Forum:My calculation about the best weapon to choose
I calculated the best weapon to choose, depending on role, race and alignment. I simply show the table, with these assumptions:
- Every weapon in this sheet has +7 enchantment, is blessed, and is erodeproof.
- You have max skill.
- You don't want to get blasted by artifact weapons.
- You don't want to get alignment penalty for using poison if you are Lawful.
- About melee weapons table, obviously, you don't want to achieve "Never hit with a wielded weapon" conduct. Monks are not an exception.
- You have maximum strength at your race's default. (So no gauntlets of power nor ring of gain strength)
- You don't have a ring of increase damage.
Contents
The tables
Melee weapons (without artifacts)
| Role | Melee weapon | |
|---|---|---|
| In Dungeons of Doom | In Gehennom | |
| Archeologist | two crysknives | two silver sabers |
| Barbarian | two tridents | |
| Caveman | a dwarvish mattock or a trident | |
| Healer | a unicorn horn or a crysknife | |
| Knight | two katanas | |
| Monk | a tsurugi or a trident | |
| Priest | a tsurugi or a trident | |
| Ranger | a battle-axe or a crysknife | |
| Rogue | two crysknives | |
| Samurai | two katanas | |
| Tourist | two crysknives | two silver sabers |
| Valkyrie | two katanas | |
| Wizard | a battle-axe or a crysknife | |
Melee weapons (with artifacts)
| Role | Alignment | Primary melee weapon | Secondary melee weapon (If you are able to #twoweapon) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Dungeons of Doom | In Gehenom | In Dungeons of Doom | In Gehenom | ||
| Archeologist | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | a crysknife | a silver saber |
| Neutral | the Frost Brand | ||||
| Barbarian | (any) | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | a trident | |
| Caveman | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | ||
| Neutral | the Frost Brand | ||||
| Healer | Neutral | the Staff of Aesculapius | |||
| Knight | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | a katana | |
| Monk | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | ||
| (other) | the Frost Brand | ||||
| Priest | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | ||
| Neutral | the Mjollnir | ||||
| Chaotic | the Frost Brand | ||||
| Ranger | (any) | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | ||
| Rogue | Chaotic | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | a crysknife | |
| Samurai | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | a katana | |
| Tourist | Neutral | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | a crysknife | a silver saber |
| Valkyrie | Lawful | the Fire Brand | the Grayswandir | a katana | |
| Neutral | the Frost Brand | ||||
| Wizard | (any) | the Fire Brand | the Frost Brand | ||
Projectiles
| Role | Race | Alignment | In Dungeons of Doom | In Gehenom | Sidenotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archeologist | (any) | (any) | boomerangs | ||
| Barbarian | Human | (any) | poisoned shurikens | Perhaps want to be unrestricted of shuriken by crowning. | |
| Orc | Chaotic | poisoned orcish arrows | Use an orcish bow for launcher. | ||
| Caveman | (any) | (any) | boomerangs | ||
| Healer | Human | Neutral | poisoned darts | knives or stilletos | |
| Gnome | poisoned darts | ||||
| Knight | Human | Lawful | crossbow bolts | Use a crossbow for launcher. | |
| Monk | Human | Lawful | shurikens | ||
| (other) | poisoned shurikens | ||||
| Priest | Human | Lawful | a bardiche or boomerangs | ||
| (other combinations) | poisoned shurikens | ||||
| Ranger | Human | (any) | poisoned darts | ||
| Elf | Chaotic | poisoned elven arrows | Use an elven bow for launcher. | ||
| Gnome | Neutral | poisoned crossbow bolts | Use a crossbow for launcher. | ||
| Orc | Chaotic | poisoned orcish arrows | Use an orcish bow for launcher. | ||
| Rogue | Human | Chaotic | poisoned darts | ||
| Orc | poisoned crossbow bolts | Use a crossbow for launcher. | |||
| Samurai | Human | Lawful | ya | Use a yumi for launcher. | |
| Tourist | Human | Neutral | poisoned darts | ||
| Valkyrie | (any) | (any) | silver daggers | ||
| Wizard | (any) | (any) | poisoned darts | ||
--NDos (talk) 01:43, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
