A question about elemental weapons and split damage.

Why is the general belief that simply because elemental weapons go through 2 defences that the end result is always lower? That seems pretty troll logic to me.
Surely the physical part of the damage goes through the targets physical resistance then the elemental part goes through the targets relevant elemental resistance, so you effectively get 2 hits per swing, one on each resistance of the target then the two are added together to give you your actual damage.
So if your target has a low resistance to your element of choice your potential for damage could be higher than a +15 of pure physical.

Unless I am mistaken and elemental weapons have their damage added together before the hit then go through the 2 resistances?

Of course a + 15 will be better at higher SL's with the right stat investment, or even a faith/int build with a + 15 and using CMW/DmB/SLB

But say in some hypothetical situation where you have 2 weapons that have the same AR with your build, 1 + 15 and one fire. If your target has high fire resistance you will do more with the +15, if they have low fire resistance the fire weapon will do more surely?

This is a little more complex than weapons balance -- it's actually got more to do with build balance. Remember, an elemental weapon can reach its maximum potential at the minimum of strength and dexterity for that weapon to be wielded. Divine and magical weapons are the same, except they require a faith or intelligence investment.

This kind of thing frees up points or allows a character access to some pretty gnarly spells, providing at least some balance. For instance, a character that primarily uses elemental weapons doesn't need scaling stats, so they're free to put everything they've got into vitality and endurance. This means elemental weapons are a great choice for builds that want to be tanky at the expensive of damage. A faith build will get the most damage out of divine weapons, on the other hand, as regular +15 weapons won't give them the scaling damage to compete. On average, a divine weapon with 50 faith has more magical damage in total than the damage of a +15 weapon at base stats.

The way different weapon damages work is based on ensuring that every major kind of build has a weapon type that works in synchronicity with it.

As well, you won't know a person's resistance stats on sight, even if you memorize armor resistance (It's a pain as is right now) And the fact that you have 2 half hits going through 2 different defenses instead of 1 solid hit going through a single defense.

As well, vit/end gouged builds aren't too much fun both to play with and against.

Basically rather than having 600 AR vs thei phys defence, you have 300 vs their phys and 300 vs their fire. And with the way damage works if you have a higher AR you do exponentially more damage than if you have a low one hitting twice.

DoughGuy wrote:Basically rather than having 600 AR vs thei phys defence, you have 300 vs their phys and 300 vs their fire. And with the way damage works if you have a higher AR you do exponentially more damage than if you have a low one hitting twice.

Thanks mate first post to understand my question properly. XD

I guess my first post was a bit confusing, as I was wondering about the game mechanics and not which to use with what builds etc etc.

With the nerf of elememental weapons coming, I guess their only use will be while you are still lvling or for making a low SL pvper.

Kinda dumb really would have made the game a lot more interesting imo if elemental weapons had their place targeting specific weaknesses. Like Pokemon lol.

In that case everyone would be using Lightning weapons, since that's the hardest to stack resistances against >_>

Blaines Analysis


Not sure if you have read this already but it answers your question very clearly using data. Mmmmm.....data

Either way, it depends on the build you wanna make. Elementals are very good for low SL (ie. SL 60) or if you want high HP/poise on higher levels. But at very high SLs (ie. SL 200) it's logical to have +15 or crystal, since you'll have 40 in either Dex or Str.

cloudyeki wrote:In that case everyone would be using Lightning weapons, since that's the hardest to stack resistances against >_>

Thats a good point, either that or everyone with lightning stoneplate ring and ornstein/silver knight armor.

Elemental weapons had their place in PvE. If now they will be virtually useless, what's the point in having them?