Swordsman Archive
Thread: The POWER HAMMER, master swordsman view
After much testing of my power hammers.... getting a crate of them... getting the best slice.... i end up with around 118-526 delay 6.4 power hammer.....
You could say... holy cow... what a powerfull weapon.... well..... no..... it is not good.... here is why
you see, i do the same with swords.... buy a crate of 25 from my favorite weaponsmith, get all them sliced.... take the best and trash the rest.... i end up with 2h swords that is either 71-243 delay 1.8 (which is very fast with berserk) and does decent area attack very fast and eat my life away... yes.... BUT, it does contact the mobs on area attack, which in essence make it SAFER than the powerhammer.
See, the powerhammer got that nasty -40 to hit (on those i bought at least)
this down on the hit make me miss 1/3 of the time, but at master level, with 2h sword... i miss at most 1/8 of the time.... make the calc, i miss nearly 3 time as much with the powerhammer. In essence it has the bad effect of Wasting my specials more than what is deemed acceptable.
As a master swordsman, this make the weapon very bad since the primary form of attack is the area attack to keep control over more than 1 mobs, either solo or in group... since the hammer does not perform that job 1/3 of the time, it is too unreliable. Now... i am not even talking about the fact that missing 3 time as much make it around 30% less efficient (ok even less efficient but i wont make the math calc here) so.... it has in effect 30% less damage + a very very slow delay conmpared.... that add up and make the 2h sword noticeably more powerfull than the powerhammer for that very reason.
Some will argue that Blast Damage..... well..... what about it? it does nothing special... most mobs i dont even care beacause i am trying to get the best weapon i can to do pvp, which is the target about this game... mostly. The PvE is sort of trivial. (it's also trivial in EQ and other game as when you get skilled enough they are only computer AI)
So for those reason, the PowerHammer should not have -40 to hit, beacause it's 1, slower.... much much slower, even beyond master swordsman skill speed enhancing to make it better in line with 2h sword.
an easy test i performed is.... take a base with 10k health.... count the time it take you to bring it down.... with 2h sword.... then with the power hammer... doing just damage..... this wont even take into account the miss (i never miss on base for some reason) and for that fact only you see much less efficiency on the hammer. Add-40 to hit on mob fighting and it is not even a balanced weapon, it is a useless weapon.
Special attack moves while missing alot aint very funny.
Special note.... when i say i see 1/3 of the hit missing, i fight white con mob for my master swordsman title, which are rebel general and such.
I'm 4-4-0-0 on the Swordsman tree and I completely agree with you. I advanced up Defense first and was using Head Hit so for a while, Power Hammer seemed better. This is because I'm also a Master Doc so I can buff away my Health and Action and because PH has ultra low mind-cost, I seemed to last longer than using the 2HCS (which because it has double mind cost and attacks in half the time turns out to cost 4 times the mind cost on special moves).
And then I got up the Offense tree, and the misses on the PH are a huge disadvantage when attacking more than 1 mob. So I switched back to the 2HCS, and loved it cause I could keep a whole lair's mobs down, and mind cost became my only limiting factor because after a buff of 2500, I could never die from Action or Health damage if I kept mobs down.
Then I looked again at weapons and noticed that the 2H Cleaver has same average damage (better min damage) and almost same delay as 2HCS BUT lower mind cost and so tried that, and have a 3.4 spd 115-289 2H Cleaver right now and that is my weapon of choice in area attacks because it is quick enough to keep all mobs down, and uses less mind than the 2HCS. If you've never fought with all doctor buffs, you have to try it. I can own mawgax lairs, and own all the 10 mawgaxes that spawn from them, all at the same time.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swordsman&message.id=3485
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swordsman&message.id=3819
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swordsman&message.id=3882
Scriberx wrote:After much testing of my power hammers.... getting a crate of them... getting the best slice.... i end up with around 118-526 delay 6.4 power hammer.....
You could say... holy cow... what a powerfull weapon.... well..... no..... it is not good.... here is why
you see, i do the same with swords.... buy a crate of 25 from my favorite weaponsmith, get all them sliced.... take the best and trash the rest.... i end up with 2h swords that is either 71-243 delay 1.8 (which is very fast with berserk) and does decent area attack very fast and eat my life away... yes.... BUT, it does contact the mobs on area attack, which in essence make it SAFER than the powerhammer.
