Barbarian, 2Handed weapon or Dual Wielding?

I'm early in my play stage, I've pretty much settled on Barbarian. In most of my RPGs, I reroll a lot just to see what class best fits my play style. For my first playthrough, I intend on only using pre-made NPC companions.

 

Now I'm looking at what weapon setup to use, 2handed or dual wield.

 

What is your favorite and why?

 

 

Thanks

dual-wield maces

I tried both and I find that dual wielding works best for barbarian, especially if you want to make good use of carnage with rage.

Get as many hits in as possible during that time.

The main reason to use two-handed weapons is for reach weapons - pikes, staves, etc. - to take better advantage of Carnage.

 

Basically, choose between more frequent carnage, or wider AoE with slightly more damage per hit.

I think, for how damage reduction works , that the best option is always bigest weapons ... as minsc will say you "need a bigger sword"

 

just think on that boss with 20 damage reduction and your 2 weapons hitting for 16-22 or so ...

Edited March 30, 2015 by Arctic

Best tactical option is to use two handed against high DR and dual wield against low DR. You can be effective on both since weapon focus talents have many different weapons in them, both one handed and two handed. I'm even considering getting both two weapon style and two handed style talents and switch my weapon set during fight accordingly.

I plan on rolling a fairly balanced Barbarian that sacrifices points in PER/RES in order to beef up Might, Dex, and a bit of Con

 

As such, dual wielding seems to be the best route to go. It'll be faster and allow less opportunities to be interrupted, and I have more choices to equip weapons that can compensate for any weaknesses - eg., hatchet to increase deflection, a mace to bite into DR, etc.

Cool, I may just go for both and switching as needed.

 

Thanks all 

@tnc - Rather than getting two mutually exclusive weapon style talents, just get Vulnerable Attack so that you can break through high DR with two weapons. (Stilettos also help.)

@tnc - Rather than getting two mutually exclusive weapon style talents, just get Vulnerable Attack so that you can break through high DR with two weapons. (Stilettos also help.)

 

That one is possibly the worst talent in the game. It gives you DR bypass (really low) but at the same time deceases your attack speed. The DR bypass is so low that late game i bet you'll actually do less damage with the talent active, because attack speed and accuracy is where dps comes from. So increase your damage output and then decrease it? It is the most useless talent along with wizard's bonus level 1 spell talent, lol.

20% isn't worth as much as you think, especially when you're already getting a considerable bonus to attack speed from dual wield + Two Weapon Style. Stacked with maces or stilettos, vulnerable attack is quite effective.

The overall dps bonus it'll give you is just not worth it in my opinion. Adds 5 damage per hit, but reduces how much damage per second? who knows it has many factors. Keep in mind that even some enemies in the FIRST dungeon have 30+ slashing/piercing/blunt DR. (check shades' DR stats on the combat log) You're really better off with a two handed estoc or something. Plus the OP plays a barbarian and aoe carnage hits have already reduced damage, and those hits will do minimum damage to high DR enemies if you dual wield.

Yea, I'm now leaning more and more towards a 2Hander and on the plus side, I think it looks cool 

Yea, I'm now leaning more and more towards a 2Hander and on the plus side, I think it looks cool 

 

If you can keep your barbarian uninterrupted with a two hander, he'll kill everything in a few seconds. You must have a good tank and maybe an offtank/disabler such as Monk. Keep in mind that frenzy gives you a large attack speed bonus and huge percentage based damage bonus (you do %42 more damage with 26 might, upgraded frenzy) Even your carnage attacks will bypass enemy DR most of the time. So yeah.

Hello,

I got Maneha few minutes ago, and she is equipped by default with dual weapons, but if I am correct, most of you recommend to have a two hand weapon, even with the slow attack speed (that because of the DR mechanic)...

Note that those posts are pretty early during the game's cycle. Before heart of fury got buffed and before attack speed mechanism was well documented.

 

Now you can go both ways. But I would say that dual wield has a slight edge if you wanna focus on-hit/on-crit effects.

Edited November 22, 2017 by mosspit

I prefer dual weapons, but something cool someone mentioned is trying the new Deadfire DLC Soulbound belt to use Firebrand with Gauntlets of Swift Action. You can also use one-handed with Cladhalíath or Wē Toki, going one handed gives you way more accuracy (and hit-to-crit conversion if you take the perk) allowing you to more effectively Stun or Prone lock enemies by earning more crits. See the Trashman build for more details.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Jojobobo

I personally prefer 2-handers with Barb. I use Tall Grass because of obvious reasons and either Hours of St. Rumbalt or St. Ydwen's Redeemer as secondary weapon. I've been having trouble getting close with melee dps that are kinda squishy (Rogue, Barb), so almost every time I'm using a pike for reach. Having reach also enables better carnage attacks.

Usually in RPG, a two handed weapon permit to hit several enemies with each hit, while a one handed permit only to hit one enemy per hit.. Is that the case in POE with two handed weapons ? Do they hit several enemies (or is it the job of the talent Hold the line : https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Hold_the_Line )? 

Edited November 24, 2017 by fced

Barbs are only squishy in the early game and later become serious meat shields even with lowest deflection.

 

With Bloodlust (stacks with Frenzy) and Blood Thirst you can make Two Handers pretty fast with a barb. Firebrand is a nice option if you want a very good mid-game weapon and it can be used until the end if you want to spare enchantment ingredients for other party members.

Other good picks are Tidefall, Hours of St. Rumbalt or Tall Grass. With a reach weapon you can place Carnage more effectively.

 

However, if you want to use Heart of Fury (who doesn't?) and Barbaric Blow I would go for dual wielding the heavy one-handers. Resolution + Bittercut is a nice combo, so is Shatterstar + Godansthunyr and We Toki + Wodewys. So basically sabres, hammers or battle axes. Dual spear looks ridiculous and dual maces and swords lack good uniques for this task. All light weapons are a bad pick for Heart of Fury.

 

A great end game weapon (and worth retraining) is Acuan Giamas, a morning star. It is not only wounding which is the best damage related enchantment in the game, it also steals wizard/druid/priest spells on hit and works with Carnage. You can then cast all stolen spells as often as you want/can in a given timespan. They work with Blood Thirst. So for example if you steal Calling the World's Maw from a druid you can cast it over and over again until enemies start to die which lets you cast with zero recovery. It makes all fights where kith spellcasters are involved a joke. True Mage Slayer if you want. Superlate though.

Edited November 24, 2017 by Boeroer

Usually in RPG, a two handed weapon permit to hit several enemies with each hit, while a one handed permit only to hit one enemy per hit.. Is that the case in POE with two handed weapons ? Do they hit several enemies (or is it the job of the talent Hold the line : https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Hold_the_Line )? 

 

No two handed do not hit several enemies by default. There are abilities that hit multiple enemies. Melee barbarian get a default talent called carnage that does this. Hold the line is a defensive talent. it give your character another engagement slot so if an enemy breaks the engagement you get a free hit on them

So Hold the line and two handed weapon don't permit to hit more than one attacker with each hit, bad news, but Thx ^

Edited November 24, 2017 by fced