Speed definitely kills

[Metropolis Man]

I never gave too much thought to weapon speed — I still consider myself a newcomer to Diablo II. I normally choose axes for my barbs and look at damage. Just for the heck of it I equipped a double swing barb with 2 scimitars and the killing speed difference compared to axes was noticeable.

Axes are normal speed weapons and scimitars are rated very fast. However, axes have approximately 3.5 more damage. At least in the brief time I was observing, the scimitars were clearly better killing weapons.

So what exactly is the difference between a normal speed weapon and one rated very fast? Hits per second?

The only thing that concerns me by going the sword route is having to devote so many more points into dexterity that could be better spent in vitality. I guess if you're killing things very quickly, than life is not as important. Your thoughts?

[Skullcaptain]

A useful guide here will hopefully answer your question.

Link to competing site deleted - AlterEgo

Or try browsing through gamefqas website for more detail. Kirbix post alot there.

[Flamearrows]

A useful guide here will hopefully answer your question.

zap

Or try browsing through gamefqas website for more detail. Kirbix post alot there.

The link both doesn't work (direct not allowed) and that site is most definitely competing. Suggest you edit, skullcaptain.

@parent

There's some very good information in the Barbarian Forum FAQ, including an excellent weapon speed calculator. In short, faster is usually better, but the damage factor will become increasingly important as you find bigger and hurtier weapons

[Nightfish]

What matters is damage per time. If you want to determine which of two weapons is better just check the weapons calculator for the FPA (frames per attack) and divide the damage by that. The weapon with the bigger number wins.

As for life... Always important but with about 100 points in vitality and a decent amount in battle orders you should be fine. The less experienced you are in d2 the more life you'll want. But then, you probably play softcore and dying sometimes isn't that big of a deal.

[Day]

If you have other mods such as crushing blow and/or chance to cast on striking or deadly or critcal strike speed is even more important than raw damage - more speed is more hits and more hits is more chance to trigger the specials.

Also consider Ignore Iarget Defence or reduced defence mods which can make a lower damage weapon more powerful by allowing more hits and greater overall damage.

Also skills such as bash and stun are better at speed - stun the monster quick it can't hit you - quicker and safer killing. In additon, a hit that quickly stun locks a monster can be a lifesaver.

[Day]

If you have other mods such as crushing blow and/or chance to cast on striking or deadly or critcal strike speed is even more important than raw damage - more speed is more hits and more hits is more chance to trigger the specials.

Also consider Ignore Iarget Defence or reduced defence mods which can make a lower damage weapon more powerful by allowing more hits and greater overall damage.

Also skills such as bash and stun are better at speed - stun the monster quick it can't hit you - quicker and safer killing. In additon, a hit that quickly stun locks a monster can be a lifesaver.

[Day]

If you have other mods such as crushing blow and/or chance to cast on striking or deadly or critcal strike speed is even more important than raw damage - more speed is more hits and more hits is more chance to trigger the specials.

Also consider Ignore Iarget Defence or reduced defence mods which can make a lower damage weapon more powerful by allowing more hits and greater overall damage.

Also skills such as bash and stun are better at speed - stun the monster quick it can't hit you - quicker and safer killing. In additon, a hit that quickly stun locks a monster can be a lifesaver.

[LprMan]

If you have other mods such as crushing blow and/or chance to cast on striking or deadly or critcal strike speed is even more important than raw damage - more speed is more hits and more hits is more chance to trigger the specials.

With slow weapon with high dmg or fast weapon with low dmg the increase in damage over time caused by CS/DS is the same in both cases. Your attack speed doesn't matter

CB is a different thing, then fast attacking is better

[Hrus]

There is a big factor that speaks for faster weapons. If your attacks are slow, you are more likely to be hit before you hit the monster, you can be even get to hit-recovery/block animation and that interrupts your previous attack and leave you not attacking for the duration of these animations. If you are faster than the monster you are attacking, the monster will be in the hit recovery. So real damage per frame can be much higher than with slow weapons.

[Cattleya]

The speed of weapons can only be compared for weapons in the same category. So, a -10 WSM sword is going to have a different attack speed than a -10 WSM polearm. To make things more confusing, different character classes affect this as well. (For example, a sorc is very fast with polearms, but not so fast with swords, but paladin's are faster than a sorc with a sword, but slower with polearms.) Here's a weird fact: using a normal speed attack and equal IAS, a sorc attacks quite a bit faster with an IK maul than a barbarian. :shocked:

So, yeah, track down that weapon speed calculator Flamearrows mentioned to compare different weapons for different charcters, since it isn't always intutive.