I’m trying to decide which weapon to use for my hack and slash character, and while the fire axe has a higher dps than the survivor machete, it does not have the rapid strike technique.
Are techniques factored into the dps calculation?
Even if not, is 2-3 dps worth the upgrade from medium to high blocking?
not usually a melee type character, but you’ll want a martial art to pair with your weapon, and the weapons speed should heavily impact your decision as well, because being able to swing an axe once over a machete twice is a clear difference (not saying that’s the actual case, but hoping you get the idea.)
defense-wise, dodge is what you want, block is nice but its better to not take a hit at all then to block it and potentially damage your weapon.
Remember though. You only get a certain amount of blocks and dodges per turn. (Modified by martial arts). So it’s possible to be out of dodges and still block something, or block something you didn’t dodge.
As for strength affecting melee. You can check how much bashing damage you’ll be doing based on strength at the @ screen. A late game mutant with CBM’s for example, might have 40 strength and 30 unarmed bash because of it. Whereas a strength of 12 might just net 9 Bash. It also makes swinging heavier things faster and less tiring.
Techniques also play a big part in how much damage you do, with critcals sometimes being strong enough to pulp opponents. (Pankration’s throw hits hard and can be fun on rooftops or near ledges. Like an island prison tower walkway.)
As for the argument of machete or axe? They each have their place. Remember though, a fire axe is a TOOL as well. Great for chopping trees, prying doors and smashing terrain. It also does more damage per blow, so it’s better for more heavily armored foes. Remember, if something has high protection against cutting a machete only does 5 bash vs the axe’s 17 (If the higher cut the axe provides isn’t enough.)
Lastly, and it can’t be understated. A fireman’s axe DOES NOT CONDUCT ELECTRICITY, whereas a machete does
Rapid strike is explicitly figured into DPS, because it’s an easy technique for calculating damage. Most other techniques, especially ones that trigger on criticals, are too hard to figure out and are ignored.
That said, rapid strike on the survivor machete isn’t that amazing: it only raises reference DPS by 1 point over the standard DPS. Sometimes rapid strike just means you miss or bounce off armor twice as fast.
Fast weapons and rapid strike are great early game but tend to fall off later when enemies start to get more armor. The same thing applies to the cut and pierce damage types which late game enemies tend to have more resistance to compared to blunt. Lastly weapons which split their damage type tend to also be less effective against late game enemies.
Personally I like the war flail as it does high bash damage, is fairly fast and does not split it’s damage amongst multiple damage types. It also has a reach attack.