Weapons, armour and what you can use

A dagger strikes fast and light, a great axe slow and heavy: speed alone does not change the damage a weapon deals over time, because a slower blow is a heavier one. Reach does. Against a one-handed sword, a dagger deals 10% more over time, a two-handed sword 5% less and a polearm 5% to 15% less: no two kinds of weapon are more than 15% apart. A two-handed weapon deals 30% more on top, in exchange for your off hand.

Speed

• A dagger swings fastest, then one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, and spears and polearms slowest. The longer the weapon, the slower it swings.
• Within its kind each weapon has its own speed: a light sword swings up to 10% faster than the usual one, and hits that much lighter.
• A slow, heavy blow is hard on a guard: a blocked two-handed sword costs the defender about half again the stamina of a one-handed sword, and a halberd or pike about twice as much. See Blocking.
• A swing costs stamina by how long it takes, so every weapon spends the same stamina a second. See Melee: aiming your swing.

Quality

• A weapon's quality runs from 0% (the weapons you start with) to 100% (the finest mastery weapons). At 100% it hits 20% harder against players and 50% harder against creatures and hostile NPCs.
• Quality rises with a weapon's skill requirement and its worth: a cheap shop weapon is a cheap weapon, however its damage looks on paper.
• You can only use as much quality as you have skill. With Sword 40%, a 70% sword fights like a 40% one. Train the weapon's skill to use all of it.
• The tooltip shows the damage of one swing (or shot) at full skill, the weapon's quality and the skill that uses all of it.

Your character

• Each weapon takes Strength or Dexterity: most take Strength, while daggers, rapiers and fine blades, staves, most bows and crossbows, and fist weapons take Dexterity. Above your starting value it adds up to 5% against players and 15% against creatures and hostile NPCs (at +100).
• Your skill with the weapon in your hand steadies your blows: up to 4% more damage, and against creatures and hostile NPCs up to 10% more on top. Your best of Block, Dodge and Parry turns blows aside: up to 4% less damage taken.
• For powers, see Casting powers.

What you can equip

• Your race, Path, Class, Disciplines and talents grant the skills you can use, some only from a level. On the Might path you wear light armour from level 1 and medium from 5; heavy armour comes only with a Class (Warrior at 10; Crusader, Templar or Spellwarden at 15). On the Arcana path you wear cloth.
• Shields need Block: from level 3 on the Might path, from 5 on Faith, never on Arcana or Guile. A weapon needs its own skill, and so does throwing it.
• You cannot equip what you were never granted. Something you already wear that you are not granted gives you nothing; its tooltip says so in red. Cloth, jewellery and a few plain weapons need no skill.

Armour

• Armour protects more against creatures and hostile NPCs than against players: at most 45% of a blow instead of 22%.
• Your Wear Armor skill for its weight decides how much of a fine piece you get. Below the piece's requirement it protects closer to a starter piece; train the skill to wear all of it.

Enchantments

• Enchantments that add melee damage, or minimum and maximum damage, add up to 10% in all.
• Attack and defense enchantments add to your skill's: harder blows dealt, softer blows taken.
• Health, mana and stamina recovery enchantments speed your regeneration, within the usual limit for all recovery bonuses together.
• A weapon's enchantments count only while it is in your hands, not while it hangs on your back in the other weapon set.