Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General [v2.0.165.341]Anything but Dual Weapons Pointless?

I'm a big D:OS fan, but Im just starting my sequel testing, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something at this point. I realize things are subject to change.

Is there any point currently to using anything other than a dual weapon setup?

Even with a point in 2H weapons skill and nothing in Dual Weap, I do less damage with a 2-hander, and it comes with -move penalty. AP the same, Crit damage virtually the same.

Shields seem sort of worthless, as the damage reduction is almost undetectable, isn't worth the offensive tradeoff, and they dont come with any unique skills. I was hoping for a better motivation to use a shield in the new game as they were lackluster in the last game as well.

Dual wielding currently doesn't seem to have any penalties (like speed , size, or accuracy penalties), and it lets you benefit from magical bonuses in an additional slot over a 2H weapon.

Am I missing something at this point in time? I admit Im somewhat baffled by the new armor system, and it's possible that larger single hits may be more effective against damage reduction in some cases.

Thanks!

I see that the crit progression for 2H weapons is moderately larger, but is the occasional 20-30% bonus damage ever really felt over the normal Dual Weap DPS?

Put points into strength and then get the biggest 2 handed sword possible. Cast rage and crit those f*ckers. It's pretty devastating.

This build with elements of scoundrel would be very strong. The teleport and hover abilities would be very useful. Put a point in pawn to get the free move.

Thanks SupaMonkey! I'll keep that specific build in mind.

I was looking more for explanation on why 2h Weapons appear to be outclassed out of the box by Dual Weap, though. Typically 2-handers are the big hitters for STR builds. And wouldn't Scoundrel skills require taking points away from STR into Finesse? I feel like I'm missing some aspect.

2h = larger burst damage with crits and crit mult

dual wield = higher consistent DPS

Does burst damage have any inherent advantage over multiple hits in this game? Is there ever a damage resistance threshold that smaller hits would have trouble overcoming? I've only played to level 4 so far, but I haven't detected this as yet.

With the right skills and talents a 2h warrior will be able to one shot an enemy, gain 2 AP, kill another enemy, and repeat till they fail to kill someone. By comparison, a dual wield character will wont be able to really match the damage output a properly outfitted 2h can reach. The damage starts out similar but grows apart over time.

Edit: Again, this comes from the crit mult inherent to to the 2h and scroundrel abbilites combined with damage bonuses from skills/stats/abilities.....furthermore all those crit mult and damage bonuses effect skills cast. When combined with rage for auto crits the numbers can get really really high

Alright, thanks. I think I see now.

So it would be fair to say that 2H weapons underperform out of the gate, but can eventually be formidable in highly specialized builds, whereas a build that doesn't have a lot of points to support the 2h style would almost always be better going with dual weapons?

Dual wielding has an inherent advantage in stats and theoretically you could drop one of the weapons if you need to in order to perform a 1AP attack. Otherwise, you're looking at +Crit Chance vs +Crit Damage. So, spells like Rage reduces the value of Dual Wielding because critical strike is automatically at 100%.

2H weapons have longer reach too (this REALLY matters) for terrain purposes and it may extend Ability range for ones that are based on weapons (probably not). Also, they have higher base damage.

You can offset the movement penalty by having some points into Scoundrel, it actually will be worth it because you'll still get crit multiplier and you get way more movement speed.




I am actually testing that out right now and so far it seems promising; having an extra 50-100 armor and then relying primarily on Abilities seems viable. I'll find out once I finish that play through. Remember, the more armor you have the harder it is to get CCed and there is always Shackling Pain.



Weapons shouldn't have any extra penalties; you should consider weapons from the view point of different game plans.



As other people have noted including what I just listed above you're missing a lot and potentially even more. Oh by the way, staff weapons are two-handed and with the right build you can do decent physical damage with it.

I wouldn't say always since it depends on loot found, but if a character has no weapon ability points invested or talents that worked better one way or the other....I wouldn't be surprised if they performed so similarly that it simply depended on loot drops. In that case, the extra bonuses from two weapons might be best.

And yeah, 2h specialized minmax builds get pretty crazy

Alright. Thanks everyone for the patient replies!

It sounds like my Battle Mage would indeed be better off with Dual Weapons rather than a 2H, because he's already splititng points between STR and INT. Having to put them into FIN for Scoundrel Skills for 2H support would be spreading him too thin.

I really wanted a 2 hander character, but Red Prince comes with that wasted point in 1H weap, which would really frustrate the compulsive optimizer in me over the course of the game . I really kind of wish the NPCs came more as blank slates, but that's another thread.

...Or you could use a staff.

My armor-wearing front line Jedi Master use a walking stick instead of a flaming lightning sword of fiery crotch implosion? That makes me so sad to think about...

Technically a staff is more of a lightsaber as it does pure energy (read: magic damage).

You'll have higher accuracy and damage along with still being able to use all the Warfare skills; enjoy whirlwinding everything and doing magic damage or still do massive physical damage with Rage + Crippling Blow (400-600).

One other point, if resources are balanced to be as scarce as they are right now - dual-wielding requires more resources (time as well as money) in order to keep your gear properly upgraded as you level. Quite a bit cheaper and easier to keep a 2H build optimally geared for smooth level progression.

A secondary point, I'll admit, but not a trivial one, especially if you have multiple characters in your party opting for dual. Even if you're swimming in cash, you'll likely need to spend more time crafting or spend extra time looking for a replacement for a legendary weapon.

Even when used in melee? Cool. Ok, still not as cool as a sword, but better.

Looking back at DOS it was similar. Dual wielding starts out stronger but two handed weapons become much more powerful as you go on and start getting talents or spells that boost crit chance or let you increase AP. It's kind of like the old "linear warrior, quadratic wizard" idea.

That's not to say dual wielding is worthless. The main advantage of dual wielding is being able to stack multiple elements and status effects at the same time. Having a poison dagger and a fire sword can be a deadly combo if the enemy fails both saves. It also let you hit more often which is a big deal when enemies have shields or very high defense/evasion. Sometimes you only need to hit for 80 damage and that 400 damage warhammer can't get near him.

I switched my Red Prince Warrior from 2H Spear to 1H no shield, and I found 1H to be quite effective. Of course, one part of that was that I was missing less because Spears are FIN weapons, but being able to attack 6 times instead of 3 really added up, especially with Warlord.