Marauder 2h DPS Axe vs. Sword

Don't swords typically have higher attack speed than axes? That seems to have way more of an impact on DPS than just the physical damage.

Yeah they are quickest of the 3 by some distance. They also seem to be (maybe just coincidence on my toon) to be the most common of the 3 weapon types, with axes second and maces the most rare (in regards to 2h weapons)

That's another point I was going to bring up. Everyone saying axes out-DPS everything so hard... have you ran actual tests on multiple Maras or are these just theories you're pulling out of you know where?

I've played axe and sword and so far it FEELS like my sword Mara deals a whole hell of a lot more damage based purely on attack speed. I can get 6-7 attacks in the time my axe mara gets in 3-4, that is a huge difference...

Now, my experience has only been up to ~lvl 40 or so testing between the two, I'm curious if the attack speed difference becomes smaller as you get higher in levels.

http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/weapon

The high level 2h axes and swords have a .05 speed difference, almost negligible. The DPS difference is much larger though.

Slow hitting weapons seem to have an advantage in this game. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think it is:

Attack speed is additive. If you have 2 weapons with 300DPS, one has an attack speed of 1.5, the other 1.0, then you get a total of +50% speed from skills/items...

The first item with 200dmg and 1.5 speed will now do 200dmg with 2.0 speed, dealing 400dps.

The second item with 300dmg and 1.0 speed will now do 300dmg and 1.5 speed, dealing 450dps.

Not that the difference between axes and swords at high levels really means much in these calculations, but just to demonstrate that slow attack weapons are better.

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Plethora wrote:

http://www.pathofexile.com/item-data/weapon

The high level 2h axes and swords have a .05 speed difference, almost negligible. The DPS difference is much larger though.

right. axes don't have intrinsic mods, they just hit harder to compensate.

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Plethora wrote:

Slow hitting weapons seem to have an advantage in this game. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think it is:

[torturous pseudo-math nonsense]

slower weapons take fewer swings to deal out a given amount of damage, so they're more mana efficient.

higher damage per hit is also more likely to stun your target.

they give your target more time to recover from stun and get away from you between swings though.

Ah, this makes sense. I believe the sword I was using was a 1.3 and the axe is like 1.05 or something, so it was a substantial difference in speed. After looking at the speed differences of the best weapons I can see how axes top swords in DPS by a large margin.

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Plethora wrote:

Slow hitting weapons seem to have an advantage in this game. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think it is:

Attack speed is additive. If you have 2 weapons with 300DPS, one has an attack speed of 1.5, the other 1.0, then you get a total of +50% speed from skills/items...

The first item with 200dmg and 1.5 speed will now do 200dmg with 2.0 speed, dealing 400dps.

The second item with 300dmg and 1.0 speed will now do 300dmg and 1.5 speed, dealing 450dps.

Not that the difference between axes and swords at high levels really means much in these calculations, but just to demonstrate that slow attack weapons are better.

It's not correct. Increased attack speed gets added up, then it multiplies the base attack speed of the weapon. So 1.5 attacks/sec with 50% IAS will go to 2.25 attacks/sec.



As already mentioned, slower weapons are more mana efficient, and more likely to stun. Faster weapons get more benefit from direct +damage (not +% damage) and, if they meet the stun threshold, will stun more frequently.

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FaceLicker wrote:

When you see a monster recoil from your hit.. that's a stun. It's not like in other games where you see little stars circling the head.

That would be a pretty cool effect, though ... :D

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dainbramage wrote:

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Plethora wrote:

Slow hitting weapons seem to have an advantage in this game. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I think it is:

Attack speed is additive. If you have 2 weapons with 300DPS, one has an attack speed of 1.5, the other 1.0, then you get a total of +50% speed from skills/items...

The first item with 200dmg and 1.5 speed will now do 200dmg with 2.0 speed, dealing 400dps.

The second item with 300dmg and 1.0 speed will now do 300dmg and 1.5 speed, dealing 450dps.

Not that the difference between axes and swords at high levels really means much in these calculations, but just to demonstrate that slow attack weapons are better.

It's not correct. Increased attack speed gets added up, then it multiplies the base attack speed of the weapon. So 1.5 attacks/sec with 50% IAS will go to 2.25 attacks/sec.



As already mentioned, slower weapons are more mana efficient, and more likely to stun. Faster weapons get more benefit from direct +damage (not +% damage) and, if they meet the stun threshold, will stun more frequently.

So then, essentially, the DPS of swords vs. axes is the same. If you take Plethora's example:

The sword with 200 damage and 1.5 APS (300 dps) with 50% IAS becomes 200 damage at 2.25 APS, or 450 DPS.

The axe with 300 damage and 1.0 APS (300 dps) with 50% IAS becomes 300 damage at 1.5 APS, or 450 DPS.

Again though, I forgot that high level axes and swords have very little difference in attack speed, meaning axes will still out DPS by a big enough margin. I guess I'm confused. At what point, if any, does the accuracy bonus on swords make it worthwhile?

It doesn't seem like it's hard to keep accuracy at 93%+ with axes, especially since a lot of the axe damage passives are dmg/accuracy hybrids.

Actually you don't need 5 endurance charges.

I have all points in life and life regen and now going to armor.
Never died, just some times with physical reflect boss, click back and hit, click back and hit.

I would say that Warlord's mark is a pretty good skill and very useful.

And another useful support skill is increase critical damage, that sometimes makes 2 hits destroy mini bosses.