Are pure Demo one-handed builds worth it?

[vindicar]

Because every now and then I find some neat one-handed ranged or an off-hand, with +skills... but when I compare it to my current two-handed weapon, it just deals so much more raw damage.

So I'm really unsure if I should even dabble with one-handed ranged weapons. I mean, I just found Deviltongue that gives +1 to all Demo skills, but it effectively halves my displayed DPS value. I don't know what item would ever compensate for that.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

....
you're puzzle by if, as a weapon attacker, 1h does less dmg than 2h?
obv it does less dmg
you're supposed to dual wield weapons to compare them offensively to a 2hander as far as weapon attacker goes - when you're using attacks/skills that scale on weapon dmg you need sorta equal comparison
if 1h gave you the same dmg as 2h no one would ever go 2h if you could just slap on a pistol and hide behind a shield or buff further with an offhand

aside from that it depends on the specific stats on a given weapon, if the 2h you have now provides you fat modifiers for certain skills you use, it's hard for a "generic" item with nothing but raw/common stats to compete
dps comparison (tooltip) also depends on the skills you have slotted to LMB or RMB if you have no skill on LMB
(and dps comparison is very rudimentary too and not 100% accurate and influenced/biased more by certain stats than others - and can't account for certain effects too)

[vindicar]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

....
you're puzzle by if, as a weapon attacker, 1h does less dmg than 2h?
obv it does less dmg

I'm not surprised by it, I'm surprised by the sheer difference of damage value.
But I suspect that DPS value is not the be-all-end-all of a build, so perhaps there is a build with one handed weapons + offhand that does less damage with regular attacks, but more due to buffed skills and bonuses. Basically,

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

dps comparison is very rudimentary

I was hoping to hear if there is any knowledge that such builds even exist.
If they do, I could go and try to make one myself, but if it's considered a dead end, I won't bother.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

i don't immediately recall any Demo weapon attacker build that utilizes a pistol and an offhand, since by nature they would benefit from dual wield more
there are a few that use a shield, because of specific shield+gun oriented stats or sets
But most pistol+offhand builds tend to be either "casters", or not Demolitionist (ex being Demonslayer Nightblade using phantasmal blades)
since, if you're using weapon attacks/skills that scale on actual weapon dmg, you obv want, well, "moar" weapon dmg to scale from
so firestrike+offhand, while totally possible because GD allows a lot of wonky stuff, would be totally outclassed by 2h or dual wield firestrike
but, if you utilized non weapon attack skills, like grenado, canister, etc etc, "things that don't scale directly on weapon dmg but stats", then you can totally make a pistol+offhand demo work splendidly with ease

[vindicar]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

so firestrike+offhand, while totally possible because GD allows a lot of wonky stuff, would be totally outclassed by 2h or dual wield firestrike
but, if you utilized non weapon attack skills, like grenado, canister, etc etc, "things that don't scale directly on weapon dmg but stats", then you can totally make a pistol+offhand demo work splendidly with ease

Ahha! Now that's exactly what I wanted to know, thanks. So to properly try it out it's probably make sense to give up Fire Strike in favor of other bonuses...

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

totally there are a lot of 1handed "stat sticks" out there for Demo, where you boost the non-weapon attack portions of Demolitionist, technically you're a spell caster, but throwing bombs doesn't look/feel completely the same as throwing shards of ice or rocks from the sky or firing a lazor beam
there is for instance an offhand that gives you an extra Mortar, offhands that boosts your mines, swords and axes that boost canister bomb or stun jacks, offhands that boost grenado etc etc etc and so on
here you can click a skill in a mastery, and GT will spit out every item that has modifiers to that skill, https://www.grimtools.com/db/items/skill-modifiers
could potentially give you something to chew on and experiment with
i did "bombardier" as i called it, pure demolitionist, where i had a bunch of mortars and canister bomb and grenado totally maxed, and some stun jacks filler and BWC on top for good measure - "all da bombs"
completely silly, but the items are there, and better yet, they are available during leveling (will be the MIs/green ones when you look in Grimtools item db on the skill modifier link above)

[Shellbie]

I can be done, but you need some serious attack speed.