Artisan Archive

speed is only part of the equation. The real determiner of weapon decay is dps (damage per second). Simply put, the more damage the weapon does, the faster the weapon will decay. Keeping that in mind, while powerups and slicing don't themselves affect decay, the results of powerups and slicing (increased damage output) do.

Test it out sometime. take a pup'ed/sliced weapon and the same weaon with no pup or slice - pound away at something for approximately the same damage with each weapon (not the same amount of shots). You will find the weapons have decayed equally.

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LoneWulff wrote:

This is only true if you base decay on time (i.e. amount of decay in 10 minutes).However if you base decay on things done (i.e. number of creatures killed or missions done) then weapon speed shouldn't make a difference in decay.There is also too big a difference in the numbers.A powerup might increase weapon speed by 30% but increase weapon decay by more than 300%.

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Decay is based on damage done per second. Every time you execute a shot, your weapon decays by a certain amount. If you fire faster, your weapon decays faster. Thus, add a 33% speed powerup on your weapon and it's going to appear to decay 33% faster. However, it's really not decaying any faster per damage per second. The amount of decay is constant based on DPS. Since you'refiring faster and doing moreDPSit appears your weapon is decaying faster. But as a function of the amount of damage done, your weapon is not decaying any faster at all.

Message Edited by Animi on 10-12-2004 09:37 AM

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Animi wrote:

Decay is based on damage done per second. Every time you execute a shot, your weapon decays by a certain amount. If you fire faster, your weapon decays faster. Thus, add a 33% speed powerup on your weapon and it's going to appear to decay 33% faster. However, it's really not decaying any faster per damage per second. The amount of decay is constant based on DPS. Since you'refiring faster and doing moreDPSit appears your weapon is decaying faster. But as a function of the amount of damage done, your weapon is not decaying any faster at all.

Message Edited by Animi on 10-12-2004 09:37 AM

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Decay may be based on damage per second however powerups accelerate decay.What you say might be true if a 30% speed powerup made a weapon decay 30% faster.However the increase in decay is much higher than the increase in speed.If youkill a creature with a weapon without a powerup and the weapon decays 10 points, killing the same creature with the same weapon anda 30% speed powerup based on your post should decay 13 points.However the actual decay will be closer to 50 points.Whatever weapon decay is based on powerups increase decay past any bonus they give to damage per second.

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LoneWulff wrote:

Decay may be based on damage per second however powerups accelerate decay.What you say might be true if a 30% speed powerup made a weapon decay 30% faster.However the increase in decay is much higher than the increase in speed.If youkill a creature with a weapon without a powerup and the weapon decays 10 points, killing the same creature with the same weapon anda 30% speed powerup based on your post should decay 13 points.However the actual decay will be closer to 50 points.Whatever weapon decay is based on powerups increase decay past any bonus they give to damage per second.

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• For every 1000 points of damage dealt, your weapon decays 1 condition point


• Your base weapon, without powerup,has min damage of 250 and max damage of 500 and speed of 2.0.

Using these assumptions, we can run decay with powerup and without as a function of DPS.

1. Your average DPS, without a powerup, is 250. The calculation is ((min damage + max damage)/2)/speed. In this case, that's (250+500/2)/2, or187.5 DPS. For your weapon to decay 1 point you have to do 1000 points of damage. Doing 187.5 DPS, it will take5.33 seconds to do that (this is without using any special attacks, which would increase the DPS and slow down the attack speed). So, without powerup, your weapon decays 1 point in5.33 seconds and deals 1000 points of damage against whatever you're fighting.


2. If you use a 33% Max/16% Min Damage Powerup, your weapon's stats go to 290 min damage/665 max damage, and the speed stays the same. This leads to a DPS of ((665+290)/2)/2=238.75 DPS. With the powerup, it will take you 4.18 seconds to do 1000 points of damage. So, your weapon decays 1 point in 4.18 seconds and does 1000 points of damage.

