Guardian was buffed recently to activate at a 25% rate. So I was looking at the 75% axe mastery buff from last year, as well as the 2H axe speed buff to normal(6), and I stumbled upon this comment by @Ayane : @Ayane 's methodology: I wanted to validate Ayane's findings using @Geyforlife 's DPS calculator. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/damage-calculator-all-classes.123479/ I set the weapon mastery to 0.75 for axes and using the high tier template(perf dragon weapon/maple shield), I arrived at these DPM numbers: All buffs(SE, SI, echo, mw20) + apple brandish DPM: 1H Axe: 14.21m 1H Sword: 13.75m 2H Sword: 14.25m 2H Axe: 13.94m So it seems with the Guardian buff, 1H axes are actually a very competitive option. My conclusions are: without SI: flame sword > Stonetooth > Carabella/Sparta >Dragon Claymore > Dragon Axe/Tomahawk > Dragon Battle Axe/Tavar with SI: Claymore = 1H Axe > 2H Axe > 1H Sword Some weapons that are also probably relevant are the Redner and 1H Pyrope axe. So even with these Axe buffs and now Guardian buff, I'm surprised to see that Axes aren't more popular in Royals. Perhaps the sword market is just larger due to Pally. I thought this would be interesting to share.
That's fair. This was always the negative of 1H sword as well, having to scroll a 17 slots isn't good ROI. It depends on how much meso value players place on Guardian, as well as the cost of perf Dragon Axe and Dragon Claymore.
The Axe is probably stronger now when you also factor the LHC content (where people usuaully use gizers and not apples) and also the new shields with extra str (stronger than maple shield) With Gizer it would beat the Claymore even if you had a low atk shield too
Been doing some hands on testing with 1h axe | 2h axe. Sorry, this could have been written better and more concisely, but I never said I was a good writer. Please take this all with a grain of salt, it's been over a decade since I've taken statistics, so logic is likely flawed in one way shape or form. This is a very specific example, catered essentially to my setup of ~4b funding in total. I am not taking into consideration end game perfect weapons, etc. My setup for the following calculations: Lvl 148 (740 base Str), No MW, +146 Str, +92 Dex, +26 W.Att without weapons/shields. In my specific example: I had a 137 att Tavar (3430-6970 clean), and switched to a 136att tomahawk+19att shield(3672-7264 clean). Note, in order to have equivalent clean range, the 2h axe would need to be ~144att. Also, the way the formula works out on 1h axe(4.4/3.2) vs 2h axe(4.8/3.4), an apple doesn't make nearly as much of a difference for 1h/2h axe vs a 1h sword(4.0/4.0) and 2h sword (4.6/4.6) setup, as you will see below. An important aspect of using an axe that is not very clearly stated with the slash/stab component: you essentially have 2 different attack ranges. Average damage range calculation for swords: (Low range + High range) / 2 Average damage range calculation for axes: ((Low slash + low stab) + (High slash+ high stab)) / 4 Average variance in range for swords: max-min Average variance in range for axes: (slash max-slash min) + (stab max-stab min) /2 Ranges calculated on a static setup, with the only variables changed being the weapons. 136 att Tomahawk + 19 att shield clean: Slash: 4971-7264 | Stab: 3672-5339 | Average: 5311.5 | Variance avg: 1980 137 att Tavar clean: Slash: 4766-6970 | Stab: 3430-4992 | Average: 5039.5 | Variance avg: 1883 136 att 1h-sword + 19 att shield clean: Slash/Stab: 3672-6622 | Average: 5147 | Variance avg: 2950 137 att 2h-sword clean: 3697-6688 | Average: 5192.5 | Variance avg: 2991 136 att Tomahawk + 19 att shield on an apple: Slash: 7717-11277 | Stab: 5700-8290 | Variance avg: 3075 137 att Tavar on an apple: Slash: 7690-11247 | Stab: 5535-8055 | Variance avg: 3038 136 att Sparta + 19 att shield on an apple: Slash/Stab: 5700-10281 | Variance avg: 4,581 137 att 2h-sword on an apple: Slash/Stab: 5966-10791 | Variance avg: 4,825 Note the much greater disparity between the 136/137 axes (almost 300 avg. range clean) compared to their 136/137 sword counterparts. This can be seen in the clean range as well as apple'd in favor of the 1-h axe, which is wild to me. 2-h axes really got the shaft. Some take-aways assuming the formulas in the damage calculator are accurate: The axe stab will not hit below the minimum of sword slash/stab damage due to the 75% mastery buff, however the top range for this lands ~20% below a sword (5339/6622=.8). The difference between the axe slash/stab lines are going to be much more pronounced as compared to their sword counterparts. However, it's important to note that they will also be more stable in their respective categorical attack type. Someone smarter than me would have to calculate overall variance of damage, since we technically now have 2 different ranges we're working with. I did not dive into overall dpm/attack speed/etc, since I specifically wanted to look at damage min/max as well as the stability across both types of weapons. I'm honestly quite surprised the numbers work out as well as they do in favor of the axe. A thing to note is how much more expensive the sword option is compared to the axe, and just how well the 1h axe combo holds up in comparison. I sold my 137 tavar for 550m, and acquired then partially scrolled the tomahawk for a total of 255m, with the shield being worth about 500m. A 136att Sparta is easily 2.5b+, while a 137att 2h sword is probably closer to 4b, depending on it being a ST/Claymore of course. For someone on a limited budget, I strongly believe 1-h axe is the way to go, until able to get a perfect 2h sword. This is just another post breaking it down a little more in depth (mostly for myself), supporting evidence posted above.
