Item Decay Source 6 (Source)

Ok, I had a guildmate test this, this was his data:

T21 Weapon Decay 10/29/04 by Azos

I fired 200 normal shots, and 100 Strafe Shot 2's to test this out tonight.

The 4 weapons used were all T21's, all with the same base stats:

1033/1033 Condition 175-405 Damage 7.5 Speed 36.3% wound -70/+22/+10 Range Mods 71/65/106 HAM

The first weapon used was normal, unsliced and unpowered up.

Original Condition: 1033/1033 After 100 Normal Shots: 1028/1033 (-5) After 200 Normal Shots: 1023/1033 (-5) After 100 Strafe Shot 2's: 1021/1033 (-2)

The second weapon was sliced, and got a 26% damage slice. It was not powered up. It's stats were 220-510 Damage, with the rest being the same as the original.

Original Condition: 1033/1033 After 100 Normal Shots: 1025/1033 (-8) After 200 Normal Shots: 1023/1033 (-2) After 100 Strafe Shot 2's: 1022/1033 (-1)

The third weapon was powered up with a 33.16% Max Damage, 16.33% Min Damage powerup, but not sliced. It's stats were 203-539 Damage, with the rest being the same as the original.

Original Condition: 1033/1033 After 100 Normal Shots: 1017/1033 (-16) After 200 Normal Shots: 1006/1033 (-11) After 100 Strafe Shot 2's: 982/1033 (-14)

The final weapon was both sliced and powered up with a 33.16% Max Damage, 16.33% Min Damage powerup. It got a 32% speed slice, so it's stats were 203-539 Damage, 5.1 Speed, with the rest being the same as the original.

Original Condition: 1033/1033 After 100 Normal Shots: 1017/1033 (-16) After 200 Normal Shots: 1002/1033 (-15) After 100 Strafe Shot 2's: 986/1033 (-16)

To test a theory Nabe had about damage output effecting decay, I powered up the damage sliced T21 and did 100 normal shots and 100 Strafe Shot 2's. It's stats were 255-679 Damage, with the rest being the same as the original.

Condition before test: 1022/1033 After 100 Normal Shots: 1004/1022 After 100 Strafe Shot 2's: 989/1033

My feelings/conclusions:

1. Weapon decay with sliced weapons seems to happen randomly. I found it incredibly odd that the damage sliced weapon seemingly just decayed randomly, losing 8 points in the first 100 shots, but then only 2 points in the 2nd 100 shots, and only 1 point in 100 Strafe Shot 2's.

2. Powering up your weapon definitely increases the rate in which it decays, as can be seen by the results of the tests. The powered up weapons decayed much faster than the un-powered up weapons.

3. A sliced and powered up weapon decays around 3x as fast as an unpowered up, unsliced weapon, or really even a sliced, but unpowered up weapon. Something to keep in mind when considering using powerups on things like Krayt hunts, NS hunts, etc. Personally, the condition loss wouldn't be worth the extra damage, unless I'm trying to outdamage another group.

ULTIMATE CONCLUSION:

Weapon decay rate is still the same. Slicing appears to have no known effect on decay, however, powerups still do significantly increase decay rate.