Are dual swords just bad?

[Gentle Dementia]

I've been using lots of different weapons throughout my playthrough, first to get all the Yokai weapon memories and now to unlock all the Mystic Arts. I am not into the super late-game yet, but I completed Dream of the Samurai and am halfway through Dream of the Strong.

Throughout all of this Dual Swords have consistently performed the worst of any weapon I've tried, they just seem to do laughably low damage that's not even made up for by their speed, as other weapons like Fists and Kusarigama do greater damage with faster attacks.

Are Dual Swords just underpowered, or is there some specific active skill or build-type that makes them worthwhile?

[Yanxi]

Dual Swords do have a slighly lower damage-per-hit than other weapons. However, to compensate for this, there exists the skill named Mind's Eye, which provides an 80% damage buff[docs.google.com] for 15 seconds. This damage buff is the absolute highest source in Category 1 of Damage Buffs.

Admittedly, the Dual Swords do shine most when you unlock one or both of its Mystic Arts. The Dual Swords also have a plethora of other features that make it the best tanking weapon in the game, and one of the most ki-efficient weapons in the game.

• Dual Swords have a naturally high block stat and easily reach the 80 Block hard-cap
  
• The Mystic Art Firm Resolve provides an enormous 50% damage reduction at maximum stacks, making you extremely hard to kill
  
• Sign of the Cross can be shortcutted into after a guard if you are using a Purity weapon, allowing for a parry + riposte playstyle
  
• The Mystic Art Momentum provides an amazing ki consumption reduction at maximum stacks, allowing for prolonged aggression

There are many more excellent features of the Dual Swords, and I'm sure other users of the weapon will chime in soon.

Edit: Removed the 50% ki consumption reduction from Momentum because nobody has formally tested for the maximum yet. It is pretty significant, though. On the other hand, Firm Resolve has been formally proven to be 50%.

[Gentle Dementia]

Originally posted by Yanxi:

Dual Swords have a slighly lower damage-per-hit than other weapons. However, to compensate for this, there exists the skill named Mind's Eye, which provides an 80% damage buff[docs.google.com] for 15 seconds. This damage buff is the absolute highest source in Category 1 of Damage Buffs.

Admittedly, the Dual Swords do shine most when you unlock one or both of its Mystic Arts. The Dual Swords also have a plethora of other features that make it the best tanking weapon in the game, and one of the most ki-efficient weapons in the game.

• Dual Swords have a naturally high block stat and easily reach the 80 Block hard-cap
  
• The Mystic Art Firm Resolve provides an enormous 50% damage reduction at maximum stacks, making you extremely hard to kill
  
• Sign of the Cross can shortcutted into after a guard if you are using a Purity weapon, allowing for a parry + riposte playstyle
  
• The Mystic Art Momentum provides an amazing 50% ki consumption reduction at maximum stacks, allowing for prolonged aggression

Thank you for the info! Since I'm trying to unlock them all one-by-one I stopped using the Dual Swords after I unlocked their mystic arts, so I didn't get a chance to see how effective those skills would be. That makes sense, I guess I didn't consider their defensive potential

[Stratus]

I really wanted to make a dual swords build, and nearly resigned, they cant stagger consistently and damage is pretty awful, but everything changed since I unlocked a skill that allows to bypass an enemy that is blocking you in low stance.

[Omega]

Ya I just tried DS and HATED them. I think I spoiled myself with the switchglaive, because I can't find other weapons that I like.

[Tauriz]

I liked duals at the beginning, but well, they're sooooo useless in mid stance against yokai. Like, in mid stance there's pretty much nothing good against em, only against human enemies. And the fact that i can't assign some skill to Block+Fast attack in High stance is just a big DUH. Every single weapon in this game has this combination, but not duals. It's just IMO ofc, and i don't think that duals are bad, just not for me. I do have them tho, as a backup weapon against fast annoying bosses/enemies.

