Fencer Archive

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, a Thesis by Raphayl

Prelude

I have noted countless times the same old question is asked, "What is the best melee weapon?" Following the question is usually around a half dozen answers, with six of them being different. How can there be so many opinions of what the best weapon is?

Part of the discrepancy comes from differences of opinion of what the word "best" means in this context. For example, John may believe the "best" weapon is the one with the highest max damage and fastest speed, yet Paul seems to be convinced that low ham costs are the key to the "best" weapon. George wouldn’t consider any weapon unless it has a high armor piercing ability, while Ringo always seeks out weapons that can exploit vulnerabilities. Who is correct? Is it possible that they all are right? Perhaps they have all been duped. How can we know which is truly the "best" weapon, and why has it earned such a place of honor?

This is the mystery I hope to address in this thesis. Note that I used the word "address" and not the word "solve." Although being able to say by the end of this thesis that the mystery is solved and be able to state with confidence which weapon is the very best with concrete evidence as to why, I simply don’t know if that will be the case. All I can hope to do is gather all of the evidence, do my best to make a fair and unbiased comparison, and see what reveals itself. I’m not entering into this thesis with any pre-conceived notions, nor is my intent to prove that some specific weapon is better (or worse) than any other. All I have is a list of specimens, a calculator, a spreadsheet, some established knowledge of game mechanics, and an open mind… and I plan to see where that leads. I will be doing all calculations as I go along, so I have no clue what will be revealed until this is complete.

I invite you to come along on this journey of discovery with me. I will be writing this as I proceed through each step of the project so you can see the story reveal itself as I do. You probably have an idea in your mind about what your response might be if anyone asked you what the "best" melee weapon is. Perhaps this thesis will solidify what you currently feel, or perhaps it may alter your perception. In the end, the choice will still be yours.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I have just completed this thesis and am about to try and get it all posted. There are 12 parts in all. I ask that you PLEASE allow me to get all 12 parts posted before you reply so they can be cohesive parts. It should take me less than 30 minutes if all goes well, and the board cooperates. Thank you for your patience.)

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part I: Gathering the Melee Weapon Specimens

To learn something about melee weapons, we are going to require some specimens to use in our examination. This is probably the most difficult part to do fairly, but I did my best to collect the best representative for each SWG melee weapon that is actually in common use. I paid a visit to the person that is considered to be the "top" Weaponsmith on my server that deals in melee weaponry. The name is this person is irrelevant to this thesis, but it is a well known and well respected crafter. (In case you were wondering, "No", it isn’t me. My character doesn’t have an Artisan bone in her body.) This Weaponsmith constantly receives requests for the various weapons, and is in tune with what the various melee professions demand of their weapons. Every weapon produced is made from the top resources available on the server.

Said Weaponsmith was (and still is) completely uninformed about my intentions with these wares, so as to not have any possible tampering with the results. Since all of these weapons are from the same source, with access to the same resources, and with no motivation to purposeful make any of the weapons superior or inferior to another, they can be used as models for their kind. I realize that each of these weapons could be adjusted a bit differently than they are here through experimentation. However, these are pretty much the "accepted norms" of these weapons, and as such will serve their purpose well enough. Who knows? By the time I’m done, perhaps those "accepted norms" might begin to change; and then again perhaps they will be endorsed.

Here are the 14 unmodified melee weapons I’ll be using for this thesis:

Vibro-Knuckles 37-146 2.2 35/52/35

Curved Sword 73-167 2.3 26/51/35

Ryyk Blade 73-170 2.5 50/40/35

Vibroblade (Original) 44-146 2.6 14/25/14

Vibroblade (Advanced) 46-150 2.6 27/39/27

Gaderiffi Baton 131-221 3.5 60/36/16

Stun Baton 90-1322.5 18/48/43

Two-handed Axe 133-193 3.7 54/24/18

Two-handed Curved Sword 60-244 2.6 29/62/35

Two-handed Cleaver 100-217 3.5 48/46/28

Vibro-Axe 113-242 4.6 97/65/35

Power Hammer 137-465 5.4 114/36/23

Vibro-Lance 96-3014.0 55/78/29

Long Vibro-Axe 110-375 4.5 82/66/29

I disregarded several other melee weapons due to the fact that their blatantly obvious flaws prevent them being seriously considered as a real choice for weaponry. Primarily the omitted weapons are either just for show such as the Rantok sword, or simply because they are mainly available for newbie use such as the Wood Staff. Unless otherwise specified, all weapons with the availability of Advanced Cores have them. The only exception is that I included both the original Vibroblade and the Advanced Core Vibroblade versions since both are still used even when the other is available. If these weapons are drastically different than what is available from your server’s top-end Master Weaponsmith Melee Specialist, just get the same data that you see listed above and do the calculations with me as we go along using your numbers instead.

