Hustle runeword

[Slomo4shO-1943]

@Tohki-1314

Do you expect to see 250-350% ED on all weapon runewords, regardless of the runes used?

Insight = 200-260 ED
Harmony = 200-275 ED
Unbending Will = 300-350 ED
Obedience = 370 ED
Oath = 210-340 ED in eth Base

Weapon base damage scaling is horrid. Until that’s fixed, anything under 200 ED is largely garbage for physical builds.

Covered this issue in the past:

@Slomo4shO-1943

Let’s consider just the Elite and exceptional axes for now:
There are 5 total 1h options in each tier. The base weapon speed ranges from 10 to -10. Let’s use 60 IAS as reference point and barb normal attack/bash/concentrate as reference point:

Elite bases:

• War Spike, -10 base
  ++ 39 average damage, 10 frame attack = 97.5 average DPS
• Tomahawk, 0 base
  ++ 45.5 average damage, 11 frame attack = 103.4 average DPS
• Berserker Axe, 0 base
  ++ 47.5 average damage, 11 frame attack = 108 average DPS
• Small Crescent, 10 base
  ++ 49 average damage, 12 frame attack = 102 average DPS
• Ettin Axe, 10 base
  ++ 49.5 average damage, 12 frame attack = 103.1 average DPS

Exceptional bases:

• Crowbill, -10 base
  ++ 24 average damage, 10 frame attack = 60 average DPS
• Hatchet, 0 base
  ++ 15.5 average damage, 11 frame attack = 35.2 average DPS
• Naga, 0 base
  ++ 30.5 average damage, 11 frame attack = 69.3 average DPS
• Cleaver, 10 base
  ++ 21.5 average damage, 12 frame attack = 44.8 average DPS
• Twin Axe, 10 base
  ++ 25.5 average damage, 12 frame attack = 53.1 average DPS

Damage is strictly based on the qlvl of the weapons on normal and exceptional bases whereas Elite bases have a much tighter range even though the delta in qlvl is greater among the Elite axes compared to normal and Exceptional.

There is still a clear winner among the bases. The War Spike is completely garbage end game. Once you consider that the Crowbill and Naga both require the same level (25) but the Crowbill requires higher numbers of total stats (94 str + 70 dex vs 121 Str) to use compared to the Naga, you realize how pitiful fast weapons truly are. This is universally true for all fast bases.

When you find a Coldkill near the end of NM but any elite base can provide higher DPS…

@Slomo4shO-1943

Anything past Act 2 normal is a slow grind.

You could stumble across The Gnasher, Deathspade, Bladebone, or Skill Splitter in your normal playthrough but you can literally buy a War Axe off a vendor and do more damage.

There are no viable runewords for early levels. The ease of access to useful gear is a big factor in progression.

Weapon bases having such disparities in damage does nothing to alleviate the issue. Weapons already have affixes associated with increasing damage. Having bases with such large