StamSorc 2hander or Dual Wield?

Ibibi · October 2017

I have played since level 1 two handed .Love the brawler shielding ,but have seen that dual wield is more dominant in stam dps builds.Does it do more damage compared to 2 handed?

VaranisArano · October 2017

Both work fine and to some degree depend on the content you are running. I use DW on my stam sorcs because I like flurry, rending slashes, and the aoe dr of blade cloak. The real benefit of DW is that you get another item to fill out your set bonuses. However, I've looked at PVP builds with two-handed where the charge and execute gets put to good use.

If you want to do normal or vet dungeons, you'll be fine with either as long as you use it effectively and know the mechanics. At the level of trials, look at trials builds for what they recommend.

DocFrost72 · October 2017

The answer will depend on the specifics, and how you like to play/what your group needs from you.

First things first- as a stam sorc, one of the big things you get is a hefty amount if survivability built into your damage toolkit. Surge is a great method of self healing (to the point you may never need or want to slot vigor), and the major resists from hurricane make you a fair deal tankier.

Disclaimer up front: Unless someone came out with a hereto unnoticed (at least by me), meta shaking setup, dual wield will always do more single target damage per second than 2h when taken on average.

Where 2h excels is in survivability through rally and brawler, as well as giving you a hard execute. As a sorc, you have a passive execute sub 15% and great survivability, so those things can make you a walking, butt kicking tanky dps if you want that. Particularly useful for soloing content.

The big place where 2h beats dual wield is aoe damage. The bleed from brawler got a pretty good buff a few patches back, and the master 2h buff looks really promising. In trash fights where there are ample adds, you're going to feel like a farmer culling wheat. It's really fun!

One huge thing to consider: 2h doesn't have the same ability dw does to run 5-5-2. That does factor into your damage.

Asardes · October 2017

Generally 2W, but there's a set in the Halls of Fabrication trial that buffs your team quite a lot when you use an ultimate - War Machine. Combined with Power Stone passive that reduces your ultimate cost by 15% and Carve (the other morph) that gives you minor heroism and fills your ultimate fast this means you can cast Flawless Dawnbreaker often and activate the set buff. Ideally you would be running something like 5 Hunding's Rage / Strength of the Automaton /Two Fanged Snake / Night Mother's Gaze / Sunderflame (depending on group makeup) with 5 War Machine and Master's greatsword front bar, Maelstrom bow backbar.

SydneyGrey · October 2017

I've played both, and got much better DPS with my dual wield.* Plus, with DW you can have two 5-piece armor sets and a 2-piece monster set. I always thought it wasn't fair that characters who use staffs or two-handers aren't able to have that same advantage.

*Although the only time I played two-handed was on a templar, so my experience with two-handed is limited to that one class.

Asardes · October 2017

Well, 2W Magicka Templar is pretty much dead, first because the passives added for staves nos gives you solid damage, second, because LA from staff does more DPS, being based on your spell damage, and third, you can weave heavy attacks to get magicka back.

WrathOfInnos · October 2017

Asardes wrote: »

Generally 2W, but there's a set in the Halls of Fabrication trial that buffs your team quite a lot when you use an ultimate - War Machine. Combined with Power Stone passive that reduces your ultimate cost by 15% and Carve (the other morph) that gives you minor heroism and fills your ultimate fast this means you can cast Flawless Dawnbreaker often and activate the set buff. Ideally you would be running something like 5 Hunding's Rage / Strength of the Automaton /Two Fanged Snake / Night Mother's Gaze / Sunderflame (depending on group makeup) with 5 War Machine and Master's greatsword front bar, Maelstrom bow backbar.

Yes this is a fun build, and one of the few good uses for a two hander in PVE. I want to add that the asylum greatsword's ultimate regen may outperform the master greatsword. The other fun thing to try is onslaught, which is a free ultimate if you get the killing blow. This allows for 100% uptime of war machine against weak trash, but becomes increasingly difficult to get that killing blow in content with tougher enemies and more allies (like vet trials).

The main downside to stam sorc 2H is that you lack a good single target spammable (like flurry for DW). Uppercut is slow and does not empower DoT's. Nightblades and Templars excel here with surprise attack and jabs, and both have a cheaper ultimate for higher war machine uptime.

Lukums1 · October 2017

Dual wield PVE, 2H PVP.

Dual for significant DPS, 2H for burst.

^ stick with the above can't go wrong.