2H vs Dual Discussion

I will go through the difference's 1 by 1 and i will use the lowest lvl item's to match the item lvl and damage scaling better

Attack damage:
i picked the axes for this example since they have the highest damage and thereby will be the best example

1x 2H

2x 1H


note: from this we can conclude that a 2 handed weapon always deals more damage than dual wielding but dual wielder's attack at slightly over 2 times as fast so you would have a better chance of hitting the enemy if an attack should be block/dodge/evaded.

Attack Speed:
what would happen if you where to improve the attack speed of these item's, i will in this example improve the attack speed of both by 100%.

1x 2H

2x 1H


note: nothing unusual can be seen through this so it seem's fine right ?

Socket's:

1x 2H: max 6 linked socket's
2x 1H: Max 6 Socket's with max 3 linked on each side

note: this means that a 2H wielder can make a much more advanced ability combination


Abilitie's:
As we all know, once you get to a high enough level you wont use auto attack unless you are empty on mana and that rarely happen's for long so the new auto attack become's an ability, this is based on what abilities account for your full damage pr hit, the faster you go the higher the cost but you can ignore that with wasting an additional socket for a support gem.


1x 2H:
Cleave, Dominating Blow, Glacial Hammer, Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Infernal Blow, Leap Slam, Lightning Strike, Sweep, Elemental Hit, Flicker Strike, Frenzy, Puncture, Reave, Viper Strike, Whirling Blades, Double Strike, Spectral Throw

2x 1H:
Cyclone
Dual Strike

note: this leave's quite an impression that wielding a 2H will alway's be superior, they will only have to account for half the mana cost, dealing roughly 10% more damage to make up for the reduced attack speed and they have multiple time's more abilities that will deal 100% weapon damage while dual wielder's are stuck with 2 abilities. it is true a dual wielder can use the other abilities but this will cause it to alternate between weapon's used and thereby only dealing half of your weapon's damage, making up with the lack of direct damage with speed will increase the cost to twice the amount of what the 2 handed weapon would have costed and you will need to invest in mana gain support gem's.



conclusion so far: picking a 2H will always give a better result than Dual wielding, when you plan on using a 1H id suggest using a shield and thereby turn into a tank.

i hope someone will read this and comment on it if i am wrong at some point, otherwise i hope that dual wielding will get fixed someday.

PS. Watch this, a method to get 0.08 attack speed even with a 2h mace and kill a map within second's without ever needing movement speed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHO-Gmi83BE

at least when you watch the example it makes you hope that movement based abilities are getting a severe nerf or will depend on the character's run speed + weapon type's otherwise ppl will keep exploring spam method's like that and completely ruin this game :S

DW's value is in its block chance. It's a way of trading out of 1H/Shield for DPS without leaving yourself completely vulnerable. Staves offer that too, but there's less flexibility with those. DW is a tweener approach.

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RondaRousey wrote:

DW's value is in its block chance. It's a way of trading out of 1H/Shield for DPS without leaving yourself completely vulnerable. Staves offer that too, but there's less flexibility with those. DW is a tweener approach.

then how come ability gem's dont support DW ? (except 1-2 abilities)
extra mana = more support gem's wasted on mana
less socket links = can make less lethal combination's

block chance is indeed convinient but it can only occur against direct melee attack's most abilities and attacks you encounter are either aoe or spell's and most likely spammed.

take the example of the youtube clip i linked above where a 2h heavy weapon let's you ignore movement completely along with out performing all in damage and speed

Your attack speed calculations are off, you don't attack twice as fast when dual wielding.

And I really don't see anything wrong with it, damage output of DW is roughly on par with 2H, you can get more defense with DW and more passives affect it but you have an extra 6L slot with 2H. All is nice, balanced and dandy.

Spectral throw is an amazing dual wielding skill. It lets you scale Wrath and Anger far better than 2-handers and much better than 1-handers. Just because it doesn't throw both doesn't it mean it doesn't interact well with dual wielding.

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TheTenthDoc wrote:

Spectral throw is an amazing dual wielding skill. It lets you scale Wrath and Anger far better than 2-handers and much better than 1-handers. Just because it doesn't throw both doesn't it mean it doesn't interact well with dual wielding.

If your throwing daggers, that extra global critical strike chance from the second dagger really helps.

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Modchristian89 wrote:

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RondaRousey wrote:

DW's value is in its block chance. It's a way of trading out of 1H/Shield for DPS without leaving yourself completely vulnerable. Staves offer that too, but there's less flexibility with those. DW is a tweener approach.

then how come ability gem's dont support DW ? (except 1-2 abilities)
extra mana = more support gem's wasted on mana
less socket links = can make less lethal combination's

block chance is indeed convinient but it can only occur against direct melee attack's most abilities and attacks you encounter are either aoe or spell's and most likely spammed.

take the example of the youtube clip i linked above where a 2h heavy weapon let's you ignore movement completely along with out performing all in damage and speed

Assuming mirrored DPS on weapon DW is +10% more AS over 1H by default, while giving up 10% (ish) base block (depending on shield availability).

Also dual Wield grants access to the only damage double dipping skill in the game (Dual Strike). Which has the sole purpose of dealing crazy damage.

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Autocthon wrote:

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Modchristian89 wrote:

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RondaRousey wrote:

DW's value is in its block chance. It's a way of trading out of 1H/Shield for DPS without leaving yourself completely vulnerable. Staves offer that too, but there's less flexibility with those. DW is a tweener approach.

then how come ability gem's dont support DW ? (except 1-2 abilities)
extra mana = more support gem's wasted on mana
less socket links = can make less lethal combination's

block chance is indeed convinient but it can only occur against direct melee attack's most abilities and attacks you encounter are either aoe or spell's and most likely spammed.

take the example of the youtube clip i linked above where a 2h heavy weapon let's you ignore movement completely along with out performing all in damage and speed

Assuming mirrored DPS on weapon DW is +10% more AS over 1H by default, while giving up 10% (ish) base block (depending on shield availability).

Also dual Wield grants access to the only damage double dipping skill in the game (Dual Strike). Which has the sole purpose of dealing crazy damage.

Dual strike looks ugly unless you have insane attack speed, kinda hoping they will make a visual change that you can purchase and have an alternative visual that looks great even while slow.

dual strike is also "ONLY" one ability and it hardly stands a chance against this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHO-Gmi83BE

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Modchristian89 wrote:

Dual strike looks ugly unless you have insane attack speed, kinda hoping they will make a visual change that you can purchase and have an alternative visual that looks great even while slow.

dual strike is also "ONLY" one ability and it hardly stands a chance against this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHO-Gmi83BE

that guy is nearly dieing with a 6link in docks,because of his build and the amout of auras he´s using
it looks "funny" when you see it the firs time,but its one of the worst builds to play
1 attack and you lose control of your charr for the next attacks
seeong 1 build and assuming that all "2h"builds end up like that is just as assuming all spellbuilds are like discharge

every build that was created considering the basics (enough life/lifeleech resi etc) can faceroll docks
doesnt matter if its builda round 1h+shield,dw,2h or unarmed