Just wanting your expert opinion on what is better. I currently have a 2-hand staff that deals ~2500 - 3700 damage (which is the highest I have gotten so far) plus it has a legendary power of 5 skeleton “helpers”. I have gotten prolly 50 - 60 1-hand staffs in drops and the same # of off-hand orbs. The 1-hand staffs avg 1200 - 1800 damage and the off-hand orbs avg 250 - 425 damage. When I change from my 2-hand staff to a 1-hand with an off-hand orb, my damage stat goes down by about 20 - 25%. Sometimes, my other stats will go up a little but not enough to make up for the lower damage stat. Will 2-hand staffs ALWAYS be better, damage stat-wise, than a 1-hand w/off-hand orb?
If so, should I just automatically salvage/sell 1-hand staffs and off-hand orbs once you reach a certain point in the game? The prob with that is that my set (Firebird) has an off-hand orb in order to get the 6th item, but I don’t use it because my 2-hand staff is much better, stat-wise, so I have only 5 items in the set.
Any advice is appreciated. My apologies if this issue was already discussed 5 years ago.
BTW: I think this issue is a weapon design “glitch” that should be fixed. Since it is harder to get a 1-hand and an off-hand weapon I think the total damage should be greater than just a 2-hand staff. I currently don’t see any advant. with a 1-hand and off-hand.
Thanks
I’m not a Wizard but I can maybe shed some light on the situation.
Two-handed weapons have higher damage per hit but attack slower and of course take up two slots (no quiver for Wizards)! Next, one-handed weapons are faster and the source off-hand is designed to beef up the damage per hit for their faster attacks.
In the end, the two-hander will still have superior damage in terms of the raw DPS numbers. But the main draw for using one-handed weapons with a source are the legendary affixes associated on some items. Another draw is that you can activate set-bonuses with certain off-hands that cannot be cubed instead.
For example, the Deathwish sword coupled with an Etched Sigil is a very powerful combination, especially with The Grand Vizier in the cube!
However, if you tried to equip The Grand Vizier, you could only cube either the Deathwish OR the Etched Sigil, not both! Thus players will tend to use separate one-handed items and cube powerful two-handed items most of the time (for any relevant class).
Other examples of one-hand + offhand preferred over two-hand weapons:
- Wizard’s Wand of Woh + Orb of Infinite Depth (cube In Geom)
- Monks Kyoshiro’s Soul + Vengeful Wind or Rabid Strike (cube Incense Torch)
- Demon Hunter’s Natalya’s Slayer + Bombardier’s Rucksack (cube Manticore)
- Barbarian’s Bul-Kathos Oath set (cube Furnace or something else)
Thank You Iria. How did you learn what combos and cubed powers are the best? Is there a spreadsheet somewhere (I have seen spreadsheets of weapon combos on other RPGs). It would be nice to know this so if I pick up a Wand of Woh I know I need the look for the Orb of infinite Depth to get a powerful combo. I think I have picked up an Orb of Infinite Depth, but I had no way of knowing that if I combine it with the Wand of Woh – WATCH OUT!
It can be safely said that you should almost never equip a 2h weapon in the current game. There are exceptions of course, like Crusaders who can equip a 2h weapon AND a shield in their off-hand.
As Iria said, its the legendary effect that matters most, so the more you can get on your character, the better.
As for info on these combos/synergies, I highly recommend checking out the Icy Veins website.
I use it quite liberally when trying to make/learn a new build.
EDIT: Another easy method is to look at the leaderboards for which ever class you are interested in. Though, this will normaly only reveal one or two builds p/class. You can rest assured that it will be the strongest Greater Rift build too.
Simply experience, and I mean knowledge of the game itself, not paragon experience. I have played the game for over 4000 hours among all classes (albeit 80% of those hours as Demon Hunter), so you tend to learn what works well with what once you see everything possible.
That said, the site Jay suggested https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/ is a good tool for newer players to set up a working build around a specific set or mechanic. Generally, the guides on that site are very accurate and seasonally up-to-date (there are occasional errors or misinformed advice on some very subtle topics though; I’ve spotted a few in the DH guides).
To be fair, there is more to gearing up than just combination of weapon and off-hand. Your gear right now has very little synergy, your gems give you little benefit (you need +Int, not +Dex/+Str), your legendary gems are not particularly useful, and your skill selection seems somewhat random. As others have said, check out the builds at icy-veins to get a general idea of what you should be aiming for and you will probably want a complete set to begin with, because those give you the strongest boost.
Apropos, I see that you have the 2p Firebird bonus so I assume that you’re in the process of going through the season journey? That’s a good start but just be aware that Firebird’s set has a very strange mechanic (“kiting” an ignited elite to get the full set bonus), which many (including myself) absolutely hate. If at all possible, I would try and put together a Vyr or Tal Rasha set - those allow for much easier gameplay while you’re figuring out what exactly you want to do.
That notwithstanding, getting a full set and gear that synergizes with it should be your priority right now.
Thank You Pja. The reason I use Dex and Str gems is because those are my weakest stats, so I feel I need to boost those up. You say, “your legendary gems are not particularly useful”. Do you mean the gems I get from GRs? I keep what I get, so whatever I get, I get. I have been told to pick 2 -3 leg gems I like and upgrade the hell of of them to lvl 25. So that is what I am going to do.
I now have the 6p Firebird set (there are 7 altogether but my 2-hand weapon can’t use the source). I have a 2p Tal Rasha and a 2p Vyr (both sets received in a drop), but I will have to get the rest in a drop so right now I am relying on Firebird that is “given” to Wizards in Season 17.
The thing about D3 is that, unlike many other aRPGs out there, other stats than your mainstat are effectively useless. Wiz, Necro and WD need Intelligence, Barb and Crusader Strength and Monk and DH Dexterity, and that’s all. Your damage is based off of your mainstat, so investing in anything else takes away from your dmg output. People will socket diamonds for resistance or rubies for armor, but that generally happens only once you have enough mainstat from paragon that whatever extra you’re getting from gems is almost negligible.
Yes, those are the legendary gems. The best ones to use depend on your build, but as a rule of thumb, you can hardly ever go wrong with Bane of the Trapped and Bane of the Powerful. Bane of the Stricken is popular in a lot of builds, so is Gogok of Swiftness or Pain Enhancer - it really depends on the specific build.
You really don’t want to use a 2-hand weapon pretty much with any class (except for crusader) and definitely not as a wizard. While I haven’t spent much time playing Firebird, if I recall correctly, you will want to use Deathwish and Etched Sigil combo.
Overall, I’d suggest that you check the ~https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/~ website. They have a list of builds for each class that is mostly up do date and also a section for beginner players and some other useful info on farming, conquests and such. Or if you have any more specific questions, just ask here.