See, the powerhammer got that nasty -40 to hit (on those i bought at least)
this down on the hit make me miss 1/3 of the time, but at master level, with 2h sword... i miss at most 1/8 of the time.... make the calc, i miss nearly 3 time as much with the powerhammer. In essence it has the bad effect of Wasting my specials more than what is deemed acceptable.
As a master swordsman, this make the weapon very bad since the primary form of attack is the area attack to keep control over more than 1 mobs, either solo or in group... since the hammer does not perform that job 1/3 of the time, it is too unreliable. Now... i am not even talking about the fact that missing 3 time as much make it around 30% less efficient (ok even less efficient but i wont make the math calc here) so.... it has in effect 30% less damage + a very very slow delay conmpared.... that add up and make the 2h sword noticeably more powerfull than the powerhammer for that very reason.
Some will argue that Blast Damage..... well..... what about it? it does nothing special... most mobs i dont even care beacause i am trying to get the best weapon i can to do pvp, which is the target about this game... mostly. The PvE is sort of trivial. (it's also trivial in EQ and other game as when you get skilled enough they are only computer AI)
So for those reason, the PowerHammer should not have -40 to hit, beacause it's 1, slower.... much much slower, even beyond master swordsman skill speed enhancing to make it better in line with 2h sword.
an easy test i performed is.... take a base with 10k health.... count the time it take you to bring it down.... with 2h sword.... then with the power hammer... doing just damage..... this wont even take into account the miss (i never miss on base for some reason) and for that fact only you see much less efficiency on the hammer. Add -40 to hit on mob fighting and it is not even a balanced weapon, it is a useless weapon.
Special attack moves while missing alot aint very funny.
Special note.... when i say i see 1/3 of the hit missing, i fight white con mob for my master swordsman title, which are rebel general and such.
Alright first off
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(which is very fast with berserk)
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Berserk does not alter the speed of your attacks, perrsonal experinces shows this and I've yet to see anyone prove it otherwise. Secondly you got +85% speed (Provided you have master brawler aswell) increase so you're already at the cap with that 2H Curved Sword you listed. The speed cap is 1.0 second.
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an easy test i performed is.... take a base with 10k health
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Personal testing again showed me that the base either has Blast Resistance or something else because the damage shown with my powerhammer was lower then the damage done with a 2H Curved Sword. Both being AP2 the differnce being min/max damage and their damage types. I'm not talking about damage done over time but the actuall damage per hit was lower then that of the curved sword.
And last I have a hard time beliveing the -40 to hit on the Power Hammer matters that much when you're a Master Swordsman/Master Brawler because you will have a total of +95 to hit. I'm already now noticeing with Master Brawler/Advanced Finesse that the to hit aint "that" bad, and it'll improve with +10 more when I get Master Heavy Swordsman.
I agree, 2h curved sword is a lot better... in most situations
However, if you're in a group, and you find some 10k hp Nym firing at your friends lying prone, using 2handhit3 can kill him in one shot, while your sword, though doing more DPS and better in most situations, won't kill him in one hot. If you're looking for a powerful hit, the hammer is the way to go.
I disagree with basically everything the original poster said. The Power Hammer is by far more HAM efficient than the Curved Sword (depending on race, high action races might find this different). Furthermore by the time you hit master swordsman the -40 penalty is not even a consideration. It's actually not even a problem much lower on the tree (we get something ridiculous like 120 2H accuracy if I recall correctly). Most of the misses you're seeing are just your imagination.
But if you still aren't happy they're increasing the PH again. And if you still don't like it then just use your curved sword, no one is stopping you.
LOL missing isnt somebody's imagination, u guys r figuring in your accuracy but not anything for the target u r hitting. Fine the powerhammer might hit ever kreetle but against master pistoleer's and master TKA's it misses fairly often... I myself im still torn between the two and cannot decide. Seem like a good choice for a wookie, having all that strength anyways, but the area attack missing one or 2 people can end it for u.
Discord- wrote:
I disagree with basically everything the original poster said. The Power Hammer is by far more HAM efficient than the Curved Sword (depending on race, high action races might find this different). Furthermore by the time you hit master swordsman the -40 penalty is not even a consideration. It's actually not even a problem much lower on the tree (we get something ridiculous like 120 2H accuracy if I recall correctly). Most of the misses you're seeing are just your imagination.
But if you still aren't happy they're increasing the PH again. And if you still don't like it then just use your curved sword, no one is stopping you.