Dual Wield - Let's get this Sorted Once and For All!

New Player Help
1

Hi everyone,

First of all, I searched, extensively. The results were either inconclusive, 8 years old, contradictory or all the above.

Questions:

1) How is attack speed calculated when dual wield?

a) Main hand only
b) average of main hand and offhand attacks per second
c) 2 x cycle time calculation

2) How does Percentage Damage Incease (10% Damage) affect skills?

a) It depend on the skill
b) Each weapon contribute 5% at most (half of the 10%)
c) Something else - please detail

3) How is attack speed calculated?

a) The slowest hand's attack speed = governing attack speed
b) It is an average of the two weapon's attack speed
c) It is a calculation based on cycle times
d) It depends on the skills
  1. For all questions and answers about with “it depends on the skill in question” is there an official list from blizzard or another reputable source?

.
. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-
. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-. -. - . -.-
.

The Reason for The question

Got a New Rabid Strike Primal:
1560 - 1940 Damage
1000 Dexterity
35% Crit Hit Damage
7% Attack speed

Already have a santified Kyo blade
1560-1940 Damage
10% damage
10% Cooldown
24% Area damage

What is best to do with this primal? Dex to CDR? Asp to CDR?
Does the Asp benefit me given that main hand won’t have asp?
Should I keep the asp and make rabid strike the main hand?
What will happen to the 10% damage bonus on Kyo Blade if I do this?

2

See https://maxroll.gg/d3/resources/attack-speed-breakpoints-explained for more information on this subject.

I could re-post the entire article, but it is best if you read it and then come back if you have any questions.

I would highly recommend importing your character into D3planner and playing with the potential rolls before deciding which stat you should roll to get the most benefit.

You can also save your setup and share the link here so that others can see exactly what you are looking at and give you more detailed advice. You can paste a link, and then highlight it and click the </> button to post it.

I tried to look at your profile, but did not see anything, so importing may be out of the question. Are you playing on console perhaps?

3

So just blind trust D3Planner then? I have of course played about with it, read that article and more. I keep finding contradictory information and was wondering if anyone here had first hand testing results.

Some contradiction include:
Which skills use only main hand for calculations

  • according to some this includes WoL and Cyclone

Which skills alternate hands

  • commonly cited examples included channelled skills

Also, if a skill doesn’t alternate hands, and uses main hand only, how would one test this?

4

As opposed to what, exactly? We only have access to the client end of the game, not the server side where all the calculations are done. The only thing they can do is observe and document. You can either trust it or not.

If you are looking for some specific testing you can do on your own, you can use a level 1 white weapon in the main hand, and a primal in the offhand, and go kill zombies with damage numbers turned on, and compare the damage when attacking with different skills.

If you only get low damage numbers, then it is only calculating off the main hand. If you get both high and low damage numbers, then it alternates the calculations between weapons. Also, it might take an average between the 2 weapons for some skills.

You can do this yourself for each skill and rune in the game, and then compile a list, and post it online and share it. Then people will have the same response that you did: “Are we just supposed to blindly trust this guys’ data and testing methods”?

D3planner tells you how the damage is calculated. For example, Tempest rush tells you that it alternates weapons for calculating damage; same for Wave of light and Cyclone Strike. In fact ALL the monk skills alternate weapons for calculating damage, as far as I can tell. Earthquake for Barb is an example of a skill that uses only the main hand for calculating damage.

You can either trust this, or go test it yourself. If you don’t trust D3planner, then whom will you trust? Me?
Is anyone else beside Maxroll and D3planner testing, collecting data, and posting guides online?

I could answer the specific questions that you are asking, but I am pretty sure you will follow it up with: “How do you know for sure? How did you test this? Are you just trusting another persons’ opinion”?, etc. I think you will not be satisfied unless you go do your own testing and answer your own questions for yourself, but I could be wrong.

Side note: I have submitted many bug reports to d3planner over the years, and learned a lot by reading all the other bug reports and Riv’s replies to me and others. Sometimes I was wrong about my conclusions, and sometimes Riv was wrong about how he was testing things.

D3Planner is not infallible. If you do your own testing and something seems off, you can make a bug report and ask him how he arrived at his calculations, but I think the D3Planner website is a great place to start when doing your own testing.

3 Likes