Star vs. Mace for a paladin

[Homur]

Howdy all,

What with the weather starting to turn gross, I've been thinking about coming back and knocking out another dozen or so levels on my paladin. I plan on switching to a blunt & board build, but my memory of mechanics is a bit hazy. I'm hoping there might be a math-lete out there to help me a bit with this decision: morning star or mace?

I know the common refrain is that the star is the best one hander out there, so maybe this doesn't even need figuring out. I am curious though, if the star might not be "overkill". My guy is a master of GoS and will always have HCW up alongside 1605, and hopefully will have 1618 pretty regularly as well (at least for swarms/warcamps). My hunting strategy is pretty simple; knock the critter down and hit it in the head. As I recall my AS seemed absurdly high at level 61, and I was generating endrolls of 250+ on a consistent basis.

So my question is (if this is even possible to calculate), what is the approximate endroll differential for a fatal headshot for a mace versus a morning star? I'd need to consider everything from skin to platemail before I decide. If someone could post the formula (I'm sort of unsure on the order of operations with regards to damage/crit weighting, among other things) I'd be happy to plug in the numbers myself. I should note that I'll also be using a perfect weapon, whether its a star or mace (again, unsure where that bonus gets plugged in).

My thinking is that if I use a mace, I may be able to cut down pretty significantly on my ambush/multistrike round times. I'm aware that the star has a (mostly) superior AvD and damage factor, is there any other advantage I'm not considering? The mace is crush only, though I've read a few posts praising puncturing weapons too (but that may have been in regards to eye-shots instead of headshots).

That being said, it seems like if maces were on equal footing with stars than alot more folks would be using them (my apologies if this is just beating a dead horse). I would just like to make certain that given the society & class specific abilities my guy has, that I'm getting the most out of my weapon. Thanks in advance for any input or advice!

~Homur

[Sorcasaurus]

Given your setup and endrolls (Assuming +200-250 consistently) it depends what you're hunting.

Below are the +endrolls you would need to achieve a rank 9 crit with aura, GoS weighting and a perfect weapon vs a critter with no padding. Keep in mind that it is then randomized between rank 5-9. There may be a slight variance if you have lores trained.

Mace
Cloth:71
Leath: 121
Scale: 195
Chain: 236
Plate: 425

Star
Cloth: 66
Leath: 111
Scale: 159
Chain: 196
Plate: 330


If you're aiming for the head, crush only on the mace is nice because the above rolls will guarantee a kill. With a star you have the chance of it dealing puncture damage and getting rank 5 crit. That's the only time the star it won't be fatal hitting the head. If the critter has any padding it will bump those numbers up as well.

I ended up using both when playing my paladin. Anything with plate, padding or immune to crit death I used a star, less than that I used a mace. Clearing warcamps I would just use the star. Switching back and forth would have been too much of a pain with so many swarming.

This is a long post for not giving a definite answer, but they both work well enough that you can't go wrong. There is just a window you can optimize by switching between the two.


Ref:
ohb damage factors: http://www.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Blunt_Weapons
Puncture Crit Table: http://test.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Pun...critical_table
Crush Crit Table: http://test.krakiipedia.org/wiki/Crush_critical_table

[Astray]

A Paladin swings hard enough to basically murder anything around their level. Go with what you want.

[JackWhisper]

But very few are defended half as well as Astray's head.

[Astray]

I got my +50 helm of retarding. The sticker is just a sticker though.

[Aganii]

I would go with morning star because of the superior damage. Neither of them will be 100% crit-kill chance due to randomization but in theory mace would get more kills given high enough endrolls. The star would yield better results with open mstrikes and be much better against stuff immune to death crits like Golems and non corps though. If you are sold on the blunt and board build you can just pick up either and play around with them both before deciding which to bond to. I would also look into war hammers if speed is a big concern. Same speed as a mace, almost as strong as a morning star but still blunt/puncture. My warrior uses a shield, blunt, twc build with splitting war hammers and get tons of headshots while being able to go twc for mstrikes, crit immune types.

[Sorcasaurus]

[Elgrim]

My guess is that he is going to have to pick one for 1625, so that is probably why he is trying to make a choice for the main weapon.

[Homur]

Thanks again for the replies (and the math!)

I've used both weapon types in the past, though that was at a significantly lower level and I rarely dealt with armored enemies. My guy is awful poor and doesn't have the luxury of switching weapons often. I had intended to dump pretty much all my meager coin into ensorcelling/enchanting a perfect steel weapon, thus my debate.

Good point on the warhammer too... I hadn't really considered them because of the poor AvD scores. Speed is definitely important too me as I am usually self spelled & stance dancing. I know any weapon will be uber with enough work put into it, but as I said this weapon will likely never be more than T5/5x.

A few more questions -- I am under the impression that minimum RT on the weapon base plays a roll in aiming accuracy, is this correct? Or is it a matter of net weight that determines the "size" of the weapon? For example, daggers are supposedly easier to aim than longswords due to the size difference. Any insight into how much of a factor this is? If it is only a minor (~5'ish %) I guess I can't say no to the star. After fixskilling, I'll be very close to a full 2x in CM (0x in ambush). I keep my bounties set to max difficulty so I will be up-hunting 10 or so levels much of the time.

As for the post about paladins murdering everything, my time in the Citadel in RR left me feeling quite the contrary! Pretty excited to have a fixskill to burn and go back to try again.

[Sorcasaurus]

I keep my bounties set to max difficulty so I will be up-hunting 10 or so levels much of the time.

Uphunting that much requires a bit more selection in what you can hunt for any class. Some of your setup abilities (cman, spells, etc) will be harder or near impossible to land.

That being said:

You don't need to have two project pieces to use two weapons. Once you pick which weapon you want for your project piece and bond to it. Pick up a cheap 4x flaring or sancted version of the other. You're switching because of the difference in damage factor vs heavier armors, and that will still be there.

I'll check my locker to see if I have any of the 4x sancted flaring stars that were vendor sold at some events in the past year or so.