Duelmasters - Doing Damage

From: johnjohn@cco.caltech.edu (John White)

Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 04:24:17 +0000

In article <1992Oct20.215033.15847@blaze.cs.jhu.edu> eisen@fermat.cs.jhu.edu
(Hal Joshua Eisen) writes:

>Well, I grabbed those weapon charts that were posted a few days ago, and
>it looks to me like they will be very useful for choosing which weapons
>NOT to send my warriors out with.  However, they don't help me to much in
>choosing from the remaining weapons.  I know a warrior has a favorite
>weapon, and that a manager should experiment to find it.  My question is:
>Does the weapon do the damage, or does the warrior do the damage?  The
reason
>I ask this is that there might be 4 different weapons which my warrior is
>able to handle, but one is right on the edge of the ST requirement, while
>the other is far below the ST requirement.  Which should I pick?

You seem to be operating under the misconception that the weapon that your
warrior does the most damage with is the weapon that is the best to use.
That just isn't the case for all the fighting styles.

For example:
The striking attack style's major advantage lies in it's quick, repeated
attacks.  Despite the fact that a high strength, medium wit/deft striker
will be able to use most of the weapons, the ones that are the best to use
are the ones that balance quickness with damage doing.

This kind of applies to the lunging style as well.

On the other hand, the wall of steel style isn't known for balls-out, go for
the jump strategies (despite what she-puppy's article might have you
thinking).  So it's ok for wastes to think about using the Axes and other
slow weapons which do decent damage.

Or consider bashers, who are known for getting the jump despite being pretty
weighed down.

>I would guess
>that a larger weapon (one which requires more ST) would do more damage,
>so I'd try that one first.  Alternatively, if the warrior simply does
>damage based on SZ and ST, then I'd choose the smaller weapon, since it
>wouldn't tire out my warrior as fast.  Which is better?

Ok, both the warrior's damage rating and the weapon itself BOTH modify how
much damage you're doing.  One way to think about it is that different
weapons have different ranges of damage.  A warrior's damage rating kind of
scales that.  So with any given blow, a warrior with little damage might do
80% of the damage that a warrior with normal damage would do, while a
warrior with devastating damage might do 180% of the damage of a normal
damage warrior.

Still, I would say that your weapon choice should depend on fighting style
and stats.  What are the fighting style and stats of the warrior(s?) you're
thinking of?

>Is it always true the a warrior does the most damage with his favorite
weapon?

Nope.  I would say that a striker with a favorite weapon of a dagger would
still do more damage when using a maul.

> If you knew you were going to fight a warrior of a particular style, do
some
>weapons do well against other styles?  Thanks for any hints...

Hmmmm... in GENERAL, bashing are best to use against SCUM, since scum
generally wear heavy armor.
Offensives, on the other hand, tend to be light on the armor, so slashing or
lunging weapons are best.

Keep in mind, though, that you'll probably want to use your favorite weapon
against EVERYTHING.  I have a slasher who went through a plate-armored scum
in just over 2 minutes. :-)

Again, what are the specifics on the situation which you're talking about?

References

weapon damage in duelmasters
eisen@fermat.cs.jhu.edu (Hal Joshua Eisen)
Tue, 20 Oct 1992 21:50:33 +0000