[Mander]

I've recently switched from an Odachi/Fists to a dual sword/fists build, and I'm having a blast.
I'll always love the Odachi, but in dream of the Wise it became too slow for my fights (And I was using it since Dream of the Samurai). Which is a pity, but the truth was I was equipping the Odachi only to complete a Grace Set.
I needed something faster, something that didn't leave me with my pants down during attacks’ animation. I watched STAT synergies and Dual Sword goes pretty well with fists. But oh boy, I wasn’t prepared to how good they are: low stance offers the ability to reposition behind an enemy mid combo. With some practice, you can use it to avoid incoming attacks and projectiles. The dodges are also very good: you will inflict the death of a thousand cuts with dual sword. With an opponent with zero ki, in low stance you will keep it staggered permanently: dual swords are that fast.
Mid Stance offer some of the best counter techniques on human enemies and decent combos with high pressure, while also keeping your mobility basically intact.
High stance isn’t that great imo, but you can chain low stance repositioning and high stance attacks for massive damage, going back to low immediately after. Or you can use the Secret Technique “Sacred Bird Cry” to further enhance your mobility in high stance too.
in short, I’m liking Dual swords a lot more than I thought I would, and I’m amazed by how flexible their playstyle is.
And if the fight becomes too hard? Cast fists.

[The High Seraph]

I used Dual Sword as secondary weapon and they are pretty great . Once you have the skill that can activate both mystic art at the same time , they are badass .

The only downside of DS for me is it’s variety . Moves like God of Wind , Sign of the Cross , Water Sword and Spinning Dragon are really good meanwhile moves like Mortal Flow , Raijin are crap . So you end up using limited move pools which can be boring later . Maybe Ok for you but I am Single Katana main running “Versatility” so .. that’s the main reason I am using just as secondary weapon .

But ya ... getting both percentage based damage reduction buff and reduced Ki consumption buff at the same time just by hitting things is real good . Nothing is more satisfying than non stop slicing Zero-Ki Yokais with Water Sword while activating Berserk buff from Nuppeppo soul core .

Plus they are one of the best blocking weapon . I use full heavy armor with purity dual swords and blocking is just damn gud !

[Sir_Knight_Arthorias]

Originally posted by Stratus:

I really wanted to make a dual swords build, and nearly resigned, they cant stagger consistently and damage is pretty awful, but everything changed since I unlocked a skill that allows to bypass an enemy that is blocking you in low stance.

God of Wind III disagrees with this post

[Gaser]

Originally posted by Sir_Knight_Arthorias:

Originally posted by Stratus:

I really wanted to make a dual swords build, and nearly resigned, they cant stagger consistently and damage is pretty awful, but everything changed since I unlocked a skill that allows to bypass an enemy that is blocking you in low stance.

God of Wind III disagrees with this post

This and when the Ki of the enemy is empty then:

Water Sword go Brrrrr

[: D]

I get the feeling the ppl in this thread do not know how to use dual swords.

[Simbolic]

I never cared for them to but after hitting late game. They got alot better, there actually my favorite weapon. Especially combined with the rest of my build.

[Pitchslayer]

Ms.Minamoto wants to have a word with u

[Fat Valentine]

I love how I can do a full high quick combo with DS and barely do any damage, then finish with Cherry Blossom which does double the damage of the entire sequence. What a well balanced weapon.

[0xDEAD]

What I'm wondering is, dual swords theoretically scale off of Skill primarily, but they appear to scale almost the same off Heart, and Heart appears a superior stat (ki pool and recovery increase for Heart instead of Ninjutsu and range increase of Skill). So my question is, why do most sites list Dual Blades scaling principally off of Skill? And if the difference in scaling is minimal between investing in Skill and Heart, why prefer Skill?

Also yes, I know that Skill is supposedly the primary stat for light armor, but I haven't yet seen much light armor, let alone good light armor. Most decent pieces of armor appear to be heavy so far.

[Giga]

Dual swords are incredibly good and are actually sort of an ezmode weapon because they give you a massive defense buff when you hit enemies.

Combined with the steel and barrier talismans, you can basically just spam away and keep tanking hits for ages. Against element-based bosses this is even stronger because you get even more damage mitigation via the elemental resistance talismans.