2h or dual wield for leveling?Follow

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, completely wrong. You could not be more wrong if you tried.


The dual-wield vs. two-hand argument isn't and never has been about single-strike comparisons. Dual-wield yields more DPS over time than two-handers for both melee classes capable of choosing (Warriors and Shaman; Hunters don't matter). All the time, every time unless the difference in stats between the two is really big.


Well... you are entitled to your opinion as long as you understand that it's completely wrong.


You've got that backwards. Two-handers do more damager up front (hence, a shorter amount of time), but dual-wield will always surpass it over time.


Stormstrike hits with both weapons now, and has for quite some time. So... no. I'm also not quite sure where you come up with the less regular damage either. Seriously, I'm starting to wonder... is this a joke post? Or are you really just offering all this advice based entirely on opinion without any in-game experience to back it up?


Yes, I suppose... if your personal play style includes a desire to do less DPS than you're capable of, by all means... have at the two-handers for the entire game. Oh, and by the way, using a two-hander means Unleashed Rage, Shamanistic Focus, and Flurry won't be up as consistently. And since parties really like Unleashed Rage... you're not only holding yourself back, you're holding your party back. But, again... if your personal play style also includes being a liability to others... hey, have at it.

By the way... you know dual-wield always refers to using two melee weapons, right? When a Mage or any other caster equips a sword and off-hand... that's not what anyone is referring to when they mention "dual-wielding".

Wow, Theo. Your need to be 'right' completely blocks your view of the meaning of the posts. Me saying, "Dual Wielding is the best way to go but here is how I did it and I was fine," is A) Answering the OP's question correctly by directing him to DW as the best option, and B) Telling him that if he\she ends up disliking DW and elects to use a 2h that they wouldn't be completely screwed.

Basically, L2Comprihend before you get on your Elitist Soapbox.

I didn't care for my shaman much until I hit 30 and got windfury.

Things really picked up again when I hit 40 and could dual wield.

Anecdotally (based on my unscientific experience, which may be meaningful or not to you), dual wield was far superior to a 2h for leveling, even when comparing a blue 2h wep with two slow green 1h weps. I even prefer dw for pvp on my shaman (just the junior varsity stuff at 59 for now).

Over on elitist jerks, where they crunch the numbers and tend to discount anecdotal evidence (like how dw "seems" better to me), they concluded that "Dual wielding produces nearly the same Stormstrike damage as using a two-handed weapon. Additionally DWing produces more opportunity for Windfury procs, Unleashed Rage procs from crits, and Flurry procs from crits. Overall the benefit of DW far outweighs the "higher end damage" of a 2H weapon for Enhancement Shaman."

The choice, as always, remains with the player.

While I'd normally contest you on your definitions of viable and optimal (especially while leveling), your answer has probably become true in the sense that the gap between two-handed and dual-wield has enlarged by Patch 2.4.2.

The reason is that many Main Hand weapons are now considered One Hand weapons, and so shaman can pick up some even nicer weapons for their offhand.

The age of two-hand viability for Enhancement shaman may be closing fast.

Edited, May 13th 2008 6:19pm by Raglu

Dear Lord, I can't tell if Theo is being hard-headed or just randomly blacks out and misses half of my post. /shrug

You see, the latter part about reading a FAQ would actually be valid if this topic was covered (in detail) in the FAQ on this forum. Sadly, that is not the case, as the FAQ actually says that 2H is better for leveling (but DW is a powerful option!!!!), so reading the FAQ would not help in the least. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it lends support to the erroneous conclusion that 2H is better for leveling. There are, however, some good links in the FAQ thread.

Of course, if you had read the FAQ, you'd already know that. ;)

Perhaps the FAQ should be amended in this regard (point #7).

I take full responsibility for this. Paracleets sent me the info for the Shaman FAQ long ago, and I haven't been bothered to get around to posting it. I'll try to force myself on it this weekend, and it's something I'll make sure I add words on.

I'm never going to complain about the mage forums being repetitive ever again

Totally agree with you ozone. Windfury with duel weild is much more better than a 2h with windfury, because it has more chance of doing the hability. Now, my shaman is pretty young yet (level 38) and didn't tried duel weild yet, but thats my opinion. =)

The OP didn't ask for an opinion. I'm sure he's perfectly capable of forming one of those on his own. He asked which option was best for leveling; it's DW. He didn't ask about PvP, but since other people brought it up anyways... It's still DW.

I had this covered in the very first reply of this thread:

DW > 2hand

no doubt.

don't think anything else.