sure did

i happen to be one of the pallies on video.... good times man!!

I'm sorry, but if those paladins weren't the same level, not same gear to the last %ED, then this test proves nothing.

Make the exact same paladin with exact same stats, only change the weapon. Now that is accurate.

This only shows that one guy had a better character than the other.

I am not deep into this but isn’t it about grief having more dmg but very evenly spread out accross multiple hits but this rare weapon having a lot of variability there?

If so it could get couple of lucky hits and win vs grief sometimes.

So I guess it would require hundreds of duels to get the statistically signficant data.

It's enough to compare average damage of the two weapons. The one with higher average damage will always win, given enough sample fights. Of course assuming everything else being identical and taking into account that random Venom proc chance on Grief.

Edit: as points out, the attack chance formula may be the deciding factor here. Ofc the guy landing more hits will achieve higher average damage; we need to account for misses, can't assume that all blows connect.

This post was edited by Ashirgo on Oct 13 2023 07:38am

Here’s the calculation for Fools mod, it has significantly higher hit chance than Grief. That’s the biggest factor. Otherwise Grief Zerker here has longer range and will get first hit in. And the Eth Rune part is wrong as it is additive, not multiplicative so a simple enhanced defense from Holy Shield negates the 12.5% from Eth. (Eth Rune from Grief negates close to nothing)

This post was edited by Tarisus on Oct 13 2023 07:39am

It’s not really that simple with zeal v zeal. You try to balance attack rating, damage and deadly strike and typically builds get their combination of those stats in a variety of ways (ie highlords+dual ravens, compared to angelic combo, fools, or even hsaru’s for a few) while also needing to balance ias and physical damage reduction.

So it’s not really as simple as just change the weapons and see which is better.



Yes better items win melee pvp, but because the only “skill” is how you build your character they’re inherently rng-fests for better or worse. The better build will win more than it loses, but you can get some wild swings with small sample sizes.

This post was edited by TeenyUncle8 on Oct 13 2023 07:42am

Yeah, there are more factors to this…

Sometimes it’s easier to calculate them all and form an equation and sometimes it’s easier to stage 100 experiments and test them

Also, I could imagine a more volatile weapon being preferred by worse duelers because lucky hits can (sometimes) outweigh their opponent skill.

This could be the reason why these duels are so straightforward. It's a plain RNG simulator, where you set a few variables (attack rating, damage, damage spread, health).

and gets even more complicated with AR relative to def, hp pools, when does CB/OW proc (it matters a lot more at start of duel than end of duel, and OW is more advantageous in longer matchups)