IFS. I am disappoint.

[EQBallzz]

So a scraped and scrounged my plat from my alts and got a good deal on an IFS for my 40 monk thinking that would be a solid weapon to level through the 40's with. However, for some reason the IFS seems to suck. Looking at my combat log seems to indicate frequent misses which is really sucky for such a slow weapon so I'm guessing this is the cause of the sucking.

I didn't parse my DPS but just based on my time to kill on dark blue mobs in Sol A I was getting far superior results with JM/trance stick and even somewhat better results with just my cheapo Wu's Quivering Staff.

My 2h skill is almost max for my level (I think 205 is max and I'm at 200). So I'm wondering if this weapon is just not good for my level or does it just require haste to compensate for the misses? I have no worn haste yet (that was my next project).

I think my money might have been better spent on an SoS to go with my JM but now I'm broke! I figured I would wait until 50 to get an SoS so I could benefit from the proc but maybe that was a mistake.

[EQBallzz]

Dark blues in Sol A. Gnomes and those CWG model clockwork gnomes.

[Sorn]

Worn haste always helps. Til then, you can swap out 1hb and 2hb every other swing to get more hits.

I've got an Efreeti Ice Staff (30/40) on my monk as well as an FBSS. The swing's a bit slow but it out-damages my 1hb (wu's trance stick and SoS) somewhat because I can hit for up to 117 (possibly more). The delay means a lot of misses can screw you over pretty fast when soloing.

You should probably get worn haste and as much STR gear as you can find. The higher STR means you can hit for more, which can make up for the misses somewhat as well.

[Jimjam]

You shouldn't be any less accurate with the IFS than any other weapon.

The only thing I can think of is you started fighting mobs with better avoidance (higher level mobs) when you switched weapon, or you lost an attack buff.

Haste isn't going to be any better or worse for an IFS than any other weapon as it is a straight + n% mod to your melee damage; if duel wielding was better than ifs before haste, it will be the same situation after.

Perhaps your attack is at a tipping point for accuracy, in which case it may be worth trying again with the IFS when you are max skill and see if you do any better.

You are right that it is better to compare the times it takes to kill mobs than other damage metrics.

[EQBallzz]

You shouldn't be any less accurate with the IFS than any other weapon.

The only thing I can think of is you started fighting mobs with better avoidance (higher level mobs) when you switched weapon, or you lost an attack buff.

Haste isn't going to be any better or worse for an IFS than any other weapon as it is a straight + n% mod to your melee damage; if duel wielding was better than ifs before haste, it will be the same situation after.

Perhaps your attack is at a tipping point for accuracy, in which case it may be worth trying again with the IFS when you are max skill and see if you do any better.

You are right that it is better to compare the times it takes to kill mobs than other damage metrics.

I know the accuracy is the same with IFS as it is with DW weapons but when you miss with fast DW weapons the dmg loss is minimal and the weapon speed makes up for it. If you miss two or three swings with that slow 40 delay weapon you are doing no dmg for a long time. Over the course of a long fight it would probably average out but when killing things that should die fairly quickly it's a problem.

Not only was my time to kill noticeably worse with the IFS but I was getting the serious beat down to my health when using the IFS. Sort of a double whammy. I'll level up my 2h to max and try some different mobs to see if I see different results but I'm not too encouraged so far.

My thought was that a beefy 2h weapon would be a better all around weapon to level with since mobs with DS on them really hurt when using fast DW weapons but it seems I would have been better off going for an SoS to go with my JM and putting the plat saved towards an FBSS or SCHW. I guess it's not a total waste since I got a good deal on the IFS and it will be useful at some point but sucks to have to bank it after going broke to buy it. Ahh well. :(

[jolanar]

Did you actually parse the damage? Trust me it just feels worse because it's a much slower weapon than most other monk weapons. The same DPS is there. You also get fewer ripostes when soloing which has a noticeable difference on the damage you take versus 1 handers, as well as your own ripostes doing way more damage, and you take less damage from damage shields than any other monk weapon.

And best of all it looks way cooler than that Cracked Staff Peacebringer.

[EQBallzz]

Did you actually parse the damage? Trust me it just feels worse because it's a much slower weapon than most other monk weapons. The same DPS is there. You also get fewer ripostes when soloing which has a noticeable difference on the damage you take versus 1 handers, as well as your own ripostes doing way more damage, and you take less damage from damage shields than any other monk weapon.

And best of all it looks way cooler than that Cracked Staff Peacebringer.

I didn't parse it but the TTK difference was striking..not to mention I was going down to 20-30% health on one mob using the IFS because it was taking so long to kill. Then mobs would run at low health and I would have to chase them down forever to get the kill (aggroing more stuff on me). Killing the same exact mobs with JM/trance and my health would only dip to 80% due to the much faster TTK and mobs would not run far after fleeing due to the faster dmg.

