AC Developers,
Please consider improving the damage variance of the Weeping Axe. Axe is not a weapon that is normally associated with terrible variance -- certainly no more so than Sword, and nowhere near as much as Unarmed Combat (whose Weeping weapon has 50% variance). It therefore seems incongruous that the Weeping Axe is as it is and the most miserable part is that it genuinely does have a marked effect in PK fights.
Not only do we Axers suffer a speed penalty with Axe (that has a direct effect on our ability to disengage from melee combat in the face of an incoming war), but we also deal less critical damage (around 12% less than sword) and have pathetically low damage at the bottom end of the variance scale. After fully imperiling and vulning mages in baned/underbaned GSC I have hit them, repeatedly, for as little as 14 points; and that is with 340 buffed Strength -- I daren't imagine how feeble the Axe is at lower levels of Strength.
I'm sorry, but that is not, in any sense of the term, balanced, especially when that mage who is my opponent does a consistent 150 - 210 damage to me when I am utilizing not only the Sanguinary Aegis but also a relevant Major ward.
Orion stated a few months back on the VN boards that it was the developer's intention to speed up PK fights and to make them more lethal. How, I ask you, is 14 points of damage lethal?
Please bear in mind that with PK Lite there will be a considerably larger number of people experiencing the paltry level of damage dealt by the Weeping Axe. A great proportion of these will be below level 100 and with less than 300 buffed Strength. Make no mistake, when they see hits for single digits they will scurry here to complain, just as I am doing now, not only disappointed that they are unable to compete but also that the problem was not fixed beforehand.
..........
If you don't have any intention of changing/improving the Weeping Axe, could you at the very least grace us with an explanation as to why the decision was taken to give the axe 60% variance? Then I, and a good number of others, can take the [reluctant] decision to untrain Axe in favor of Sword in order that I might [just about] compete as a melee PK.
Thanks for your time,
Rambullah of TD.
Orion:
We're still watching the Weeping Weapons. We know that there are a few tweaks that need to be made here and there.
It's a matter of time before they are fixed, but right now I'm not sure of that time frame.
