Empty off hand option

Currently ther is no benefit in the game to having an empty offhand except for one dagger afaik.

It got me thinking, The shadow part of the tree lacks identity when it comes melee, the artwork tells you to go dual wielding and the ascendencies and tree nodes tell you to go either daggers or claws (and traps but we are talking about melee) BUT there it nothing for dual wielding like in the duelist are and there is nothing for shields like the on the left side of the tree.

It begs the question what exactly is the melee play style of the shadow, the obvious answer is, well there isnt one...

So heres a suggestion, add some nodes in the shadow area for "empty off hand", we already have a unique with it, it would fit the theme of the shadow of this precise and fast assassin without much too encumber him AND its also on the oposite end of the tree for 2H nodes so it makes all the sense.

We already have hollow palm technique so it would be nice to have some empty offhand builds and for the shadow to have a proper melee identity.

It could also work as a keystone passive or as an ascendency thing.

Bump, lets get a new discussion going besides "league is trash" and "make things easier".

this would be cool, and I could see it being used in the assassin theme as you say, but also as a quick thrusting sword style like in fencing.

I think they are being very careful with what they add on that part of the tree because it is also the home of spell suppression, one of the simplest but effective means for evasion characters to do bossing.

But for sure, I think they can add an empty offhand tree and see how many players would take the bait. I mean, losing an offhand is a lot to sacrifice, because of how powerful are some of the shields in the game nowadays, and the utility you get from being able to socket 3 additional gems.

But first they may need to re-balance White Wind. If it stays as it is, and still benefits from the new passives, it can potentially leap from garbage 1c tier to several divines tier unique item. Just witness how the price of Hyrri's Ire soared after the mastery to grant 15% increase maximum life was introduced this league.

I also wished they implement dual-wield TWO 2H weapons ala D2 Barbarian style, but at the same time, I could see how difficult it is going to be to balance the game around that.

Maybe they could do it with added spell supression and crit, i think it would fit quite well since dex is the stat of spell suppression and the witch is suposed to be the character that deals with spells, so having something that adds spell supression in the top right corner would make a lot of sense.

There's quite a few nodes on the shadow area that dont make sense and could be replaced by "empty off hand nodes like spell leech, spell crit, stuff for curses and marks.

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Awkward0ctopus wrote:

this would be cool, and I could see it being used in the assassin theme as you say, but also as a quick thrusting sword style like in fencing.

Now that you mention this, it would also fit some of the archer ascendencies artwork.