Dual Wielding... what do you guys think?

['Enz0.]

Hello. In Dark Souls I played pretty much Havel. I had his armor, his shield, ring, onky thing I didn't have (I mean, I had, did not use) was Dragon's Tooth, I used Black Knight Halberd. So I prety much tanked everything in the game, I just stood there and shield took everything like a baws. Now I wanted something different, I wanted to depend on dodgint this time around, so I went with dual wield and so far, well... it sucks. I have a better weapon in my right hand and weaker in my left hand, attacks in Power Stance don't do that much and have pretty long animations. Going with LB, RB, LB, RB chains doesn't feel right neither, because RB does more dmg than LB, so I'm better off just spamming RB, but then dual wield makes no sense, I could just get a shield to go with that. Can anybody help me on that matter? I find dual wielding pretty useless so far (I'm stuck on sentinels of ruin currently).

Cheers.

[NukeJockey]

Dual wielding is great for high burst damage, but I don't think its viable for a full playthrough (without a shield or some other form of offense to switch between). I generally have my 2nd weapon and shield in offhand, then switch between the 2.

Dual wielding Caestus' is pretty awesome though.

[Gadwin]

Originally posted by 'Badger.:

Hello. In Dark Souls I played pretty much Havel. I had his armor, his shield, ring, onky thing I didn't have (I mean, I had, did not use) was Dragon's Tooth, I used Black Knight Halberd. So I prety much tanked everything in the game, I just stood there and shield took everything like a baws.

This was one of the easiest ways to win in dark souls, next to using magic. Just putting that out there.

Originally posted by 'Badger.:

Now I wanted something different, I wanted to depend on dodgint this time around, so I went with dual wield and so far, well... it sucks. I have a better weapon in my right hand and weaker in my left hand, attacks in Power Stance don't do that much and have pretty long animations. Going with LB, RB, LB, RB chains doesn't feel right neither, because RB does more dmg than LB, so I'm better off just spamming RB, but then dual wield makes no sense, I could just get a shield to go with that. Can anybody help me on that matter? I find dual wielding pretty useless so far (I'm stuck on sentinels of ruin currently).

Cheers.

Rolling is extremely buggy this time around, simple as that. You can roll through attacks (not away from, there's a difference) and still be hit a full second after, this is most noticeable when fighting great-hammer mobs. Dual wielding only really works with certain weapons, I personally roll with a drakekeeper sword and a old whip in my offhand for PvP. Even without powerstancing it's a great combo. Dual wielding works but the trick is to find what works for you.

[Profailer]

Originally posted by h.IV+NukeJockey:

Dual wielding is great for high burst damage, but I don't think its viable for a full playthrough (without a shield or some other form of offense to switch between). I generally have my 2nd weapon and shield in offhand, then switch between the 2.

Dual wielding Caestus' is pretty awesome though.

I've completed the game (1st playthrough) sticking to dual wielding. It's totally fine.

[Maechen]

It is viable for a full playthrough. Shields do make a lot of fights easier though of course. The last time I checked the speedrun meta was dual wielding two clubs( any %). They do use a shield here and there to be safe. Sinner and Velstadt come to mind. You could do them all with no shield ever equiped but it's a lot riskier. After a Havel build you might find that you will die a lot without a shield.

[Zoner]

as long as you can keep them on thier heels, its fine, but getting hit without a shield, well your a punching bag. A shield is needed .

[Booka]

Well its hard but going powerstance and doing left hand attacks will make for a fast swing with your 2 weapons, and heavy attack with left hander will give one strike with the two weapons and a third strike wich will act differently depending on what weapons u use. I think its rewarding but ye you will be dodging like a maniac. (for those that dont know you can go into powerstance when dual wielding by holding N and your stats are 150% of what the weapons requirements are)

['Enz0.]

Well I guess being a swifty ninja is just not fir for this game, I guess shield is inevitable.

[Chromeflamin]

As far as my experiance with the series goes, it's what magic was ... in regards to a unofficial easy class.

[Arkaea79]

Rolling works, increasing your adaptability increases your frames where you won't be hit. I am running a dual rapier build now and roll through things just fine.

[Andrius227]

Dual wielding shields FTW :D

[zaz122]

Originally posted by 'Badger.:

Well I guess being a swifty ninja is just not fir for this game, I guess shield is inevitable.

I disagree. I have finished the game several times without using a shield (except the gauntlet portion of the chariot fight). It's easy once you get used to the new dodge.

[axelmonster]

Get a better weapon in your other hand. Make sure they are both evenly upgraded.
Or try powerstancing caestus, dat tripple spin. Once you go smack, you'll never go back!

['Enz0.]

I'll try out that adaptability, Arkaea, I'll look into this Caestus thing as well, thank you. Not very fond of beating the game as a tank again.

[Clover]

I'm currently going through the game with Dual Caestus in power stance without many issues. Some bosses seem to have HUGE def against them while for example the Iron King just melted (I did like 400 dmg per swing). And they are AWESOME for trolling in PVP. I wreck people, and funnily enough they think I'm going to be easy because I'm wearing the troll mask (forgot the name) and my character's name is But hole lol.

[shelledfade]

I think its imbalanced in terms of stunlocking people. You attack faster when dual wielding, so you can stunlock people even harder than normal with thrusting or quick daggers (no power attacks), you can also counter with a rapier so technically you don't need a shield but I wouldn't really recommend that due to how crappy this netcode is, the hitboxes seem insanely laggy lately.

Also you don't have to worry about adaptability that much if you want to use a shield/thrusting sword or a shield/spear as you can block and thrust at the same time. You can dodge pretty much any spell as long as you're at or under 50 weight so ADP doesn't have anything to do with that. ADP (or agility, that's the stat that matters) is only useful for breaking out of stunlock attacks from fast weapons by being able to raise a shield faster or dodge when you normally shouldn't be able to dodge, but I'm not even sure if its possible if the person is dual wielding daggers or thrusting weapons. You may need a very high ADP to get out of those specific stunlocks which ruins a lot of builds due to how many points it takes.

I mean, ADP pretty much ruins heavy armor builds because you need high vit in order to use it if you want to stay fast, which is another relatively useless stat as poise doesn't do jack crap in this game anyway.

I haven't heard exactly how much ADP it takes to be able to roll out of a dagger/dagger or rapier/estoc stunlock. I don't know if its even possible. I don't think anybody has fully tested it.