Mostly because you'd have to replace either bow or dw.

Bow provides great aoe dps and an execute.

Dw provide dots, quick weaves and most importantly the massive aoe defense in form of deadly cloak.

is it less survivable than dw? and how much less dps and survivability is a 2h/bow build vs a dw/bow build?

Whenever I see a two-hander in a dungeon, I'm like " Dis gonna be bad" Whenever I see a two-hander in BG's coming at me, I'm like " Dis gonna be bad"

On my dummy parse, 2h ususally does 3k less than DW. But 2h depend a lots on RNG in execute phase. If executioner crit more under 15% HP, parse will go up like 1-2k. So in most of the time, 2h will do less dps but if you don't min-max, the number is not that much. You can still pull 35k+ with 2h, even with no major fracture, and that is enough to clear 95% contents in game.

just need to build a 2 hander build suited for its purpose. Its not as good as dual wield because 1) its own survival skill doesnt do dps as well, ie dual wield blade cloak, as compared to Rally which gives a buff instead. 2) the buff mentioned is Brutality and you can get it through potions, which further augments the dual wield skill line. 3) Rending Slashes typically do better in single target than Carve, which deals better damage exponentially when in groups. that Dot alone gives a tremendous boost to dps.

take note too that while 2 hander has a very good execute, Dual wield has a passive that deals extra damage on low health targets. So, with Steel Tornado, you can virtually make it as an execute.

With all that being said though, I love how Two hander looks when hitting multiple targets with Carve and Reverse Slice, wont lose it just kos DW is better dps.

i play the game to have fun, not to calculate which deals better damage. As long as i can finish up dungeons and trials comfortably with 2handers, im good.

Silver_Strider wrote: »

It's not terrible, it's just not the best option.

2h is best on a class that have spammable skills already in their toolkits, such as NB with Surprise Attack and Templar with Jabs since Wrecking Blow is awful as far as spam skills go. While it's a beautiful weapon to use for trash pull, due primarily to the fact that it has some decent AoE potential built into it, it doesn't do as well as Bow in that department and in single target, Dual wield has it beat as well.

It's not a terrible weapon choice and you can easily still pull decent DPS number with it but what some people view as decent, others view it as weak and leads to people saying it's a bad weapon as a result.

why is wrecking blow a bad spammable power?

Because maelstrom bow, dual wield passive and deadly cloak

the combination of brawler + master 2h is pretty good in trash fight it is a low risk high reward mechanic in this game... however when it comes to single-target dps...

when it comes to single target dps you will easily see that dw is designed around sustained dps high dot damage while 2h is mainly a burst kit... now the simple thing is that your wrecking blow tool tip does not matter when your damage comes mainly from your dot's and you spend most of your time reapplying dot's... the fact that crushing weapon out performs wrecking blow on 2h is pretty bad for 2h dps... so executioner and brawler are left... rending is stricly better than brawler...executioner is strictly worse than killer's blade and even on the other classes it does not make up for the dps loss...

then there are the passives... and two enchant's instead of one etc. i don't think that they can properly fit 2h to be comparable to dw without impairing the pvp aspect of any of those weapon lines...

some people say that because of blade cloak dw is way better since it necessary to survive but this is nonsense... i never use blade cloak in a trial... it is more of a pvp thing.

for vma it is not as competitive as bow/bow or dw/bow since it lacks a good aoe ability... like steel tornado or shrouded dagger's which helps you to clear trash rounds pretty fast... the brawler cone has the wrong shape for that...

barbarian340 wrote: »

is there a reason 2h wont get a small buff?

not a good reason...because now it suffers in PVE...and im sure the devs have the capability to allow certain things in PVP but not pve

For reference, this is my friend’s 2h 6mil parse with a stam sorc. Used both lover and twice-fanged because the class lacks a source of fracture. I think he’s since broken 50k but I couldn’t immediately find that screenshot.



Not sure what dw stam sorc does with the same stats, and I wouldn’t doubt it’s more. But certainly those kinds of numbers are plenty for any ST fight. Edit: As others have said, you’ll hear 2h is “bad” because it’s not the best, not because it can’t perform well.

Alcast has a guide for 2h/2h dps to make it decent. I love melee weapons and I refuse to use a bow lol. I am sure people will look down on me and say crap but I can pull 26k dps with no ultimates using DW/2h. That is without a perfect rotation and weaving pretty well. I am glad I use 2h on my back bar, doing pug groups mostly, it saves me so much at times. I can use brawler so I can aoe swipe and give myself a shield and have rally give me a burst heal along with constant healing. I feel like I would be dropping way too much in randoms if I didn't have those two to help me out. You can pull decent dps without a bow, it just wont be what people want.

Endless hail, master bow, vma bow all make having bow on back bar needed for highest dps. And people will always want that, because if there is a failure they will most likely blame the person not min maxing.

yurimodin wrote: »

what about the Nord bonus for 2h?

That’s a bonus to xp gained I believe, not anything functional for 2h performance.

ArchMikem wrote: »

jypcy wrote: »

For reference, this is my friend’s 2h 6mil parse with a stam sorc. Used both lover and twice-fanged because the class lacks a source of fracture. I think he’s since broken 50k but I couldn’t immediately find that screenshot.



Not sure what dw stam sorc does with the same stats, and I wouldn’t doubt it’s more. But certainly those kinds of numbers are plenty for any ST fight. Edit: As others have said, you’ll hear 2h is “bad” because it’s not the best, not because it can’t perform well.

I only see 2 2H skills in that parse. Can barely call that a 2H build.

I mean, it’s a build that uses a 2h... not sure what more you expect. Tmk most dw builds use only 1, maybe 2 dw skills to be most effective with that weapon. As Kuma noted, bow is a given for high-end stam dps, so stam builds are generally classified by their front bar weapon.

Now if OP’s question was whether using all 6 active 2h skills is bad for pve dps, then I might be singing a different tune. But that’s not how I read it. OP is welcome to clarify if I’ve misinterpreted.

ArchMikem wrote: »

jypcy wrote: »

For reference, this is my friend’s 2h 6mil parse with a stam sorc. Used both lover and twice-fanged because the class lacks a source of fracture. I think he’s since broken 50k but I couldn’t immediately find that screenshot.



Not sure what dw stam sorc does with the same stats, and I wouldn’t doubt it’s more. But certainly those kinds of numbers are plenty for any ST fight. Edit: As others have said, you’ll hear 2h is “bad” because it’s not the best, not because it can’t perform well.

I only see 2 2H skills in that parse. Can barely call that a 2H build.

Isn’t that true for every build (except healer)? How many destro skills to you run? How many bow, or dw? Two, maybe three.