The Demon Hunter have 4 basic weapon choices for ranged attacks. My analysis is based on:
1. Tests i did in the beta
2. The official weapon database
3. I'm taking lvl60 crafted rares as bases for my analysis because it's the most homogenous high end item cathegory i found. Theres no confirmation that the actual Set and Legendary item database is the final. Also, while all rares have just a bunch of random mods (and mods are almost the same for every item, based on my beta experience), legendaries are built in crazy ways. Compare legendaries means i need to compare different builds, and i'm trying to see the general advantage and disvantage of the weapon choices.
With that in mind, let's get going!
DATA
Those are statatistics of end game rare weapons, offhands and quivers.
All the DH's skill damage are or eventually will be based on Weapon Damage.
The skill speed animations depends on your Attack Speed. However those are not allways lineary related. This is the reason why Weapon DPS does not allways perfectly translates Skill DPS.
The effect of equiping a second pistol crossbow is the following: i. You alternate your attacks between each weapon; ii. 15% Attack Speed bonus.
DPS is the best indicator to analyse an spammable skill damage.
Non-Spammable skills only benefits from Weapon Damage. Cooldowns, fixed effects (turrent and companion) and heavy costed discipline skills frequency won't rely on your attack speed.
Weapon Damage increase the relationship between Damage/Hatred(or Discipline) cost of your skills. Impale using an Crossbow will cause more damage but will allways cost the same.
Attack Speed increase the rate in wich you recover hatred by using Hatred Generator skills (Hungering Arrow recovers 5 Hatred per Second with Crossbows, while it recovers 10.35 with Dual Wielding).
Higher Attack Speed means your character will have superior mobility in combat, because the animation between actions will be smaller.
Flat effects on hit (like +Fire Damage) works better in high attack speed weapons, while +x% values have the same effect, doesn't matter the Weapon.
Some modifiers (like +Fire Damage or +x% Weapon Damage) only works on that particular weapon attack. This significatly reduces the usefullness of such mods in dual wielding (because the mod only apply to 1/2 of your attacks).
It's important to play attention to the Weapon Damage Interveil (Max Damage Possible - Min Damage Possible). Stable Damage weapons are better for killing low HP monsters while Unstable Damage weapon are better for killing avarage HP monsters. Both weapons are equally good in killing high HP monsters.
It might be a little harder to plan your steps with Unstable Damage Weapons since you will face situations were you don't know how many hits you take to kill certain monster more often.
CONCLUSIONS
BOW + QUIVER * Good at use non-spammable skills (High Weapon Damage) but not the best.
* Potentially benefits more from + elemental damage mods then any other choices. Thats because it has more attack speed then crossbow and doesn't have the nerfed effects from dual wielding.
* Average combat mobility (moderate Attack Speed). * Lowest DPS (worst for using spammable skills and normal attacks), wich is one big disvantage. Majority of skills seens to be spammable.
CROSSBOW + QUIVER * Best at using non-spammable skills (Highest Weapon Damage).
* Middleground DPS * Lowest combat mobility
PISTOL (DUAL WIELDING) * By far the best DPS (great at spammable skills)
* Greatest mobility * By far the worst non-spammable skills damage
* Best at utility skills (explain later - have to do with resources)
Hey guys, gotta go. Later on i will update:
i. The resource management of each weapon. I will have to run some numbers.
ii. Pistol + Shield analysis.
You can't make a comparison until you know how common +APS and flat +damage bonuses are. If there's a disparity between how common those bonuses are, it completely changes the relative power of each weapon type.
Lowest combat mobility
What does this mean? What does weapon choice have to do with mobility?
I've compiled my own list of pros and cons here. We seem to be in agreement for most of them.
You can't make a comparison until you know how common +APS and flat +damage bonuses are. If there's a disparity between how common those bonuses are, it completely changes the relative power of each weapon type.
The data i use is for basic items, the mods doesn't count.
With the information of weapon's base attack speed and base damage, it's possible to calculate the impact of any mod in all weapon types. So I can really assume stuff like "flat damage is better on bows".
Prove of that estatement:
i. Assuming theres no critical hits, just to simplify the model.
ii. DPS' means it's the DPS of an weapon with +x flat bonus damage.
