GS Maul VS GS Falchion?

[Bolo_Grubb]

Edit: I meant to state Triple positive in the title.

Are there more undead vulnerable to blunt or to slash at levels 12 and up?

And does the greater disruption go off on a crit or only on a 20? Or is it not dependent on either and just a 3% chance on any hit?

[stoerm]

• DDOwiki says vorpal strike for disruption, which in turn means a confirmed natural 20. No advantage for Falchion.
• Undead are in general treated as having 100% fortification. No advantage for Falchion.
• Skeletons generally have DR/bludgeon. Advantage Maul.
• Contrary to my expectation mummies have DR/- not DR/slash. Draw.
• Zombies have DR/slash. Advantage Falchion.

You can check other undead DR in detail.

Edit: I was thinking of Zombie DR/slash but looked up mummies when I wrote the above. Probably not a huge difference, but I'd still instinctively go maul.

[Bolo_Grubb]

ah thank you. Very useful information

[Syllph]

Additionally the undead-stormreaver and Abbot both have dr/bludgeon.

[arminius]

I had the same question essentially regarding TWF characters who have Khopesh proficiency or Khopesh Kensai.

Is it better to do Warhammers vs Khopesh, even on the Kensai? I think probably so.

What about Warhammers vs Maul (i.e., half the price, but not playing into TWF feats at all)? I'm starting to think Maul still wins, unless you just have hoards of large devil scales that you're willing to blow, and maybe even then. The best advantage is two Raise Deads vs one, but even that is being negated now with epic skills potentially boosting anyone's UMD to usable levels for reliable Raise Dead scrolling.

[Therrias]

Maul also has better base damage.

[Krelar]

Maul also has better base damage.

This ^

If you want a slashing two-handed weapon go with a great sword instead of falchion.

[Tobril]

Maul for abbot and a large portion of TRing.
(abbot is magic+blunt)

I can't think of any dangerous undead that aren't insta-pwned
by a maul even if they have a bit of blunt DR.

[Bolo_Grubb]

Thanks for all the replies.

I will be making a triple positive Maul for my THF Warchanting Bard. He is a TR that just hit 12 and I have all the shards and can put the needed altars on the guild ship.

For my twf fighter I went with triple positive warhammers (one with good blast and one with 30% heal amp) and have been pretty happy.

For my TWF rogue I went with triple positive Morning Stars, just to be different. Again 1 good blast and 1 30% heal amp. Although I am thinking about making a triple positive heal amp weapon for all my toons, with heal amp on every tier. that I can easier follow the BYOH :-) trend.

[SmashBang]

I like having a triple pos dagger to hold in my off hand when I scroll heal. Max heal amp on a dagger like that is awesome for scroll healing

[sephiroth1084]

Have to point out that 100% Fortification doesn't appear to prevent Burst and Blast effects from going off (or other on-crit weapon abilities). So, you Triple Pos maul would still deal +8d6 good damage on a crit, and an additional +4d6 damage on a vorpal, plus the extra damage from Greater Disruption if the monster is above 500 (1,000?) HP/immune to the instakill effect.

Those figures would be +6d6 on crits with a falchion.

That said, I would still make the maul, since there are relatively few dangerous zombies in the game, and we tend to encounter skeletons at later levels more often than zombies. Additionally, liches had DR/bludgeoning and magic, and that DR can get pretty high on elite and epic settings. Also, liches tend to be dangerous: Sor'jek, the Black Abbot, Raiyum, for examples.

[Mastikator]

AFAIK Good burst and good blast have higher damage on x3 crit mods than x2 crit mods, a triple positive gs maul will deal devastating damage on natural 20 hits.
Don't wanna log just to check on my gs positive 3 maul, but it's probably the best general undead beater in the game.

[JollySwagMan]

Maul vs Greataxe or Greatsword would be a better comparison vs undead, given that the Falchion's main feature is a nice crit range!

Greatsword has highest base damage, but swings slower than Greataxe. Greataxe is the fastest THF weapon to my knowledge (ask Shade on this one). However still recommend Maul for the bludgeoning damage rather than slashing damage.

[sephiroth1084]

AFAIK Good burst and good blast have higher damage on x3 crit mods than x2 crit mods, a triple positive gs maul will deal devastating damage on natural 20 hits.
Don't wanna log just to check on my gs positive 3 maul, but it's probably the best general undead beater in the game.

I accounted for that. On a x2 the burst is 3d6, while on a x3 it is 4d6. The GS Blast abilities give both a vorpal effect (4d6) and Burst, which means that if you have Good Burst and Good Blast, you essentially have Burst twice, or +4d6 +4d6 on crits.

For elemental Bursts, that's +1d10 per multiplier, or +2d10 when you also have Blast, per multiplier.

Maul vs Greataxe or Greatsword would be a better comparison vs undead, given that the Falchion's main feature is a nice crit range!

Greatsword has highest base damage, but swings slower than Greataxe. Greataxe is the fastest THF weapon to my knowledge (ask Shade on this one). However still recommend Maul for the bludgeoning damage rather than slashing damage.

Greataxe and Greatsword have the same damage--the sword skews more to the average, though, since you're rolling two dice (far more likely to get a 6, 7 or 8 than you are to roll a 2 or a 12, and you cannot roll a 1), while the axe has an equal chance of rolling any of the values on the d12. In other words, you have a 1 in 36 chance of getting a 12 on the sword, and a 1 in 12 chance of getting a 12 on the axe, but you have that same chance on the axe of rolling a 1 or a 7, while the sword has a 1 in 6 chance (if I'm doing my probabilities correctly) of getting that 7.

As for swing speed, I believe that when the devs attempted to remove the difference in two-handed weapon swings speeds they brought the greataxe and maul close enough to the greatsword and falchion that the difference in negligible. At one time it was a difference of something like 5 swings a minute (I think), or more, but now it's more like .5 or 1. Don't quote me on that, as I'm working off my memory of something I read over a year ago, but I'm fairly certain that that is the case in the game now.

And for those who care, when the swing speeds were significantly different, the falchion was slower than the other two-handers by a fair margin, but still beat out the other weapons on DPS! This was obviously pre-ESOS, but that's an exception anyway.