You need to master crafting in order to craft best handles/hafts for making a perfect weapon.
A perfect forging-hammer isn't necessary, but it aids in the chance to craft a perfect weapon - this requires you to master crafting and get lucky on the vise.
Hammering out a best piece requires one to master the weapon type you're working on.
Perfect weapon requires best crafted handle/haft and hammered blade + luck on vise.
I can spend 20-30 hours hammering out blades to get best pieces and 3-10 hours crafting handles/hafts for best pieces.
Then even with a Gift of the Gods - Eonake, at times end up with zero perfect weapons. Countless hours working on making perfect weapons and at times not making a single one.
I have issues with the current system and if the weapon system won't be getting an over haul I'd like to see things adjusted with forging.
Here are issues I have:
1) most sought after weapons are the easiest to craft (maul and lance)
2) items that are harder (take significantly longer) to craft are less sought after or not wanted at all due to weapon bases
3) lack of difference in finalized weapons that are more difficult to craft over easier weapons to craft.
Mauls, lances and rapiers all require 1 hammer session to craft a blade. Granted these weapons require a merchant to purchase the glyphs doesn't change the fact that for THW mauls are most sought for and for Polearms the lance is most sought after. Rapier - kind of lack luster, sadly, compared to other OHEs. Any forger that fancies their self as a good forger should have a few of these glyphs in their possession. So it's kind of a moot point you need a merchant to get them from.
I'd love to see weapons that take longer (more hammer sessions) to craft a best piece give better returns.
Things to keep in mind:
Forging is a numbers game - more you forge the better chance you have to crafting best pieces.
When using the VISE you want to activate Gift of the Gods - Eonake. You get 15 minutes. 70 seconds per vise means 12 chance for crafting a perfect weapon. You want to craft 12 best blades and 12 best handles before you utilize the vise to give you your best chances to craft perfect weapons.
Mauls for THW - they only do crush damage. Shots to the head are amazing - crush the skull = win!
Craft a maul head = 1 hammer session. Depending on the metal used, 4 to 10 minutes per session. Same goes with a lance blade.
We'll say you're using mithril. Mithril requires 4 minutes for hammering out a maul/lance/rapier blade.
60 minutes in the forge means you can hammer out 15 blades/heads.
If you're lucky with the RNG you should hopefully see 1-2 best blades per hour.
Roughly 12 hours to hammer out 12 best pieces (6 hours if you're really lucky, 18 hours if you're not so lucky).
Crafting best handles, if you're lucky 2 hours. If you're unlucky it may take upwards of 8 hours.
At most maybe 24-30 hours of work to get 12 best maul heads and 12 best maul handles.
If you're lucky, you'll vise 3 perfect weapons. If you're unlucky you'll get zero. If you're extremely lucky you'll vise 4+ perfect weapons.
So, in my experience, within 24 hours you should be able to hammer out a couple perfect mauls.
Same would go with a lance or rapier.
Let's say you wanted to work on a flail and craft it out of mithril.
Flails require 4 hammer sessions per blade. 16 minutes hammering to finish a blade.
60 minutes in the forge means 3.75 blades an hour. To get 15 blades would require 4 hours in the forge.
If you're lucky out of that 4 hours to hammer out 15 blades for a flail you should hopefully see 1-2 best blades.
Roughly 48 hours to hammer out 12 best pieces (maybe 24 hours if you're lucky or 60 hours if you're unlucky).
Crafting best handles, if you're lucky 2 hours. If you're unlucky it may take upwards of 8 hours.
At most, maybe 72 hours of work to get 12 best flail heads and 12 best flail handles.
If you're lucky, you'll vise 3 perfect weapons. If you're unlucky you'll get zero. If you're extremely lucky you'll vise 4+ perfect weapons.
So, in my experience, within 60-72 hours you should be able to hammer out a couple perfect flails.
The estimated times above are only with mithril metal and on the low end of time - using vultite means a hammer session goes from 4 minutes to 9 minutes and requires even more time for best pieces.
Flails are only better than a maul for cloth and leather armor - scale and up the maul is better. It's easier to craft perfect mauls over a perfect flail. However, since flails are less desirable due to being less effective overall when compared to a maul, why would someone want to waste all that extra time trying to craft a perfect flail?
I'm suggesting a boost to DF and AvD for every 2 hammer sessions over the initial. I'd like to see other weapons that require more time and are less desirable to be more sought after.
Weapons that require 1-2 hammer sessions keep the current bonuses:
| Quality | DF | AvD |
| Well-made | 2% | +1 |
| Exquisite | 4% | +2 |
| Perfect | 6% | +3 |
Weapons that require 3-4 hammer sessions:
| Quality | DF | AvD |
| Well-made | 3% | +2 |
| Exquisite | 5% | +3 |
| Perfect | 7% | +4 |
Weapons that require 5-6 hammer sessions:
| Quality | DF | AvD |
| Well-made | 4% | +3 |
| Exquisite | 6% | +4 |
| Perfect | 8% | +5 |
Weapons that require 7 hammer sessions:
| Quality | DF | AvD |
| Well-made | 5% | +4 |
| Exquisite | 7% | +5 |
| Perfect | 9% | +6 |
Boosting up the benefit of weapons that take longer to craft would off-set some of the power difference and perhaps make some of the less sought after weapons more desirable from forging.
This certainly won't help some weapons such as the quarterstaff - let's face it, wet noodle - or rapier because the short-sword is better all around and even the short-sword is kind of lame for an OHE. But it might make people think about a few other weapon types if they're willing to put in the time for them, such as the flamberge/warsword/warhammer/ball&chain/longsword/broadsword/greatsword and so on.
