by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Hello guys, I’m Dannie “Intensity” Ray and today I’ll bring you a short analysis on how to maximize your dual wielding capabilities so you can become as beastly as my friend Illidan up there on the featured image.

Ok, so back here in Sanctuary there are 3 classes with dual wielding capabilities, the Monk, the Barbarian and the Demon Hunter. That’s 1/2 of the total character classes so knowing how to dual wield properly is something that every player should at least have a decent idea about.

Mechanics of Dual Wielding:

Many new players are initially suprised when they equip their second weapon and realize their damage didn’t double, in some cases the DPS change is barely noticeable from what they used to have with a shield/quiver. This is a direct result of how Dual Wielding works and I’ll explain it in a second.

Lets Imagine you have an iron sword that deals 20 damage at 1.4 attacks per second, that’s a super powerful 28 DPS.

When new players add their wooden sword that deals 10 damage at 1.4 attacks per second they expect to deal 30 damage 1.4 times per second for a total of 42 DPS. This is not how dual wielding works, your character doesn’t strike with both weapons at once but rather alternates between them.

The dual weilding bonus is 15% attack speed IIRC, so your swords will now hit 1.61 times per second. That means each of your swords will hit 0.805 times per second. So 20*0.805+10*0.805= 24.15 DPS

WTF, we lost DPS when Dual Wielding! That means Dual Wielding must suck right?

Not quite, it just means that you have to be super careful on what you Dual Wield.

Dual Wielding with Real Items:

Diablo 3 is a lot more complicated than wooden and iron swords with base DPS, there’s a lot of stats that come in weapons and need to be balanced.

Weapons usually give you:

1. Base Bonus Damage.
2. 3 Other Primary Stats.
3. 2 Secondary Stats.

Shields on the other hand look like this:

1. Block Chance and Amount.
2. 4 Primary Stats.
3. 2 Secondary Stats.

Quivers come equipped with:

1. Attack Speed.
2. 4 Primary Stats.
3. 2 secondary Stats.

So basically Dual Wielding gives you 6 workable primaries (2 of which can be weapon sockets), 2 secondaries and that 15% IAS bonus.

Sword and Board gives you 7 workable primaries (1 of which can be weapon sockets), and the block chance/amount.

Weapon and Quiver gives you 7 workable primaries (1 of which can be weapon sockets, 1 of which can be +skill%), and a 15%+ IAS Bonus.

Right off the bat we notice that we dual wielders are one primary behind, this means we really need to play to our strengths in order to compensate.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Dual Wielding:

Strengths:

• One handed weapons do less damage per hit but they hit faster than their two handed counterparts, we also get an innate 15% IAS from Dual Wielding. This means we will benefit a lot more from and Life per Hit and Crowd Control on hit abilities.
• Access to two weapon sockets, unless you are running a Full Support Monk an emerald on the weapon is likely the strongest property a weapon (or shield/quiver) can have.
• Access to two unique legendary weapon abilities: [d3item name=”The Fist of Az’Turrasq”], [d3item name=”The Three Hundredth Spear”], [d3item name=”Pig Sticker”]  are just examples of what a Legendary can bring to the table that no other weapons can.

Weaknesses:

• Unless they factor in attack speed into their damage calculation (like some DoTs and Summons)  powerful skills with long cooldowns aren’t as good for us as they are for two hander builds.
• Weapon specific affixes are only half as good, you might get the coveted  +10% damage on your weapon but it will only kick in every two hits, resulting on just a 5% overall DPS increase. The same holds true for attack speed, chance to CC,  and special abilities such as the one on [d3item name= “Hack”].
• A bad damage roll on a weapon can bring your DPS down, if you have a weapon with an exceptionally good DPS roll you might be better served pairing it with a Shield or Quiver until you can find another good Weapon you can Dual Wield it with.

Quick Guide to Weapon Stats when Dual Wielding:

In order, what you want most out of weapons when dual wielding:

1. Socket
2. A fifth primary or a very good unique ability
3. Base Stat
4. Resource Cost Reduction/Cooldown Reduction/Area Damage (depending on your build)

Be very careful with:

1. +x % damage and x% increased attack speed, they are only half as good as they say they are.

Conclusions:

If you want to excel, Dual Wielding is not just about throwing two weapons together and hoping it works. It takes a bit of planning and to put aside conventional damage logic for while so you can make informed decisions.

Now that we’ve showcased the strengths and weaknesses of carrying a weapon on each hand you can put this newfound knowledge to the test and become the best Dual Wielding maniac you can be.

Or you can realize your items and build are better served for using a Shield/Quiver, or by switching entirely to Two Handed Weapons.

In any scenario, I hope you will be slaying every monster in your path with ease.

IAmDiR23.