One of the most confusing and oft-debated aspects of LOTRO game mechanics is the general question of whether faster or slower weapon setups are "better". Specifically, this usually revolves around a debate about dual-wielded weapons versus 2H weapons, but can also apply to a debate about whether guardians are better-served by 1H + Shield setups versus 2H weapons. There are six main aspects to this debate:

• Which setup gives superior auto-attack damage during a short fight: fast or slow weapons? Which is the most important weapon statistic: Speed, DPS, Average Damage, or Max Damage? Which setup is more "power efficient"? In other words, which setup gives you the most damage per point of power expended? Which setup benefits all the "extra swings" and + damage bonus of your weapon-based? What exactly is the interplay between the auto-attack ticks and cool-down timers?
• Do special damage types trump all of the preceding factors

Faster weapons are always superior auto-attack damage in a short fight

The fact that faster weapons always yield superior front-loaded auto-attack damage in short fights is counter-intuitive to most newcomers to the MMO genre, and is therefore contested quite often on discussion forums. Nevertheless, it is a true statement. The basic principle to grasp is simply that a "miss" with a slower but harder-hitting weapon hurts you far more than a miss with a faster but lighter-hitting weapon in a short fight where there is an effective "race" to do N points of damage first. For example, let's use an extreme and artificial comparison of two players of equal level with weapons that are equal DPS. Player A has the fast weapon and it hits for 10 damage every second. Player B has the slow weapon and it hits for 30 damage every 3 seconds. Both players have 70 hit points.

• Player A needs to connect with 7 hits to kill player B. This could happen as quickly as 7 seconds with a 100% hit rate. Player B needs to connect with 3 hits to kill Player A. This could happen as quickly as 9 seconds with a 100% hit rate.
• If both players experience a 25% miss rate (75% hit rate) here's how long it takes each player to kill the other.
  • Player A needs 10 attacks (2-3 will be misses); that's 10 seconds.
  • Player B needs 4 attacks (1 will be a miss); that's 12 seconds.

Can you see how in all cases, Player A has the statistical advantage? Statistically, Player A will more often win the "race" to do 70 points of damage first because their misses "hurt" a lot less. Missing one big attack puts you behind in the race. This has been proven time and again. And remember, this applies to *short* fights only--that's where faster weapons always have the edge. Statistically, your odds to "win the race" are better with a faster weapon. This basic principle aside, there are still two unresolved points of contention in LOTRO that could modify this basic principle

• It is yet unproven whether or not your first "strike" of weapon damage occurs immediately upon commencing auto-attack, or must instead occurs after the first "swing delay" of the weapon. Regardless of the true answer to this question, all that gives the slower, harder-hitting weapon is a small "head start" on the "race" compared to the faster, lighter-hitting weapon. The basic principle described in this section still stands, and all this point of contention means for LOTRO, in particular, is that if you can kill something in only 1-3 "hits" then it's possible that a slower, harder-hitting weapon would win this very extreme kind of "race". Most fights that will actually yield experience, even fast ones, tend to take more than a few hits, so this point of contention is probably moot.
• It is yet unknown how armor mitigation works in LOTRO.
  • In some MMOs, armor mitigation works by reducing a flat percentage of each hit, so a harder-hiting weapon and a lighter-hitting weapon are equally penalized by the armor mitigation.
  • In other MMOs, however, armor mitigation works by "absorbing" damage off the top of a hit. In this case slower weapons are often better because every hit of a harder-hitting weapon gets more damage through the absorbtion. In these MMOs it was possible for a fast but light-hitting weapon to do practically no damage to a heavily armored foe. It's worth noting that in previous Turbine games, specifically Asheron's Call 2, armor mitigation usually worked on an absorption principle, so big-hitting single attacks were far more useful at the high levels than small-hitting "flurry" style attacks