Dual wield or sword and shield?

LittlePinkDot

Which do you think is better for a stamblade and why? Dual wield or sword and shield for back bar. Bow of front bar.

SammyFable

PvE or PvP?
For PvE DPS Dual wield, for PvP 2h.

LittlePinkDot

Im building a pvp bow gank. The build did recommend 2handers for just the skill Rally, why? Is there nothing on the other skill trees that would work? I still have to pve to level up and get the skill points from main and faction quests, so Im currently using dual wield right now, but for some fights Im wondering if having a shield would be nice for mitigation

Narvuntien

Rally is really strong.. It gives major brutality and it is a big burst heal. Sure you can get that from potions but this is always available on the press of a button. Plus you can cloak and rally for a crit heal.

On my 2h bar I also have Executioner and Onslaught, they delete low hp targets before they can heal and escape.

Sword and shield are for standing your ground and brawling, bow ganks are doing nothing of the sort they are roll dodging and running away.

Dual wield is good as your main bar so you can use a monster helmet like selenes for addiontal burst but that makes no sense unless its your main thing.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

As stated, rally is one of the most OP skills in PVP. HoT, Burst Heal, and out of combat damage buff all in one. Is it worth slotting a 2H for just one skill? Most say yes to be honest. I prefer DW/Bow when I have good support, and DW/2H when I dont.

NB is perhaps the class with the toolkit that most aligns with 2H as they have a class skill that mirrors basically every skill in the 2H line with one exception. Gap closer? check. AOE spammable? check. Hard hitting burst skill? Check. Execute? check.

The one thing that stamblades really lack is a strong burst heal, so rally is really powerful. As to the other 2H skills, whether you want to use the 2H version or the Class version is really up to you. You can make situational arguments that go either way for pretty much all of them. Also, your gear might make some of those decisions for you as well. If running a VMA 2H, you might want to use crit rush over ambush. If using a master weapon, you might want to use Brawler over power extraction. If using an asylum weapon, you probably want to use executioner over killers blade, etc.