Updated as of version 3.6.2. --NDos (talk) 02:04, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
Bugfix. --NDos (talk) 00:19, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
Updated the "projectiles" table as of version 3.6.6. --NDos (talk) 01:32, 1 November 2020 (UTC)
Write your opinions here
This table seems to assume no strength damage bonus (see "table of attribute adjustments" in weap-343.txt, or dbon in weapon.c), i.e. STR between 8 to 15 inclusive. In the late game (which these calculations otherwise seem to be for), most characters should have their stats pretty close to maximized, which improves the damage significantly for most weapons, but crucially, not for missiles fired from a launcher (i.e. arrows, bolts and sling stones; see uhitm.c in NetHack 3.4.3, line 892). Thus, while e.g. low-strength Rogues can maximize their damage output with poisoned crossbow bolts, a late-game Rogue with 18/** STR is much better off throwing daggers. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:12, 3 February 2015 (UTC)
- I fixed the table. Thank you for finding error. It turns out Rogue's best weapon is (surprisingly) darts, though. --NDos (talk) 05:14, 5 February 2015 (UTC)
Katanas are very hard to find, so what is the best second option? I suppose there are long swords, but I want confirmation.
Too, it is logical to think that silver sabers are supreme in Gehennom. Am I missing a point?
- In that case, a normal long sword turns out to be a good replacement. For silver sabers in Gehennom, your argument actually turns out to be true for Archeologists since NetHack 3.6.0, when the mechanism of two-handed combat changed. This table is to be updated later. --NDos (talk) 11:54, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
- Also, the current (2018.10.03) version respects monsters' frequency, but not their difficulty, which will be respected in next version. --NDos (talk) 12:25, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
In my opinion Fire Brand is terrible, and Frost Brand slightly less so, because they kill all those items you'd otherwise be getting from defeated opponents. Maybe the table should also present a "best weapon that does not destroy valuable loot" (so Mjollnir is also nonexistant, obviously). --Bluescreenofdeath (talk) 08:23, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
- In that case, use Grayswandir for lawfuls, use Cleaver or Vorpal Blade for neutrals, and use Stormbringer for chaotics. --NDos (talk) 23:27, 20 August 2019 (UTC)
- Mjollnir is not that bad, honestly. It only explodes wands and rings; most monsters don't carry rings, and wands become plentiful by midgame, especially since most attack wands also destroy loot and thus don't see much use by players with this mindset. But I agree that Fire Brand sucks: one can never have enough scrolls and potions. Tomsod (talk) 13:36, 26 August 2019 (UTC)
- Yeah most wands are pretty useless, not only because they destroy items but also because their damage doesn't scale; however, wands of death are pretty rare and it's SO disheartening to have to read "The soldier's wand of death breaks apart and explodes!" because it means I'll have one less wand of death for Rodney and the riders. --Bluescreenofdeath (talk) 11:10, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
Also I think you're overestimating the undesirability of the artifact blast. My neutral and chaotic characters often end up with Grayswandir, and occasional 5 points of damage don't inconvenience me at all. Possibly it's because I don't switch to a different weapon often; if I had to use a bow as well, I can see how it would be annoying. Tomsod (talk) 09:42, 27 August 2019 (UTC)
- I agree. I wouldn't take alignment into account. The HP damage from the artifact blast is irrelevant. The wisdom abuse becomes noticeable after a while, but there are ways to cure that. Derekt75 (talk) 20:32, 12 April 2021 (UTC)
This is unrelated, so forgive me. Unless I am badly missing something, there seems to be an issue with the Add new topic button. I tried creating a new topic manually to talk about it, but it doesn't appear in the forum. You can view that here: https://nethackwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Forum:Add_new_topic_button_issue Hmm. Any help?