The improvement is 1.4*x. I can do the same with Crossbows and find the improvement is just x, wich is smaller. In dual wielding: since the bonus only apply to half of the attacks (and since all pistol crossbow have the same speed) i can assume if one corssbow have +x fire damage, it will only affect (x/2)*APS the DPS. So a +x flat damage will increase my DPS by 1.035*x wich is lower the 1.4*x from bows.
If bows will be better because of this, totally depends on the size of x and on critical hits damage and frequency. Also, many skills doesn't proc the elemental flat bonus, another thing to have in mind.
What does this mean? What does weapon choice have to do with mobility?
In combat mobility. The character's attack speed determines the animation time between using a skill (or a normal attack) and start moving again. I notice that while dual wielding (2.07 speed) i could easilly attack, move some yards and attack again (like playing Stalkers in Starcraft 2). This allowed me to keep damaging monsters and avoiding arrow for exemple. While using a bow, i had harder time doing that, because my character takes more time to attack, enough time to monster gets closer or a arrow hit me.
You can't make a comparison until you know how common +APS and flat +damage bonuses are. If there's a disparity between how common those bonuses are, it completely changes the relative power of each weapon type.
The data i use is for basic items, the mods doesn't count.
With the information of weapon's base attack speed and base damage, it's possible to calculate the impact of any mod in all weapon types. So I can really assume stuff like "flat damage is better on bows".
Prove of that estatement:
i. Assuming theres no critical hits, just to simplify the model.
ii. DPS' means it's the DPS of an weapon with +x flat bonus damage.
The improvement is 1.4*x. I can do the same with Crossbows and find the improvement is just x, wich is smaller. In dual wielding: since the bonus only apply to half of the attacks (and since all pistol crossbow have the same speed) i can assume if one corssbow have +x fire damage, it will only affect (x/2)*APS the DPS. So a +x flat damage will increase my DPS by 1.035*x wich is lower the 1.4*x from bows.
If bows will be better because of this, totally depends on the size of x and on critical hits damage and frequency. Also, many skills doesn't proc the elemental flat bonus, another thing to have in mind.
The problem is that you also have APS bonuses. Therefore, the bow DPS would be
DPS' means the DPS of a weapon with +x flat bonus damage and +y APS.
You can't make any conclusions without knowing what at least one of these variables are. If, hypothetically, +APS bonuses vastly overshadow flat +damage bonuses, crossbows and bows will be better than dual wielding, while if flat +damage bonuses overshadow +APS bonuses, dual wielding will be better.
(x/2)*APS the DPS. So a +x flat damage will increase my DPS by 1.035*x wich is lower the 1.4*x from bows.
Most hand xbows have 1.8 APS base, for 0.9*x contribution from flat elemental damage. Don't forget though that flat +damage on rings has been established to affect both weapons, so that would provide 1.8*x contribution for dual wielding, which beats bows.
What does this mean? What does weapon choice have to do with mobility?
In combat mobility. The character's attack speed determines the animation time between using a skill (or a normal attack) and start moving again. I notice that while dual wielding (2.07 speed) i could easilly attack, move some yards and attack again (like playing Stalkers in Starcraft 2). This allowed me to keep damaging monsters and avoiding arrow for exemple. While using a bow, i had harder time doing that, because my character takes more time to attack, enough time to monster gets closer or a arrow hit me.
The only way this could be an advantage for dual wielding is if you're able to cancel the attack animation a flat number of seconds before it completes. If you cannot cancel, or if you can only cancel after some percentage of the animation is completed, then you could just move more often between each 2h attack and get the same net result as if you were dual wielding.
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The Demon Hunter have 4 basic weapon choices for ranged attacks. My analysis is based on:
1. Tests i did in the beta
2. The official weapon database
3. I'm taking lvl60 crafted rares as bases for my analysis because it's the most homogenous high end item cathegory i found. Theres no confirmation that the actual Set and Legendary item database is the final. Also, while all rares have just a bunch of random mods (and mods are almost the same for every item, based on my beta experience), legendaries are built in crazy ways. Compare legendaries means i need to compare different builds, and i'm trying to see the general advantage and disvantage of the weapon choices.
With that in mind, let's get going!
