Which weapon to use for my solo Elf F/M/T???

fivetigers

***I will be dual wielding and I want a mainhand weapon that I can backstab with. Offhand weapon will most likely be Scarlet Ninja-To. I will also have 22 base strength and be wearing the amulet of power. It will be a solo playthrough.***

Here are the weapons I'm considering and my brief analysis:

Angurvadal - highest average damage, however 22 STR and immunity to level drain are wasted on me.
Club of Detonation - good damage but nothing else.
Spectral Brand - good damage but the other bonuses are not needed.
Short Sword of Mask - similar to Blackrazor but not as good of a weapon in general, but a +5 weapon.
Hindo's Doom - low damage but magic resistance and greater restoration are nice.
Blackrazor - very low damage compared to others, immunities and buff/debuff/heal surges might be worth it.
Dagger of the Day Star - lowest damage but 15% invisibility sets up more backstabs.

My first inclination is to use Long or Short Swords for the +1 elf bonuses. Angurvadal is the clear cut winner for pure damage. Club of Detonation and Spectral Brand offer lower damage and nothing else. Hindo's Doom has the nice heal, but Blackrazor seems like it would keep me healed even better, however it's only a +3 weapon. I'm not really interested in the Short Sword of Mask (unless someone can change my mind), and the Dagger of the Day Star does pitiful damage, but it seems like it would make me invisible fairly often (assuming I have 5APR, that's 1 backstab every 2 rounds).

What I'd really like are some experienced players insights and analysis. I'm looking for 1 weapon I can just equip and forget about, I don't want to change gear for each fight (although I could go Long Swords and have Blackrazor in my main slot and Angurvadal in the alternate main slot for enemies immune to +3 weapons).

Blackraven

Imo none of the weapons you mention is sufficiently allround to use it all the time a la Carsomyr or Staff of the Magi, so I would keep a nice selection of weapons at hand and switch according to the occasion. By late SoA / ToB you'll have sufficient proficiency pips for at least three different weapons categories and wielding styles.
You might want to look into the (upgraded) Club of Detonation for foes who are immune (golems) or highly resistant to slashing/piercing damage. Said resistances could actually make the Club your best (backstab) weapon in various fights.
If none of the weapons you mention save Dagger of the Star offer anything particularly useful in terms of equipped effects as you say, you may just as well go with Angurvadal for its highest damage output and Blackrazor for Level drains etc.

TJ_Hooker

How does Club of Detonation offer lower damage than Angurvadal? Angurvadal, on average, does 9.5 physical, 3.5 fire (13 total). CoD does 8.5 physical, 9.5 fire (18 total), and that's not including the damage from the potential fireball. So unless you're fighting a lot of fire-resistant enemies, or you're worried about getting hurt by the fireball, it would seem like CoD is the better option. Also, in general, blunt is the preferred form of physical damage.

fivetigers

I forgot to factor in the 30% chance of 15 extra fire damage on the club. Yeah, the club is the clear cut damage winner. Angurvadal would still get +1 damage and -1 THAC0 for being elf though. But still falls short on damage.

So how does the pure damage of the Club of Detonation do vs the crazy drain/buff/heal and immunities of Blackrazor?

I suppose I could always use Blackrazor as a primary weapon and the Club as a backup.

DreadKhan

Fire resistant enemies in ToB?! So yeah, if youre a mage, Answerer isnt a bad choice. Vs very tough enemies, 1 gww will leave them very wide open, so you will be able to get past magic resistance. If you like backstabbing, upgraded Staff of the Ram is hugely massive damage dealing. You can switch after first thwack to dual wield.

Celestial Fury is pretty insane in SoA, but the save is made ~95% of the time in ToB, and bosses are immune!

If you're really married to DWing all the time, use the club of detonation. SoA has decent clubs too.

TJ_Hooker

Yeah it's hard to do a direct comparison with something like Blackrazor, but I would be tempted to use it as a primary weapon. You'll have high APR, meaning you should proc pretty often, which maxes out your STR, not to mention the nice healing. The level drain is cool too, but you have to watch out because apparently when enemies are killed via level drain their equipment is destroyed (although I've heard this can be avoided by turning off "gore" in the gameplay options). Nice regeneration and immunities to boot. Damn, I had forgotten just how awesome Blackrazor is.

Also, Elves only get +1 to hit, not to damage.

fivetigers

Oh, thought they got the bonus damage too... Oh well.

If you have 5 APR and haste gets cast on you, do you get 6 APR or is it capped at 5 except for improved haste?

Izichial

All of these weapons are extremely late in the game if you're talking about the upgraded versions. If you want something you can actually use for more than a few hours, I'd suggest Usuno's Blade +4 (from the first level of WK). Using it in your mainhand will also allow your offhand to benefit from the same proficiency - both in the case of Belm (which you can pair it up with for the early game) and Scarlet Ninja-To (which you won't be able to use until you get Use All Items from HLAs).

TJ_Hooker

fivetigers said:

If you have 5 APR and haste gets cast on you, do you get 6 APR or is it capped at 5 except for improved haste?

I think it used to be capped at 5 in the original games, but it looks like you now get 6 APR in that situation (just tested it out in BG2:EE).

DreadKhan

Usuno's blade is a reasonable choice too, readily available +4 backstabber. CF is strictly better in SoA though, and easier to get. You cant multiply energy damage, which is why the Staff of Ram is king of backwacking. Zerth Blade might not be awful right out the door, the bonus spells are handy until you've gotten high level spells (7+ really starts making lower levels irrelevant, and you get spells slower after all).

Usuno is a solid choice if you're concerned with your off hand effective. You wont have tons of extra ranks right away, and you can get Belm and Usuno right from the start nearly, if you can handle Watcher's Keep.

abazigal5

How about Celestial Fury?

jackjack

TJ_Hooker said:

fivetigers said:

If you have 5 APR and haste gets cast on you, do you get 6 APR or is it capped at 5 except for improved haste?

I think it used to be capped at 5 in the original games, but it looks like you now get 6 APR in that situation (just tested it out in BG2:EE).

Gotural

It's true, if you cast Haste and have Melf Minute Meteor for example, you will reach 6 APR.