OK, first post here, hope it's not a stupid question that's been answered x5000 [img]smile.gif[/img]

My party is progressing nicely, just reached Arnika, my 3 main melee combat types are a sword using samurai, a polearm using valkerie and an axe using figyher. Eveyone is level 11 and the samrurai and valkerie have their prime weapon skills (sword + polearm) around 80-85 but the figher is only about 50 in his axe and even less in close combat.

He has a fairly decent 2 handed axe at the moment but I can buy a 2 axes in Arnika that I can dual wield. His dual wield is fairly good because at the start I dual wielded an axe with a dagger (to get dual wield skill up). Would I raise my axe and close combat skills up quicker using 2 axes in separate hand than just the 2 handed one?

I think skills rise faster if you attack a higher number of times. So theoretically yes it would be worth it if your dual wield is above 50 (below that you get a penalty to your attacks). It would also greatly depend on what the weapons are, since if it is a really good 2H axe and not too good 1H axes then the 2h axe would be better and vice versa. So if you could post the specifics of the axes it would be easier to give help.

[ 03-02-2004, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: dplax ]

Welcome Randall!

[img]graemlins/thewave.gif[/img]

I'd say it depends on the number of swings. If you click on the sword&shield button in the inventory screen you'll see how many attacks/swings you have. Then you can check that value for different constellations (2 axes, 2handed or even 1 axe&thieves buckler [+ 10 speed is good for bonus attacks])

High initiative is good for many swings, so that most axes get penalized (less swings since -# inititative). It might be worthwhile to think about learning sword skill, since the best weapons in the game won't be found in the axes department. But if you'd rather stick to axes, you won't get many offhand axes.

Training mace&flail or dagger would therefor be another option if you want to go dual.

yah, i stopped using axes about halfway through my first game, because all the ones i found had negative initiative values, which takes away swings. The faster weapons are mostly swords in this game.

You are at the very start of the game. Don't worry about the skills, they will rise fast enough.

At the moment, sword is probably best choice. If you use dual wielding, you'll find a great off-hand mace at some point. But since you don't play expert, you don't need to train that skill before you get the Diamond Eyes.

Yeah, I kind of got the impression that swords seemed to be much better than the other weapons and maybe I'd be better of with them.

However I've stuck with an axe because I'm one of those people that gets really annoyed played RPGs when I find a great weapon nobody can use so I tried to make sure that all different types are being used. Now I've said that I'm probably doomed to never find a decent axe in the game.

I'll check the stats out and compare damage and amount of swings and see which looks best.

The Ripper is a quiet nice two-handed axe, and IIRC fix in two places. There are also Blades of Aesir and Cruseders 2hand axe, but they are rare.

Sorry, what does IIRC stand for?

If I remember correctly

Thanks for the tips, didn't realise that initiative affected the number of swings. With the 2 handed axe I only get one but even with just one smaller axe in one hand the other hand empty I do more damage because I get two swings.

[ 03-04-2004, 05:35 AM: Message edited by: Randall ]

Yeah, a lot of the heftier weapons (not just axes) tend to have a negative initiative. I suppose they meant that as a balancing factor, since the 2-handers have a higher damage rating. However, I prefer more swings myself, especially when running a fighter in berserk mode.

<center>Nightowl2</center<