Thanks for confirming, and by the way, what's the difference currently between dual wield and 1hand + shield atm anyway, without the influence of the talents. In DOS the dual wield talent reduced ap cost, but I doubt that's gonna be the case in this game, so I'm assuming dual wield is attacking with 2 weapons for 2 ap while 1h + shield is attacking twice for 1 ap each, sounds like the same damage, unless there is something I'm missing of course.
What you're missing is that having a shield equipped increases the cost of your basic attacks by an extra AP.
It costs 2 AP to attack with anything in your offhand.
The shield user will do essentially half of the damage of the dual wielder, but will have a small initial armor boost.
Most feel that shields are very underwhelming at the moment because of this.
One trick to using a shield that can sometimes make them worthwhile is to initially wear a shield and then unequip it after losing the armor or when you're ready to attack. Unequiping the shield in combat does not cost an action point and will reduce your attack cost back down to 1.
Even without a shield, Weapon ability costs are unaffected by whatever you have equipped, but their damage will be based on all equipped weapons summed. This means a 1-hand user will always lose out on damage to cost ratios vs a 2-handed or dual wield user.
