Weapon swap is more of a relic from a past. In Diablo 2 it was mostly used for “buff weapons”, or some specific weapon do deal with immune monsters.
But I guess this mechanic is even older. In Diablo’s predecessor games (like Angband for one) you could have a slot for a melee weapon and a ranged weapon, and you swap between them when need arises. Those games were more tactical (and turn-based) though. In GD or any other ARPG you can’t be bothered switching weapons because 99% of encounters are close range (and you can’t really make a gap between you and enemies to make use of that).
This game is based of of Titan Quest and weapon swap was viable depending on the build. For example, my Bonecharmer would blast the hell out of mobs with piercing arrows, but would switch to spear to devastate bosses.
In GD it has been rendered useless with unsummoning of pets from changing skill points and loss of auras from components.
Hah, there were also weapons that had summon outsider as proc. You could swap to them, summon 2 powerful pets and switch back to your main weapons. Even without pet bonuses these guys were devastating.
For hundreds of hours in TQ haven’t used weapon swap either. I can see it being somewhat useful for Hunting mastery based builds to have a spear & shield and bow, but that’s about it it =\
I often use a bow and other weapon (spear/mace/sword) with Hunting, but I’m always primarily a bow user. The other thing I use weapon swap for in TQ is for Ternion Attack since it uses a lot of energy so I keep a lower grade staff for dealing with trash mobs and a higher one with Ternion on it for bosses.
Is swap for that necessary though? Haven’t played TQ in a while (and never will probably after that Atlantis BS) but I thought default attack on LMB and Ternion on RMB will get you covered?
I prefer to have an AoE skill like Squall, Volcanic Orb, etc, on the RMB so yes, for me, the swap is necessary otherwise I run out of energy fast using Ternion.
I would make the argument that +1 to All Skills is a lot more versatile than a very specific use case for weapon swap.
I can’t say that’s a goal of ours. It was a niche feature to begin with and has caused more issues (bugs, exploits, etc) than solutions over the years.
Your second weapon slot doesn’t affect your character at all. Once you swap, think of it as equivalent to unequipping the weapon. If this wasn’t the case, you’d see a TON more builds posted that use the secondary slot; how many have you seen? For clarification:
-Summons are unsummoned if your weapon toggle would affect them
-I’ll assume we’re talking about Damage over Time here. Once you apply a DoT, nothing you do will change the DoT (besides reapplying it). Not even reducing enemy RR after the fact will change the DoT. (Assuming we’re not talking about a skill that applies flat damage every second, like Word of Pain)
-if the conversion is on the weapon, it will disappear. Think of weapon swapping as unequipping the weapon
-like DoTs, nothing can alter a debuff once it’s applied (aside from applying it again)
Cool, TY.
So at least -RR and reduced enemy´s damage remain as an exploit of weapon switching. And maybe additional dmg sources for a bleeding build. Wheatstones, etc.