I've looked at dozens of Barbarian WW profiles, and have this question: Putting aside the discussion of 2-handers for a moment (which I understand will re-ignite after 1.04), does it not become much more effective to use a shield vs dual-wield when the offhand weapon has a much lower DPS than the main hand? If the best weapon you can afford for main hand is 950DPS, and the best for off-hand is less than 700DPS, then the effective DPS is 800+/- DPS. However, dropping the offhand and replacing it with a shield has the DPS remain at 950. Does the attack speed bonus make up that difference? I know there's a trade-off between the stats and socket bonuses (crit damage or LoH vs strength or vitality).
Because really good shields are way too expensive and mediocre shields are always overpriced. But a decent sacred with crit chance could be awesome. I just think its better to wait for the patch before buying crappy overpriced shields off of the AH.
Even shitty dps offhands are used because sprint, which is the main damage, not whirlwind, uses only MH dmg stat to figure out how much dmg sprint does. Then, sprint tornado ticks either alternate wpn speeds or they use the offhand, cant remember which but i believe they alternate speeds, so thats why you want an axe, sword, or dagger OH w/ mace MH for the passive. All of that + you can get lifesteal and a shitload of crit dmg on an offhand weapon while you cannot get those on a shield. Makes it an easy choice
Even shitty dps offhands are used because sprint, which is the main damage, not whirlwind, uses only MH dmg stat to figure out how much dmg sprint does. Then, sprint tornado ticks either alternate wpn speeds or they use the offhand, cant remember which but i believe they alternate speeds, so thats why you want an axe, sword, or dagger OH w/ mace MH for the passive. All of that + you can get lifesteal and a shitload of crit dmg on an offhand weapon while you cannot get those on a shield. Makes it an easy choice
QFT. OH dps matters very little for blender spec because MH dmg range is always used for sprint tornados but it uses the attack speed of the last weapon swung. You want a fast OH that boosts your MH dps up and gives you more survival (loh, vit, ls). Using an OH also gives you the 15% IAS bonus for dual wielding which further boosts your sprint dps and gives you more chances of proc'ing fury regen.
Even shitty dps offhands are used because sprint, which is the main damage, not whirlwind, uses only MH dmg stat to figure out how much dmg sprint does. Then, sprint tornado ticks either alternate wpn speeds or they use the offhand, cant remember which but i believe they alternate speeds, so thats why you want an axe, sword, or dagger OH w/ mace MH for the passive. All of that + you can get lifesteal and a shitload of crit dmg on an offhand weapon while you cannot get those on a shield. Makes it an easy choice
15% IAS
Nuff said...
Not to say Shield is not good, unless, you can find a 10% crit, high block, high STR and VIT, also gear that has plentyful IAS to make up for the lost of DW IAS..
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
No it won't, just because some items change doesn't mean the game will.
You're right, but it's not only items that are changing. I would imagine that many new builds are going to crop up with all of the skill changes.
Nuff said...
Not to say Shield is not good, unless, you can find a 10% crit, high block, high STR and VIT, also gear that has plentyful IAS to make up for the lost of DW IAS..