Benefits of using a two handed melee weapon (engineer)?

[WickedRequiem]

Got this game when it first launched. Thinking of coming back to it (or D3....whichever). I seem to recall that two handed melee weapons in T2 had very little benefit for the engineer class. Has this changed?

[Phaper]

There are some skills that buff up 2h weapons.

Find a unique or legendary with some really nice stats and damage, and you'll have a good build.

The loss of a shield would likely only be an issue on Elite, and (maybe) Veteran.

[gytfunke]

Why not use a 2h?

If you have Forcefield you don't really need a shield. With Forcefield up any damage you take is subtracted from the shield's total before you block or dodge. So your shield block only benefits you in the time between forcefields.

Of course, dual-wielding is a viable option, too.

[Zelph]

Originally posted by gytfunke:

Why not use a 2h?

If you have Forcefield you don't really need a shield. With Forcefield up any damage you take is subtracted from the shield's total before you block or dodge. So your shield block only benefits you in the time between forcefields.

Of course, dual-wielding is a viable option, too.

Forcefield goes down really quickly on elite. Especially early on. Getting up close on elite is difficult to say the least.

That being said, 2 handed, even on elite, is doable.

[Neit]

In vanilla game, it's pretty viable to go for 2h weapon with engineer, at least if you want to do some damage and you should still be able to survive lategame easily as long as you get some basic gear.

Dualwielding on the other hand makes absolutely no sense as an engineer for obvious reason that there's no skill allowing you to benefit from dualwielding any two weapons.

One of the main reasons why shield is more viable than dualwield is Sword and Board skill, that will nicely increase your damage output when wielding shield, it's however nothing compared to 2H build.

[WickedRequiem]

S&B skill is probably the worst skill in the game. You get very little benefit for the amounts of points spent (unless Runic radically altered the skill) as the extra damage is capped at 180 max or so.

[Neit]

It's definitely more than that, even though it's hard to say conclusive number, since it's heavily dependent on various factors like equipment and build. My engineers DPS however dropped significantly without the shield.

[gytfunke]

Originally posted by Neit:

Dualwielding on the other hand makes absolutely no sense

Doesn't need to make sense. Challenge accepted. Making a dual-wielding HC Elite Engineer right now.

[Toha]

It actually makes sense to dual wield as engineer. Two hammers of retribution with eyes of Aleera will result in 70% glacial spike chance. Excellent for an emberquaker with the forcefield, despite the loss of dps compared to 2 handed. I myself use a shield, though.

[Phaper]

Well, dual wielding Netherblades with very high execute should make your 'x of weapon DPS' skills like Emberquake and Flame Hammer have a VERY high base damage, especially if you buff them up with all powerful strength enchantments.

Edit: or you could use a pair of the 105 Legendaries, but in terms of equipment you'll actually be able to find, dual Netherblades are pretty good, epsecially because of the additional sockets.

[gytfunke]

Hey Phaper,

Execute chance isn't calculated into weapon DPS, and so has no effect on WDPS skills.

[Phaper]

Originally posted by gytfunke:

Hey Phaper,

Execute chance isn't calculated into weapon DPS, and so has no effect on WDPS skills.

So the 'x of WPDS' skills won't use the combined base DPS of both wielded weapons?

[Gray Fox]

I'm near the end of my first playthrough, I have a engineer and the only weapon type I've used is a greathammer (2H weapon).

I haven't had any problems so far.

[Phaper]

Originally posted by Retrohunter:

I'm near the end of my first playthrough, I have a engineer and the only weapon type I've used is a greathammer (2H weapon).

I haven't had any problems so far.

What difficulty are you on, and are you playing a Hardcore character?

[Toha]

Phaper, weapon dps skills are calculated from your right hand dps + bonuses from left hand, if any. That's what "mad genius hybrid outlander" is based on.

[Tiomasta]

2-hand Engineer is actually very good in this game. The passive ends giving you 30% stun chance which does get inherited to DPS skills (6 hits with emberquake = 6 rolls of 30% chance to stun). Shields basically don't even count if you have a Forcefield active, and the thing with Forcefield is that after a certain level, it'll start covering for more than your own entire lifebar even with zero charge, it gets 17k health with no charge at max level (meaning you easily have much more active time than inactive time), so there isn't as big a bonus from playing shield Engineer. Really the only downside is that you don't get to have Shield Bash.