Let the Beatings Begin!

A Quick and Brutal Guide to What Hurts Stuff in EQ2

Weapons are the heart and soul of EverQuest II combat. Score a great weapon and you'll enjoy faster and more effective combat. Get saddled with a bad weapon and your game suffers. It doesn't have to be a guessing game though and there are a few basic tips that will help you find the perfect weapon for your class and playstyle. Lets take a look at a weapon and break down what all the numbers and gibberish means in normal, non-developerese terms.

Stats Aren't Just for Football Gambling

The first and some of the most important numbers are the statistics.  If you aren't a melee class who depends mainly on spell casting this is where most of your concern will be.   See the chart below for what your stats effect.

Wielding the Power

Whether to wield a weapon in both hands, a weapon and a shield, or one massive two-handed weapon to compensate for other things is really determined by play style and class.   Specific classes will debate even among themselves which is better so it's best to try out a variety of weaponry and consider the stat bonuses as well.   Smaller weapons strike faster than bigger weapons, for example, a dagger is far faster than a two-handed sword but it also does far less damage. Which type of weapon you use will first depend on what is available for your class and what your personal preference is. There has always been a lot of debate over whether slower weapons are better than faster weapons but there really is no easy answer and all of each weapon's merits have to be taken into account as well as each player's casting and CA times. It may take a bit of trial and error, but once you find your sweet spot, it will last your character's lifetime.

Weapons come in one-handed and two-handed varieties of course. Dual wielding classes may use any combo of one-handed weapons in either hand.

Damage

Damage is what it all really comes down to for weapons. In EQ2, the damage that a weapon does shows as a range. This range is basically the minimum that the weapon will do and does not take into account a character's stats or skills that will add to the ultimate damage that you do. The Damage Rating is a basic way of calculating damage potential and a way to compare various weapons. Damage Rating is calculated by taking the lowest amount of damage the weapon will do and adding it to the highest amount of damage and dividing it by two. Because the game shows this info, you won't have to do the hard math yourself thankfully! The Delay that is shown tells you how often you will auto-attack from the beginning of one attack to the beginning of the next. It is important to remember that casting a spell or performing a combat ability will interrupt this count and the auto-attack will always delay then execute between CAs and spells. As mentioned above, auto-attack damage is also part of your overall damage and weapon procs and double attacks are reliant upon auto-attacks going off.

For those who use dual wielding, having matching weapons is not necessary, however you will want your weapons to have matching delays. You'll lose out on damage if your auto-attack, procs, and bonuses for each weapon are going off at various and unpredictable times. Keeping those weapons in sync will make it much easier for you to time.

Mad Skillz

Next on the display is a description of which classes generally utilize which weapon types.  Some of these weapon types are strictly for certain classes, such as bows which are not usable by every classes. Other weapon types are fairly interchangeable, a brawler will often use either crushing or slashing depending on what weapon that player chooses, a mage might choose to use a dagger or a staff. To keep options open, it might be a good idea for classes who do use various damage types to keep those skills up. Check your Persona window under the Skills tab to see which are your highest skills and which skills you might want to work on for future benefit.

Proc Some Damage

Some weapons contain unique abilities that will either "proc" (which means to initiate a special spell or skill a certain percentage of the time) or is activatible.  An example of a "proc" ability would be the "Bloodfire" sword gotten from Cazic Thule.   It has a "5% chance to inflict 32-39 damage on the target and decrease the health of the target by 10-13 every 4 seconds."  So statistically every 20th hit you would be inflicting additional damage on your target.   This type of additional damage is something to take into consideration when choosing the perfect weapon. An example of an activatible weapon would be a "Frost Imbued Oak Wand."  When activated it "Casts Frost Blast which inflicts 144-240 damage on the target."  While this can be a lifesaver to a caster that has run out of power keep in mind that the cast time on these abilities is pretty lengthy and can be prone to interruption.

There are all sorts of procs you can get with weapons including various damage, buffs, and heals. Shop around and see if you can find any that might be useful for you next time you are out weapon shopping.

Adornments

Adornments are another kind of proc that can be added to weapons to beef up your damage output. Purchasing an adornment when you aren't 100% sure of the rules can be a spendy learning process, so here are a few tips. Please keep in mind this is only regarding applying adornments, not making them!

- Ornate gear cannot be adorned. Save your pennies for something that it will actually work on!
- The Level of the adornment must be of the tier of the item you wish to adorn. This means a level 70 adornment will NOT work on a level 69 item, you must use a level 60 adornment.
- The purpose of the adornment is clearly stated in the description. I promise, the adornment will ONLY work for the slot and tier stated, no matter how many times you click on the item. Be sure the adornment slot on your weapon matches "color" with the adornment you hope to use.
- Mend up! Your items need to be in 100% condition before you attempt to adorn.
- Only one adornment per item. Trying to add a 2nd adornment will only replace the first one.

To add an adornment, you simply right click on the adornment to use it. Your cursor will turn red until you hover it over something that can be adorned with this particular one, then it will turn blue. Click on the item you wish to add the adornment to, and there ya go! This is an easy way to add just a little bit more in stats or procs to your weapon.

Thanks for reading the TenTonHammer Guide to Weaponry. Have any questions or what you think would make this guide better? Send them to me here.