What stats to look out for in one handed weapons?

[Ask]

I'm trying to have fun with a dumb playthrough idea of using only companions/family members and no regular troops.

I'm equipping them all with one handed weapons and we all fight on foot, just for the sake of trying something different. I leveled my smithing to try out different custom weapons for them, but I want to hear opinions/experiences on what makes a one handed weapon good.

For instance, I used to like maxing out reach and weapon damage, thinking that it would provide a good advantage, but it doesn't. I want to say that most one handed weapons never get the raw damage output to do one hit kills consistently, so in damage terms getting 70 cut or 90 cut doesn't make a huge difference, or 55 blunt vs 75 blunt. High reach means that your troops usually either hit a wall or a friendly troop, or end up hitting an enemy they weren't aiming for, dealing low damage.

Currently I'm just going for maces that have short range, high swing speed and moderate damage (about 60ish). They've been working fairly well, almost everything I've fought so far is a 2 hit kill at most and the high swing speed (about 102-105) usually allows my guys to swing faster than most enemies.

I feel that axes on the other hand are pretty awful, or at least I've not made a good combination yet. I'm not sure if it's just my imagination or what but I feel that they get "stuck" in the enemies a lot.

Swords are alright, specially ones without stab moves since that one is pretty slow and troops love doing it. However since their reach and damage are tied together on the blade, a shorter one deals too little damage to get consistent 2 hit kills, while maces have the advantage of having most their reach tied to the handle and most the damage tied to the head, which allows to make short, fast and higher damage weapons more consistently.

I've also tried the billhook head for maces which gives them piercing damage but the damage it deals is too low to be of any use in general.

So what are your opinions on one handed weapons? Any hidden gems or things to look out for?

 

[anoddhermit]

Handling makes a weapon deal more consistent damage regardless of what part of the weapon makes contact.

Many axes and maces are garbage because they have low handling and NPCs can't adapt to this.

Some swords are long and awkward in close quarters which can also cause issues especially with low handling. But too short and they will be more prone to misses or being hit before getting in range.

NPCs also suck at using thrust as you noted, which tends to miss most easily or deal the least damage if not used at proper distance.

So ideally, you want medium length, high handling, and of course good damage, and no thrust option.

For those reasons, best 1h weapon (I've found) so far is a 1handed smithed weapon using the Falx blade. It's a basic sword, it ONLY has swing damage, you can't thrust with it, and it can be made to have pretty good damage - like 90-100 range, while still having like 90+ swing speed and around 100 length. Handling will be in the ~90 range which is pretty solid especially for that high of damage. Oh and on top of that, it has a bonus vs. shields.

Also I recommend pairing it with the oval Cavalry Kite Shield with 101 speed, found in Sturgia towns. There's another shield that's a bit faster but it has much lower durability. I think it's the most balanced and effective shield for player/companions.

 

[Ask]

Handling makes a weapon deal more consistent damage regardless of what part of the weapon makes contact.

Handling is a mystery to me. I've heard it either does that, like for example if you're using a lengthy axe and you're too close to hit with the blade and end up hitting with the handle instead it gets less penalty, and also I've heard that it increases the "sweet spot" of the swinging motion, like usually you want to hit someone directly in the middle of the swing, if your blade ends up striking someone that is to your side during the start or the end of the swing motion it deals less damage. I've also heard some pretty bad explanations like it changes the animation of the swing and the swing speed itself but that doesn't make sense.

Yeah regardless, I also always try to have high handling, which luckily is almost always directly correlated to swing speed and having them both high is pretty good.

For those reasons, best 1h weapon (I've found) so far is a 1handed smithed weapon using the Falx blade.

Ah well, time to put in another good few hours crafting stuff until I unlock that part For those same reasons I wanted to try those star falchion blades but they look ugly IMO and they are too slow even if their damage is pretty high. Nice to know there's another blade that also doesn't have the stab attack, I'll give it a try.

