RE: (TFT) Interesting re: Thrown Pole Weapons

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

At 16:26 -0400 4/16/09, DMG wrote:
>  > What do you guys think of 1+2 versus 2-1 (axe versus mace)?
> >  It's always seemed to me the 2-1 is significantly better, but 
> > they're treated as equals in Melee.
>
>   2-1 is significantly worse.
>
>   Minimum damage is 1 times a 3x crit is still only 1.
>
>   1+2 min damage is 3 times a 3x crit is 9 and no contest.
>
>   Higher guaranteed minimum damage is invaluable.  Armor multiplies 
> the significance of this infinitely. Zero vs 8 damage for just cloth.

	Depends on your situation. If you are fighting someone in 
plate mail with a large shield, and an 8-point hit just isn't going 
to do, the Mace is better. There is a good chance it'll roll low, 
true, but it *can* do up to 11 hits, which the small axe can't.

	Somebody check my math on this table, I'm not much of a 
statistics wiz. I took the fractional chance of each damage roll (3-8 
for small axe at 1/6 each, 1-11 for mace at varying chances from 1/36 
for 1 and 11 to 6/36 for 6). Then I summed the total fractional 
chance times damage for each weapon. I repeated, subtracting 
different armor values from the damage for each roll (and cutting off 
negative values at zero). I'm pleased that the sum came out to the 
average roll for zero armor, and went to zero at the appropriate 
levels of armor, but I'm totally not sure I got it right in between.

	Anyway, the average damage against 6 points of armor is 
nearly twice as much for the mace. It starts out with a small 
advantage, but just keeps getting better as the armor goes up.

Average damage vs. armor

Armor	AXE	Mace
-----	---	----
0	5.5	6
1	4.5	5
2	3.5	4.028
3	2.5	3.111
4	1.667	2.278
5	1	1.556
6	0.5	0.972
7	0.167	0.556
8	0	0.278
9	0	0.111
10	0	0.028
11+	0	0

	FWIW, one of my favorite characters has "Two Weapons" and 
holds a small axe in one hand and a mace in the other - because I 
agree with DMG's point that sometimes you don't need *average* damage 
- you just need to be *sure* to do the 3 points it takes to knock 'em 
down.
--
						- Mark     210-379-4635
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