Weapon Characteristics

Weapon Characteristics are shown in green at the bottom of the weapon panel and define the strong suits of the weapon. A weapon always has three characteristics, which often combine to make it suitable for certain situations or tactics. As the different Heroes and/or careers often have better access to different weapon characteristics, they also fit some team-roles better than others.

Note that some weapons might have more characteristics, such as the Damage over Time on the dagger of Kerillian's Sword and Dagger. If known, these characteristics are also listed here.

Armour Piercing
Armour Piercing determines if the weapon will deal damage (with a light attack) to an armoured opponent. Armour will always reduce the damage of an attack. Armour Piercing's damage gets reduced slightly whereas regular weapons get their damage reduced greatly (often to 0).

Armour Piercing weapons include:
 * Bardin's: Axe, and Great Axe
 * Saltzpyre's: Axe

Close Range
Close Range is a ranged weapon characteristic, meaning the weapon is highly suitable for close range combat. This often also means the weapon is unsuitable for long-range firing, as the projectile/flames are shot in a cone and inaccurate.

Close Range weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Blunderbuss
 * Bardins's: Drakegun, and Grudge-Raker
 * Saltzpyre's: Repeater Pistol
 * Sienna's: Flamestorm Staff

Crowd Control
Crowd Control implies that the weapon has a high stagger damage output. Generally, these weapons tend to push or/and stagger enemies on regular attacks. This is both useful for keeping hordes at bay and staggering enemies that other weapons have trouble staggering, like Berserkers.

Crowd Control weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Sword, Mace, Mace and Shield, Two-Handed Hammer, Two-Handed Sword, Executioner Sword, and Blunderbuss
 * Bardins's: Hammer, Hammer and Shield, Two-Handed Hammer, War Pick, Darkegun, Drakefire Pistols, and Grudge-Raker
 * Kerillian's: Dual Swords, Hagbane Shortbow, and Swiftbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Fail, and Two-Handed Sword
 * Sienna's: Dagger, Fire Sword, Fireball Staff, Beam Staff, and Conflagration Staff

Fast Attacks
Fast Attacks is a melee weapon characteristic and indicates the weapon can be swung rapidly. This allows the player to kill individuals in hordes fast and, for stronger enemies, to damage enemies safely between blocks. The individual attacks of a Fast Attack weapon are often less powerful.

Crowd Control weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Sword, Mace, Sword and Shield
 * Bardins's: Dual Axes
 * Kerillian's: Sword, Dual Swords, Dual Daggers, Sword and Dagger, Two-Handed Sword, Elven Spear, and Glaive
 * Saltzpyre's: Rapier
 * Sienna's: Dagger, and Sword

Damage over Time
Weapons with Damage over Time do continuing damage (to enemies and with friendly fire) after the initial strike. The amount and duration of the damage varies between weapons.

Damage over Time weapons include:
 * Bardins's: Darkegun (not listed), and Drakefire Pistols
 * Kerillian's: Dual Daggers, Sword and Dagger (dagger only, not listed), and Hagbane Shortbow
 * Sienna's: Dagger (heavy attack), Fire Sword, Fireball Staff (charged attack), Beam Staff, and Conflagration Staff (charged attack) and Flamestorm Staff (charged attack)

Headshot Damage
A weapon with the Headshot Damage characteristic has an increased damage multiplier when striking the weak spot (often the head) of an enemy.

Headshot Damage weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Handgun, and Executioner Sword
 * Bardins's: Handgun
 * Kerillian's: Dual Daggers, and Swiftbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Rapier, and Falchion
 * Sienna's: Bolt Staff

Heavy Charged Attack
Weapons with the Heavy Charged Attack characteristics have multiple phases in their Charged Attack animation. If the second phase of the charge is reached, the attack deals extra damage.

Heavy Charged Attack weapons include:
 * Bardins's: War Pick
 * Saltzpyre's: Rapier (not listed)

High Damage
General weapon characteristics that means the weapon does more damage per individual attack than other weapons. This often implies the weapon has a relative low attack rate.

High Damage weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Executioner Sword, Two-Handed Sword, Longbow, Handgun, and Blunderbuss
 * Bardins's: Axe, Axe and Shield, Dual Axes, Great Axe, Handgun, Crossbow, and Grudge-Raker
 * Kerillian's: Glaive, Volley Crossbow, and Longbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Axe, Falchion, Two-Handed Sword, Volley Crossbow, Brace of Pistols, Repeater Pistol, and Crossbow
 * Sienna's: Mace

High Mobility
Only one weapon exists with High Mobility and thus far it is unclear what this characteristics means. It has been hypothesized that it means an increase in movement speed, but after testing this does not seem to be the case.