I will need to enter each of these into my spreadsheet for future calculations, which I will do now.

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part II: Effects of Slicing

Only those few people that have not discovered the wonders of Slicing run around using a weapon in its original form. Slicing can be performed by Smugglers, and can either improve the speed or the damage of the weapon, but not both, at a very slight sacrifice to the rate at which the weapon decays. Personally, I haven’t been able to detect a rate change, but it’s supposedly there. As of this writing, the best you can hope for is a 40% slice if you find a great Smuggler. However, not even a Master Smuggler can guarantee you a 40% slice every time, nor can they predict if the speed of the weapon will be improved or its damage. There appears to be completely random 50/50 chance of either.

However, since the possibility of a perfect slice (40%) does exist, and since any weapon has an equal chance of getting this slice, we are going to have each of our weapons sliced to perfection in both aspects. In effect, this will give us twice the number of virtual weapons to compare. I’ve set my spreadsheet up to give me calculate the new stats for both sliced versions for each of our weapons. Here are the results for each weapon having either a perfect damage slice (D), or perfect speed slice (S):

(D)Vibro-Knuckles 52-204 2.2

(S)Vibro-Knuckles 37-146 1.3

(D)Curved Sword 102-234 2.3

(S)Curved Sword 73-167 1.4

(D)Ryyk Blade 102-238 2.5

(S)Ryyk Blade 73-170 1.5

(D)Vibroblade (Original) 62-204 2.6

(S)Vibroblade (Original) 44-146 1.6

(D)Vibroblade (Advanced) 64-210 2.6

(S)Vibroblade (Advanced) 46-150 1.6

(D)Gaderiffi Baton183-309 3.5

(S)Gaderiffi Baton 131-221 2.1

(D)Stun Baton 126-185 2.5

(S)Stun Baton 90-132 1.5

(D)Two-handed Axe 186-270 3.7

(S)Two-handed Axe 133-193 2.2

(D)Two-handed Curved Sword 84-342 2.6

(S)Two-handed Curved Sword 60-244 1.6

(D)Two-handed Cleaver 140-304 3.5

(S)Two-handed Cleaver 100-217 2.1

(D)Vibro-Axe 158-339 4.6

(S)Vibro-Axe 113-242 2.8

(D)Power Hammer192-651 5.4

(S)Power Hammer137-465 3.2

(D)Vibro-Lance 134-421 4.0

(S)Vibro-Lance 96-301 2.4

(D)Long Vibro-Axe 154-525 4.5

(S)Long Vibro-Axe 110-375 2.7

This certainly makes the playing field more interesting. It’s amazing what those Smugglers can accomplish when they aren’t busy running spice.

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part IV: Effects of Skill-Modifiers

What we have seen so far would be an accurate comparison if weapons acted independently of their wielders but as we all know, they do not. If we are to make a functional comparison of these weapons we account for factors bestowed by the skills of the character wielding it.

There are dozens of various stages possible in the progression from Notice to Master, so the only way to be completely unbiased is to compare all of these weapons as though they were in the hands of the best, a Master of that weapon. At any stage of development prior to Mastery the numbers can be skewed, and since anyone can eventually make it to Mastery it seems to be the only equal level to use for comparison. There seems to be a general notion that if you were to take a Master of each of the melee professions and compare their abilities, they should come out about equal once all things are considered. It’s possible that this comparison might give us a glimpse of whether or not that equality exists.

At this step in the weapon comparison we will be looking at two melee skill modifiers, Weapon Speed and Weapon Damage. Each of the four melee professions gets a Weapon Speed Modifier, with only "Unarmed" having a Weapon Damage Modifier. Both of these skill modifiers perform based upon a percentile adjustment, with higher numbers bestowing "better" bonuses. At least they do in theory.

At this time in the game the Masters get the following bonuses (specific to their weapon):

"Unarmed" Weapon Damage 101%

"Unarmed" Weapon Speed 100+% (Anything over a 100% reduction would be irrelevant.)

