Larian Studios Forums Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis (English) Help/Tips/Tricks How can dual-wielding possibly be better than 2H?

I'm still struggling with which to specialize in. I'm already level 16 and haven't even put points into either skill yet! But I'm going to make a decision tonight, I swear!

Anyway, everyone I read seems to prefer dual-wield (except for the Optimization sticky), yet I can't help but wonder how DW ever does more than 2H, given that DW swings are so slow. After a little testing, it appears (visually, I mean) that in the time it takes you to swing both DW weapons, you could have already swung your 2H weapon twice. And since the damage of 2H weapons is already much higher than a single 1H weapon, how does DWing ever catch up to the damage of 2H?

One downside of 2H that I see is that they have a lower "low end" to the damage range than 1H weapons do, but again, since DW swinging is so slow, how does that even matter?

Finally, when you swing a 2H weapon, does the wide range of the swing do damage to all enemies in its reach? This seems like a huge advantage over DW for a melee fighter.

Thanks. (I just want to make sure I don't regret my decision later, by finding good weapons for the other spec I didn't choose.)

Pick a weapon expertise based on your own preferences. I went with duel wielding simply because that wasn't an option in Divine Divinity or Beyond Divinity.
If there is a significant difference in damage per second between the two (mentioned in the Character Optimization topic IIRC), it would not be enough make a huge difference to your character. If they can survive using level 1 expertise rather than 4 or 5, then I'm sure they can manage with either weapon type. After getting the battle tower you can also unlearn your skills and reinvest the skill points, though the price doubles each time you do so (assuming you collect loot to sell, you should be able to get enough gold reskill up to 3 or 4 times without too much effort).

With the latest update of the game, opponents in the swing arc of a weapon will be hit, as well as the target. Some of the negative comments about two handed expertise may have been based on earlier releases of the game.

It doesn't matter which weapon type you pick, you will find good weapons of the opposite type. I played a duel wielding strength based warrior, and generally didn't pay too much attention to two handed weapons, but did notice a couple very nice ones. More of an issue was finding an abundant supply of magical and balanced damage types on weapons, when trying to get ones doing conventional melee/ranged damage (don't recall a big issue with random loot, but IIRC at least the couple merchants in Aleroth seemed biased towards magic).

Thanks. I'm sure there isn't much of a difference. Part of my hesitation on 2H is a GameFAQs guide that says 2H is one of the worst weapon choices! Seems pretty harsh given the power of 2H weapons, so I want to make sure I'm not choosing a real loser.

twice as many charm and enchantment slots on dual wield or sword and shield.

The walkthrough was based on an earlier release of the game (UK English release, I assume); for example, it mentions unenchanting equipment not dropping the value, which is not the case in the US release (and presumably any patched version of the game).
It states two handed is "Arguably one of the worst weapon choices you can make", but does not give any arguments or justification for that (with other weapon skills the author compares damage bonuses and animation times, etc).

Are enchants really that big of a deal? I'm more concerned with actual damage. I doubt I'll be spending time trying to get the best possible enchants on all my gear.

And besides, don't you have to specifically choose 1H weapons that have charm/enchant slots on them? Is it possible that these won't always have the best damage?

Enchantment slots are great on weapons. You can put your best damage enchantment on a weapon, and remove it to put a higher damage enchantment when you get one.

Enchant level 9: Melee damaged raised by 27...
Enchant level 9: Magic damaged raised by 27...
Now if you have an open with at least 2 open enchant slots... You have an extra 100 damage between the types of damages..
NOT to mention a high level ignite or poison damage.

Damage enchantments are nice, since they add to the minimum damage done (level 9 enchantments can add 24 to your normal or magical damage). However, it isn't really that big of a difference. There are cases where adding an enchantment could make one particular weapon better than another, but later in the game an enchantment slot on weapons is fairly common. There are some special weapons that can have 2 or rarely 3 enchantment slots. Late in the game damage bonuses start showing up on weapons, as well (listed in the blue bonus section), which can exceed what you would get with an enchantment.

Enchantments need to be taken into account if you want to calculate the DPS, but it isn't a large enough effect that you should take it into account more than which playstyle you prefer.

Actually Lv9 is only +24, not +27. Still, though.

Does dual-wield actually apply the full melee damage to each hit, though, or is it applying each weapon's damage on separate hits (as would be logical)?

I would assume the game calculated each weapon hit separately when duel wielding, especially since there are different damage modifiers for each hand (depending on the expertise skill level).

So in regards to DPS 2h is more? Even though it says 464-644. I find it hard to believe the 2H hits with 2 hits before both hands hit....



(Have seen the BLUE "buffs" as high as 38 added damage.)

Yeah, that's my question. As far as I can tell, this seems to be the case, since DW is so slow, and 2H is no slower.