A Weapon is any item that can be equipped and used for Attacking.
Weapons can be either One-Handed or Two-Handed. One-Handed weapons can be used together with Shields or other Off-hand items, or with another One-Handed weapon (dual wielding). Generally, weapons are also divided into Melee Weapons and Ranged Weapons. Weapons also vary by damage and attack speed, and in their many possible magical properties. Some skills may require a specific item type to be equipped. While some character classes focus on damaging capabilities, other seek the Magic bonuses of the enchanted tools of death.
Categories[]
Weapons come in the following categories, also known as classes:
- Amazon Weapons (Amazon only; include spears, javelins and bows)
- Axes
- Bows
- Ceremonial Knives (Witch Doctor only)
- Crossbows
- Daggers
- Daibo (Monk only)
- Fist Weapons (Monk only)
- Flails (Crusader only)
- Hand Crossbows (Demon Hunter only)
- Javelins
- Katars (Assassin only)
- Maces
- Mighty Weapons (Barbarian only)
- Orbs (Sorceress only)
- Polearms
- Scepters
- Spears
- Staves
- Swords
- Throwing Weapons (include knives, axes and potions)
- Two-Handed Axes
- Two-Handed Flails (Crusader only)
- Two-Handed Maces
- Two-Handed Mighty Weapons (Barbarian only)
- Two-Handed Swords
- Wands
Diablo II[]
There are wide differences in how the various classes in the second game use weapons. Amazons, Assassins, Barbarians and Paladins generally are designed to use weapons against their foes, although even some of these do have builds more focused on spells not influenced by weapon damage. Necromancers and Sorceresses are generally summoners and spellcasters and care little about a weapon's direct damage capability. Druids are also summoners and spellcasters, but their weapons affect their power when in shapeshifted forms.
With all characters however, the magical affixes on their weapons are hugely influential. Some weapons and powers that appear on them are focused on their direct combat capabilities, while others are designed to support magic users. Many powerful Unique Weapons and weapon Rune Words are sought after by all types of characters and their Hirelings.
Diablo III[]
The third game reinvented the relationship between weapons and skills. The damage dealt by almost all offensive skills, including those of the "spell-based" classes, is measured as a percentage of total weapon damage, and the speed of physical attacks or casting or channeling spells is based on weapon attack speed. Thus, weapons with high attack statistics are important for every class.
Weapon damage is stated on its in-game tooltip as Damage Per Second, along with the total damage per attack and attack speed of the weapon. These numbers include the bonuses from +flat Damage, +percentage Damage, and Attack Speed magical affixes on the weapon, but not the ones on other items. Every character stat that affects weapon damage output is combined and summarized simply as Damage on the Character Screen, and it is this number that goes into a skill's damage calculation, stated like "200% weapon damage as Fire" or similar.
Development[]
Compared to the previous game, Diablo III removed Javelins and Throwing Weapons, and made Spears one-handed only. They also replaced Scepters with Flails, Katars with Fist Weapons, Orb weapons with orb-like Wizard Sources held in the off-hand, and replaced the other class-specific types with new types for the new classes.
Weapons along with almost every other item were reworked significantly as part of the Loot 2.0 concept implemented in the pre-expansion update, with many possible Magic Properties added, removed, and standardized.
Magic properties[]
Under the Loot 2.0 system, the possible Magic Properties that can appear randomly on weapons are:
- Primary - Increased Damage by %, added flat Damage ("Elemental Damage"), increased Attack Speed, core stat increases, Area Damage, Cooldown Reduction, bonus damage against Elites, a Socket, Reduced Resource Costs, and Life per Hit, and all-item stats (except +all resistances).
- Secondary - Chance to Stun, Slow, Freeze, Chill, Immobilize, Bleed, Blind, Fear and Knockback on hit, and all-item stats (except +[element] resistance).
The Primary Magic Property which adds a flat amount of damage to a weapon's total becomes universal at higher levels. At maximum level, particularly in the Reaper of Souls expansion, the added damage massively outweighs the "base" damage without this addition. This damage bonus can be "re-rolled" to any Primary Magic Property at the Mystic, but it is only wise to do this to try to get an even higher added damage number or a different element, never to replace it with a different property entirely. When crafting items at the Blacksmith, only the base damage and base Damage Per Second is shown on the recipe page, which drastically understates the power of the actual finished item.
This kind of added damage is commonly known as Elemental Damage because it can be of any of the 7 element types. Physical added damage is stated as simply "+X-Y damage", whereas the others specify the element; Magic and Rare weapon tooltips also receive an element-specific background effect. Most interactions with elements are based only on the Skill Rune, but a few look at the added damage type as well.
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