One-handed Weapon Speed 90%

Two-handed Weapon Speed 75%

Polearm Weapon Speed 75%

Now let’s take a look at the "effective" stats on these weapons after placing them in the hands of their respective Masters:

(D)Vibro-Knuckles 105-410 0.0

(S)Vibro-Knuckles 74-293 0.0

(D)Curved Sword 102-234 0.2

(S)Curved Sword 73-167 0.1

(D)Ryyk Blade 102-238 0.3

(S)Ryyk Blade 73-170 0.2

(D)Vibroblade (Original)62-204 0.3

(S)Vibroblade (Original)44-146 0.2

(D)Vibroblade (Advanced) 64-210 0.3

(S)Vibroblade (Advanced) 46-149 0.2

(D)Gaderiffi Baton 183-309 0.4

(S)Gaderiffi Baton 131-221 0.2

(D)Stun Baton 126-185 0.3

(S)Stun Baton 90-132 0.2

(D)Two-handed Axe 186-270 0.9

(S)Two-handed Axe 133-193 0.6

(D)Two-handed Curved Sword 84-342 0.7

(S)Two-handed Curved Sword 60-244 0.4

(D)Two-handed Cleaver 140-304 0.9

(S)Two-handed Cleaver 100-217 0.5

(D)Vibro-Axe 158-339 1.2

(S)Vibro-Axe 113-242 0.7

(D)Power Hammer 192-651 1.4

(S)Power Hammer 137-465 0.8

(D)Vibro-Lance 134-421 1.0

(S)Vibro-Lance 96-301 0.6

(D)Long Vibro-Axe 154-525 1.1

(S)Long Vibro-Axe 110-375 0.7

These changes seem to have dramatically changed the effective weapon stats. The picture it projects sure gives incentive to reach those Mastery levels!

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part VI: Impact of the Speed Cap

There is an additional factor that prevents full utilization of the higher Speed Modifiers with any weapon that is already fairly fast. This factor is the "speed cap". Currently there is a 1.0 second speed cap that prevents any weapon from swinging faster than once per second. Therefore if a weapon would otherwise reach a modified speed of less than 1.0 it will automatically be clipped at a steady 1.0 speed, effectively loosing the benefits of the excess speed.

Some weapons, namely the slower ones, are either not effected by this limitation or are not significantly affected. Other weapons, the faster ones, are significantly penalized by this cap. Before we look at the results, let’s think about this. Earlier we saw that there were three very distinct tiers of DPS: Infinite, 640, and 299. If this cap brought these numbers inline with each other, it would be a good thing. The 640 DPS tier needs to be reduced 53% relative to the 299 DPS tier to even the field. The Infinite DPS tier, well… it must first be brought into the realm of reason before we can begin to calculate the necessary adjustment.

The following comparison takes into consideration the 1.0 second speed cap. The first number is the DPS before the cap; the number following it is the DPS after the 1.0 cap; and the final number shows the damage percentage loss inflicted by the speed cap. I wonder if the reductions revealed will properly adjust the DPS of these weapons and dissolve the boundaries between these three DPS tiers. Let’s find out:

"Unarmed" Weapons DPS(Uncapped) 1.0 Capped DPSLoss

1. (D)Vibro-Knuckles Infinite 257 Incalculable

2. (S)Vibro-Knuckles Infinite 185 I ncalculable

It appears that the 1.0 second speed cap has brought "Unarmed" weaponry back into a measurable amount. Also, for the very first time the Damage sliced version surpasses the Speed sliced version. "Unarmed" Weapons now have an average of 221 DPS.

One-handed Weapons DPS(Uncapped) 1.0 Capped DPSLoss

1. (D)Gaderiffi Baton615 246 60%

2. (S)Gaderiffi Baton880 176 80%

3. (D)Ryyk Blade 567 170 70%

4. (D)Curved Sword 840 168 80%

5. (D)Stun Baton 517 155 70%

6. (D)Vibroblade (Advanced) 457 137 70%

7. (D)Vibroblade (Original) 443 133 70%

8. (S)Ryyk Blade 610 122 80%

9. (S)Curved Sword 1200 120 90%

10. (S)Stun Baton 555 11180%

11. (S)Vibroblade (Advanced) 490 98 80%

12. (S)Vibroblade (Original) 475 95 80%

If you recall we were looking for approximately a 53% average reduction to One-handed DPS to bring it in-line with the other weapons. However, the average reduction ends up being 76%, so instead of halving the DPS we quartered it. The average One-handed weapon now has only 144 DPS. That is a huge reduction in DPS. Still if the speed cap reduces the other weaponry by as little as 50% then they would still even out.

