Dual Wield vs Two Handed

Necromage_Moonwalker · July 2023

How come Damage ends up being higher with dual wield instead of two handed? How is dual wield damage calculated? 6% of an offhand damage does not put it above two-handed mathematically.

Edit: These are all great responses, but I'm asking to as HOW the damage is calculated. For example, my spell power reaches 6024 when using nirnhoned dual wield, but using the same set in two handed only I have 5899 spell power. It makes no sense since 2042 from nirn two hand should not be surpassed by the 6% passive from dual wield at 1735 nirn.

Sockermannen · July 2023

It’s because of the crit damage from daggers, lots of people also run nirnhones on mainhand which increases damage further.

Not 100% sure how the numbers are calculated but i believe the offhand adds it’s damage to the mainhand and by itself has 0 damage, the 6% damage passive is there to give it something.

merpins · July 2023

It's nirnhoned + two glyphs, as well as the 1314 crit rate (higher now, but that's U39's nerf).

If Zos wants other weapons to be competitive, they should buff them. The bow buff next patch is pretty good, but it needs just a nudge more to make it worth slotting above daggers, like making that 25% damage boost skill have a 2% increase per stack (10% at max) for all damage as well. 2-handed would need some kind of decent buff to be better than dual-wield. Like changing Follow Up into something actually useful, probably crit rate, as well as buffing the weapon/spell damage and the crit damage from Heavy Weapons.

mmtaniac · July 2023

I like two hand for sustain passive. But it's bad it's work only when people die so should be some extra here for sustain maybe +129 stamina regen passive when you use two hand weapon and reduce bonus you get from killing to 20% from 30% this way you will get extra sustain always and bonus when killing. This way two handed weapon will be more sustain oriented compared to dual wield damage oriented.

kringled_1 · July 2023

Necromage_Moonwalker wrote: »

How come Damage ends up being higher with dual wield instead of two handed? How is dual wield damage calculated? 6% of an offhand damage does not put it above two-handed mathematically.

Edit: These are all great responses, but I'm asking to as HOW the damage is calculated. For example, my spell power reaches 6024 when using nirnhoned dual wield, but using the same set in two handed only I have 5899 spell power. It makes no sense since 2042 from nirn two hand should not be surpassed by the 6% passive from dual wield at 1735 nirn.

There's something different in your setups, I'm not sure where either of your numbers are coming from but they're including some stat boosts. The raw numbers I am seeing on a non-nirn 2H are 1571, should be about 1807 on a nirn 2h. The raw numbers on a nirn dagger are 1535 and 1335 for a non nirn, should come up to about 1615 on a DW setup. Are you running swords? because the passive from them adds raw damage numbers.

Braffin · July 2023

Dual wield is calculated by adding 17,7% (not including the passive yet) of offhand damage to your mainhand.

So the formula is: Mainhand WD + Offhand WB * 0.177 + Offhand WB * 0.06 [DW passive]

The calculation for CP 160 golded weapons (without nirnhoned mainhand) looks like this:

1335 + 1335*0.177 + 1335*0.06 = 1335 + 236 + 80 = 1651

Putting a nirnhoned weapon in your mainhand looks like this:

1535 + 1335*0.177 + 1335*0.06 = 1535 + 236 + 80 = 1851

And for the sake of completion a nirnhoned weapon in your offhand (don't do that):

1335 + 1535*0.177 + 1535*0.06 = 1335 + 272 + 92 = 1699

Two-handed weapons at CP 160 gold have in comparison 1571 (no nirnhoned) and 1806 (nirnhoned).

So the higher damage comes indeed from the passive Dual Wield Expert as well as the use of a nirnhoned mainhand. If you delete both DW damage is exactly as high as Two-handed.

kringled_1 · July 2023

Hmm. I replicate your numbers but the 17.7% intrinsic buff seems to be not well documented.

Braffin · July 2023

kringled_1 wrote: »

Hmm. I replicate your numbers but the 17.7% intrinsic buff seems to be not well documented.

You're right unfortunately. It's one of the many values the community had to find out for themselves and pass along to other players, as the game is rather bad in teaching it's core mechanics. Tamriel Foundry was a good source for information like this a few years back but is down meanwhile.