Melee weapon advantages/disadvantages

[TheKnight]

Currently my warrior is doing sword and shield fighting. In the past, I had done two handeds swords and I have done spears. Up till earlier today I was using a longsword of the redcaps but upon joining a guild I recieved a very nice short sword that apparently does 12dps vs my 7dps on my old one.

Anyways on to the discussion at hand -- has anyone compiled a list on the types of melee weapons, their names, and their general perks?

For instance, what does a shortsword have over a longsword that would make me use one, class aside? I had been told that they are "upgradable" by a weaponsmith, and longswords are not.

[Shinto]

Any crafted tin weapon is upgradeable, and in theory anything above tin also is.

The main differences are speed and damage type. Smaller weapons tend to be faster, adding DPS. Some class abilities need a particular damage type, like Rogues needing piercing weapons (dagger). It really is specific to your style, though. If you have abilities that do damage based on a % of your weapon, high damage might be better than high speed.

If you are specifically talking about crafted weapons, there are certain effects that can only go on certain weapon types. For example, I have so far only been able to put the effect "Minor Combustion" on spears. Also, some enhancements work differently on different weapons. A mace might get healing focus from the same catalyst that gives nuke focus to a sword.

Another thing that I have noticed about crafted weapons is that larger weapons tend to get bigger increases from enhancements. I suspect this is meant to reflect the fact that they take more materials, and to balance the effect of dual-wielding vs 2-handers.