Ironside
10-29-2007, 04:07 AM
I see this discussion a lot, and I notice in most of them people claim that their viewpoints are mathematically proven without providing math or links to math. Unless they are discussing different aspects of swords vs axes, I would assume that both sides being correct is impossible. I'm not great at math, but I'm going to try my hand to provide at least some guidance on this issue. If you have the time to correct me, then please do so, as I'm still kind of torn on what weapon I should be upgrading to.
Overall
Axes - 5% chance to do double damage on a single attack, and the attack counts as a crit
Impale, Deep Wounds, Flurry, DPS skills do more damage
Swords - 5% chance to do damage equal to a white swing on a single attack
Less affected by resilience, utility skills do more damage
For a white swing, the two skills are the same in the long run. Both give you a 5% chance to do double damage.
For most skills, two issues come into play. All damage skills give bonus damage, which benefits Axes more, since it is doubled as well, while Swords increases damage by the base white swing when it procs off a skill. Additionally, skills all benefit from Impale, which modifies the critical damage bonus. For my calculations I'm assuming the only difference in here is the two specs, IE Deep Wounds is up, Flurry is already up if you have it, stats are equal, racials don't apply, etc.
Mortal Strike will be my example since it's a best case scenario for Axes; at weapon damage +210 it has more bonus damage than any other skill. Since this skill depends on both the base weapon damage and resilience I'm a bit confused on how exactly to determine what I should base the comparison on. I just did two tests based on either resilience being constant or white damage being held constant.
I took 25% critical damage reduction, the current maximum, as my constant resilience value. Here, the variable was white swing damage.
Axes: (x+210) * 2.2 * (100% - (critical damage reduction))
Swords: 2x + 210
At 390 damage per swing, after mitigation, Swords are equal to Axes when a "proc" occurs.
Axes = (390 + 210) * 2.2 * .75 = 990 damage
Swords = (390 * 2) + 210 = 990
Before this point Axes are superior, and after this point Swords are superior.
When damage is held constant, I took a white swing value of 500 as my base. The variable here is critical damage reduction.
Axes: 710 * 2.2 * (1 - x)
Swords: 710 + 500 = 1210
The equation for Swords here is constant, since a Sword spec proc is unaffected by resilience. Swords are equal to Axes when x is around 23% and you are hitting your target for a value of 500 after mitigation. Again, before that point Axes are better, after that point Swords are better.
For the constant values I chose, the following also apply.
Axes become worse at a higher damage point in the first comparison if you choose a lower constant value for resilience. On the other hand Axes become worse at a lower resilience value if you choose a higher value for your white damage constant.
In this situation, Swords also have the unmatched benefit of giving rage from skills that proc. I also won't do the math to compare how Axes fare when discussing procs off skills like Hamstring and Pummel since that seems fairly self-evident.
More will follow on Deep Wounds and Flurry.
Overall
Axes - 5% chance to do double damage on a single attack, and the attack counts as a crit
Impale, Deep Wounds, Flurry, DPS skills do more damage
Swords - 5% chance to do damage equal to a white swing on a single attack
Less affected by resilience, utility skills do more damage
For a white swing, the two skills are the same in the long run. Both give you a 5% chance to do double damage.
For most skills, two issues come into play. All damage skills give bonus damage, which benefits Axes more, since it is doubled as well, while Swords increases damage by the base white swing when it procs off a skill. Additionally, skills all benefit from Impale, which modifies the critical damage bonus. For my calculations I'm assuming the only difference in here is the two specs, IE Deep Wounds is up, Flurry is already up if you have it, stats are equal, racials don't apply, etc.
Mortal Strike will be my example since it's a best case scenario for Axes; at weapon damage +210 it has more bonus damage than any other skill. Since this skill depends on both the base weapon damage and resilience I'm a bit confused on how exactly to determine what I should base the comparison on. I just did two tests based on either resilience being constant or white damage being held constant.
I took 25% critical damage reduction, the current maximum, as my constant resilience value. Here, the variable was white swing damage.
Axes: (x+210) * 2.2 * (100% - (critical damage reduction))
Swords: 2x + 210
At 390 damage per swing, after mitigation, Swords are equal to Axes when a "proc" occurs.
Axes = (390 + 210) * 2.2 * .75 = 990 damage
Swords = (390 * 2) + 210 = 990
Before this point Axes are superior, and after this point Swords are superior.
When damage is held constant, I took a white swing value of 500 as my base. The variable here is critical damage reduction.
Axes: 710 * 2.2 * (1 - x)
Swords: 710 + 500 = 1210
The equation for Swords here is constant, since a Sword spec proc is unaffected by resilience. Swords are equal to Axes when x is around 23% and you are hitting your target for a value of 500 after mitigation. Again, before that point Axes are better, after that point Swords are better.
For the constant values I chose, the following also apply.
Axes become worse at a higher damage point in the first comparison if you choose a lower constant value for resilience. On the other hand Axes become worse at a lower resilience value if you choose a higher value for your white damage constant.
In this situation, Swords also have the unmatched benefit of giving rage from skills that proc. I also won't do the math to compare how Axes fare when discussing procs off skills like Hamstring and Pummel since that seems fairly self-evident.
More will follow on Deep Wounds and Flurry.