High Mobility weapons include:
 * Kerillian's: Elven Spear

Ignore Shields
A weapon with the Ignore Shields characteristic can circumvent the blocking effect of shielded enemies.

Ignore Shields weapons include:
 * Saltzpyre's: Flail

Overheat
Weapons with Overheat have no ammo, instead producing heat which makes the weapon slowly overheat. This heat drains slowly, or can be actively vented at the cost of players health. For a detailed description, click here. Overheat is often an invisible character.

Overheat weapons include:
 * Bardins's: Darkegun, and Drakefire Pistols
 * Sienna's: Fireball Staff, Beam Staff (not listed), Bolt Staff (not listed),Conflagration Staff (not listed) and Flamestorm Staff (not listed)

Piercing Bolts
Ranged weapons with the Piercing Bolts characteristic have projectiles that can more easily pierce multiple enemies. However, testing has shown the difference between Piercing Bolts weapons and other weapons is either untrustworthy or irrelevantly small. For example, the Volley Crossbow of Saltzpyre (with Piercing Bolts) and Kerillian (without) can both pierce the exact same amount of enemies.

Piercing Bolts weapons include:
 * Bardins's: Bardin's Crossbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Crossbow, and Volley Crossbow

Powerful Blocks
All weapons with shield have the Powerful Blocks characteristics. This means enemies are staggered when being blocked by this weapon, even stronger enemies like elites.

Powerful Blocks weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Sword and Shield, and Mace and Shield
 * Bardins's: Hammer and Shield, and Axe and Shield

Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire is a ranged weapons-only characteristic. It indicates the weapon can be fired in quick succession, either because it holds multiple shots or can be reloaded quickly.

Rapid Fire weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Repeater Handgun
 * Kerillian's: Swiftbow, Hagbane Shortbow,and Volley Crossbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Volley Crossbow, Brace of Pistols, and Repeater Pistol
 * Sienna's: Bolt Staff

Shield Breaking
The Shield Breaking characteristic has two effects:
 * 1) When fighting Infantry, the weapon deals increased damage to the enemy's stamina when they block. If the opponent is using a shield that is wooden, namely of Clanrats] and [[Bulwarks, the shield will break (note that Stormvermin shields are metal).
 * 2) The damage reduction due to enemy armour is only moderately decreased. While other weapons will do minimal to no damage, the Shield Breaking trait ranges from a 50%-20% decrease in damage depending on the weapon. The table below lists the exact decrease per weapon:

Sniper
Ranged weapons with the Sniper characteristic zoom-in while holding the charged attack button. The Kerillian's Waystalker career can also press the alternative fire button while holding the charged attack button to zoom-in even further.

Sniper weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Longbow, and Handgun
 * Bardins's: Handgun, and Crossbow
 * Kerillian's: Longbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Crossbow
 * Sienna's: Bolt Staff, and Beam Staff

Versatile
Versatile weapons are (like the name suggests) useful in a number of diverse ways, making it an allrounder. This might mean the normal attacks are quick while the heavy or charged attacks are slow and powerfull, or the weapons has both wide sweeps for crowd control and precise attacks for making head-shots.

Versatile weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Halberd, and RepeaterHandgun
 * Kerillian's: Sword, Sword and Dagger, Two-Handed Sword, Elven Spear, Volley Crossbow, and Longbow
 * Saltzpyre's: Rapier, Falchion, and Brace of Pistols
 * Sienna's: Sword, and Beam Staff

Wide Sweeps
Melee Weapons with the Wide Sweeps characteristics have attack patterns that include horizontal patterns, which allow the player to hit enemies in a wide angle in front of him.

Wide Sweeps weapons include:
 * Kruber's: Sword, Mace, Sword and Shield, Mace and Shield, Two-Handed Hammer, Two-Handed Sword, Executioner Sword, and Halberd
 * Bardin's: Hammer, Hammer and Shield, Two-Handed Hammer, War Pick
 * Kerillian's: Sword, Sword and Dagger, Dual Swords, and Two-Handed Sword
 * Saltzpyre's: Flail, and Two-Handed Sword
 * Sienna's: Sword, Mace, and Fire Sword