Also I recommend pairing it with the oval Cavalry Kite Shield with 101 speed, found in Sturgia towns. There's another shield that's a bit faster but it has much lower durability. I think it's the most balanced and effective shield for player/companions.

I've been using a cavalry shield, I don't remember which one specifically but it's one of the slightly faster ones than the stock 82 speed every shield seems to have. Does shield speed make much of a difference?

Or the size for that matter? Every shield has the same size listed in the UI but they are all clearly not the same size Just Bannerlord things I guess.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

The sell price

 

[anoddhermit]

Handling is a mystery to me. I've heard it either does that, like for example if you're using a lengthy axe and you're too close to hit with the blade and end up hitting with the handle instead it gets less penalty, and also I've heard that it increases the "sweet spot" of the swinging motion, like usually you want to hit someone directly in the middle of the swing, if your blade ends up striking someone that is to your side during the start or the end of the swing motion it deals less damage. I've also heard some pretty bad explanations like it changes the animation of the swing and the swing speed itself but that doesn't make sense.

Yeah regardless, I also always try to have high handling, which luckily is almost always directly correlated to swing speed and having them both high is pretty good.


Ah well, time to put in another good few hours crafting stuff until I unlock that part For those same reasons I wanted to try those star falchion blades but they look ugly IMO and they are too slow even if their damage is pretty high. Nice to know there's another blade that also doesn't have the stab attack, I'll give it a try.


I've been using a cavalry shield, I don't remember which one specifically but it's one of the slightly faster ones than the stock 82 speed every shield seems to have. Does shield speed make much of a difference?

Or the size for that matter? Every shield has the same size listed in the UI but they are all clearly not the same size Just Bannerlord things I guess.

I want to say some time ago a guy tested handling and came to the conclusion it had to do with where the weapon makes contact, but honestly I could see it being either one. From personal experience it just seems to mean my damage is less consistent.

I also consider the Falchion blades pretty ugly. The Falx is better, there's also a few good Battanian blades (Highland Decorated Blade, Decorated Broadsword and Backsword) that look nice and have great stats, but have thrust attacks. If you marry, or have a family member marry, a Battanian many of them will have one or two of them. Ladogual is usually who I get mine from, ties me over until I eventually make something better with smithing.

I notice a difference using a faster shield on my character, at least. Probably makes more difference for the player than companions, but I think it can't hurt for companions.

Size does make a difference especially against projectiles, and a case could be made for the faster Sturgian round shields too. They're not as fast but they give better protection.

 

[Ask]

The sell price

No joke though, I thought that after the nerf things would be a bit more reasonably priced, but if you get the perk that halves the smithed weapon's trade penalty they all get about 50% more expensive in price Selling 2h swords for 50k or 100k makes absolutely no difference when you can produce 12 in a day for 400 denars worth of material each.

Battanian blade (backsword) that looks nice

Battanians have the best fashion

Size does make a difference especially against projectiles

Figures, then the game saying every shield is "Class: Large Shield" is just Bannerlord being Bannerlord

Thanks for the input man!

 

[black_bulldog]

Handling makes a weapon deal more consistent damage regardless of what part of the weapon makes contact.

Many axes and maces are garbage because they have low handling and NPCs can't adapt to this.

Handling has to do with getting the most damage out of your weapon, in other words hitting the sweet spot because weapons have a damage range so in a roundabout way you're correct that high handling will make a weapon do more consistent damage. But honestly how much of an effect it actually has is kind of iffy towards weapon dps. What I mean is, it's hard to tell if weapon speed is more important or handling for a higher dps. I think the difference in handling effect is negligible unless your using extreme values but that's my personal bias because I never saw a huge difference and honestly with as as armor is in this game, doing say 55 damage a swing vs doing 58 a swing isn't really going to change anything because most targets are going down in 2 swings either way.

