Talk:Hammer of Retribution

Does it really hit harder than Timon's Axe in melee?

Both this wiki and the ZDoom wiki say, in the textual descriptions of the Hammer of Retribution, that it does more damage than Timon's Axe in melee. But the actual numbers on the ZDoom wiki seem to disagree, saying that the Hammer does 60-123 points of damage with its melee attack, while the Axe does "40-62 points of damage which is doubled if ammo is present" (therefore, 80-124 points with blue mana power, if I'm interpreting the statement correctly). If those numbers are correct, the Hammer is not better in terms of damage, but only almost-but-not-quite-as-good, unless the comparison is assuming that no mana of either type is available. - ETTiNGRiNDER 02:06, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

That's correct. While ammo is possessed, Timon's Axe has the most melee damage potential. The hammer is then useful for its long distance attack. Without blue mana on hand, the hammer is fully superior. However it's also worth noting that Timon's Axe is less predictable because it rolls two hit dice for its damage calculation (40 + rand()&15 + rand()&7) whereas the hammer rolls only one (60 + rand()&63). Due to the actual nature of the Doom engine's RNG, this could mean all kinds of things for the actual damage rolls you can expect to come out of either weapon, which requires more analysis than I have time to do myself. --Quasar 15:41, 17 January 2014 (UTC)