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[JTTCOTE]

I know. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this to happen. But in any case, I now have a legendary weaponsmith and Tokthatngobol Kirar Keshan, Scornglumness the Right of Flames, a steel short sword.
Is this artifact better than a masterwork steel axe? Is it better than an adamantite axe? I've never understood the weapon mechanics.

[Garath]

probably not better than a candy axe and an axe lord won't do better with that sword than with an axe, but a sword master will do better than with an axe or a regular steel sword

really, skill is very important, but if you're training up a new recruit it may be worth giving him that sword to train with instead of another axe. Personally I rate short swords and axes about equal in usefulnes. Short swords do reasonable in chopping bits off and a stab in the head is an amazingly strong finishing move. Recently for me 4 axedwarfs couldn't manage to kill a roc by hacking at the head untill a swordlord came and stabbed it in the head.

[JTTCOTE]

Okay, probably should have said, will a swordsmaster with that sword or a axelord with a steel/adamantite axe do better (not giving a swordsmaster an axe or anything silly like that)

[Garath]

I'm reasonably sure an addamantium axe or sword is better, it's just that good, but the artifact is better than a regular steel weapon.

[Cocoprimate]

IIRC, artifact mainly boosts chance to hit?

So material of the weapon would tend to always win out over quality, in a curve.

[Garath]

yep, pretty much

[They Got Leader]

From the wiki;

A legendary weapon has a 3x better chance to hit. Masterwork, on the other hand, has a 2x chance to hit. Overall, a very good choice.

However, there are several other things to compare on this list, though. First: [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Weapon#Combat_testing]material[/url].
-Steel makes a very good edged weapon (a sword, or axe), second only to adamantine. In this case, it is a very good legendary weapon choice.

The kind of weapon also makes a difference. Swords are slashing, edged weapons. You want a material with a good edge (like in real life) so steel is your best bet, if you don't have adamantine. They have the second best stats for these kinds of weapons.

Overall, with a 3x chance to hit and a value modifier of 120x, this weapon should be given to your master swordsman because the high hit chance makes the weapon significantly more deadly.

[Garath]

I've forgotten, but did weight have an effect for piercing weapons? If so, since swords have a stabbing attack too which gets used often enough (unlike bashing with the pommel or flat of the blade), steel would actually be better for them than candy.

[BoredVirulence]

I've forgotten, but did weight have an effect for piercing weapons? If so, since swords have a stabbing attack too which gets used often enough (unlike bashing with the pommel or flat of the blade), steel would actually be better for them than candy.

I would assume that, for the purposes of stabbing, weight isn't important. With a stabbing move you don't typically have enough range of movement to build momentum, not enough mass for it to be useful, and you're in a position where you can easily apply more weight. But thats an assumption.

The artifact steel sword is great. Give it to a recruit. Any good sword master can kill a goblin with a training sword, copper or bronze should be plenty to kill almost anything in their hands. A recruit is going to get a big bonus from that. If a sword master hits 90% of the time, with a 3x bonus its either 97% or 100% (depending on how you care to calculate it). A recruit may only hit 10% of the time, with the bonus we should now have 30%. The recruit benefits more.

[Linkxsc]

Heck, if you don't have anything much better, It would go straight to my next up and coming sworddwarf. Really fort mode doesn't do justice to how much more powerful legendary gear can be. Remember, it increased you chance to hit, and with high accuracies, it also does its part to counter strong enemies dodge chances. Found an artifact shortsword once on a master hammerman adventurer once. ANd within about a week of time ingame, had already gone past the skill in hammers by a large margin. Thing would hit even master lashers while I was still only "skilled" in swords.

Though the fast training was helped by me traveling to the evil lands and fighting the undead for several days.