Dual Blades DPS question.

Assorted greetings, and let me say how much of a pleasure it is to finnaly be able to post without needing to get trial accounts ^^

I have a DM/SD which is my baby, but whose lack of AoE does kill the enjoyment. I have a FM/SD which I pretty much slotted, but got annoyed with Aid-Self and dropped. Both are good, obviously the FM pumps more AoE goodness.

I've been pondering on what to try next and I never touched DB beyond the initial 10 or so levels. I find the animations lengthy and the damage not all that interesting. But it seems to have a lot of potencial for AoE... but how is the ST damage?

Somewhat unrelated, my DM/SD takes the agro cap in +1 bosses and survives, am I foolish to think a WP can do the same?

Dual Blades has some very nice ST and AoE damage. A good source of ST is the attack vitals combo. There is a slightly higher DPS chain that requires much higher amounts of recharge though. (Shred uses it I think)

It definitely has the ST damage to take down AV's effectively.

Its damage will definitely pale though in comparison to FM/SD and DM/SD.

As for +1 bosses, if you soft cap WP (much more + defense required, especially for S/L ) You will end up with a scrapper that just as tough if not a little tougher than a soft capped DM/SD. But you will be likely required to make sacrafices in other areas (for set bonuses)

My top end DPS comparison project (still in progress) has Dual Blades pulling off 238 DPS with Shred Monkey's chain (Blinding Feint -> Ablating Strike -> Sweeping Strike -> Ablating Strike), and 214 DPS with the much simpler Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals chain. It's in the neighborhood of other primaries, better than some, worse than others. But yes, since you won't have the buff from Shield Defense, it probably won't compare to your DM/SD or FM/SD.

Not so sure about DPS while leveling up, other than it seemed pretty decent to me from my seat of the pants view.

I suspect that a top end Willpower build would be about as survivable on average as a top end Shield Defense build with Siphon Life or Aid Self. But Rise to the Challenge cranks up rapidly when surrounded by enemies. At the aggro cap, I would expect a top end Willpower build to be significantly MORE survivable than a top end Shield Defense build. The benefit of Shield Defense is DAMAGE in that situation, not survivability (except indirectly by killing enemies faster).

And I probably could have just said, “I agree with what MrLiberty just said”, but what would be the fun in that?

Do you happen to have a build for that, Werner? I was looking at some builds strewn around the forums but the forced gimping on the attacks to make all fit was making me shudder.

Aye aye, I see what you mean, but I found what I'd like to play next, a kat/regen since I never touched either and they look interesting.

Thanks for the time Werner and Liberty ^^

Katana/Regen is my all-time favorite. Just be aware that Regen can be very clicky, so you'll be redrawing your weapon a lot. Getting good survivability out of it will require some focus and experience. Regen is school of hard knocks, so you may find yourself face planting more often than usual as you learn the proper timing for everything. I love it, but it isn't for everyone. Definitely worth trying out, though.