Forum:My calculation about the best weapon to choose

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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.

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, 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?

Thanks, TK (talk) 15:06, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

All [UI] buttons are supposed to issue—is this a good issue or bad issue? Lysdexia (talk) 14:45, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

Same problem you mentioned on the Octal page. The Add new topic button no longer allows you to add a new topic. TK (talk) 16:42, 4 December 2019 (UTC)