With the new attack speed changes to Whirlwind, two handed weapons have fallen off quite a bit. Ignoring the current impact of slowing effects, two-handers (2H) sit roughly in the middle of where they use to sit before. You needed 59 effective IAS (EIAS) to hit 4 frames per attack (FPA) on a 2H weapon. EIAS = WIAS - WSM here. This means only a very limited amount of weapons could reach 4 FPA with 2H. This included IK Maul with two Shaels, BOTD in a 0 WSM base or faster, or anything of similar nature where you can stack 50-90 WIAS to make the weapon hit 4 FPA. Otherwise, it was highly probable you sat at 6 FPA.
Now, based on ubeogesh’s findings, you need 51 EIAS (relative to 0 WSM base) to hit 5 FPA (the new maximum for 2H). EIAS = SIAS + DM(IAS) - WSM here. It requires a little more investment to reach than 4 FPA did beforehand, but the options you have available to you to hit it are much larger now. It only takes Frenzy level 16 (plus stacking it up) to obtain 40 EIAS. If you have a -10 WSM base, you only need 1 more EIAS. If you have a Fanaticism mercenary, that’s 33 EIAS on levels 14 and 15.
Additionally, this opens up all weapons that couldn’t have WIAS (or very little of it) to be useful for Whirlwind. There are now plenty of viable options, but people like their meta builds.
With that being said, 2H draws the short stick since there’s less for them to work with, being 2H. A 2H WW Barb can’t really Frenzy to generate some easy EIAS. They could use a Fanaticism mercenary… but we all know how not great they are. This leaves mostly gear options. In a 0 WSM base, 51 EIAS is 89 IAS. 89 IAS is easy to generate for those big WIAS options that were originally used (IK Maul at 80, BOTD at 60, etc). But now they must also take 20 IAS Gloves or Amulet or even more to hit 5 FPA. An IK Maul would need 61 EIAS, which is 125 IAS. You get 80 from the weapon with double Shael and 25 from the gloves. You need 20 more, so this requires 2 IAS jewels placed in the helm or chest. Socket choices are pretty restrictive and still 1 FPA less than before.
Personally, I would be okay with this, 1 frame is a pretty big change but 2H are naturally slower. However, 2H currently suck and there are no mirror match situations for Whirlwind where a 2H can meet equal damage to two 1H weapons, especially now since the first hit check (4th frame) now swings with both weapons instead of just one (note: the second hit check (8th frame) doesn’t exist anymore). On top of this, Whirlwind is already slightly inferior to most melee options, as the damage scaling is less compared to most builds (even if it hits much faster), and Whirlwind is extremely restrictive, not allowing you to heal during the animation amongst plenty of other things.
Some proposals to fix 2H WW (take one, several, or all that seem good or relevant):
- Since slowing SIAS now impacts Whirlwind, it’s impossible for a 2H to overstack and keep himself at 5 FPA. Make slowing effects not as prominent in Whirlwind, whether that be: Whirlwind uses the same attack speed no matter what calculated at the start of the animation (if you start slow you stay slow though), don’t allow slowing effects to apply mid-WW (WW state has 100% curse length reduction, not sure how you’d handle Holy Freeze), or increase the breakpoints of WW enough so that they’re easier to reach and can be overstacked upon much more easily.
- Buff 2H damage, whether that be: just the weapons across the board (but that’s a whole issue in of itself), some skill-specific 2H buff (new logic would have to be introduced for this I believe), or just buff WW damage in general (though dual wield just stays further ahead).
- Make Whirlwind interact with all elements of the game if you’re going to let slowing effects apply to them, such as: CTCs, being able to drink potions mid-WW, etc.
- Change Whirlwind mechanics to work similarly to console, where, instead of Whirlwind being a “spin to clicked destination”, make it “spin toward cursor for as long as skill is channeled”, similar to how Inferno channels. That way they’re not locked in a Whirlwind and can end the animation when they please (incase they get debuffed mid-WW and have to spend the next 17 years waiting for it to end). There’s probably other ways you could design this too if this is too much of a change.