbalanced (there are plans to fix this), but it is the opposite of what you think. Lower attack cost weapons are always better, especially when you gain a lot of levels. That means daggers and one handed swords, not two handed swords. One of the very best weapons in the game is a one handed sword that you can just buy.

rijackson741 wrote:
One of the very best weapons in the game is a one handed sword that you can just buy.

The balanced Steel Sword

Perhaps *the best* item in the game is one you can buy early, simply because it gives you extra attacks per round with almost any weapon.
When I first started, I was used to games that gave you hit points every level automatically, so I always chose that option here. It took awhile to realize the power of building Attack Chance and Attack Damage instead.

Any little 0-1AD dagger can eventually do major mayhem .. the power comes from your levels. Just make it a fast one...

Tomcat wrote:

rijackson741 wrote:
One of the very best weapons in the game is a one handed sword that you can just buy.

The balanced Steel Sword

Perhaps *the best* item in the game is one you can buy early, simply because it gives you extra attacks per round with almost any weapon.

And I always went for the Fencing Blade in Vilegard.... silly me.

Tomcat wrote:

Jewel of Fallhaven. Yes, I know there's that other one, but I never side with that wretch...

Totally.... 150% agreed.... that *witch* never gets anything from me but the tip of my blade. I don't care how nice her amulet is.

Tomcat wrote:When I first started, I was used to games that gave you hit points every level automatically, so I always chose that option here. It took awhile to realize the power of building Attack Chance and Attack Damage instead.

Any little 0-1AD dagger can eventually do major mayhem .. the power comes from your levels. Just make it a fast one...

You know.... Just picked up a new tablet (ASUS ZenPad 8) and re-started playing from scratch. My first 8 levels went straight into damage, my next 20 (so far) has been a balanced leveling of BC and AC, with an occasional Health or Dam when necessary. My Skill picks have centered around getting Fortitude and Regeneration up and running ---- so maybe I am doing this differently / seeing this differently than you are.

When I first started playing (I thought it was a year ago, but I've come to realize it was 2 years now --- my old ACER) I did focus on making my character a health MONSTER.... and I had him up to 55th level and something like 200+ HP. Worked well enough, but took forever to kill things.

I'll have to really think about your advice here... I'm already at 28th level and I don't relish restarting ..... just yet.

I just realized what everyone is saying here, and it saddens me greatly. Whereas I thought this game offered some interesting diversity, what's being pointed out is that there really is no diversity at all. In the end, the limitation of action points simply will drive you in the same direction every time. That means you are essentially building the same thing every time you play, regardless of what you want your character to be. The illusion of choice that the Charwood quest presents you (Falothen and Fayvara's skill building) giving false hope to you that you can be whatever you want to be..... how sad.

I really need to think this through some more, but you've hit me with a sledgehammer with your responses here.

We are well aware of this, and there are plans to overhaul the combat system and UI, just not in the short term. I target v0.8 for these. Who knows when in time that will be...

Zukero wrote:We are well aware of this, and there are plans to overhaul the combat system and UI, just not in the short term. I target v0.8 for these. Who knows when in time that will be...

There is a thread from awhile back that discusses the current problem and some possible new approaches. Unfortunately, it was right before the game creator stepped away, and development slowed to a crawl. Find the thread, and see if you have ideas to add.

In the meantime, more level ups on dam will make your game easier to play.