OK, so, based on these calculations you'll say "Ah HA! You just proved my point! You weapon decayed 1 point in 4.18 seconds with a powerup instead of 5.33 seconds without a powerup. Therefore, your weapon will last longer if you don't use powerups!"

Technically, you would be right. HOWEVER (and that's a big however), what you're failing to see is that you are killing whatever you're fighting a lot faster with the powerupand are therefore not really experiencing any negative repurcussions by using it.

What I mean is this: if the creature you are fighting has 1000 HAM, you have to kill that thing one way or another and one way or another your weapon is going to lose 1 condition point if you kill that animal (remember, when your weapon does 1000 points of damage, it loses 1 point no matter how quickly it dished out that damage). The question is, would you rather lose 1 condition point and kill that animal in 4.18 seconds, or would you rather kill it in 5.33 seconds because you feel it will make your weapon LAST LONGER?

You see, the DPS rate is constant, which means the only thing you're doing by trying to make your weapon last longer is you're forcing yourself to take a lot longer to kill whatever it is you want to kill.

Animi

You are assuming that I base weapon decay on time (i.e. minutes spent fighting).If you go back and read my previous posts in this thread you'll see I base decay on tasks (i.e. creatures killed, missions completed).The same way you seem to be figuring it in your post, however you're mistaken about powerups not making weapons decay faster.

I did some small tests tonight.I made some mind cost/wound chance powerups for the tests so the speed and damage would be the same both with and without powerups and bought a new unsliced 2 handed axe.I went to dantooine and got voritor hunter missions.I killed all the voritors with a power hammerbut let them heal the lair fully before killing the last of them.I then used the 2 handed axe on the lair, all the lairs had exactly 64,000 points.Since all lairs have equal points according to your theory I should get approximately equal decay.

First I did 2 missions without a powerup using auto attack

Lair 1 decay 8 points

Lair 2 decay 10 points

Next I did 2 missions with powerups using auto attack

Lair 3 decay 31 points

Lair 4 decay 39 points

As you can see even though there shouldn't be any difference because speed and damage and therefore DPS is the same there is a large difference between without powerup and with powerup.

Lastly I tested your theory about decay being based only on damage done.I did 2 missions without powerups but used the special 2handhit3.

Lair 5 decay 2 points

Lair 6 decay 3 points

If you were correct the decay would be similar to lairs 1 and 2 however it isn't

My conclusion is decay is based on hits not damage and powerups make weapons decay faster.

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LoneWulff wrote:

You are assuming that I base weapon decay on time (i.e. minutes spent fighting).If you go back and read my previous posts in this thread you'll see I base decay on tasks (i.e. creatures killed, missions completed).The same way you seem to be figuring it in your post, however you're mistaken about powerups not making weapons decay faster.

I did some small tests tonight.I made some mind cost/wound chance powerups for the tests so the speed and damage would be the same both with and without powerups and bought a new unsliced 2 handed axe.I went to dantooine and got voritor hunter missions.I killed all the voritors with a power hammerbut let them heal the lair fully before killing the last of them.I then used the 2 handed axe on the lair, all the lairs had exactly 64,000 points.Since all lairs have equal points according to your theory I should get approximately equal decay.

First I did 2 missions without a powerup using auto attack

Lair 1 decay 8 points

Lair 2 decay 10 points

Next I did 2 missions with powerups using auto attack

Lair 3 decay 31 points

Lair 4 decay 39 points

As you can see even though there shouldn't be any difference because speed and damage and therefore DPS is the same there is a large difference between without powerup and with powerup.

Lastly I tested your theory about decay being based only on damage done.I did 2 missions without powerups but used the special 2handhit3.

Lair 5 decay 2 points

Lair 6 decay 3 points

If you were correct the decay would be similar to lairs 1 and 2 however it isn't

My conclusion is decay is based on hits not damage and powerups make weapons decay faster.

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I am going to run some test of my own and see if you are correct.

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Korlan wrote:

Useing specials put more wear on your weapon......

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With specials was 2-3 decay without specials was 8-10 decay.Using specials put less decay not more on my weapon.