Weapon choice

[relayer]

My main is a bird and leveling up an int mage as well..

Wondering with the mage how you determine which weapon is better given damage and speed?
I've read posts where ppl saying you should go with slower, high damage ranges vs faster lower damage / higher dps. Given the high level mobs have high armor you will miss alot....and ignore dps as it doesn't take into account armor.

but is this the case with staffs as its elemental damage?

also, how much damage do you give up if one weapon has a proc vs one without?

Thanks for your input

[giayuan]

dont really know about lightning, but with ice, it usually has spread damage and freezes enemies occasionally too; no extra dmg
with dark weapons, it really depends on the weapon itself
dark weapons have the proc nightmare and it decreases armor. with the armor decreased, you would do more damage than normal, but if the weapon sucks originally, the new, increased dmg wont be too good either

slower high dmg ranges are better when you reach the lvl 25

[Royce]

Ice weapons freeze and some staffs have AO. Fire weapons can do extra burn damage and many staffs have AOE. Lightning weapons have no proc. Dark weapons are mixed. Most dark staffs drop armor and damage and wands drop damage only but there are exceptions. Procs can be significant and nightmare for instance can raise your effective DPS by double digits and increases skill damage and damage done by the whole party. As for damage vs DPS, take higher damage every time as a mage. Higher weapon damage means higher skill damage too.

[relayer]

Higher weapon damage means higher skill damage too.

Interesting.. I didn't know weapon damage also increases skill damage!
So- I guess armor affects spell damage as they do not have resists in the game as of yet… would be nice if they added resists as it creates a lot more options for future items..but would require a lot of tweaking / rebalancing im sure.

Thanks for your insight

[Bigsleazy]

There are resists in this game, just not for players. Eg, fire mobs and bosses are resistant to fire. Was in an update a while back

[Royce]

There are resists in this game, just not for players. Eg, fire mobs and bosses are resistant to fire. Was in an update a while back

Yeah I'm pretty sure it only applies to fire and ice. I really wish they would expand on that, and apply it to players too. Like ice armor resists ice and fire resists fire, or vice versa (I've seen it done both ways in different games).

[Arterra]

well even if certain weapons are weaker, procs can help the whole team. until i got keeper staff, i was using a lv50 dark matter of thoth (bought for 5k thank you) and its damage was awful. BUT it had a noticeable weakness and nightmare proc that lowered armor and hit%, meaning it helped the whole team.