Weapon Speed
Weapon speed is a hidden attribute on every weapon that determines the delay between landing an attack and waiting until you're able to attack again. Speed is directly proportional to the delay between attacks (i.e. a lower speed results in a reduced delay) and is a synonym for in-game ticks (i.e. game updates with ~600ms of delay between them). [1]
Scimitars are the fastest melee weapon to use and are thus ideal for training, whereas great swords are the slowest and are more suited to landing slow but precise and powerful attacks on highly defended enemies.