Speed (brand)

Weapons with the rare speed brand attack roughly twice as fast, but do 90% of their normal damage per hit, before AC reductions are considered. The reduced attack delay is rounded up, so weapons with an odd minimum delay will attack slightly less than twice as fast.

This brand is normally only found on short blades and staves. However, artefact weapons of all types can bear the speed brand.

When a weapon with this brand is a ranged launcher, like the Bow of Krishna "Sharnga", it attacks one and a half times faster, instead of twice as fast, and it also stacks with any brands on the ammo used.

Despite their name, quick blades do not (and in fact cannot) bear this brand. However, a quick blade at minimum delay attacks as fast or faster than any speed-branded weapon.

Tips & Tricks

This brand is best on high-damage weapons, as they can afford the damage loss more effectively. A dagger of speed, for example, would barely dent a high-AC target.

History

The reduced damage from this brand was added in 0.8.

In 0.14, the damage reduction will be removed, but all speed weapons will attack only 1.5x as fast as normal weapons. However, this attack delay will not be flatly rounded off, but rather, will be subject to randomized rounding. In effect, this will leave short blades of speed dealing roughly the same damage as before, while reducing the damage output from large artefact weapons. It is a slight buff to launchers.