OP imho the currently the best 1 handed weapons are maces. The only downside they have is weapon speed, but blunt damage is op in this game. They're consistently good against lightly or heavily armored opponents.
Warband made it so you needed 2 weapon types if you were going to be doing a lot of melee. Typically I would use an axe for shielded or low armor targets and a mace for heavily armored targets but in Bannerlord since blunt nullifies armor there is no reason to use anything else except maybe for looks. If were talking 2 handed weapons that's easy any kind of glaive weapon does tons of damage and can consistently out perform all other 2 handers.

 

[Ask]

I never saw a huge difference and honestly with as as armor is in this game, doing say 55 damage a swing vs doing 58 a swing isn't really going to change anything because most targets are going down in 2 swings either way.

OP imho the currently the best 1 handed weapons are maces. The only downside they have is weapon speed, but blunt damage is op in this game. They're consistently good against lightly or heavily armored opponents.

Actually I agree a lot with this and I came to a very similar conclusion a bit ago. Maces are simply way too consistent and will pretty much always land 2 hit kills on absolutely everything, hands down.

However as you say, armor is indeed garbage and I never really noticed how badly it was until yesterday. I was trying out the falx as it was suggested, and in my head I thought "well, they deal about 85 damage per hit so it should still take 2 hits to kill enemies". That was, because I thought the one handed bonus damage would cancel out with the enemy armor.

But then I realized that it really doesn't at ALL unless they are heavily armored enemies, like legionnaries or banner knights or whatever. Most T3-T4 units I fought and under I could one hit kill because armor doesn't give enough protection to cancel out the one handed damage bonus (and I don't even have that high one handed, only like ~120), and I was consistently dealing +110 damage hits with the falx.

I wouldn't say that maces are the best, like in my biased opinion they are, but frankly the difference between a good mace and a good sword with decent one handed skill is minimal, because armor is useless. In a sense, it's cool that they are all viable weapons, however, in another sense, it's really dumb that there's virtually no difference, they're all 1-2 hit kills.

Maybe for troops the difference could be more noticeable since they don't get skills as high as the player/companions or perks that increase their damage even more, but ehhh. Does it really matter?

Very dissappointing, sadly.

 

[black_bulldog]

However as you say, armor is indeed garbage and I never really noticed how badly it was until yesterday. I was trying out the falx as it was suggested, and in my head I thought "well, they deal about 85 damage per hit so it should still take 2 hits to kill enemies". That was, because I thought the one handed bonus damage would cancel out with the enemy armor.

The flax is op as hell I've done over 400 damage on horseback and over 200 on foot there's no one it can't 1 shot which is ridiculous against a heavily armored opponent but unfortunately TW disagrees. The only comparable weapon in Warband was couching a lance and at least that took a bit of skill and couldn't be spammed plus you needed either high horsemanship or a fast horse to be able to do it, but with a flax you just mindlessly swing away.

But then I realized that it really doesn't at ALL unless they are heavily armored enemies, like legionnaries or banner knights or whatever. Most T3-T4 units I fought and under I could one hit kill because armor doesn't give enough protection to cancel out the one handed damage bonus (and I don't even have that high one handed, only like ~120), and I was consistently dealing +110 damage hits with the falx.

There is absolutely no reason to get the best armor in this game. It's a waste of time and money, whereas in Warband looking for reinforced or even better lordly armor pieces definitely was worth the time and effort. This has been a constant complaint on these forums but for some reason Taleworlds doesn't seem to care.

 

[Ask]

There is absolutely no reason to get the best armor in this game. It's a waste of time and money, whereas in Warband looking for reinforced or even better lordly armor pieces definitely was worth the time and effort. This has been a constant complaint on these forums but for some reason Taleworlds doesn't seem to care.

I went got the highest armor I could afford, those very expensive +250k armor pieces like the luxury brigandine and some others, all my body parts have ~50 to ~70 armor.

Looters still deal 10 damage with their rocks, just as if I was naked

 

[black_bulldog]

I went got the highest armor I could afford, those very expensive +250k armor pieces like the luxury brigandine and some others, all my body parts have ~50 to ~70 armor.

Looters still deal 10 damage with their rocks, just as if I was naked

Don't think of them as rocks, more like heat seeking missiles. ?