Two-handed Weapons DPS(Uncapped) 1.0 Capped DPSLoss

1. (D)Power Hammer 301 301 0%

2. (S)Power Hammer 376301 20%

3. (D)Two-handed Axe 253 228 10%

4. (D)Two-handed Cleaver 247 222 10%

5. (D)Two-handed Curved Sword 304 213 30%

6. (D)Vibro-Axe 208 208 0%

7. (S)Vibro-Axe 254 17830%

8. (S)Two-handed Axe 272163 40%

9. (S)Two-handed Cleaver 318 159 50%

10. (S)Two-handed Curved Sword 380 152 60%

The average DPS loss for Two-handed weapons due to the speed cap is 25%, and the average damage ends up at 213 DPS. This is right in-line with "Unarmed" weapons, but 58% more than One-handed weapons.

Polearm Weapons DPS(Uncapped) 1.0 Capped DPSLoss

1. (D)Long Vibro-Axe 309 309 0%

2. (D)Vibro-Lance 278 278 0%

3. (S)Long Vibro-Axe 347 24330%

4. (S)Vibro-Lance 332 199 40%

The average DPS loss for Polearm weapons ends up being a mere 18%, which leaves them with an average of 257 DPS. This is 16% more than "Unarmed" weapons, 21% more than Two-handed weapons, and 78% more than One-handed weapons.

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part VII: Armor Piercing vs. Armor Rating

All melee weapons possess some level of Armor Piercing (AP) that alters the amount of damage it does versus the Armor Rating (AR) of the target. Currently, if the AP of the weapon is equal to the AR of the target there is no change to the damage done. If the AP of the weapon is lower than the AR of the target, then the damage is reduced by 50% for each level of difference, each level of reduction applied after the previous one. If the AP of the weapon is higher than the AR of the target, then the damage is amplified by 25% for each level of the difference, each level of amplification applied after the previous one.

Although some combatants might limit themselves to scenarios that only pit them against one AR or another, every person has the potential to find themselves faced off against opponents that possess AR’s from None (AR0) to Heavy (AR3). Therefore we really need to see how each weapon compares across the board and not limit our investigation to one select AR. However, rather than comparing every single weapon against every single AR and trying to cross-reference them all, I found a simplified method. I’ll explain the method before we use it so you know where it came from. Let us first begin with a hypothetical weapon that has a damage range of 100-100, so it always hits for exactly 100. This makes the numbers easy to calculate. There is also a dial on the hilt that allows the wielder to select any AP rating for the weapon from AP0 all the way to AP3. We will next see what happen to the damage of this weapon at each AP setting versus AR0 through AR3.

100 Damage at AP0 vs.:

AR0: 100

AR1: 50

AR2: 25

AR3: 13

Average Damage: 47

Therefore, on average, an AP0 weapon is reduced to 47% of its normal potential damage.

100 Damage at AP1 vs.:

AR0: 125

AR1: 100

AR2: 50

AR3: 25

Average Damage: 75

Therefore, on average, an AP1 weapon is reduced to 75% of its normal potential damage.

100 Damage at AP2 vs.:

AR0: 156

AR1: 125

AR2: 100

AR3: 50

Average Damage: 108

Therefore, on average, an AP2 weapon is amplified to 108% of its normal potential damage.

100 Damage at AP3 vs.:

AR0: 195

AR1: 156

AR2: 125

AR3: 100

Average Damage: 144

Therefore, on average, an AP3 weapon is amplified to 144% of its normal potential damage.

We can now take these simple percentages and apply them to our previously calculated DPS’s to determine the impact that AP vs. AR will have upon our weapons. Just so we have a reference for these percentages, I’ll simply to them as the PPF (Penetration vs. Protection Factor) from this point on.

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part VIII: Impact of the PPF on Weapon DPS

Here we will apply the PPF to each of our weapons based upon their current AP level and see how it modifies their DPS rankings. As usual, we will first compare them within their individual categories, and then as a whole group. Just to make it easier to see the changes, the first number is the previous DPS, the second is the AP of the weapon, and the third is the PPF adjusted DPS. Perhaps we will find that these adjustments will help balance out the tipped scales.

"Unarmed" Weapons 1.0 Capped APx PPF DPS

1. (D)Vibro-Knuckles 257 1193

2. (S)Vibro-Knuckles 185 1139

Before the PPF adjustment "Unarmed" Weapons possessed an average of 221 DPS.

After the PPF adjustment "Unarmed" Weapons now possess an average of 166 DPS.

The (D)Vibro-Knuckles retains its position as the top "Unarmed" Weapon.

