Which weapon in which hand?Follow

I'm having some trouble deciding which weapon to put in which hand with my warrior. I'll give you guys the details and let you help me decide.

For starters, my warrior is level 35 currently (Magelo profile here). He's a twink and doesn't get played too often. I've really spent enough cash on him for such a rarely played alt so I want to stick with the weapons I've got.

My two weapons are a Gut-Piercing Longsword and a Bladecatcher of the Marshall.

So which should I put as my primary and which as my secondary? Just as importantly, why should I do what I do? And at level 38, when the damage on the Gut-Piercing Longsword becomes 10, should I switch them?

Thanks in advance!

I agree that you should put the faster weapon in your main hand. And I also agree with Pfunk... Get rid of the Ikky chest and find one with more STR and/or STA. My personal opinion would be to lean towards STR, but that's just me.

The general rule of thumb for dual weilding charaters is faster in main, and better ratio in offhand. At level 35, the main hand bonus is not as important, so which goes in which is probably not that important.

EDIT:

Oh, and Warriors want HP, AC, and STA to the extent they get HP from it. STR has a marginal, and probably not significant, effect on ATK.

Edited, Sat Jun 25 17:38:28 2005 by Fallonn

Tanks aren't really supposed to worry about DPS. If you can hold agro and give the cleric/druid/shaman long enough time to cast a heal, you're doing your job.

It really depends on the weapons. Assuming you have two that aren't that far apart, it holds true. You got two where one totally outclasses the other, you will have to evaluate that and take it into account. In any case, at 35 the bonus makes the whole issue moot. Better ratio is probably better at that level, a la the classic Wurmslayer.

I'm not saying one should look at warriors as a viable toon for a dps slot, I'm saying don't overlook the DPS of a warrior for the tank slot. Having that extra DPS you get from having a warrior tank insted of a pally tank could come in very handy in a group. Don't limit yourself to one role.

I do too, but I've gotten quite a few "sorry, we already have a tank."

That's really not how you make the choice at all. The *only* thing that matters for offhand is the ratio of the weapon. It being faster so it comes into play more often is irrelevant since there is no offhand damage bonus. Hitting twice as often for half as much damage still works out to *exactly* the same amount of damage over time.

The only time you care about putting a faster weapon in the offhand is when you are working on increasing your dual wield skill. Since the chances to gain a skill increase are a direct function of the delay of the weapon, a faster weapon means more skill increase chances. The delay of a weapon in offhand has *nothing* to do with relative dps. All that matters is the ratio.


The mainhand does get a damage bonus. That *can* make a difference and affect your choice of weapons. However, at level 35, his bonus is only three. What that means is that unless the two weapons have nearly identical ratios, the "faster" weapon wont make much difference in main hand. Since also at lower levels, your offhand goes off less often (IIRC, it's something like skill/4 as a percent? Don't remember exactly), a better ratio weapon in the mainhand will produce more dps since the mainhand goes off everytime.


In this particular case, we have a 9/19 weapon and a 12/24. The "raw" modals for these two (2xdam/del) are .947 and .1 respectively. Those are actually pretty close, so it's possible that maybe the damage bonus will make a difference. When we calculate by adding in damage bonus((2xdam)+bonus)/del, to figure out which is "better" in the mainhand we get the following:

9/19= 1.105
12/24= 1.125

The "faster" weapon did gain some in this second equation (went from .053 behind to .02), but it's still not enough to counter the better ratio of the 12/24 weapon. Czae's original advice to put the better ratio'd weapon in the mainhand is correct.

Note, that even if we ignore the fact that the 9/19 weapon will change to a 10/19 later on and just look at bonus, there will be a point at which you'll want to switch them. One your bonus equals 5 (level 40), the bonus will make the 9/19 weapon the beter weapon in mainhand:

9/19= ((2x9)+5)/19= 1.210
12/24= ((2x12)+5)/24= 1.208


I forgot to see what level you gain another damage with that weapon, but even without it, you'll want to swtich at level 40. Until then, keep the 12/24 in mainhand, and the 9/19 in offhand.

Ok. Re-read your OP. At level 38, you'll have a damage bonus of 4, and the 9/19 will beome a 10/19. The relative damage will work out to this:

10/19= ((10x2)+4)/19= 1.263
12/24= ((12x2)+4)/24= 1.166

So yeah. Definately switch when you hit level 38. That's actually a pretty significant improvement.

Edited, Mon Jun 27 05:34:37 2005 by gbaji

each swing of a weapon generates aggro equal to the potential damage of that swing. there is no innate aggro advantage with faster weapons.

also, a fast weapon has a lower chance to proc per swing than a slower weapon, so it works out to the same over time.

I don't doubt you for a moment Gbaji, but I do think its a pity that this approach has been taken with the aug mechanics.

Extrapolating what you have said means that there is no element of "player design" at all. In other words stick any old 100 point proc in your sword and the result is going to be the same regardless.

I think its a lost opportunity to make the game more interesting. Sure there needs to be trade offs in the process, but it would be nice if the stade skilling system and augs could be used to build unique and individual weapons.

Perhaps this is where the new expansion will take us.

I can see it now, all rangers will be building sub 20 delay weapons that proc stuns and knock backs with every swing