Rend and Whirlwind Damage

No it would not. The base damage would be the same but once you start hardcasting you cant get two stacks of manual rend from one weapon. There is also the factor that there are no good shields. None provide us with a valuable bonus.

And certainly not better bonus’ than we get from BK or IPB sword sets.

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Where does it say more weapons means it hits more?

See Chris’ comment above mine :point_up_2:

Doesn’t the manual Rend casts take only the damage from the main hand weapon?

Yes but in order to stack twice and benefit from lamentation you need two weapons.

It does mean that your main hand should be your weapon with the highest DPS?

Ok, so just to clarify everything that’s been said in this thread:

  • When dual wielding, and using WW, Rend alternates between taking its damage from your main hand and off hand weapons.
  • When hard-casting Rend, the damage is taken from only your main hand weapon. So if carrying two weapons, the one with higher weapon damage should be in your main hand.
  • When using a single weapon, for instance when using a sword and shield or a 2H weapon, Rend takes its damage from that single weapon, whether WWing or hard-casting.
  • When WWing, both your direct WW hits and your Dust Devils apply Rend, within 9 yards of your character. As a result, you stack Rend very quickly, and can keep up 2 stacks of Rend even with a very low sheet APS- like when using a sword and shield or a 2H weapon.
  • When hard-casting Rend, you apply it at your sheet APS, so, much slower than you do via WW. As a result, it is difficult to reach the 2.0 sheet APS you need to achieve max damage hard-casting when you are using a sword and shield or a 2H weapon. In fact, even when dual-wielding this can be a little tricky. When using IB, we clear the 2.0 sheet APS mark easily, but if using Ambo/Doom, we are at only 1.72 / 1.85 … yet another data point in favor of IB.
  • Hard-cast Rend procs Area Damage, while Rend caused by WW/Ambo does not. This means that when pushing, in good density, hard-casting massively increases your damage dealt.
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Thanks for clarifying Rage.

I never hard cast rend, I just apply with WW. It seems to stack fine with 1 weapon and shield. Like I notice zero difference in how fast enemies die. However, I survive a lot better with the shield.

One more clarification (which I’ll also add to my post above):

Hard-cast Rend procs Area Damage, while Rend caused by WW/Ambo does not. This means that when pushing, in good density, hard-casting massively increases your damage dealt. I talk about how much of the damage of a “high pusher” comes from AD in this post.

So, just spinning definitely puts a ceiling on how high you can push. But, some people just like to spin, and that’s fine!

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Just to clarify, Dual Wielding in D3 grants you an inherent attack speed bonus of 15%, which would translate into more hits.

The other big thing that I didn’t seem mentioned in this thread is that using a shield (or single 2H weapon) means you give up the 130% CHD from the 2nd emerald, which is a pretty big damage boost.

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This x1000.

CHC and CHD act as direct multpliers to Rend’s damage. Missing 130% CHD is a big DPS loss.

You can push with a shield and avoid using hard-cast Rends for a long time–the build is very strong, after all–but as you approach the fishing threshold for your gear/skill/paragon, you’ll need to adopt the standard build for better, more efficient results (if that matters at all).

Check the stickied build guide for more info.

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Yes, good point about the 15%. Though keep in mind that for spinning, AS is mostly irrelevant (the exception being Stricken stacks), and for hard-casting, the benefit caps when you hit 2.0 APS- any extra AS beyond that isn’t really providing a benefit.

One of the benefits of dual wielding, and particularly using IB, is that it lets you hit that 2.0 APS point without doing anything screwy with your gear.

But IF you were playing spinning-only, and we were setting aside the 30% IB damage bonus, swapping an off-hand weapon for a shield costs you that 130% CHD from an emerald, but also gains you 10% extra CHC. Bottom line, it’s about an 8% damage loss.

On the other hand, for spinning-only, using a 2H weapon is a huge damage boost compared to dual-wielding: about +56% damage, even considering the lost 130% CHD. Even if you throw in the +30% from IB’s set bonus, using a 2H is still about 20% higher damage.

Of course, all that goes out the window once you start talking about hard-casting.

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Not sure where all these shield advocates are coming from. Maybe I will go check icy-veins to see what kinda garbage they are pumping out lately. Hahahahah!!!

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Eh, who knows… some people like driving the long way home

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This just means that you’re playing at too low a level.

Which there is nothing wrong with by the way. If you want to muck around with some random builds, and see how far you can take them, you do you, play the way you like. Hell, even come back and let us know how you get on.

But as someone who has been converted by the experienced voices in Barb forums, once you reach a certain point, the off builds just aren’t going to cut it.

Happy spinning!

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I play exactly the you do and some players hassle me for it, but it all good. Here’s the S&B setup that I’m going to player after the season:

Below, Rage helped how to taken advantage of it during S22.

Hard casting regularly is more effective for me fer sure . I was in the habit of not hard casting enough . I recently started hard casting a lot and noticed I was melting them down much faster . I thought I would try a 129 push the other night and just missed it by a half minute after increasing my hard casting . And that’s with using BK swords with Crimson and Leg gems not quite leveled where they should be . Another thing that is really helpful is when dual wielding , it’s good to keep weapons as close in damage as possible . Me , my BK blades are both identical so they are consistent when alternating . Damage stays exactly the same on both . I notice too , that if I get in a really dense screen of monsters all bunched together , if I spin for a bit in there for 5 seconds or so then hard cast several times they melt down pretty good . The more density , the better definitely . The damage you are doing to all the trash in the mix reflects the damage on to the elites and blues even at a slight distance from them . And with the right timing on COE physical cycle they will go down a lot faster . A lot of it’s in the way we execute casting while in the battle . Just be careful hard casting when doing it in higher GR’s . You got to time it right or you will take a one shot and die . The spinning helps keep you alive whereas the interruption from spin to the cast can get you dead in a instant .

You will feel like they are melting faster when hard casting, because that is when you also get the effect of area damage, which you don’t get from auto cast Rends.

Not sure what paragon you are, but you might get more value from running the core 6 pc wastes set, rather than the cc set.

Density is key, which is why rage flip is so important to learn how to use, and also knowing when to move on, or when to skip completely.

When hard casting Rend, you really only want to get off about 2 casts of Rend. Any more and you run the risk of dropping both your wastes and taeguk DR bonuses, which means dead.

I run with a Raza Naga mouse, so I have numbered buttons at my thumb. I have WW on my right mouse button, and hard cast on 4, which I can do without ever letting go of WW. By using space to force cast, it gives the effect of hard casting Rend without ever stopping spinning, even though I do.

Keep spinning, keep learning, and as always, come here to ask questions and share your exploits. We all love hearing/seeing how people are going.

Happy spinning :+1:t2:

Long time no see. Hope you and yours are well. Hope life on the ranch continues be awesome.

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