Dual Wielding or Two-Handed weapon ?

[Chappell Roan]

I know it's only useful with 3 or 5 OP, but I wonder what is the best to deal damage considering the -25% debuff of dual wielding and the loss of attack on the second strike of the Two-Handed weapon.

Any advice or thought ? Thanks.

[Effusion]

dual wielding
1 attack (2 op): 75%
2 attacks (5 op): 150%
3 attacks (9 op): 225%
4 attacks (9 op and order): 300%

two handed
1 attack: 100%
2 attacks: 185%
3 attacks: 245%
4 attacks: 290%

Just plug in the damage of the weapons you're considering, but in general I believe 2h weapons do around 66% more damage than 1h weapons. At 1 attack 2h is pretty much always going to be more damage (with the exception of weeping blades, which do their own thing), at 2 attacks they're going to be very close, and at 3+ attacks dual wielding tends to pull ahead. If you're using damage increasing skills though 2h is at a big advantage due to being front loaded.

[Mr_Darkmane]

I think the two-handed numbers should be different:

dual wielding
1 attack (2 op): 75%
2 attacks (5 op): 150%
3 attacks (9 op): 225%
4 attacks (9 op and order): 300%

two handed
1 attack: 100%
2 attacks: 185%
3 attacks: 255%
4 attacks: 310%

Also, bear in mind the weapon bonuses. Eg if one of the dual-wielding weapons is a sword, you can use parry stance.

[Effusion]

oops, that's embarrassing. I reeeeeally shouldn't do math in my head at two in the morning.

[Chappell Roan]

Thanks, but I don't understand what the percentage is for ? (Sorry I'm kinda stupid sometimes.)

[Mr_Darkmane]

Sorry. Take 2-handed as example:
1st attack hits with 100% of normal damage.
2nd attack hits with 85% of normal damage. So in total that's 185%.
3rd attack hits with 70% of normal damage. So in total that's 255%.

For dual wield:
1st attack hits at 75% of normal.
2nd attack hits at 75% of normal. So in total that's 150%.
3rd attack hits at 75% of normal. So in total that's 225%

Actual example:
2 handed halberd (38 average damage before reduction):
Last attack Total
1st 38 38
2nd 32 70
3rd 27 97

dual wield sword + axe (42 average damage before reduction):
Last attack Total
1st 32 32
2nd 32 63
3rd 32 95

[holy-death]

It's important to note that dual wielding gives -10% to hit chance while two-hander gives -10% versus dodge (or +10% to dodge for enemies). It means two things:

1) Dual wielding reduces your chance to hit overall (no matter what stance).

2) Two-hander can be both circumstantially better and worse in different scenarios.

Besides that dual wielding can give you certain bonuses, depending on what weapons you use.

[EarballsIsLeavingTonightByeBye]

Does that apply to all 2-handers? Only the Great Hammer, Great Sword and Great Axe have the tooltip about giving the enemy extra dodge, not halberds and great flails.

[holy-death]

It doesn't apply to all two-handers, you're correct. I had in mind two-handed weapons that mostly Chaos warband can use and all of them give dodge bonus to enemies.

[fusihong1988]

Originally posted by DrRocksotheFabulous:

Does that apply to all 2-handers? Only the Great Hammer, Great Sword and Great Axe have the tooltip about giving the enemy extra dodge, not halberds and great flails.

Just great hammer/axe/sword.
With halberds you can still parry.

[Chappell Roan]

Thank you it is really clearer now.

So if we only consider damage : 2 handed weapons will always be better (1st to last attack), am I right ?

The only drawback is the -10% chance to hit against an enemy with dodge stance, am I still right ?

So there is actually no good reason to pick dualwield unless you want to be able to parry, am I still right ?

Thank you mates. :)

[Stymie Jackson]

The hit penalty on dual wield was removed a while back.

2 hander and DW are effectively equal in total damage by the 3rd attack.

Don't forget both styles effectively double the offensive bonus of perks and runes over 1 hand. You get to mix and match with DW.

And DW tends to be higher initiative.

