Which type of weapon should you use: SIB or non-SIB?
Which type of weapon should you use: SIB or non-SIB?
The long answer involves how much you miss, how much damage you inflict when you hit, how much damage you inflict per minute, and how much it costs you to use the weapon(s). SIB (Skill Increase Bonus) weapons are the starter weapons you can buy from a Trade Terminal and the L (Limited) weapons. Beyond their obvious skill increase bonus benefit, you can also realize much better (maxed out) average damage, HA (Hit Ability) and CHA (Critical Hit Ability).
[QUOTE=Doer]
You don’t get maximum economy (well, 3/4 of it, which is the average maxed economy) until you have maxed the stats on the axe 1x0, which doesn’t happen until very high skills. Calculating your actual efficiency with non-maxed weapons isn’t hard, and is a good idea when deciding on the most efficient way to hunt.
[/QUOTE]
The 3/4 that Doer wrote about comes from, I believe, the average of the maxed out amounts of low-end and maximum unamped damage that the weapon can do. (Entropedia.info weapon stats are off because they use only the maximum damage figure.) To be fair, for any non-uber, figures based on maxed-out non-SIB weapon stats are nearly worthless except for non-SIB weapon to non-SIB weapon comparison.
To find out your low-end damage percentage, browse the weapons in Auction for the highest damage non-SIB weapon you can in whichever weapon class. Then, you can do some math and calculate the best economy weapon for your current skill levels. You will also need to account for the cost of missed attacks at your current HA.
Or, you can just read MJ’s reply to “At what hit ability is a weapon usable?” and consider that HA roughly correspond to K average skills for that weapon class. So, an HA of 6 wiith a non-SIB weapon is about an average of 6000 skill levels. If you do a quick search for “unlocked wounding,” you will find that most players have a specific weapon class skill level of around 8000 and a HA near 5.5.
Short answer: Ignore the HA on non-SIB weapons and just use the SIB weapons until you reach 9001 in your specific weapon class skill. If you loot an L weapon with which you have HA of 10 then use it as an “emergency cooler” until it is broken.
Of course, if you just get sick of using the SIB weapons or find the need to have an “emergency cooler,” then you will need to do some research on the long answer. Not-so-expensive weapons I like as coolers are the Katsuchi Determination/Honor longblades and the EWE-EP 40 pistol.
ASIDE: Close combat with a carbine or rifle is just wrong!
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