I don't doubt that the DPS potential is probably higher with the IFS but it doesn't seem to be performing as well on shorter fights...or maybe I'm just missing some other factor.

[Ciroco]

I too doubt that you are actually doing less dps. Trance stick is pretty bad damage, particularly in your offhand.

Parse it and let's get some actual data.

[jolanar]

I didn't parse it but the TTK difference was striking..not to mention I was going down to 20-30% health on one mob using the IFS because it was taking so long to kill. Then mobs would run at low health and I would have to chase them down forever to get the kill (aggroing more stuff on me). Killing the same exact mobs with JM/trance and my health would only dip to 80% due to the much faster TTK and mobs would not run far after fleeing due to the faster dmg.

I don't doubt that the DPS potential is probably higher with the IFS but it doesn't seem to be performing as well on shorter fights...or maybe I'm just missing some other factor.

Are you below level 30? There is a damage cap that limits the ifs prior to that.

[EQBallzz]

Are you below level 30? There is a damage cap that limits the ifs prior to that.

Nope. Level 40. Anyone know of a good parser to use? I use GINA for buff overlays but don't think it can be used to parse dps.

[Lojik]

The thing with 2h damage versus 1h is it's much more inconsistent. Sometimes you absolutely wreck stuff really quick, but if you get a few strings of misses it'll take a while. If you're really desperate to do max damage you can also switch out your ifs between swings and get offhand punches in

[Spyder73]

P99 thrives on fast hits - in almost every circumstance the faster you can hit the better. That's because stuff typically dies really fast (even raid mobs). Over a 60 minute time span, sure, the damage is the same or better...but over 20-100 seconds? The misses are going to eat you alive with a slow weapon.

I was thoroughly disgusted with my Tranquil Staff compared to Epic/SoS

[EQBallzz]

P99 thrives on fast hits - in almost every circumstance the faster you can hit the better. That's because stuff typically dies really fast (even raid mobs). Over a 60 minute time span, sure, the damage is the same or better...but over 20-100 seconds? The misses are going to eat you alive with a slow weapon.

I was thoroughly disgusted with my Tranquil Staff compared to Epic/SoS

Uhg. That's kind of the conclusion I'm coming to. I guess I will just bag the IFS unless I'm in a group and hasted up and have heals but will have to stick with DW for soloing. I guess that also means I need to start saving up again for an SoS. :mad:

Ironically, the Quivering Staff seems to do pretty well. It's fast enough to keep the dmg flowing even with any misses. I guess that means the SoS would do really well for me considering the SoS has similar dmg/dly as a 1h weapon.

[Gain]

Nope. Level 40. Anyone know of a good parser to use? I use GINA for buff overlays but don't think it can be used to parse dps.

I use EQ watcher to parse my dps.

[Kutsumo]

You just have more variance with a slower weapon... some fights you'll miss a lot, others you won't miss, in each case the "extreme" of high DPS or low DPS will be more pronounced than with faster weapons.

Also, it's not true that faster weapons do better damage over a short time period. When you turn on attack for that first hit, it will take the fast weapons most of your delay to catch up to the damage dealt on the first swing of the slower weapon. This will sometimes work in your favor - for example maybe a fight is so short that you only get 3 swings with the 2her in that time period - if the 3rd swing is the deathblow or near to it (mob dies long before your 4th swing would have come), you're likely to do more DPS than you would have with fast weapons. However, if the kill comes just before your last swing with the 2her... the fast weapons are likely to be ahead. Again, just more variance.

My advice is to download gamparse and actually parse if you want to compare your DPS between weapons. Time and time again I've had friends tell me that their 2her does crap damage because of their combat log, but we parse it and it's within a few % of their 1hers just like expected.

Personally I enjoy the ups and downs you get with a big slow weapon. Some fights you will absolutely WRECK your target and that feels great. Others you will miss too much and end up having to feign... but that's just RNG for ya.

[Jimjam]

I didn't parse it but the TTK difference was striking..not to mention I was going down to 20-30% health on one mob using the IFS because it was taking so long to kill. Then mobs would run at low health and I would have to chase them down forever to get the kill (aggroing more stuff on me). Killing the same exact mobs with JM/trance and my health would only dip to 80% due to the much faster TTK and mobs would not run far after fleeing due to the faster dmg.

I don't doubt that the DPS potential is probably higher with the IFS but it doesn't seem to be performing as well on shorter fights...or maybe I'm just missing some other factor.

You need to kill things round the corner from similar factioned enemies so they don't run. If things do run don't forget to disengage attack, hit sneak, then start attacking again. That way you can avoid a lot of extra aggro.

As a monk you have excellent h2h damage, so don't forget to unequip/requip your 2hs quickly between swings to allow your offhand a chance to cycle!

Also don't forget you can bandage while fighting, you just have to /stand as the ducking prevents you from being able to autoattack.

[EQBallzz]

Anyone want to trade SoS and SCHW for an IFS? :p