It's not that simple. Two handers will always have the damage per second advantage on single targets (at least with base stats) but it's about more than that.
2 handers often deal far more damage than the health of the enemy, wasting damage that dual wielding (or using a 1h and a shield) doesn't. Thus, the faster hitting weapon that kills the same enemy is more effective. Further, damage procs on weapons (such as fire or arcane) occur more often on faster weapons, and the damage on those doesn't scale, so faster weapons get a boost there as well. Similarly, faster weapons generate more resources more quickly, as generators don't scale their resources with damage.
On the other hand, high damage but slow hitting weapons are excellent for spells/abilities that are unaffected by attack speed. For instance, long cooldown nukes like seven sided strike would benefit much more from a big 2 hander, because it's getting all the damage advantage and no speed drawback (since it goes on CD anyway). They are also excellent for AOE, since the damage scales. Attack speed scales on AOEs with no cooldown as well, but depending on where the damage/health threshold falls the 2 hander can clear a crowd in a single swipe that might take several from another weapon, reducing the amount of damage you take.
There are lots of pros and cons for both. Shields factor in too, as do most other items and abilities. It all comes down to your build.
TL;DR: Yes, 2 handers are viable, so are 1h + shield, dual wielding, etc
Thanks for the detailed reply. You covered what the blue posts were basically talking about. I just think that dual wielding doesn't feel as epic as 2H weapons, so I'll probably be using that massive 2H axe on my barb. Of course, I'll probably use 2 1 handers if I don't get any good 2H drops, but I'm hoping that crafting will partially fix that issue.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My place really was here. I was too foolish and stubborn to notice. But, what I truly hoped for then was here. Why do I always realize it When I've already lost it.
Ok, I really enjoy using two handed weapons much more than dual wielding weapons, but I'm not sure if they'll be viable because they obviously weren't in D2 in most cases. I think I remember a couple of blue posts a while back stating that Blizzard would like for any weapon combo to be viable, but I'm not sure where I saw it. Could anyone shed some insight on whether or not they have the chance of being viable in D3?
My place really was here. I was too foolish and stubborn to notice. But, what I truly hoped for then was here. Why do I always realize it When I've already lost it.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Thanks for the detailed reply. You covered what the blue posts were basically talking about. I just think that dual wielding doesn't feel as epic as 2H weapons, so I'll probably be using that massive 2H axe on my barb. Of course, I'll probably use 2 1 handers if I don't get any good 2H drops, but I'm hoping that crafting will partially fix that issue.
This Is what mostly prompted this post.