[Q] Dual Wield - [Answered]

[rijackson741]

maybe something like a skill (Apothecary) that allows you to either add an status effect of raise the effects of a status effect on a weapon.

I'm not so sure about adding effects. I don't think players shod be able to create special weapons out of mundane ones. It would spoil the fun of finding the special weapons.

A way to raise the status effects is a great idea though. One option would be a skill. Another possibility is that you would have to take the weapon to a NPC somewhere, and they would require some rare ingredients and/or lots of gold to go it. Maybe a given NPC could only raise one or two effects, so you would have to find the right one, then go and get whatever they needed.

[Pyrizzle]

Was just throwing a few ideas out there.

Maybe an Apothocary in each city is able to effect only one specific type of status effect on a weapon or piece of gear.

An Potion Maker in Fallhaven who has a love for poisons
A Wizard in Remgard who has developed a way to daze your opponents even more than before
etc....

Each one would have a hefty cost and long list of ingredients as well.

Just an idea. =)

[Spark]

An extra 10% BC is a greater boost than 10% AC any day.
(10 AC = 2 level ups, 10 BC = 3.333 level ups)

Keep in mind that more times than not the NPC will be dead before the status effect could take place or that the only time i becomes super effective is when the NPC only has 1 HP left after your turn is over.

This also depends on combat style. For hit-n-run tactics BC is not so important as AC.

[Pyrizzle]

An extra 10% BC is a greater boost than 10% AC any day.
(10 AC = 2 level ups, 10 BC = 3.333 level ups)

Keep in mind that more times than not the NPC will be dead before the status effect could take place or that the only time i becomes super effective is when the NPC only has 1 HP left after your turn is over.

This also depends on combat style. For hit-n-run tactics BC is not so important as AC.

That is very true, play style is always going to be one of the largest influences in where you put your level up bonuses.

[liz7]

From what I got from this thread is that Dual Wield isn't really as strong as it seems.

What build is stronger than QSD-build?

[Duke]

If you check out my post about your stats and skills question, you find lots of good discussion...but it is really hard to beat the QSD build with lots of stat points going into AD.
Dual wield is fun, gives lots of different choices and combos.

[rijackson741]

Dual Wield can do almost as much damage as the QSD for monsters that are susceptible to critical hits, and your BC will be better. For monsters that are immune to critical hits nothing does more damage than the QSD, but that is not to say it necessarily gives the strongest build. Damage is not everything, because you can never guarantee killing something in one round. I said early on in this thread that I wasn't sure I had made the right choice regarding dual wielding. Now that I have all the dual wielding skills, I have no regrets though. I can do a lot of damage per turn, and it's versatile. You should bear in mind that the game is not finished, so things could (in fact, probably will) change. A versatile build is more likely to allow you to take advantage of any such changes than creating a build around a single, unique, weapon.

[JonLin]

2 Blackwater swords AC 4 Dmg 56-74 AC 378% BC 210 DR 2

This is with: Blackwater helm, Serpent's Hauberk, 2 RoLS, enhanced combat boots, heavy gloves, marrowtaint.

[Duke]

I don't think the effects themselves are the problem, rather it's the way they are implemented. At this point in the game I can also kill almost anything in one or two rounds (Level 47, AC 216%, AD 30-46, attack cost 3), but that wasn't always the case. I played a lot of the game using attack and flee tactics. With such tactics Weak poison or Bleeding wound could, in principle, be useful. Attack, and if you inflict the effect flee and hide in the shadows while your opponent loses HP (and, possibly, at the same time you gain HP). The problem is that by the time you can get a weapon that inflicts these effects they are almost useless. The Blackwater poisoned dagger inflicts Weak poison for 5 rounds. Great. So it takes 5 rounds for the monster to lose 5HP. By the time you can get the dagger that is one step away from useless. The Barbed dagger and Serpent's fang are the same, and the Spiked club of bleeding is even worse. But if they did 5x effect for 5 rounds, maybe they might be a lot more appealing. Hiding in the shadows while the monster loses 25HP and you gain 5HP would be a good strategy at some points in the game.

IMO, the other problem with these effects, and all other Actor effects, is that they do not scale with level. So even if the effects are useful early on in the game, they will eventually become worthless. One solution to this would be to scale the effect with level in a way similar to the damage scaling discussed here: http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4096. I think a much better way would be to have ever better weapons available as the player progresses through the game. Out with the old and in with the new!

I just read this thread again, and this is a fabulous point and I couldn't agree more.