I know this question has been asked before, and before, and before, and before, and before... I'm asking it again. :-) I've read a fair number of posts and the answer seems to always end up "DW gives you more DPS but not enough to really matter unless you are trying to win some kind of prize, go with whatever you want." I'm never going to be top-ranking DPS, or anything, so I've just been playing with both and trying to figure out what I like best. And I like different parts of both lines, and can't figure out which side comes out ahead.

I should note that while I've been playing with this I've also been playing with the psijic skill line, which has muddied the waters. I know most of you got over the psijic line years ago, but it's still shiny to me. Be kind.

Anyway, here's what I've noticed so far:

DW:

+ on a purely superficial level, I tend to like the way DW feels faster than 2H, though the animations are weird if you're dual weilding blunt weapons or axes, especially with the flurry skill and it's morphs

- The whirlwind line feels redundant if you have ruinous scythe. yes, whirling blades gives you 100% more damage when targets fall below 50% and it's an AOE centered on you, but ruinous scythe is cheaper to use and gives you a heal. It is an arc in front of you but that just means you need to move around while using it, which isn't really a problem. Its not as a good a heal as the magicka morph because it doesn't have the hot effect, but it's still really useful. I like to think of it as the templar puncturing sweep's cousin from the wrong side of the tracks that never gets invited to Thanksgiving.

+ The flurry line is useful and does good damage BUT

- I find that (since I'm playing with the psijic skill line) crushing weapon is more useful when I can get the weaving right. It's less expensive and has a built-in self heal

+ the DW passives give you nice bonuses to damage, and increased crit if you DW daggers

+ it's actually possible to use DW without buying any of the attack skills if you're spamming with crushing weapon. That means you can also remove the passives that are just for the DW skills, which makes the whole line cheaper to buy with skill points

+ specific to crushing weapon, the DW attack animations mesh with the crushing weapon charge animation pretty smoothly, making it easier to spam. You still have to get the timing right, though, which is a problem in its own right

2H:

general note: I hated the 2h weapon line for a long time but it turns out what I really hate is the uppercut skill and its morphs. I really, really despise uppercut.

+ 2H gives you a LOT of utility. You get splash AOE damage from your single target attacks, even light and heavy attacks, which is really nice when you combine it with psijic's crushing weapon, because you get splash AOE and a self-heal. You get a closer that auto-crits and can be morphed into a DOT, which you can use just as a regular attack. I mean, stampede isn't the biggest DOT in the world but it's there. Cleave can morph into a spammable damage shield, which is really nice for a stamina necromancer to have.

+ Reverse Slice turns a decent execute into a pretty cheap AOE and on a superficial level I really like the animation

- on the other hand, and this is just comparing it to Crushing Weapon, crushing weapon does better pre-execute damage and has that built-in heal.

- on the other hand, the charge animation crushing weapon uses with 2H is kind of clunky and it's made it more difficult for me to practice weaving with it. It feels wrong even when I'm doing it right.

(Note to self: I really need to save up and get a flipping target dummy to practice this stuff on)

- overall 2H seems to do less damage that DW

+ but overall 2H seems to have a LOT more utility than DW


At the end of the day, my thought is that both DW and 2H are functionally identicial for most solo play fights. And I don't really PVP, so their respective pluses and minuses are irrelevant to me there. If I do ever really get into it, well, I know that both weapons are used in PVP so whichever one I choose, there will be something to learn, and I can maybe learn it.

So it comes down to which is more useful in the world boss/end dungeon boss fights. DW seems to do more damage but I think in group settings -- DPS guys are going to kill me for saying this -- that's not necessarily as relevant as being able to stay in the fight. DW gives you 25% AOE mitigation, 2h gives you a spammable damage shield. Crushing weapon gives you spammable damage with a heal but I'll be honest Ruinous Scythe is better for that even when you're just attacking one target, even though it costs more.

Anyway, that's what I see, but I may not be seeing everything correctly. Anyone have any 2 cents to add?