Dual wields vs. Two-handed weapons

[Soullessktty]

Based on my personal experience, I don't see much differences in gameplay for any two-handed weapons. In comparison, dual wielding daggers, swords, and even axes gives different kind of feel in gameplay and tactics.

Let's do some comparison analysis.

Dual wielding daggers
Most daggers gives critical hits, and probably best weapons for crits. Along with that, most have attack cost of 4 AP. Thus, if you want to play with 4 attacks with high crits, this is your best choice (I am not saying this is the best way to play it).

Of course, you can make this kind of build without focusing on crits as well, such as QSD build which can give you 5-6 hits per round.

Dual wielding swords
Most longswords and broadswords don't give you crits at all, except Flagstone's pride and Yatagan. So there aren't many options for playing crits with swords. Although most longswords have attack cost of 4 AP, if you want to deal better damage statistically without crits, Defender's blade with 5 AP will be your better options. I did a comparison build using Defender's blade and Steel sword (or Balanced Steel sword), with each build using different set of armors to maximized their AC, BC and damage. Either way, this build gives a different play style to dual wielding daggers. It focus on high damage without crits and less hits per round.

Again, you can play crits based builds using the two swords with crits if you want. However, I find that this is best left to daggers which gives you better crits statistically.

Dual wielding axe
There is only one one-handed axe with 5 AP cost, Light Black Axe, and it has a disadvantage of Damage Resistance -1. So, while dual wielding this weapon with FoH/Marrowtaint and Lvl 2 combat speed gives you 3 hits per round, it also gives you Damage Resistance -2.

Another option is dual wielding Axe of whirlwind, which has 6 AP cost. By doing this, you don't need FoH or Marrowtaint, and you can use Superior necklace of the protector (BC +8, DR +2, HP +5). However, the actor condition of Minor speed is useless in adding attacks. Though it can be useful in extra quaffing pots in a round, it does not give you big advantage.

Conclusion for dual wielding builds
From the three basic builds above, we can see the difference in speed (number of hits per round) and different focus. Thus, there is a different feel when you play with different weapon types.

Two-handed weapons
This build basically focus on high damage. Regardless of it is a two-handed sword, great axe or giant hammer, just focus on getting as much damage as possible per round. Some options even give you the possibility of getting 3 hits per round (two-handed swords with 5 AP cost per attack). However, they are all pretty much the same, just different weapon type. All of them damage based and most of them gives you crits.

So, if you go for two-handed weapon, just go with Skullcrusher, a giant hammer, for best damage statistically. It's got no penalty in damage resistance like in two-handed swords or some great axes, and Skullcrusher has crit multiplier of x3. You can one hit almost anything most of the time.

How about pole weapon? This is slightly different than others as it gives a little BC. Most don't have crits, except Remgard steel spear (best pole arm around) and Brandistock. However, the crits only gives you a multiplier of x1.5 (Brandistock x1.2). You don't depend much on crits, but you also don't hit as hurt as Skullcrusher. I only have one build with pole weapon, but so far, I find this is not an easy build to play. Maybe I haven't find the right combination of skills and equiptments to play this build.

Closing
In the end, choices you made in dual wielding build will affact your game play more than in two-handed build. At least that's my experience.

Please do share your experience on these two fighting style. I would like to hear different opinions to explore things that I may not have thought about.

[rijackson741]

In somewhat reverse order:
Pole weapons are new. We need to add some more interesting ones.
There are a few very good two-handed weapons. The Gleaming claymore of ruin, for example. The very high damage per hit, even though you get few hits, is also great against monsters with high DR.
I personally like dual wield because it gives a lot of possibilities even within one build. My main build has skills in daggers, one handed swords, and blunt weapons. I spent on the last skill so that I could better wield a certain whip. OK, I have to give up on the shield possibilities, but there are a really large number of interesting dual wield options.

[Soullessktty]

Yes, dual wield has more possibilities. Although, I'd like to be able to dual wielding weapon types, such as a sword and a dagger. However, I'd need to get two weapon skills in order to maximized its effect.