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Junts
04-03-2009, 01:14 AM
It works something like this (because I've done it by hand and with each ddo damage calculator and got 3 varying, and contradictory, results)

At what strength/damage added breakpoints does a character -without power attack- and -without full bab- (but lacking the to-hit to do the constnat sidestep trick) cross the threshold to doing better dps with a greataxe than an exactly equivalent rapier? My own math is showing me that for relatively low strengths and no pa, the rapier ends up doing more damage because of the attack per time difference (I was testing this on my bard, who is the character informing this decision: with a greensteel rapier, hasted, 120 swings/min, with a greataxe, 102).

I assumed the following:

holy/acid burst min2 (no blast), with no force ritual
no power attack
bloodstone present

my math suggests that without PA in the equation, the faster swingspeed of the 1h weapon beats the greataxe's higher damage until about 30 str (of course, with pa the threshold is far, far lower .. like 18 str or so)

anyone else interested in helping me with this? I've been debating gaxe vs rapier on my bard, and I was shocked (and redid the math repeatedly) when it told me a min2 rapier was actually marginally higher dps because of the faster swings and better critical power (not a large difference, but present)

I await being proven wrong.

just offhand, I think the bloodstone is really biasing the equation, since it adds 72 damage per 20 swings, whereas on the axe it only adds 36 (12x6 vs 18x2)

Angelus_dead
04-03-2009, 02:35 AM
At what strength/damage added breakpoints does a character
Well the thing is, you're not going to get just one answer. You're looking at two separate inputs, and strength and damage-adds are actually opposing factors.

That is, strength benefits greataxe more because it gets +50% more from the other hand. But additional damage in general favors the rapier, and for two reasons: not only does it have a higher attack rate, but the bigger critical power means that something like Inspire Courage gives the rapier more damage on a per-swing basis.

InfidelofHaLL
04-03-2009, 02:52 AM
a bard doesn't need full bab :P it has songs that are better then having full bab

Junts
04-03-2009, 11:03 AM
a bard doesn't need full bab :P it has songs that are better then having full bab

I agree fully; the non-full bab issue is one of attack animations per cycle, and one from which the bard benefits. However, for dps purposes it is highly relevant.

Angelus: I know, but I would be interested in seeing the steepness of each curve in each direction.