[Ciecieji]

I prefer dual weild because two handed weapons come with the heavy trait which reduces damage by 15% for each swing in the round. This means two handed damage is front loaded, which can be a problem for two reasons; most importantly, defense is stronger against ealier attacks, your first attacks are more likely to be dodged or parried than later attacks in a sequence.
Second, there are many abilities that allow you to become stronger as use offense points (and hit or miss as the skill/enchantment requires). If you are using any of these abilities it's better to have strong attack power on your later attacks.

At 3 OP you only get one attack in either case, and two-handed weapons generally do more damage, so load up on em, although your probably running a fresh warband, and don't have too much choice anyway.

The summed base damage of two single weapons tends to be slightly hire the the base damage of a two handed weapon, so while you do more percentage of the total base damage, as shown above, it does not mean you will be doing better in terms of absolute damage with 3 hits.

[Ereius]

Two handed wepons suck compared to dual wealding.... yeah in all the info they gave you above two handed are better but everyone is forgeting somthing....... Enchanments and wepon benefits you get double enchament bonuses in dual wealding as they stack also individual wepon benefits stack too. So dual wealiding 2 swords of havoc gives you +16% crit chance etc... the numerous benefits you can get out of Master tier enchamenets are way better then any double handed wepon. Truth be told the best combination by far late game is 1 single handed wepon and a shield of shielding.... nothing beats that. i had skaven hereos beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of lvl 10 impresives

[ElArt0]

Originally posted by degiorgiodaniel:

Two handed wepons suck compared to dual wealding.... yeah in all the info they gave you above two handed are better but everyone is forgeting somthing....... Enchanments and wepon benefits you get double enchament bonuses in dual wealding as they stack also individual wepon benefits stack too. So dual wealiding 2 swords of havoc gives you +16% crit chance etc... the numerous benefits you can get out of Master tier enchamenets are way better then any double handed wepon.

2H geta a double weapon perk and enchantment bonus, so false. The difference is just that you can't throw 4 things in the mix with 2H but only 2. (1 doubled weapon perk + 1 doubled enchant as opposed to 2 singles weapon perks and 2 single enchantments as with DW).
So 2H does not suck and neither does DW. Imho they are quite balanced but have to be played differently...

[Ereius]

Originally posted by ElArt0:

Originally posted by degiorgiodaniel:

Two handed wepons suck compared to dual wealding.... yeah in all the info they gave you above two handed are better but everyone is forgeting somthing....... Enchanments and wepon benefits you get double enchament bonuses in dual wealding as they stack also individual wepon benefits stack too. So dual wealiding 2 swords of havoc gives you +16% crit chance etc... the numerous benefits you can get out of Master tier enchamenets are way better then any double handed wepon.

2H geta a double weapon perk and enchantment bonus, so false. The difference is just that you can't throw 4 things in the mix with 2H but only 2. (1 doubled weapon perk + 1 doubled enchant as opposed to 2 singles weapon perks and 2 single enchantments as with DW).
So 2H does not suck and neither does DW. Imho they are quite balanced but have to be played differently...

Ok I was not clear enough, I mean you can specialize in an ability by combining double rune bonus and double wepon bonus which maximised the attribute of a single stat like the example i gave of +16 Crit, if there is double handed wepon that can get +16 crit I have not used it yet. Also there is significantly more customisation and the ability to access certain wepon specific skills like the skaven Art of Sudden death by dual classing. Late game double handed wepons are a liability especialy when runes and skills like Daredevil come into play. Even the Maiden of Sigmar benefits much more from dual weilding than double handed wepon. Dunno maybe its different for chaos haven played them yet. But i can not think of a single lvl 10 unit I would ever equip a dual handed wepon on....


The only advantage a double handed wepon has... that was not mentioned here is that it benefits sigificantly better from higher str stat then dual wepons. Vut then again str stat is insignifcant when it competes with agility and consitution.


P.S. im not saying Dual wielding is very good either that IMO its better thad two handed from what ive played. This game seems to be more about Crits then anything else... they can ruin your day or make it