It doesn’t seem like DW ranged is worth it (in general) if you have any appreciable WPS as it reduces the double attack chance. So with Inquisitor/Demolitionist, maxed WPS, you’re looking at attack cycles roughly looking like this:
WPS 1 (20%)
WPS 2 (20%)
WPS 3 (20%)
Normal auto (20%)
Dual auto (20%)
Furthermore, the damage range on 2H + Searing might multiplier + Kraken devotion easily overshadows this. I can see using DW early on until you can max out the WPS, but after that it seems pointless. Am I missing something here?
Additionally, how does Fire Strike work with multi-target WPS like Storm Spread (4 projectiles)? Do you still just get a single Explosive Strike + single set of Brimstone fragments on the primary target or more?
Sorry how exactly does fire strike interact with the Inquisitor wps skills? I mean Fire Strike description says ‘when used as default skill, …’ But how is it used as default skill and how not? Also do any of the proporties from for example Chilling rounds get carried over wit fire strike modifiers like Brimstone?
I tried out DW on my Inquisitor early on but ravage output was much lower. I even had the impression that the wps skills procced less frequent when dual wielding, which doesn’t make sense, given the higher attack speed? Anybody any clue about chat?
I’m going to be trying something like this build with a DW purifier: http://www.grimtools.com/calc/aZqpl4Vd seems to be doing well so far, but I’m only level 19…will see how it goes.
I’m only level 4X atm, maxed Demo first but here’s what I know so far on my Purifier:
Bursting Round fires with both guns in DW.
Chilling Round fires three shots regardless.
Storm Spread? Not there yet, sorry. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will fire with both guns for X projectiles each but I’ll edit when I get there.
Fire Strike is a default attack skill. Basically it just does the same thing as your standard Attack but adds special effects and can be used with WPS skills. There are some attack skills that aren’t default attacks like Blade Arc and Primal Strike which won’t use WPS skills.
As for Fire Strike, Brimstone definitely triggers on each attack hit and the fragments don’t care about the WPS weapon damage modifiers. Not sure on the AoE weapon damage though.
Edit: Storm Spread fires 3-4 projectiles PER gun. Dual Wield is much stronger for those two procs. And Shaman doesn’t get a lot out of Cold so it doesn’t really get advantage there.
I’m doing a cold/lightning based, focusing on Rune of Hagarrad and the wps skills as Chilling Rounds and Storm Spread. At least that was the plan. However, based on the insights here, I don’t think that my wps skills will cut it, nor that adding Firestrike and it’s addons to the build will do much for me (and will cut me short on points). Or am I wrong here? Any way I can make the cold and lightning wps skills work with another mastery or so?
Original question still stands. Most WPS skills (not all, but most) will use both weapons in the damage calculation, but that’s still a lower damage range than a 2H.
The only argument I can find for DW in general is if you have minimal to no WPS, which is where the extra attack speed combined with flat damage (like Brimstone) sees the most benefit.
(Nightblade is a special case because DW is required for the mastery’s WPS procs, so let’s leave it out of the discussion.)
Long story short, I’d love to go DW on the purifier long term because fast attack speed is just cool, but it’s hard to make a case for it. Show me I’m wrong please.
2H weapons have more base damage, but DW (especially with WPS that use both weapons) get twice as much from every point of flat damage you get from other sources, so at some point they can catch up with the higher base damage of a 2H.
also they will generally have higher attack speed (getting more than 2-2.5 attacks/second with a 2H requires quite some investment, getting more than 3+ attacks/second with DW is quite trivial), so you get twice as much bonus from every point of flat damage and you apply it much more often.
I can only speak for the Inquisitor side of things, but after getting my Storm Spread to 20% chance / 4 projectiles as well, next to 20% Chilling Round, I can definitely attest it works really well. I also have the impression that, now that I have gotten to this point, DW > 2H. Not based on actual data, but I strongly had the impression I was killing quite some faster.
Given the damage build-up of the skills (flat damage vs weapon damage), as also pointed out by MK1980, it actually makes sense.