aicoped wrote:
OK maybe I am not sure of this then. Let mesay what I believe to be true, using numbers, and you correct me if I am wrong.
Weapon 1: 90-110 dmg with a 1 second weapon speed= 100dps
Weapon 2:190-210 dmg with a 2 second weapon speed= 100dps
If you could onlt auto attack both of these weapons would do exactly the same damage over an infinitely long fight, or to rephrase, they have the same Average damage(not per swing but sameaverage damage over any length of time), or DPS.
Now for poison procs the second one will proc 1/2 as often, so it is 2x worse than the first one.
If you have a poison that procs 20% of the time, iy will proc on average 1 time every 5 seconds with the first weapon, and 1 time every 10 seconds on average with the second weapon.
Now, if both of these were real weapons, and I had the option to put one inmy main hand, and one in my off hand, I would put the slow one in my main, and the fast one in my off for the following reasons.
The Main hand weapon is what is under consideration for all special attacks unless specifically stated otherwise,so Ambush would do much more damage with weapon 2 equipped than weapon one.
So because the Second weapon has2x theaverage damage per swing, and special attacks give "free swings"(and then some), that is why you equipa slower weapon, all otherfactors being equal.
Ideally you would equip the slowest weapon in the game with the DPS that you are looking for.
The offhand simply swings on its timer, and procs poisons, with the minor addedbenifit that it interrupts/knocksbacks spells.
So If your options were these 4 weapons,
Weapon A: 90-110 damage with 1 a second weapon speed
Weapon B: 190-210 damage with a 2 second weapon speed
Weapon C: 290-310 damage with a 3 second weapon speed
Weapon D: 390-410 damage with a 4 second weapon speed
You would equip D in the main and Ain the off hand.
Finally, even ifyouhave aslightly higher DPS fast weapon than your slightly lower and muchslower second weapon, You may stillwant to put te slower weapon in your main for the same reasons, but there is obviously a cutoff point. I do not know of specifically here it is.
You're pretty much on the right track ... Highest Damage Weapon in main hand (99.99% of the time this will be the slowest weapon, the exception here is if the DPS of your slow weapon is MUCH worse than that of the faster weapon - which makes the point moot, as you will be hurting your general auto attack DPS, as well as your overall dps like that), and as fast as possible weapon in your off hand.
You'll always want a fast weapon to proc poisons, but where fast weapons in your off hand REALLY shine is when you get Combat Potency at the bottom of the combat tree ... this effectively turns every 0.1 second faster into about 10 dps overall (source, ElitistJerks rogue forums). This is due to the rapid regeneration of Energy, which approaches an equivalent permanent full energy bar the faster the weapon (note, that's a hypothetical statement, a permanent full energy bar is not really possible if you're constantly using specials)
wrt Daggers vs Swords, I realised that the real explanation has not yet been made, so here it is : Your DPS is calculated using 2 parts, 1) DPS of the weapon, and 2) DPS derived from Attack power. The latter is calculated by taking Attack power / 14. eg, if you had a 100dps weapon and 2000ap, your overall white damage dps will be 100+(2000/14) = ~242 dps.
Now when it comes to special attacks, your attacks are based on weapon damage (let's use Sinister strike rank 10, which deals weapon damage+98). The problem is that the weapon damage derived from AP based DPS is based on a fixed weapon speed, regardless of your REAL weapon speed. I believe for swords/maces/fists, this speed is 2.4, this is called normalisation.
So let's assume we're talking about a 2.8 speed sword above ... you'll hit for the average damage of the weapon (which can be derived backwards from DPS and speed as 100*2.8 = 280) added to the damage derived from AP based DPS at 2.4 speed (142*2.4 = 340.8). This means that you'll hit on average for 280+340.8+98=
~520 with a SS.
Now let's assume the weapon above is a 1.8 speed dagger. ... you'll hit for the avg damage of the dagger (100*1.8 =180) added to the damage derived from AP based dps. Now here's the big difference here is that the normalised speed of a dagger is 1.7. So damage derived from AP based DPS for the dagger is 142*1.7 = 241. This means that on average, you'll hit for 180+241+98 =
302.
So, by using the dagger vs sword with the same DPS ... your damage drops from 520 with every SS hit to 302 ... that's a 42% loss in damage.
We can level the playing field a bit and assume the same speed dagger and sword. Both will hit with the same weapon damage, however at 2000 ap, the AP derived DPS Based damage is 340.8 for the sword and 241 for the dagger. So if a dagger and a sword were exactly the same speed, with 2000 ap, you'll hit for 100 damage more with every special, simply by using a sword over a dagger.
Not sure how much of this you knew, or how much was common sense to you, but if you didn't, I hope this was helpful.
