Just a question. I mostly use two handed weapons woth my character bit I read that dual wielding is superior.

I remember that dual that dual wielding passive gives 30% damage boost. And you usually dual wield weapons with lower penetration. Do you have to give them penetration through spells or abilities? Is dual wielding better only for some classes that can add penetration passives(like Cipher)

Also doesn't the higher penetration on two handed translates to further damage boost?

Also, what's up with pistols? Are they just bad?

Edited Thursday at 11:12 AM1 day by hano

6 hours ago, hano said:

Just a question. I mostly use two handed weapons woth my character bit I read that dual wielding is superior.

I remember that dual that dual wielding passive gives 30% damage boost. And you usually dual wield weapons with lower penetration. Do you have to give them penetration through spells or abilities? Is dual wielding better only for some classes that can add penetration passives(like Cipher)

Also doesn't the higher penetration on two handed translates to further damage boost?

Penetration is usually not an issue if you are willing to use two weapon sets with different damage types and use the one your current enemy is more vulnerable to.

Dual wielding is great for all builds that make use of Full Attacks - and especially the Full Attacks that can get a refund (Stunning Surge, Barbaric Smash, Gambit...) and it's also great for characters for whom attacking very fast (Skald for example). However, it's less good than it was in PoE1 (compared to the other weapon styles).

7 hours ago, hano said:

Also, what's up with pistols? Are they just bad?

No, they are great actually. A single pistol + modal has -50% reloading time (!) but only suffers -3 accuracy (+12 from one handed usage and -15 from the modal), with Single Weapon Style you can add a nice crit conversion on top. This is great for all ranged characters who don't use a lot of attack abilities (Cipher, Chanter...) but mostly do auto attacks. There are great unique pistols, too.

Pistols, like all reloading weapons in Deadfire, have no recovery but only reloading times. Reloading can be canceled so you are a lot more reactive with a pistol than with an implement or bow. I played a single class Kind Wayfarer with dual pistols (no modal then, Flames of Devotion is a Full Attack and procs the White Flames healing twice) and it went very well.

It's not a 30% damage boost. The math is kind of complicated so you have to check it in game.

If you know how to choose and stack penetration, it's mostly not a problem. Let's compare similar weapons from both styles, say 1h sword vs 2h sword, their average base damage is 16 vs 21, 2h wins by about 30%. Now if you put them on an actual character with two weapon style passive, most likely dual wielding is way more than 1.3× speed. I remember I needed very high (~30) DEX and big action speed buff to make 2h dps catch up.

When dual wielding you can have passive enchantments from both weapons.

There's also the benefit of responsiveness. By having a shorter recovery, you can react faster, think second wind, lay on hands etc. You don't want a paladin to be in a 6s recovery when you desperately need them to save a party member. Your current recovery even affects max recovery, like when you're hit by multiple interrupts, there's a limit on how much additional recovery they can add. By having a shorter "natural" recovery you're punished less hard. (I forgot where I read this one, not 100% sure but seems to be true).

Lastly you can dual wield melee + ranged to attack very fast only with one weapon. There are so many weapons that scale insanely good from simply attacking faster. Like Scordeo's Edge, you get Adaptive built up faster and trigger Blade Cascade much easier.

Edited Thursday at 06:41 PM1 day by yorname

Normal pistols aren't great, but some have good enchantments that can secure a slot in your party, on top of the benefits Boeroer pointed out.

Scordeo's Trophy has Opening Barrage that also affects abilities and spells. Let a cipher dual wield it with a melee weapon and their whole cycle become incredibly fast. You can also give it to a pure caster so that when they aren't casting, they build up a little buff for themselves for free.

Later it can be replaced by Eccea's Arcane Blaster. I'll die on the hill that because of Imbued Ammunition it's the best single target ranged weapon, especially for a cipher.

Edited Thursday at 07:02 PM1 day by yorname

23 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Pistols, like all reloading weapons in Deadfire, have no recovery but only reloading times. Reloading can be canceled so you are a lot more reactive with a pistol

Thanks for the reply, but this part flew over my head. I thought they were the same. So how is a firearm reload different from say. a bow? And how do you use it for your advantage?

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by hano

12 minutes ago, hano said:

Thanks for the reply, but this part flew over my head. I thought they were the same. So how is a firearm reload different from say. a bow? And how do you use it for your advantage?

In Deadfire, firearms and crossbows/arbalests don't have a recovery phase. Instead, they only have a reloading phase. Bows - like all other weapons (besides firearms and crossbows/arbalests) - have a recovery phase.

Reloading phases are usually longer than recovery, but unlike recovery you can always choose to stop the reloading and do something else - for example cast a healing spell. Afterwards you can resume the reloading. Running around also stops reloading. While you move you cannot reload.

A recovery phase cannot be stopped. It always has to pass until you can do something else - except running around. Running around does not stop recovery, it only makes it last a bit longer.

The advantage of reloading weapons is that you can react a lot quicker in combat. Imagine you're a Paladin with Lay on Hands and you just attacked an enemy. Suddenly your companion is near death and you want to cast Lay on Hands asap. If your attack was done with a weapon with recovery you will have to wait until the recovery is over until you can cast Lay on Hands - the companion might go down in that timespan. If your attack was done with a reloading weapon you can immediately after the shot cast Lay in Hands.

For pure weapon dps characters this isn't an advantage, but for versatile characters with a variety of abilities (CC, healing, support...) it's really nice.

Of course it's also possible o have very short recovery (like with light armor, dual daggers and two weapon style for example) which makes you almost as reactive as with a reloading weapon. But dual pistols also pack a good punch with Full Attacks (high damage per shot - for a one handed weapon).

On 5/21/2026 at 9:54 PM, yorname said:

Let a cipher dual wield it with a melee weapon and their whole cycle become incredibly fast. You can also give it to a pure caster so that when they aren't casting, they build up a little buff for themselves for free.

So, would the dual wield passive make a pistol shoot faster thsn it would if it was single wielded?

While dual wielding, would you put the faster weapon or the slower weapon in the off hand? Does it make a difference?

Man, kudos to Obsidian for making such a complex and fun system, this is great! I am late to the fun, but better late than never they say!

1 hour ago, hano said:

So, would the dual wield passive make a pistol shoot faster thsn it would if it was single wielded?

While dual wielding, would you put the faster weapon or the slower weapon in the off hand? Does it make a difference?

Man, kudos to Obsidian for making such a complex and fun system, this is great! I am late to the fun, but better late than never they say!

Yes

I think it doesn't matter for pure dps. I remember full attack will take both weapons' speed into account so you can't "cheat" it. I think you should put the weapon that you want to hit more frequently/has higher accuracy in main hand, for primary attack abilities. If you're mixing melee and ranged, maybe put the melee weapon in main hand, otherwise you won't be able to use some abilities, like knock down.

Mixing melee and ranged weapons will make your full attacks weaker though. Only a couple of full attack abilities allow you to use both weapons, others will only make you attack once, depending on your distance to the target.