I have one of the bigger AxBows in the game. It is named. I just had the Blacksmith take it from x48+50 to x49+50, and I was curious how much more damage I'd see from the increase in viciousness.
Turns out, for a $880k NW increase, very, very little.
I fought 5 opponents 5 times each and recorded the damage. Then I had the AxBow upgraded and fought the same 5 opponents again. In 3 of the cases, my damage went down. Overall the change in damage across all five was a wash, +0.1% increase.
I had been using 10x2+1 bolts, so I tried using 10x4+1 to see how that affected damage. Overall the damage went up, +2.6% increase.
So damage-wise, I'd be better off using more expensive ammo than upgrading the AxBow. Of course, the increase on the x gives a better decrease on the opponents DX. But I was really expecting the damage to increase noticeably.
Does this seem right?
If anyone wants to look at my data, feel free to grab the spreadsheet.