Superior in this case is the quality and depends on the craftsmans skill. Not the material.
No, no. I mean crafting an ancient Orichalcum Great Axe in the Ancient Foundry actually gives you an item called "Superior Orichalcum Great Axe", which I think you inserted for moods and such. I believe that for every weapon there is a "superior" and "legendary" quality, which you can obtain mostly from strange moods and archeology (got a Legendary Rusty Iron something in a previous game from a relic). I did some testing in the arena, and the superior variety beats the common one every time. Testing was done on axes, with 8 member strong uruks teams, materials Orichalcum and Welded Mithril, and got these results, averaged on 3 tests each:
Superior Orichalcum vs Welded Mithril, Steel armor: 5,3 survivors for the Welded Mithril team.
Superior Orichalcum vs Welded Mithril, Iron armor: 6,6 survivors for the Orichalcum team.
Superior Orichalcum vs Superior WM, Steel armor: 6,9 survivors for the Welded Mithril team.
The "armor" was made by mail shirt, breastplate, shield, boots, greaves, gauntlets, helm and lupine mask, and a lamellar leather cloak thrown in for good measure. The Uruks were Professional Axeorcs and Fighters, and with five grades in Armor, Dodging, and Shield.
I'm thinking of seeing if Athlete makes thing different, and trying with different skill levels and armors. Of course I need to enlarge the pool, 3 tries are not even close to be sufficient. Suggestions are more than welcome, I will run the tests tonight and compile a spreadsheet so that I might give my contribute to Orcish !!SCIENCE!!.
PS: One tought I had is that some statistical monster may be lurking. If I remember correctly not ALL Uruks are able to wield a two-handed weapon and shield at the same time, it depends on size. If anyone might confirm this or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.