What's the point of Dual-Wielding?

[Billy Blaze]

Heyho, please excuse my crappy english. :)

So, I don't know the english names, cause I play with german languages.
One starting-class starts with one of these new "dual-weapons".
But I don't really know why I should use the "L1-attacks", where I attack with both weapons simultaniosly.

It looks way cooler, but it seems these attacks do even less damage than normal swings.
Same for the special-attack (the focus one).
It's a nice spin... but the damage is so low and I can't figure out, why and when I should use these attacks.

[Hobo Box]

Infuse fast-attacking dual wielded weapons with poison or bleed in order to rack up ailments faster.

[Billy Blaze]

Originally posted by Hobo Box:

Infuse fast-attacking dual wielded weapons with poison or bleed in order to rack up ailments faster.

Aaaah of course, like in "Monster Hunter"!
That makes sense, thanks! :)

[Nelyeth]

It also seems to damage poise faster. Starting as a mercenary, I've been able to stunlock ennemies using dual wield attacks. It might be just me though, but I think I stagger ennemies better by alternating between simple and dual-wield attacks (My go-to combo is L1-R1-L1-R1-L1 right now).
I'm still curious about the real numbers.

[Billy Blaze]

Originally posted by Nelyeth:

It also seems to damage poise faster. Starting as a mercenary, I've been able to stunlock ennemies using dual wield attacks. It might be just me though, but I think I stagger ennemies better by alternating between simple and dual-wield attacks (My go-to combo is L1-R1-L1-R1-L1 right now).
I'm still curious about the real numbers.

That could be true.
I fought against these ice...thing in the tutorial and alternated a bit between R1 and L1, and that monster was 3 or 4 times staggered.
As an Warrior with an axe, I could stagger that thing only one time.

[Killugh]

Originally posted by Nelyeth:

It also seems to damage poise faster. Starting as a mercenary, I've been able to stunlock ennemies using dual wield attacks. It might be just me though, but I think I stagger ennemies better by alternating between simple and dual-wield attacks (My go-to combo is L1-R1-L1-R1-L1 right now).
I'm still curious about the real numbers.

I feel like stunning and staggering is just a norm in this game. I manage to stun everything in 2 hits with the warrior and even the thief.

[Ashandre]

Dual wielding has a number of uses. It can be an effective way to poise break a target or just for varied swing arcs to punish rolls etc in PvP. Try it out, find if it works for your playstyle.

[Billy Blaze]

Originally posted by Ashandre:

Dual wielding has a number of uses. It can be an effective way to poise break a target or just for varied swing arcs to punish rolls etc in PvP. Try it out, find if it works for your playstyle.

My normal playstyle got kicked right in the balls in "DS3".
I normaly play a knight and rely on a shield.
Beaten DS1 with that (except the last boss... he could break my guard with 2 hits).
In DS2 a came very far... till the game got boring. ^^"
In DS3, I defeted 3 bosses (including the tutorial-boss) and I'm rolling far more then ever.
The shields seem so weak in this game (I found a good one as a knight-drop), that I only use them for blocking arrows or something.

That's the reason I wanted to start with a class that doesn't rely on a shield.
I can dodge fairly good in this game and you don't have to raise stats for it.

[Tulkus]

i'm curious if the damage is bugged cause if you hit twice with swords it should be more and it would make it useless on bosses cause good luck staggering