So recently I've managed to get a Silversix and Nightblade (which I'm pretty jazzed about), with the intent of using the Silversix to demolish Undead and Fiends and the Nightblade to cut up Gremlins and Slimes. My reasoning comes from the in-game information and wiki (so Undead are weak against Elemental, Fiends vs Pierce, etc).
I kind of figured the damage calculation for my Silversix would go something like this:
Effective attack damage is multiplied by arbitrary multiplier "x" [RED numbers]
Neutral attack damage is multiplied by "1" [BLUE numbers]
Ineffective attack damage is multiplied by "1/x" [GREY numbers]
Silversix deals Elemental and Pierce damage, so versus Gun Puppies (Constructs, resist Pierce and are weak to Elemental)
, I would have expected the multipliers to cancel out like this:
x * 1/x = 1
So theoretically the Silversix would deal neutral damage to Constructs.
nope.avi
The Silversix dealt ineffective damage to constructs. So either the "ineffective" multiplier is much bigger, maybe there's hidden mechanics and calculations behind it, or maybe something is a little screwy (please let it be the latter).
Similarly, when fighting some Devilites (Fiends, resist Shadow and are weak to Pierce), instead of being effective:
1 * x = x
It dealt neutral damage to them. So basically, a weapon with two attacking types (in this case Elemental and Pierce) will only ever do the least possible amount of damage, effectively neutering their potential power. I don't know if this a balancing thing or not, but I'm hoping somebody can explain it to me.
In a related issue, I was using my Nightblade (deals Normal and Shadow) on some Ironclaws (Gremlins, resist Elemental and are weak to Shadow), so even without having to do any calculating I figured I would be dealing effective damage. Nope again. The gremlins would only take Neutral damage. However, Slimes, who are also weak to Shadow, would take effective damage like they should.
Sorry for the long wall of text and whine but I was wondering someone with a little more insight into game mechanics and damage calculation could explain why things are the way they are...
TL;DR I was killed by a Sloom and am looking for knights to help me take revenge.
Well, if you take some pure-damage weapons out for a spin, you'll quickly realise that you get a much bigger penalty for enemy resistance than you get a bonus for enemy weakness. Hitting enemies weak against your attack usually nets you about a 50% increase in damage, in my experience. Hitting enemies that resist your damage types results in doing about 1/4th of your normal damage, or about an 75% penalty.
The Antigua lines are a wierd case too. Most split-damage weapons are Normal/Special. The Silversix and Blackhawk are Special/Special. (Piercing/Elemental and Piercing/Shadow respectively, for the record.) This generally means that half the stuff you're shooting at that's weak to either damage type, is probably resistant to the other one. And because the resistance is so much stronger than the weakness, you generally lose more damage than you gain.
The other issue is what kinds of numbers are actually displayed, and in that respect I can't really help you. There are any number of factors that could result in an attack that deals multiple damage types displaying neutral, effective or ineffective numbers, and quite a few of them are "under the hood", so to speak.