Rogue off-hand mechanics

[FraBet]

I'm not quite clear how the dual-wield offhand works other than the damage penalty and the damage scaling.

How viable are 1-h axes/swords as off-hands for a scounderel/warfare build? I'm currently level 10 and I've come across a really nice epic axe with dual wield skill and crit. Unfortunatley none on my other party members use 1h weapons.

Should I replace the current blue dagger for the same level I have for for the stats or just sell it ?

[Ashera]

Just sell it.
Sadly, dual wielding is near useless in this game.
The 1h skill provides less benefit than warfare skill (dispite the tooltips saying theyll increase damage by same amount)

Keep your daggers. You want both of them critting 100% of the time.
Perhaps use the cash to buy even better daggers, theyll up your damage more than other 1h weapons.

[Skatters]

Dual wielding isn't useless, its pretty great, and I'm running it at the moment on Tact. I also have a 2 hander and a rogue in that party (yeah pretty phys heavy). But the str-dualweilder does not disappoint at all - and you'll have your pick of lovely melee weapons half the time and their extra bonuses. I'd agree 2handers are stronger in the long run/end... but to say duel wielding is near-useless is plain wrong. He's pretty on par most the time, gera depending. Hardly a noticable loser.

However, dont mix up your daggers with 1-handed STR weapons. Your daggers scale on Finesse. If you're a backstabber, stick to your daggers. As Ashera said, you want them both critting 100% of the time.

[Nice]

123

[Ashera]

saying it is near-useless is plain wrong. sorry.
What I mean by that is it is less effective at killing than both 2x daggers or 2h weapons, as both of these options do more damage in my experience.

You do gain survivability though. My first playthrough I had a base 60% dodge chance or something crazy at the end game from focusing dual wielding, the talent for it and the gear I was using.
(possibly why I think the damage is low, as I thought it scaled the same as warfare would at the time)

[Skatters]

Yeah ok I getchya.

Maybe towards the end, but for a large portion of the game I didnt find dual-wielding strength weapons to be particularly lacking compared to my 2hander... the backstabber was indeed constantly nuts, though both my warriors also splashed into some support (geo and hydro/necro), whereas the scound/warfare character only focused on stabbing people to death.

Of course thats speaking from simply sinking points into Warfare (not dual wielding, as it just adds dodge) and yeah, later, the 2handed-skill adds some nice crit which wins out there. I wouldn't raise the weapon skills until you've maxed your warfare out for the ++damage... and a dual wielding str-weps will probably lean on enraged more.

As you say, I did use my dual-weilder as the 'tankier' one because of the extra dodge he ended up getting. The extra crit from the 2hander shone in later levels when he'd got it high enough alongside his warfare.

[GUTS-CHAN]

I'm trying out a 1x dagger shadowblade + ambidextrous character, so grenades and scrolls will only cost +1 AP to use. should be useful as a mid-support character. at the worst my damage output is 100% as opposed to 150% from not DW but gain ability to CC, support, what not.