Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Two-Handed Swords underpowered?

Does it seem to anyone else like 2 handed swords are kind of underpowered (at least relatively early in the game - I've gotten to Orobas Fjords on this character, and I think I'm like level 25 or 26).

What I mean is that, by using a 2-handed sword, you are giving up item bonuses that you get if you either equip a shield, or a second weapon (dual-wielding). The lost enchantment slots, charm slots, and inherent bonuses on a second weapons or shield can be pretty substantial.

Seems like, in exchange for that loss, 2-handed swords should be the undisputed damage champions of weapons (and possibly rival magic for damage output).

But, it just doesn't seem that way to me. In general, *most* 2-handed swords seem to do about the same, or LESS damage than most 1-handed weapons (which seem a lot more common as loot, btw, so you are more likely to find a really nice 1-handed weapon than 2-handed sword). In my case, I think I've even found a pretty darn good 2-handed sword, as far as it goes. I don't remember what it's called, but it has a 'base' damage range of, I dunno, like 13-115, plus an enchantment of +100 normal damage. But, I'm still having a much harder time killing off enemies than I remember having with my Mage character. I've got the 2-Handed Sword expertise skill levelled to 5 (will try to get it higher), and I have Whirlwind, Rush, and Jump attacks just about maxed for my level. It just doesn't seem like I do enough damage - it's taking me way too long to kill of enemies since I'm right in the middle of them taking damage (for defense, I'm using the Annihilator Armor set from Steam [Admittedly, it's probably time to upgrade since that is level 15 armor], +Defensive Posture level 8, +Regenerate at level 6 or 7).

I just feel like dual-wield would do better damage PLUS give me better enchantments/bonuses, while single-wield + shield would give me better defense and enchant/bonuses. Am I missing something, or is my observation that it doesn't seem like you gain enough damage for what you give up when using 2-handed swords, consistent with your experience?

Hey Lucreel,

A few days ago i would have totally agreed with you, and said that yes, all two handed weapons are equally powered with one handed, without the chance of adding a shield or a second weapon.

I recently found a 2 handed sword though that demolishes my previous thoughts. A base damage of 112-265, with three charm slots, a poison aura and health and defense enchantments. I am level 29, and can kill most opponents lv.30 and below with one hit, especially if i rush attack them. I have the bleed and life leech skills at 10, and rush at 12. So recently my tactic has been to rush into the middle of a group, whirlwind and then backflip out. When i look i see multiple targets bleeding to death, others losing health to poison, others giving me their health through life leech and others just out right dead :'). (oh and i havn't upgraded any of my weapons skills, that way i can swith to a good sword and shield combo if i'm losing too much health)

I guess at the end of the day it's up to the player, and there are multiple factors in what weapons you choose; like what you happen to find, what your play style is like, and most importantly, what your favourite is :')

Tinman21

Sword and shield is best

I place my vote for two handed weapons. My character is compensating for the way he runs... :')

I definitely favour dual wielding. Enchants 'cross charge' - e.g. put +100 magic damage and +100 physical damage on both your dual-wield weapons, and EACH weapon will get all the bonuses: +200 physical and +200 magic on each weapon, or +800 damage bonus in total across both weapons and damage types. Dual wielding effectively doubles the value of each +damage enchant, and it doesn't even matter which weapon the enchant's been cast on!

And if you're playing a caster, dual wield with +magic damage on both weapons is the only way to go (in this case you don't need to put any skill into dual wield, as there is no 'off hand' penalty for spell damage bonuses).

After 30 levels of two handed awesomeness, you actually have me considering dual wield...

That has BUG written all over it 0_0.

There's two amazing two-handers that can be bought in FoV, otherwise you just need to be lucky with a good loot drop.

With maxed out Thousand Strikes, it doesn't really matter what weapon you use.

I wouldn't say it's a bug - e.g. if you have +damage on an amulet, you'd expect it to work on both weapons. The point is you can't enchant +damage on an amulet - you might find one with a built-in buff, but for serious +damage enchants you need to cast them yourself, and you can only do that on weapons. So another way of looking at it is that dual wielding doubles the number of potential +damage enchant slots.

But I agree it is generous. On a similar note, +magic damage seems to affect each magic missile, so if you have +200 magic damage, you'll get up to +1,400 damage from a single cast (when you get level 15 magic missile with 7 missiles per cast). Again, very generous, and it makes magic missile much more effective than it's stats would imply compared to other damage spells.

Actually, I would expect the +damage of an amulet to work adding to the total damage of both.

Though I haven't used dual-wielding (yet) so can't say if it's one time damage for a larger amount (same as shield/two-hander) or if you deal 2 seperate damage amounts.

I still like sword and shield