One-handed Weapons 1.0 Capped APx PPF DPS

1. (D)Gaderiffi Baton 246 0 116

2. (D)Vibroblade (Advanced) 137 1 103

3. (D)Vibroblade (Original) 133 1 100

4. (S)Gaderiffi Baton 1760 83

5. (D)Ryyk Blade 170 0 80

6. (D)Curved Sword 168 0 79

7. (S)Vibroblade (Advanced) 98 1 74

8. (D)Stun Baton 155 0 73

9. (S)Vibroblade (Original) 95 1 71

10. (S)Ryyk Blade 122 0 57

11. (S)Curved Sword 120 0 56

12. (S)Stun Baton 111 0 52

Before the PPF adjustment One-handed Weapons possessed an average of 144 DPS.

After the PPF adjustment One-handed Weapons now possess an average of 79 DPS.

The (D)Gaderiffi Baton retains its position as the top One-handed Weapon, in spite of its lack of AP.

Two-handed Weapons 1.0 Capped APx PPF DPS

1. (D)Power Hammer 301 2 325

2. (S)Power Hammer 301 2 325

3. (D)Two-handed Cleaver 222 1 240

4. (D)Vibro-Axe 208 1 156

5. (S)Vibro-Axe 178 1 134

6. (S)Two-handed Cleaver 159 1 119

7. (D)Two-handed Axe 228 0 107

8. (D)Two-handed Curved Sword 213 0 100

9. (S)Two-handed Axe 163 077

10. (S)Two-handed Curved Sword 152 0 71

Before the PPF adjustment Two-handed Weapons possessed an average of 213 DPS.

After the PPF adjustment Two-handed Weapons now possess an average of 140 DPS.

The (D)Power Hammer retains its position as the top Two-handed Weapon; the position further solidified by its high AP.

Polearm Weapons 1.0 Capped APx PPF DPS

1. (D)Long Vibro-Axe 309 2 334

2. (S)Long Vibro-Axe 243 2 262

3. (D)Vibro-Lance 278 1 209

4. (S)Vibro-Lance 199 1 149

Before the PPF adjustment Polearm Weapons possessed an average of 257 DPS.

After the PPF adjustment Polearm Weapons now possess an average of 239 DPS.

The (D)Long Vibro-Axe retains its position as the top Polearm Weapon; the position further solidified by its high AP.

Anatomy of a SWG Melee Weapon, Part IX: Balancing the Numbers

Now that we can see what the capabilities of each of the weapons are, we can look at some of the "possible" methods could be for equalizing them. These are neither suggestions nor proposals, just possibilities base solely upon the numbers we have revealed.

Let’s use each professions best weapon as seen above (because if people knew what the best weapon was, most would adopt it) for this portion of our comparison. That would give us four weapons to consider:

1. The damage sliced Long Vibro-Axe at 334 DPS for Polearm weapons.

2. The damage sliced Power Hammer at 325 DPS for Two-handed weapons.

3. The damage sliced Vibro-Knuckles at 193 DPS for "Unarmed" weapons.

4. The damage sliced Gaderiffi Baton at 116 DPS for One-handed weapons.

To begin the process of balance we must select one weapon to serve as the "base" reference, and see how far each of the other weapons differs from that base. We could actually use any one of these weapons as the reference, but for the sake of simplicity we really only need to consider two of them. The best two would be the top weapon, and the bottom weapon. If we use the top weapon as the reference, then the comparison would go like this:

1. Polearm damage output (334 DPS) = 100% of Base Damage

2. Two-handed damage output (325 DPS) = 97% of Base Damage

3. "Unarmed" damage output (193 DPS) = 58% of Base Damage

4. One-handed damage output (116 DPS) = 35% of Base Damage

If we use the bottom weapon as the reference, then the comparison would go like this:

1. One-handed damage output (116 DPS) = 100% of Base Damage

2. "Unarmed" damage output (193 DPS) = 166% of Base Damage

3. Two-handed damage output (325 DPS) = 280% of Base Damage

4. Polearm damage output (334 DPS) = 288% of Base Damage

The real difference between using the top weapon as the Base, and the bottom weapon as the Base would be the approach to balancing them out. If the top weapon is used, then balancing would be produced by positively compensating the lower weapons, and nobody looses anything. If the bottom weapon is used, then the balancing would be produced by penalizing the better weapons, and nobody gains anything. Alternately if a mid-range weapon was used, then some weapons would get to be compensated and some would have to be penalized.

There are several obvious options available to choose from in the attempt to balance out these weapons. Among these choices are accuracy modification, defense modification, and damage modification.