Creative uses for 2nd weapon set / swapping?

So far I've been using the second weapon set as gem sticks to keep leveling gems I might need later, but there must be something more to it. Are you guys swapping between two sets to get, say, more defensive stats and a shield when you're in a bad situation? Or are you creating a different "sub-build" with a different set of skills to use, such as totems/buffs/auras vs. active combat skills? I'm considering swapping between two bows for single-target vs. AOE, but haven't tested it yet (first I need a good 2nd bow with the right gem slots!).

I'm working on a point blank ranger and tried to use weapon swapping to engage with Flicker Strike (with melee weapon) then swapping to my bow, but that's not been working too well. But I'm thinking there must be ways to milk this functionality for all its worth, given PoE's flexibility.

I think the devs said they would work on animation speed as right now things can feel a bit sluggish. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hear about creative use of weapon swapping.

haven't found a use at all for it.

I don't like leveling gems "i might use later" because it will keep me from using them on new alt's. Furthermore they level up really fast if you're fighting high-level mobs, so if you decided to switch, you'd probably ding a ton just getting to the dungeon you're on.

I was considering what you mentioned -- using the alt set for more defense (sword and board) vs dual wield, but.. finding it's not really worth DW'ing, because I do just as much damage with sword and board (1 hit kills mostly).. so what's the point? *edit* sorry you actually mentioned switching between range vs. melee, i haven't played a ranger yet :) though see my last comment -- don't your abilities unmap when you do this? assuming you have abilities on your weps.

also, it seems really clunky to switch, I have to hit "X" without hitting anything else (ie: not spamming my abilities)

then, my abilities unmap when I switch as well. so you'd have to have the same ability gems on your alt set than you have on your main set.. doesn't seem right. (ie heavy strike is my left click, I switch to a wep that doesn't have it and I get the default hit mapped to left click, then I switch back and default hit is still mapped instead of my heavy strike). QWERT might stay mapped (not sure) but the left/middle/right click is arguably the most important buttons (at least the way I play)

I use the weapon swap on my Shadow character to cast 2 mana reserve buffs. I can then swap to my other weapons and maintain the buff, netting me some much needed gem and skill slots.

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pilnomi wrote:

then, my abilities unmap when I switch as well. so you'd have to have the same ability gems on your alt set than you have on your main set.. doesn't seem right. (ie heavy strike is my left click, I switch to a wep that doesn't have it and I get the default hit mapped to left click, then I switch back and default hit is still mapped instead of my heavy strike). QWERT might stay mapped (not sure) but the left/middle/right click is arguably the most important buttons (at least the way I play)

You are right, mouse buttons don't stay properly mapped in this case, I just tested it. This, in my opinion, is an oversight that should be addressed by the devs.

Another use might be swapping to +rarity/quantity weapons to finish rares/bosses and open chests. Any similarity with "the other game" is purely coincidental!

I want to make a poison DoT marauder using both poison arrow and viper strike. I'd have to do weapon swapping to stack both types of poison effects. I haven't tried it yet, though.

A creative use can be to usi it as a skill swap - having e.g. some auras and/or curses on some items and more attack orientated skills on the items you actually use for combat. So you switch to your curses and use them and than back to your attack skills

I've tested swapping back and forth between bow and 1-hander+shield to be able to use Shield Charge, either to charge in (useful to stun an archer and point blank shotgun it) or escape out. In principle it works, but in practice it's a little bit too slow for comfortable use on progression content. Maybe I need to practice until it becomes second nature. It almost feels like there's a hidden global cooldown at play. And obviously you can't mash the weapon swap key. Or maybe this works smoothly only if you have 50ms latency with the PoE server.

Buffs/totems and magic farming are likely to be what most people will end up using weapon swapping for.

Guess it's good way to store more items, other thing is if you want to use many skills so you could experiment with them or just use with others but you lack the amount of gem slots.

One thing i noticed specifically for ranger is that you should be able to block the quiver slot and just swap betwen bows.

Melee dw duelist with crap bow to spread poison arrow+lmp dot.

sometimes its very useful to have a situational 2nd setup (weapon, shield, skillgems) to conter weak points of the main skill setup (ranged weapon on melee, or cast abilities). You can also try to buff auras and similar things with the different equip mods on the 2nd slot.

Beside this, leveling gems in the back may not be useful to twink them, but to support your own progress in a case where you have to reach a certain point to 'switch' xour build to something else not viable before, or to get experience on skills you actually havent enough/the right sockets for.