Paladin end game weapon comparison: Crushed Skull Vs Dragon Claymore

I asked around what the best end game weapon for paladin is and most people told me its either crushed skull or stonetooth sword. However, dragon claymore is actually 4 weapon attack stronger than stonetooth sword (the speed advantage that ST has over the claymore is 100% negated when you have the SI buff).

So, I want to go ahead and do a quick comparison between these two weapons and different levels of funding to see what is the best weapon to use.

I will be comparing 3 levels of funding.

Spoiler

1. Dirt poor / poverty - You barely have any mesos. You only have a few tens of millions of mesos to fund your character.

2. Mid tier funding - You got a decent amount of mesos, a few hundred millions.

3. Perfect tier funding - you got billions. Perfect weapons high att cape gloves you name it.

How I will be comparing the weapons:

Spoiler

To compare the weapons, I am going to use the maplestory damage formula. Which, as stated by ayumilove is:
MAX = (Primary Stat + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100
MIN = (Primary Stat * 0.9 * Skill Mastery + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100

So, Skill mastery is going to be 60% for paladins. By taking the above equations adding them up and dividing by 2, i can get a new equation called AVE (for average).

AVE = (Primary Stat*0.77 + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100

Ok Cool. We have our formula. The next thing is to figure out what primary stat and secondary stat are. These terms differ from weapon to weapon.

For 2H swords (Dragon claymore):
Two Handed Sword
Primary: STR * 4.6
Secondary: DEX

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For 1H BW (Crushed Skull):
One Handed Axe/BW/Wand/Staff (Swinging)
Primary: STR * 4.4
Secondary: DEX

One Handed Axe/BW/Wand/Staff (Stabbing)
Primary: STR * 3.2
Secondary: DEX

Now I've run into a problem. There are two different formula's for 1H BW. However, I know that the swing / stab ratio is 60:40. So What i can do to find the average here is take the swinging stat multiply it by 0.6, then take the stabbing stat and multiply it by 0.4

Then I can add those two together to get a new formula for 1H BW - its average.

For 1H BW (Crushed Skull) Average:
Primary: STR*3.92
Secondary: Dex

Ok, now lets plug these numbers back into the general damage formula.

Damage formula 2H sword:
AVE = (STR*3.542 + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100

Damage Formula 1H BW:
AVE = (STR*3.0184 + Secondary Stat) * Weapon Attack / 100

Now I will make a few assumtions.

1. Both players have the same total dex and strength (note that this is false because shields also give STR, but I will take that into account later)

2. Both players have the same external weapon attack (from cape, glove, and attack potion)

So, now to compare the two weapons, all I need to do is compare the above equations to each other, and whichever ends up being higher is the better weapon.

So I will be comparing the following to each other.

Weapon Attack * 3.542 (For 2H sword) VS Weapon attack * 3.0184 (for 1h BW).

Also to take into account that shields can give extra STR, I will simply add extra weapon attack to the shield at the ratio of 5 str = 1 weapon attack.

Case 1: Povery / Poor Player

Spoiler

As a poor player you are not going to spend anything on scrolling. You just get an average clean weapon and 100% scroll it. The crushed skull player gets lucky and happens to find a +4/7 scrolled stolen fence for attack.

We only have 8 attack work gloves because thats the best we can afford. We also have a 2 attack black raggedy cape (they are super cheap, only 1-2m). Also, we are smart and use warrior elixirs. Its super cheap, only 5k for an additional 12 attack.

Crushed Skull Player:
Weapon: 115+7 = 122
Glove: 0+8 = 8
Cape: 2+0 = 2
Shield: 8 attack, 4 str = 8.8
Attack pot: 0 +12 = 12
Total attack: 152.8

Dragon Claymore Player:
Weapon: 105+7 = 112
Glove: 0+8 = 8
Cape: 2+0 = 2
Shield: 0 + 0 =0
Attack pot: 0+12 = 12
Total attack: 134

Comparison:
Sword: 134*3.542 = 474.628
Skull: 152.8*3.0184 = 458.7968

Ergo, The dragon claymore player wins by about 3.5%

Case 2: Mid funded player

Spoiler

You finally got some mesos now and are a mid funded player. You got a nice weapon, with 2 30s landed and 5 60s landed.

The crushed skull player has an even better shield. With 2 30s landed and 5 60s/70s landed as well.

You have upgraded your gloves to 12 attack.

You also found a cheap 4 attack 0 slot cape.

Now that you are a mid tier player, you don't use warrior elixirs anymore. You only use ciders or the cash shop bear, which give +20 attack instead of 12.

Crushed Skull Player:
Weapon: 115+20 = 135
Glove: 0+12 = 12
Cape: 4+0 = 4
Shield: 16 attack, 9 str = 17.8
Attack pot: 0 +20 = 20
Total attack: 188.8

Dragon Claymore Player:
Weapon: 105+20 = 125
Glove: 0+12 = 12
Cape: 4+0 = 4
Shield: 0 + 0 =0
Attack pot: 0+20 = 20
Total attack: 161

Comparison:
Sword: 161*3.542 = 570.262
Skull: 188.8*3.0184 = 569.874

Ergo dragon claymore BARELY wins by 0.06%. But this is so small its safe to say they are EQUAL.

It is worth noting however, that funding the shield does make the skull's players build a bit more expensive.

Case 3: Perfect funding Scenario

Spoiler

You got a perfect weapon, perfect glove, high attack cape, and of course, you only use onxy apples.

The skull player has a perfect maple shield as well.

Crushed Skull Player:
Weapon: 120+35 = 155
Glove: 0+21 = 21
Cape: 4+11 = 15
Shield: 30 attack, 20 str = 34
Attack pot: 0 + 100 = 100
Total attack: 325

Dragon Claymore Player:
Weapon: 110+35 = 145
Glove: 0+21 = 21
Cape: 4+11 = 15
Shield: 0 + 0 =0
Attack pot: 0+100 = 100
Total attack: 281

Comparison:
Sword: 281*3.542 = 995.302
Skull: 325*3.0184 = 980.98

Ergo dragon claymore wins by 1.46%.

TLDR:

Dragon claymore is the stronger weapon when you have little funding and perfect funding. And it is just ever so SLIGHTLY stronger at medium funding.

The difference isn't that large, so I would say it is safe to call both weapons viable.

However, in reality, I think crushed skull is strictly inferior to the dragon claymore because the dragon claymore does more damage without needing a shield - and shields are very expensive. You are basically spending more mesos to do less damage as a crushed skull user.

However, if you enjoy using blunt weapons, use blunt weapons. The difference is only 1-3%.

 

Yeah I def agree with those who posted above that ST is better than claymore without SI. But for this post i wanted to compare claymore and crushed skull since both weapons have similar price points and i was given conflicting opinions as to which was better.

Also they have the same attack speed so they are very easy to compare!

 

I still think that if you want to use crushed skull solely because it works with guardian, you need to have SI or else you are kinda better off going for a red katana or speargrave 1H sword, because you can hit speed cap with those weapons. But if you have SI, I do believe that crushed skull should win out in the end compared to 1H swords (since it has a lot more base weapon attack and its average multiplier is very, very close to that of 1H swords).

 

Are you sure that you ran a fair comparison? That means same external attack (cape, gloves, shoes) and same stat giving gear?

Also are you sure you are including an attack potion?