Weapons, perks, delving bench, thrall questions

[Coffee4pm]

1. I’ve made Daggers of the Legion and there is ‘Variable’ perk on it, what does it mean? Then I crafted Dripping Longsword and it has ‘Acidic’ perk, what does this perk mean? I couldn’t find any information about these or another weapon perks in the Internet, is there any information about all weapon perks somewhere?

2. a) I can’t fully understand how does delving bench work. I already found out that it doesn’t work with damaged weapons. But, ok, first I putted there an legendary daggers - it works, later I putted there an legendary katana - it doesn’t work, then legendary 2H sword - it works, then just hardened steel axe - it works, epic guardian chestplate (full durability) - no. I’m confused. Why is it so picky? Why it doesn’t want to ‘eat’ katana?
   b) Is it make any sense to put legendary items on the Delving Bench? What is the profit comparing to common items?

3. I gave my fighter thrall 1h weapon + shield and he acts like totally idiot - just standing still defending with raised shield even if nobody attack him during the battle and waiting when somebody hit him… And he almost never uses full heavy attack combo with shield, he’s dps become very low. Is it normal? I think 1h weapon + shield is not good choice for thrall. The same with the 2H axes, when I give it to him he become an dumb, just kick the target or attack with 1 light attack. Are there good and bad choices of weapon type for thrall or I misunderstood situation?

4. Weapon damage VS armor penetration, what is better? For example what is better 72 damage and 0 penetration or 62 damage and 35% penetration? I’m asking about PvE.

[Moirior]

1. Variable Gives a Random Buff (Don’t know much else from there, Acidic poison’s undead.
2. If you’re delving do Hardened Steel or Star Metal Weapons.
3. Don’t give thralls a shield, they derp out.
4. Use Master Weapon Fittings that increase both Damage & Armor Pen (Comes from Vaults>Grandmaster Weaponsmith Recipe)

[Kanza1]

Since conan exiles is an exploration / survival / sandbox game , the incentive is to find it for yourself , hence why there is so few explanation on what things do from the part of the developpers . This doesn’t have stopped other players making discoveries to share them , the most of your question can be answered if you go on youtube and watch , wak4863 , firespark81 , KiahonFire , Sethum that does guides or SvenP , lyumi-light for constructions ideas

also the Conan Exiles Wiki witch is a community made wiki .

1. that being said , the Variable may mean that it has a variable effect at each combo or each hit , I’m not sure haven’t tested them yet , for the Acidic , it mostly for pvp , since it will lower the durability of your target ( since npcs / annimals ) don’t have a durability to loose , it’s mostly for pvp

2 , no it doesn’t make sense to put a legendary in the delving bench / if you put an object and it doesn’t “eat” it , or the object you put in is under the value of an hardened steel weapon or the object don’t have a receipe to give . it may also be a bug since siptah is in early access some features might not work properly yet . I suggest you to put ( for weapons ) only hardened steel or star metal depending on what you better feel like spending , as you guess , the object needs durability , also there is only a chance of getting a receipe , it’s not 100% having a receipe , also u can use the same object ( like a starmetal 1h axe ) and repair it each time ( there are several axe receipes and all receipes from axes can be unlock with the same axe as long as it is over or equal the quality of hardened steel ) .

3. at the moment thralls do have a little problem handling their shield , and yes you should take it off , at least untill they fix it , some weapon are indeed better for thralls than others ( and this is a vivid discussion every update , on what is the best weapon for my thrall ? )

4. it depends on your target , some bosses have a lot of armor , some other have less , npcs wears armors so they have some annimals don’t have much armor , the more armor an ennemy has the better it is to have some , the “commonly accepted” threshold is around 37 % armor pen after what you hit diminishing returns , ( this is maybe the wrong number since it’s been quite some time since i didn’t looked deep into it )

[DanQuixote]

FWIW - I generally give my thralls either one-handed mace (no shield) or two-handed sword - they seem fairly reliable to me (without having done any specific testing/number crunching). One handed axe or one handed sword (without shield) I’m also usually happy with (though I do find that thralls with a one-handed sword tend to over-use that first heavy attack and miss quite often). I’ll generally mix things around and give thralls whatever I feel like at a particular time, but if I’m going somewhere ‘tough’ then I tend to prefer to have them armed with one of the weapons I feel I can ‘rely’ on.