The bigger problem is the loss of a gear set bonus. I personally think that the damage or utility of 2H could be improved because of that...

Given the direction of heavy attacks being the meta, they could add something interesting to Forceful passive. Extra physical penetration for 10 seconds comes to​ mind, since penetration has an overall limit.

In the next patch we're going to see the gradual extinction of spammables so any change made in that direction will be wasted and is going to overperform in PvP, which is already full of players charging into you and dizzlying swinging you until the end of time.

This will not solve the problem that Two Handed weapons will force you to choose what kind of equipment you want on the main bar and maybe using the proccing one on the backbar ( much like you're doing in PvP ) thus resulting in a further drop in performances.
And of course, for longer fights DW has much much more to offer. Has a mitigation skill, has a DoT that turns into a HoT, has AoE ( much more AoE than 2H ) and has better passives giving you bonuses against low health targets, stunned, immobilized and silenced enemies.

By the look of it, one weapon is clearly made for short and bursty attacks while the other one is more oriented towards sustainability and long fight.

I think it's nice that 2H and Bow are more Utility than pure damage. There's no reason for them to compete with DW damage.

tinbromide wrote: »

Kilandros wrote: »

I think it's nice that 2H and Bow are more Utility than pure damage. There's no reason for them to compete with DW damage.

PVE perspective ahead:

I would agree on bow (though I wish that they would buff up the bow a bit, maybe give an encase/lightweight trap skill to the line to shore up it's ranged utility), but DW used to be "best for AOE" and 2H used to be "best for single target" and you had to decide if you wanted to be good at dropping trash mobs and Adds or if you wanted to be awesome in boss fights. Then they buffed flurry so that it fired off in under a second and DW became the highest single target and AOE stamina line.

If you want a melee utility line, the argument is that they should rework 1h+s to be more useful and let 2h be better for bosses.

And this is why trying to balance for both PvP and PvE at the same time is folly.

Right now for stam weapons

2h/bow is tops in pvp for burst and utility
dw/bow is tops for group/trial sustain dps
both of these of course already include the weapon set counts at 1 for 2h and 2 for dw so thats not a concern.

either will work in many solo cases though i think 2h is preferred by many depending on class heal vs weapon heal etc.
either will work for sustain g/t DPS in even most trial/group content at normal, some vet unless you are going for top score type numbers. Either will work for pvp. They both work but one is better depending on content de jour.

if you moved 2h/bow up the chain in pve group/trial dps **enough** that it would shift the focus away from dw/bow to any significant degree then dw would be no longer have its "place to shine" and 2h would be the most obvious choice since it is good enough everywhere. (obviously if you shift 2h/bow up some but not enough to shift the focus away from dw/bow to any significant degree - why waste time doing nothing?!?)

Balance (IMO) is when everything is good/best somewhere and nothing is good/best everywhere. The current state of these stamina options vs each other seems to achieve that.

Not to mention that 2h cost half the tempers to improve quality on compare to the DW-pair, took half the farming and almost half the mats to make, etc. not major but very much a factor given the trait hunt rng for weapons is the most onerous.

i use both on various characters myself.

Just buff carve. Heavy attack meta is kinda working in 2 hand favor...