2 Hander vs Dual Wielding?

[Durzo Gaelfire]

I am a brand new player and currently messing around with a low level Rogue and Sentinel. As of right now dual wielding seems very under powered compared to 2 handers on both of them.

Is this just the case early game or are both options viable?

[RawSuicide]

TL,DR:
Both options are viable. But not on any class. Rogue: DW / Sentinel 2h (mostly).

Dual Wield is very strong as you have double the amount of affixes to use. Attack speed is faster in general.

DW was overpowered when it first was introduced, but since then some balancing took place to make it comparable with 2h. In 0.9 DW got a buff because the damage received penalty was reduced.

The choice between DW and 2h also is dependant on your class. You'll see that Sentinel has some skills or passive skillnodes within skilltrees, that require a 2h weapon.

For Rogue it's the opposite because you have skills and passive exclusively buffing or even working with DW (Shadow Cascade, Dancing Strikes, Idols, Passives,..).

[slaw]

u goota learn the game and how it is played, both are great , skills are the essence and how u use them effectively b21 has alot of great builds( new patch maybe some changes ) but u get the idea

[Durzo Gaelfire]

Thanks for the quick replies. It is good to know DW is viable. For sentinel it seems like a lot of skills require shields as well so I may swap to sword and board for a little while to mess around with it.

[Tyyne]

Generally speaking, dual wield only when the build requires it, if not, go two-hander.

[Zouls]

Was wondering how this stacks up for primalist totem builds, if using 2 1handers gives better stats than a twohander, or if its simply drop dependent.

[NixBoxDone]

Rogue I'd mostly go for dual-wielding, mainly because there are perks for it that allow you to stack massive crit chance and another one that gives a massive crit damage bonus but nerfs your damage if you don't crit.
That said, those perks are a bit further into their respective trees, so if you're just messing around early in the game you won't be at the spot where you can spec into them to get the "true" dual-wielding experience, so to speak.

[Durzo Gaelfire]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Rogue I'd mostly go for dual-wielding, mainly because there are perks for it that allow you to stack massive crit chance and another one that gives a massive crit damage bonus but nerfs your damage if you don't crit.
That said, those perks are a bit further into their respective trees, so if you're just messing around early in the game you won't be at the spot where you can spec into them to get the "true" dual-wielding experience, so to speak.

That sounds cool. Thank you for the info!

[NixBoxDone]

Originally posted by Durzo Gaelfire:

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Rogue I'd mostly go for dual-wielding, mainly because there are perks for it that allow you to stack massive crit chance and another one that gives a massive crit damage bonus but nerfs your damage if you don't crit.
That said, those perks are a bit further into their respective trees, so if you're just messing around early in the game you won't be at the spot where you can spec into them to get the "true" dual-wielding experience, so to speak.

That sounds cool. Thank you for the info!

No worries, hope you're having fun. :D

[Durzo Gaelfire]

Originally posted by NixBoxDone:

Originally posted by Durzo Gaelfire:

That sounds cool. Thank you for the info!

No worries, hope you're having fun. :D

I am having a blast! Just got to level 22 and making my way through the campaign at a pretty slow pace. I plan on going Bladedancer. Messing around with a Umbral blade and shift build a lot which seems crazy strong.

[mrtisserantdavid]

Need a better efficient 1hand+shield because 2H and dual welding are better il all way.

[tiamats4esgares]

Originally posted by Zouls:

Was wondering how this stacks up for primalist totem builds, if using 2 1handers gives better stats than a twohander, or if its simply drop dependent.

It's not drop dependant. I mean, to an extent, sure, but there exists a weapon type with better implicits and so it's better. I'm going to assume a 2-handed staff.

I play a necromancer, and 2-handed axes (specifically, obsidian axes) are the best weapon because they give me more stats than anything else can. I was a noob and had a 2-handed exalted spear for the longest time before I realized a MAGIC (BLUE) obsidian axe was better than an EXALTED (PURPLE) spear.

And 2-handed weapons give me more stats than a 1-handed weapon and an off-hand catalyst can, as far as I've ever seen, unless there's some niche legendary I've never seen or something.

Doing some quick research, there's a staff base, shamanic staff, that has the best implicits for you, it seems, with 46% to 86% increased damage for totems. (Unless your totems do mostly physical or mostly necrotic damage, then maybe an axe; obsidian axe and bone scythe, respectively. I'm not super familiar with totem builds so IDK.)

Sadly, if you don't do any or much damage yourself and rely only on weapons, it seems staves only have one good affix (minion spell damage) unless your minions do physical damage, in which case, axes are just better anyway.

However, even so, I'd venture to guess it's better than not using a two-hander, but I'm not a totem build expert.