DW Q: Having trouble seeing the benefit?

Ultra casual player over the last two years or however long. Decided to pop in and goof off with a Duelist, focusing on DW, blocking while DW'ing nodes and EV (while of course chasing down the health nodes).

I'm now in Act 3 Merciless @LVL 53 and the struggle is Martin Luther King real enough to make me reconsider what the the heck I'm doing. I did NOT go acrobatics as it seems the negatives > the benefits. Using Reave as my main attack, alternating between Grace and Add Ice Dmg auras depending on if I need to not die versus not die of boredom killing mobs.

Any input would be greatly appreciated, and thank you kindly in advance!

A passive tree and some gear you are using would greatly help us pin point the possible flaws in your character, but I'll try to explain some things from the perspective I see it.

1. As a Melee character you should have around 4k life at the very least in ACT3 Merciless.
This is just a personal preference and opinion that I have now after playing pretty much only melee life builds since beta.

On top of that, Evasion itself is more of a ranged thing. Even then evasion only really shines if you couple it with additional dodge (going acrobatics) or as a hybrid with armor.

You run evasion ONLY as it seems, right?
As a melee, I tried it a few times but I find evasion VERY lackluster.
Also, consider this: since you run evasion and block only you might not take any damage fairly often but WHEN you take damage its going to be a heck of a punch.

I suspect your struggles are rather spike-damage related atm.

Also, evasion characters usually go for a shit-ton of leech in order to go back to full-life inbetween those attack that they do not evade.

2. You are using Reave, an attack that only scales damage from your main hand weapon. You are aware of that? Of course the attackspeed and possible crit from your offhand weapon scales with your damage, but not the actual weapon damage.
When using Reave as dual wielder you always want to have an offhand weapon with some great benefits, like either immense attack-speed (Bright beak) or some wepaons that offer culling strike and onslaught (Forgot its name). This sort of playstyle is often referred to as 'faking' dual wielding.

Alternatively, get a shield for your offhand, that would give you some great defense boost.

3. That 'Add Ice Dmg' aura you are talking about. Is it 'Hatred'? If yes, you are doing fine. Herald of Ice would not be beneficial for you as you probably do not go for a crit orientated build.

The problem here, Grace and Hatred together reserve 100% of you mana, and I assume you do not use a bloodmagic support gem with your attack. This is something that you COULD do.
OR you pick up 'Herald of Ash' instead of 'Hatred'. Gives you some overall damange boost and does not reserve as much mana. Make sure to pick up some mana-leech and off you go.

4. In order to fix your evasion problems, Just go with the 'Iron Reflex' keystone down at the bottom right next to your starting location.
Converting all your evasion to armor will help you greatly as melee. Your incomming damage will be a lot less per hit and a lot more consistent and easier to react to.

Hope this helps!

Wow...this helps immensely actually - and is very appreciated. Yes I am running evasion and block as my main form of defense; 2300ish HP, capped elemental resists though chaos is still only like 5%. Gear is a random mix of eclectic nonsense as I'm mid 50's and trying to get to whatever the third level of difficulty is.

My build so far: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAuR0V7Irw6UbKkITZR369NmVNvqfEuNX4Adx346luwBpvO3gNtfI1kti9bqpKyHlowQRfPxQg7w5QR-RRf-Mx-2BBY3AR1VeXQzHawXTtBS167xm0LYMVIPaj73rnCgqb0359df66JJ1iWu_jA4eVZhutBLFMYKOKI_ZNko19

I need to go find a hatred gem now! You rock socks, thanks kindly :D

This is excellent advice for any new person. Well done & thank you.

Hey again.
Since you mentioned Chaos resistance; don't try to focus on it TO much.
It is perfectly acceptable for a high level character to have -60% chaos resistance at first. (at endgame)
This is something that you focus on AFTER you get the basic defense ready.

When looking for gear and equipping your character go by this basic priority list:

- Max out Elemental Resistances first! (75%) If you manage to get them maxed in Normal already then that is wonderful, usually it is not needed though but you should have the maxed until Cruel Act 2 at the very least! And keep them at maximum (65% - 75%) always from then on, even if you have to sacrifice other defenses.

- Second thing to focus on is HP or Energy Shield. (Whatever you go for) Try to get HP on every piece of gear possible! The more the better. Except weapons.

- Third are the things like Armor and Evasion (Or MORE Energy Shield if you go ES only :P)

- 4th layer of defense are then Block or Dodge. (On some builds you prioritize them over the third layer though)

- Only then, if you have the luxury for more gear-mods you can try to somewhat get your chaos resistance to around 0%. More is usually not needed.

Just mentioning this in case you neglect some of the more crucial defenses for chaos resistances.
Chaos type mobs are fairly rare in the game and usually indicated by green projectiles or degeneration auras. Often you can just ignore them if they really pose such a threat.


Some other information that I go by: (It's not a general rule just what I follow)
If you go HP based:
Try to aim for ~500HP every two acts as a rule of thumb. Thats 1k HP at the end of Act2 Normal and 4k HP once you enter the thrid difficulty merciless.

4k Health is the minimum every HP charcter should have. 5k is better for endgame content and 6k is pushing it for Hardcore. Going beyond 6k life is rarely beneficial. Rather stack massive amounts of armor for a more effective HP ratio.

Edit:
I am sorry if this might sound a bit to planned out and if you were to go beyond those basics to math intensive for a casual approach.
But this is a quite unforgiving game if you come unprepared. You might have figured it out already ;)

Anyway, now go and have fun hunting.

I'm loving it and all the advice! Definitely going to save me some headaches when this Talisman (uh, whatever we call it - league?) launches. Still seems like DW lacks much love especially when a shield offers so much defense. Can't wait to see what changes they make to the duelist tree. Oh quick Q: should I be going after the life leech nodes?

Glad it helps!

You are right, a shield offers some great survivability. Its MAIN benefit is the block mechanic though.

A properly set up dual wield character will deal very high damage, something you cannot achieve with 1 weapon. Its damage is more close to a two-handed weapon and can even surpass it if you push it.
(You must know, almost all melee skills wont work properly with two one hand weapons. Either your damage only scales from one of those OR you alternate between them.
However, 'Dual Strike', is an attack that where the gem itself SCALES from both weapons simultaniously. Same goes for 'Cleave'. Those two attacks are where DW shines the most!)

What you CANNOT have with a two-handed weapon is any block. Where as dual-wielding offers you this luxury. Its easy to get up to 50% block chance with minimal investment for a dual-wielder; Thats a huge deal.

Also, Block itself is in my humble opinion the Defense #1 in this game. Nothing beats 75% block chance. Especially with some of those powerful uniques that work with block!
Not to forget you can scale spell block from normal block aswell, something you cannot do with its sister-mechanic 'dodge'.



Yes, go for the leech nodes if you do not have any other leech on your gear. Its crucial to stay alive later in the game. Flasks will become more and more of an 'OH SHIT - Rescue type' utility. You should be able to leech away most of the white/blue trash mob damage.

Remember, the faster you attack the better is 'Flat HP per hit'.
The stronger your single swings the more beneficial '% based leech' will be.
(Though % based leech is better 90% of the time...)

***Bump***