Why would anyone choose DW over a shield? Am I missing Something?

"

StarlightGamer wrote:

It might work, but I certainly wouldn't make it. There's 5% worth of blocking nodes I wouldn't take. 3% coming from Weapon Artistry in the Ranger starting area. It takes too many points to get to it. 2% coming from the second node above Arrow Dodging. So 69% blocking with the two unique claws and all the blocking nodes.

The claws give you Ghost Reaver.

You're stacking life. And elemental resists, apparently. And level 98 (only 2 skill points left).

When you're at 73% block you always go for the last 2%. Going from taking 27% of the hits to taking 25% of the hits = 27/25 = 8% more EHP. That's more, not increased, it's a really big deal, bigger than a 18% life node would be to a character who's already stacked +150% life.

Better build: Level 73 Shadow with Chaos Inoculation + Vaal Pact + Ghost Reaver, Unwavering Stance + Iron Reflexes, 75% dual-wield block (with twin Essentia Sanguis), and all the Nullification nodes. You could go Duelist instead of Shadow if you wanted (CI Duelist lol).

Dual wield in this game is meant to fill the gap between 2-handed (full offense) and 1-hand+shield (full defense). It compared to 1-handed, it does more dps (although not double), and compared to 2-handed, it is more defensive because of block chance.

The 10% increased attack speed also doesn't tell the whole story. Going with dual wield gives you access to both 1-handed and dual wield specific nodes, many of which are very good. Because the most efficient 1-handed and dual wield nodes are often located within the starting areas of each class, having access to both types of nodes allows a dual-wielder to get a massive dps boost without having to travel very far.

I dual wield wands all the time because holy shit damage increase.

Note that Staves have Block as well, some even more Block than DW.

One reason is style; that is why I always DW.

The other reason which has been alluded to is that the intrinsic mod on some weapons is global (LoH/LL for Claws, Crit Chance on Daggers, Spell Damage on Wands) so having 2 of them gives more benefit.

I still think DW is weak atm, but when 10.5 comes out with multistrike that should change since Dual Strike is the most powerful attack in the game that I know of, only problem is that it is single target only.

"

Serefkana wrote:

DW can get high levels of Block as well. But it comes down to: Do you use Cleave? Do you want more damage or survivability?

Dual Wield RedBeaks on a Low Life build always seemed like an interesting choice...

Yes, but it would only work on a spellcaster obviously, and spellcasters can get wands/shields with more than 200% increased spell damage anyway.

"

Timmy101 wrote:

I'm hoping someone can enlighten me.

The only apparent bonus to dual wielding is the 10% increased attack speed which equates to roughly 3 passive nodes.

This comes at the cost of a ridiculously high amount of armour/eva/es, depending on your build, as well as life and resists. Shields also start with a higher innate block chance. All of these bonuses equate to at least 10 passive nodes.

Am I missing something? Are the DW nodes perhaps higher in power level such that their cumulative effect outweights the benefits of going sword n board?

Any insight is appreciated, thanks all.

Resists can be rolled on weapons as well and as others have pointed out it is 10% MORE and there are some really good nodes for dual wielders (especially if you look at crit builds - twin terror is the best crit chance node in the tree, and the nodes before it are great as well)
Also 2 implicit mods of weapons - e.g. dual rapiers allow you to use cleave ;) and fit perfectly into crit builds (40% (20+20) increased crit multiplier)

Other interesting options for dualwieding - using two different weapons and a skill wich uses only one of those two, the second would be used for its implicit mods mostly (e.g. crit groundslam, with a dagger or rapier in his offhand slot; or having a claw in your offhand gives global life leech if i'm not mistaken, so you could use a claw and a mace to get more life leech for your ground slam (up to 6% phisical damage life leech, which is IMHO huge))

Beside the obvious damage-boost (lots of damage-nodes close either for dual wield and one-handed weapons as well as the attackspeed), it's usually about style. :D

Dual strike is sick

It all depends on you build and the skills you are using. My lightning strike templar is mace/shield, the extra resists from nodes let me wear more IIQ(since solo currency drops are such crap). 2h while a big DPS increase, slows down my attacks too much, and curbs my LoH(plus I got a great septre with a ton of elemental damage and IAS). So the shield makes sense here as LS does not extra damage. A shadow focusing on crit may want to DW so he can wield two kris daggers for 160% chance to crit base from the daggers. But when they redid the duelist tree, and put out cyclone, I had to try a duelist. I'm DWing with him, have taken some of the extra DW block nodes, and absolutely tearing stuff up. But my main skill ATM is cleave, and Dual strike, so it makes sense. When i get to cyclone, if it doesn't benefit, I may go sword and board, but I doubt it, i just like having a DW Character. Its softcore, so its not the end of the world if I die(at least before I get to merciless). Defense is great, but if you take enough life nodes, you are usually going to be just fine. All that armor is for squat anyway against bosses, the block chance is all that matters.