Carsomyr+6 vs. Blackrazor vs. Ravager+6

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 11:49 am

Ooh, the nonsense is flying...

Well, there's a lot of conflation here of personal taste with real game issues. Weapons & skills that strike you as unbalanced or unreasonable, graphics you don't like? Live with them or don't use them, or write a MOD if you like. Generally, I think that SoA/ToB does a good job balancing dual wield and two handers - even offhand shields remain quite valid, at least situationally.

Some general observations:

Vorpal weapons are a bit of a disappointment - most of the guys you'd really want to be able to insta-kill are immune to the effects.

Other than Blackrazor, there are NO really stellar longswords in SOA - the Equalizer is ok, but no more and you get it quite late. Sword of Roses is a decent weapon, but nothing compelling about it all. Daystar is killer versus undead, but mostly because of the effect. There's this vast sea of mediocre longswords out there.

Why is no-one mentioning staves? There are a ton of good ones available, especially with Item Upgrade, and you can even backstab with (most of) them = they're not JUST for mages ya know. In the other blunts, here are very nice hammers and flails, and pretty good clubs, but maces = TEH LAME, pretty much.

Katanas are rarish, but not too bad - there's certainly enough for one Katana user, two if one doesn't dual wield them, and Celestial Fury / Sanchuudoku is a mighty nice combo.

Generally, it seems to work well to have the bulk of your characters use non-overlapping weapon skills, with the exception of staves and two handers, where you can kit multiple characters out in at least adequate weapons.

Good gaming, Merry Christmas, have fun!

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:37 pm

Look at it this way... if all two-handed weapons could suddenly be used in one hand (but with the same stats other than that), how many of them would be an improvement to the best one-handers? I think just Carsomyr. None of the others compares to Crom, Flail of Ages, Axe of the Unyielding or Blackrazor.

OK, maybe Staff of the Magi and Staff of the Ram too.

Imagine a rogue wielding Staff of the Magi off-hand and backstabbing people with Staff of the Ram. :0

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 11:18 pm

Hmm...

Your point is well taken,Xyx, but Dragonbreath (that +4 Halberd from the Underdark) with all those nifty elemental effects, Impaler, Psion blade, Liarcor, Soul Reaver, are are all nice two handers that would be pretty cool as one handers, to say nothing of some of the MOD weapons.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:00 am

Pretty cool, yes. But there's a one-handed weapon that does the same and more for each of them...

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 2:15 pm

For the sheer fun of dual life drain I often dual wielded Blackrazor and upgraded Short Sword of Mask with my beloved NE fighter/thief.

The problem with Blackrazor though is that it's only +3. Anyway, there are many weapons with specific strenghts, Daystar against Vampires, for example. Another point to be considered is availability - weapons that are available very late are worth less imho, because they're weaker in relation to the enemies you face.

In SoA (ToB installed), Short Sword of Mask without upgrade is a killer for example, because you can get it as soon as you have the money. Blackrazor is OK, but appears no sooner than in hell.

As for the question, I consider Carsomyr the strongest.