1H + Shield Vs 1H + 1H Vs 2H

[Ramp[GER]]

What are the Pros and Cons for these:

1) 1-Hand Weapon and Shield
2) Two 1-Hand Weapons dual wield
3) A 2-Hand Weapon

EDIT: I made a summary and a conclusion here :

[Befitzero]

2 hand wep -hammer great swords -slow but wide damage arc so you hit more then one mob at a time
1 Hand and Shield - For an engie with a straight Aeiges build pretty standerd for on current engie I have a fast unique 1h axe and a unique shield - any class can use shield but engie skill benfit most if you skill up in aeiges.
2 hand I assume you mean dual wield? is pretty good for dps -usually want two fast weps

[Ramp[GER]]

But doesent do a big fat 2 hand weapon more DPS than dual wield? At least without high Execute chance? By the way how is execute Damage calculated?

[peetski]

There are a few two-handers with fast or average attack speed later, at least I've found by level 35. Makes the chopping action more exciting. Most fast weapons are weak for my engineer anyway. But 1-hand an shield the weapon is usually weaker but feeds shield smash which affects the mobs nicely too. Without that it wouldn't be very good to me.

[Befitzero]

2h weps are pretty low on dps but then they hit more then one mob at a time which works great for a big pile up of them come down on you. Your looking for a 2h with a high dps which currently in game there are none. A few of them have average speed but nothing what I would call fast.

Im not sure how execute damage is calculated but I know it is dependent on focus and only seems those character who dual wield get any benefit from it. So an engie with a 2h or a 1h will not get any benefit from execute.

[Ramp[GER]]

Ok, lets say you have two 1H Weapons. Is there any reason in the world to dual wield without a high execute chance, if you can just use the better one (higher DPS) of these two AND take a shield in the other hand?

The Point is lets say you have 2 weapons. Weapon A (100 DPS) and weapon B (90 DPS) If I Dual Wield with these i get an average DPS of 95 where I can have 100 DPS AND a shield. (given that Execute chance is very low or 0%)

[Ziel]

Since 2-handed weapons generally have higher damage per hit, that should also result in higher damage critical hits. If you use a skill that isn't affected by attack speed, like Flame Hammer (right?), that might give you a much higher damage output... i think, please help me out if I'm screwing this up.

[Reptile the Invisiblessed]

I'm an Engi that switch between 2h weapons, and sword and board. I usually use 1h and shield, when I need to block some hits like to tank hard hitting Champs or bosses, but for general mob killing I usually switch to my 2h because it has that cleave effect where it hits multiple mobs. As for Dual-Wield, I'm guessing it's the highest DPS of all the weapon types, but it's mostly single target focused, so for straight up boss killing or something, but for massive clustes of mobs, you would have a hard time, unless you have high dexterity to dodge most hits. Recommended on Outlander or Berserker.

[Ramp[GER]]

Most people here say dual-wield has a highest DPS. Is this really true with 0% execute chance, also? See my example above. How can this be, that a 100 DPS weapon and a 90 DPS weapon that hit alternately make more damage than just using the 100 DPS weapon? (Again without extra Damage through execute). Can anyone explain this to me?

[Korrok]

It depends on what kind of stuff you can find and what your issues are. Total DPS dosen't show on your stat board but as far as I know duel wield does the averege of your 2 weapons. So a 2H weapon will do more total DPS. But if you're dying a lot you might need a shield and the S&B buff adds a % of armor to your DPS so you might even come out ahead. That's what I'm doing. I was lucky to find a high DPS 1H (870) AND a high armor shield (190). With all my other buffs and my points on Strength I'm doing 4500 DPS while getting 55% blocking and 40% damage reduction. Lets me pretty much just walk through the quests even in Elite mode at least up to now (lvl 65) Remember to also use Retribution. Being able to turn back 25% of the incoming DPS on the mobs will often do more damage than anything else.

[Ramp[GER]]

What is the S&B buff? Never heard of this

[Matthew]

Probably not the answer you are looking for, but most of your damage is going to end up coming from skills, which really changes the entire situation.

IMO, most classes/builds get the most benefit from 1h+shield. Your damage is going to be more or less the same as other set-ups, except you will have up to 75% chance to block.

[Korrok]

Sword and Board. It's on the 3rd page of the Engi skill board bottom left. It adds a % of your shield armor to your DPS

[Ramp[GER]]

Oh so the S&B Buff is a skill of the Engi. Please lets not go into special classes or skills too much here. My interest is more general.

Originally posted by matthewameluxen:

IMO, most classes/builds get the most benefit from 1h+shield. Your damage is going to be more or less the same as other set-ups, except you will have up to 75% chance to block.

This sounds logical to me.

So we have from the 3 possbilities from OP:

1) 1-Hand Weapon and Shield
---> gives most defensive Bonus, while not making less Damage than dual-wield (execpt Execute & special dual-wield skills)

3) A 2-Hand Weapon
---> gives maximum DPS (and a little range advantage), while having no extra Armor/block% from Shield, so its the most agressive possibility

2) Two 1-Hand Weapons dual wield
---> I still dont get the advantage here. Less Armor than with shield and no block, while not doing more DPS than 3) . So without significant Execute% or a special dual-wield skill, why on earth would someone dual wield?

[Korrok]

Well I think we can't avoid talking about classes and skills at least a little bit because while any type of build is possible I think that most people will tailor their builds to the classes which can best benefit from them.

I also have a lvl 100 embermage and I use duel wield with it and try to arrange my points to get the most out of Execute. Especially in multi-player, if I'm low on mana I'm not going to rush in and start hacking away with a sword. That's the job of the Engi. I'll keep back and use my wands.

If any type of build is possible in theory some will work better than others according to the specific situation. It comes down to deciding what style you want to play and then finding the combination that works best for you.

[Ramp[GER]]

Originally posted by Korrok:

I also have a lvl 100 embermage and I use duel wield with it and try to arrange my points to get the most out of Execute.

My Question was "WITHOUT significant Execute% or a special dual-wield skill, why on earth would someone dual wield?"

And your answer is: I use Dual Wield, because my Embermage has significant Execute%
Really?