Guide to Weapon Speed Mechanics in EverQuest 2Written by: Michael Hartman • Edited by: Michael Hartman
Updated Nov 12, 2010
This guide explains the mechanics behind weapon speeds in EverQuest 2. The information in this guide should make it easier to choose the weapon with the right speed for your character.
What is this Guide About?
There are a huge variety of weapons in EverQuest 2. There are so many, in fact, it can be very difficult to figure out what type of weapon is best for your character. Obviously, you want stats that are appropriate for your class. That part is obvious. You also want a high damage value. These parts are easy to compare because they are directly comparable between two weapons. The tough part is weapon speed because that is when the nitty gritty mechanics of combat come into play. This guide seeks to demystify the weapon speed mechanics in EverQuest 2 in a "Question and Answer" format.
Does this guide pertain to crafted or dropped weapons?
This guide pertains to both. The weapon speeds for dropped weapons are really all over the place. Do not get sucked in by exciting looking stats on a legendary or fabled weapon that you find, as a bad weapon speed can basically ruin it (assuming you are not a pure caster). This is one of the reasons so many people use crafted weapons from level 1 to 70 (and sometimes all the way up to level 80 until they get a class specific weapon). By using crafted weapons you can get the exact weapon speed you want with the exact stats and procs you want.
What are the mechanics behind weapon speeds?
When do you want fast, when do you want slow?
You always want slow weapons. The slower the better in virtually all circumstances. The mechanics behind weapon speeds are fairly simple but the reasons why slow weapons are better are somewhat more complicated. To fully understand the answer to this question, you need to know a few things about how auto-attack works in conjunction with skills (Source: EverQuest 2 Forumsand my own combat experience and data analysis).
Using a combat art or spell during a period in which an auto-attack swing should occur will cause the auto-attack to be delayed until the end of the combat art or spell's casting and recovery times. After this period is up the auto-attack will hit and the auto-attack swings will continue as normal (with the correct delay between all swings). Only one auto-attack swing for each hand can be delayed in this way, so if you have casting times that are longer than the weapon's delay (and are badly/unluckily timed) you will find that you lose swings with the weapon. As a result of this, slow weapons will get more uninterrupted auto-attack swings in any fight in which the wielder is using combat arts or spells.
One of the main reasons you want to avoid losing regular swings is the effect this loss has on procs and triggers. With less swings, these often powerful effects are less likely to be activated. This is because the chance for a weapon to trigger a proc is calculated as a percentage chance for an unhasted weapon of that weapon's particular delay.
Procs have descriptions like "Procs 3.2 times per minute." What this means is that a short delay weapon (1.2 seconds for example) has a 6.4% chance to proc on any given swing while a slower weapon (4 seconds for example) has a 21.33% chance to proc on any given swing. That in itself is not a point in favour of slow weapons as they will still proc the same number of times over any given time-frame. However, the fast weapon loses far more swings due to auto-attack queueing than the slow weapon as a proportion of the total number of swings.
The proportion of lost attacks is more than simply the factor of its higher weapon speed. Because it is so much harder to squeeze spells and combat arts in between fast swings you are more likely to "double queue" auto attacks and lose more auto attacks more often. Thus, a proc effect that would normally be 3 procs per minute can easily be cut down to 2 procs per minute or worse.
This is somewhat simple. The longer the casting time of the spell or combat art being used the more likely you are going to mess up the timing of auto attacks and miss out on one of them. Instant attacks still have an animation time, so that needs to be kept in mind as well. Remember that one auto attack can be queued, so your timing does not have to be perfect. The problem only really arises when it is time for a new auto attack to happen when one is already queued. You cannot have more than one auto attack queued at the same time.
Another point in favor of long delay weapons is related to casting times but it is very class dependent. If you play a class that has longer cast times it is far easier to time your casts to the rhythm of a long delay weapon than a short delay weapon. This is class dependant as some classes have very short cast times which mean that combat art timing while using a long delay weapon is largely pointless. Most melee classes do not have to worry about timing their abilities. They only need to make sure they pause their attack chains every few seconds (depending on their weapon speed and haste) to make sure they give the game time to fire off and animate their regular weapon swing.
When dual wielding you should choose two weapons that have the same weapon speed. This is to ensure that the weapons swing at the same time all the time, thereby reducing the likelihood of delaying a swing while you time your combat arts.
It is much easier to time your spells or combat arts to one weapon speed than to two. Knowing that you only need to pause slightly once every 5 seconds is a lot easier than knowing you need to pause slightly at 3 seconds and also at 5 seconds. And imagine 3 rounds into battle when one weapon would swing at the 9th second and the other at the 10th second. That would not give you enough time between auto attacks to even use an instant combat art.
If your weapons have different speeds, you have to either pause your combat art chains more frequently, or just accept the occasional loss of an extra auto attack swing. Both choices result in an overall loss of DPS. Therefore, you are best off using two weapons that have the same speed.
With very slow weapons - 4 seconds to 5.33 seconds while dual wielded (REMEMBER: dual wielding increases delay on a weapon by 30%) - it is usually pointless for a melee class to time swings. If you are playing a class that has long casting time abilities as well as quick Combat Arts, you should use CAs in downtime between spells and long casting times right after an auto attack.
Haste really does not affect the mechanics explained here, except that it simply exacerbates all the negatives with fast weapons and increases the benefits of slow weapons. As your attack speed increases due to haste, your potential to lose auto attack swings increases. Keep that in mind so you know if you need to pause your CA or spell casting chain a little bit more often to make sure you do not miss any auto attacks.