This information no longer applies to the latest version of Diablo II. It remains here for archival use only.

Using information gathered from the Chaos Sanctuary, Eddy Currents has developed a number of tables to calculate melee damage.  The first table shows a direct damage calculation, and the next five tables use weapon speed information provided by Trucidation to reveal melee damage over time.  Each table is considerably large and will open in a new window.  The tables reflect base damage only; magical modifiers would be added onto the listed damages.  Each table is quite massive; please be patient as it loads in your browser.

Page 2: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage
Page 3: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage averaged over 1 second
Page 4: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage averaged over 3 seconds
Page 5: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage averaged over 5 seconds
Page 6: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage averaged over 7 seconds
Page 7: Diablo II Melee Weapon Damage averaged over 9 seconds

The author of these tables writes:

The results are interesting. In the end, weapon speed doesn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would, except for swords. Fast attack speeds do bring up the average damage of small weapons. Of course, when you use the big 2H weapons most battles don't last that long, because when you factor in damage bonuses most monsters will fall with one or two blows from a big weapon. Bosses, though, that's a different story. For example, if you are stuck chopping away at Duriel for a while, you see the Grim Scythe will do nearly as much damage as the mighty Lance. Same thing for multiplayer games, where monster hit points are multiplied by the number of players in the game.

The most interesting results are for those weapons which do good damage and are fast. For example: for barbarians, the Zweihander does more damage over time than the Executioner Sword. So the Zweihander emerges as the new king of swords.

Also, the Ancient Axe is a bit faster than the Martel, but not enough to matter. Its average damage is 75% of the Martel for a single hit, and its time averaged damage is 88%. However, the Grim Scythe is much faster than the Martel. On average the Grim Scythe does 66% of the damage of a Lance and 57% of the damage of a Martel for a single hit, but time averaged it goes up to 89% and 78% respectively. That makes the Grim Scythe look pretty good, when you consider faster attack speeds mean you are less likely to get interrupted or stunlocked.

However, certain attacks like Jab and Whirlwind ignore weapon speed. In that case, time averaged damage is irrelevant. Use the Melee Weapon Stats table above for comparison instead. There you see Lance still gives a much better average damage than Grim Scythe for a Jabazon or Whirlwinder.

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