DATA
Those are statatistics of end game rare weapons, offhands and quivers.
BOW + QUIVER
DPS: 155.4
DAMAGE: 29~193 (111 Avarage)
SPEED: 1.4
MODS: 12
CROSSBOW + QUIVER
DPS: 162
DAMAGE: 149~175 (162 Avarage)
SPEED: 1.0
MODS: 12
PISTOL (DUAL WIELDING)
DPS: 184.23
DAMAGE: 23~155 (89 AVARAGE)
SPEED: 2.07
MODS: 12
A FEW IDEAS TO KEEP IN MIND
CONCLUSIONS
BOW + QUIVER
* Good at use non-spammable skills (High Weapon Damage) but not the best.
* Potentially benefits more from + elemental damage mods then any other choices. Thats because it has more attack speed then crossbow and doesn't have the nerfed effects from dual wielding.
* Average combat mobility (moderate Attack Speed).
* Lowest DPS (worst for using spammable skills and normal attacks), wich is one big disvantage. Majority of skills seens to be spammable.
CROSSBOW + QUIVER
* Best at using non-spammable skills (Highest Weapon Damage).
* Middleground DPS
* Lowest combat mobility
PISTOL (DUAL WIELDING)
* By far the best DPS (great at spammable skills)
* Greatest mobility
* By far the worst non-spammable skills damage
* Best at utility skills (explain later - have to do with resources)
Hey guys, gotta go. Later on i will update:
i. The resource management of each weapon. I will have to run some numbers.
ii. Pistol + Shield analysis.
What does this mean? What does weapon choice have to do with mobility?
I've compiled my own list of pros and cons here. We seem to be in agreement for most of them.
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/31283-acting-faster-on-double-crossbow-wielders/page__view__findpost__p__698701
The data i use is for basic items, the mods doesn't count.
With the information of weapon's base attack speed and base damage, it's possible to calculate the impact of any mod in all weapon types. So I can really assume stuff like "flat damage is better on bows".
Prove of that estatement:
i. Assuming theres no critical hits, just to simplify the model.
ii. DPS' means it's the DPS of an weapon with +x flat bonus damage.
BOW DPS = 89*1.4
BOW DPS'= (89+x)*1.4
BOW DPS'= 89*1.4 + 1.4*x
BOW DPS'= BOW DPS + 1.4*x
The improvement is 1.4*x. I can do the same with Crossbows and find the improvement is just x, wich is smaller. In dual wielding: since the bonus only apply to half of the attacks (and since all pistol crossbow have the same speed) i can assume if one corssbow have +x fire damage, it will only affect (x/2)*APS the DPS. So a +x flat damage will increase my DPS by 1.035*x wich is lower the 1.4*x from bows.
If bows will be better because of this, totally depends on the size of x and on critical hits damage and frequency. Also, many skills doesn't proc the elemental flat bonus, another thing to have in mind.
In combat mobility. The character's attack speed determines the animation time between using a skill (or a normal attack) and start moving again. I notice that while dual wielding (2.07 speed) i could easilly attack, move some yards and attack again (like playing Stalkers in Starcraft 2). This allowed me to keep damaging monsters and avoiding arrow for exemple. While using a bow, i had harder time doing that, because my character takes more time to attack, enough time to monster gets closer or a arrow hit me.
The problem is that you also have APS bonuses. Therefore, the bow DPS would be
DPS' means the DPS of a weapon with +x flat bonus damage and +y APS.
You can't make any conclusions without knowing what at least one of these variables are. If, hypothetically, +APS bonuses vastly overshadow flat +damage bonuses, crossbows and bows will be better than dual wielding, while if flat +damage bonuses overshadow +APS bonuses, dual wielding will be better.
Most hand xbows have 1.8 APS base, for 0.9*x contribution from flat elemental damage. Don't forget though that flat +damage on rings has been established to affect both weapons, so that would provide 1.8*x contribution for dual wielding, which beats bows.
The only way this could be an advantage for dual wielding is if you're able to cancel the attack animation a flat number of seconds before it completes. If you cannot cancel, or if you can only cancel after some percentage of the animation is completed, then you could just move more often between each 2h attack and get the same net result as if you were dual wielding.