Dual Wielding
Now that the +20 agi to 1h weapon enchant is coming, hunters are being given a lot more options when it comes to our melee weapon. Back in the day, there were two major melee weapons that we had: a polearm and a set of swords.
The first real piece of quality melee gear we received was the [Ice Barbed Spear]. Did you get yours at level 51? We didn’t as we were very skeptical of PvP and didn’t venture into that realm of the game until we hit 60. We were alone, frankly scared, and had no idea what to do. We followed the main group and went wherever they did. To our amazement, Alliance won and we got our IBS. We were overjoyed and that day we began our PvP career. The IBS lasted us a long, long time.
It was finally replaced one day in Upper Blackrock Spire when Dal’Rend dropped both [Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge] and [Dal'Rend's Tribal Guardian]. A rare fear a hunter, these were Rogue Weapons first-and-foremost. However, at the time they were some of the best hunter-melee weapons around. The attack power bonus for equipping them both was tremendous and one could slap +15 agility enchants on each of them for extra-sweet hunter-goodness.
Right now, very very few hunters are dual-wielding as there is no really good 1h agility enchant. There are two very nice options for 2h weapons: +35 agility or +70 attack power. There are some nice melee-procing enchants for 1h weapons, but the best hunter-enchant continues to be the old +15 agility. For hunters, it’s been a Two-Handed World.
But when the new patch comes out, we’ll have a +20 agility to 1h enchant - using Outland materials - to try. This is going to re-introduce the dual-wielding hunter to the game and BRK couldn’t be more pleased. But what’s it gonna look like? What are some of the options we’re going to have if we want to dual-wield?
For dual-axes, we need look no further than Mechanar and Nethermancer Sepethrea. She drops a lovely 1h axe called Stellaris.
Notice that this guy is not Unique; you can equip two of the exact same item. Sepethrea has a very small loot-list so obtaining two is probably easier than getting one Beast Lord Helm, (ain’t that a kick in the pants!) Now imagine that we dual-wield a pair of these and add a +20 agility enchant to each of them. What do the stats look like?
+82 agility (+21 each and +20 agility enchant each)
+24 stamina
+126 attack power (+22 each, +21 from agi each and +20 from agi enchant each)
+2.05% crit (40 agi for 1% crit)
What does BRK’s Hellforged Halberd look like in comparison?
+61 agility (+26 and +35 agility enchant)
+153 attack power (+92, + 26 from agi and +35 from agi enchant)
+19 hit rating
+1.53% crit (40 agi for 1% crit)
And while we’re thinking about it, let’s also compare the Halberd with the AP enchant.
+26 agility
+188 attack power (+92 from weapon, +26 from agi and +70 attack power enchant)
+19 hit rating
+0.65% crit (40 agi for 1% crit)
We’re not going to tell you that the dual-Stellaris is a better configuration than our Halberd. But what you can see is that another viable option is available to the hunter class.
We’re not going to cover dual-daggers or swords due to time and the fact that our battery is at 11%. But a quick jaunt through WoWhead shows plenty of swords and daggers that can fulfill our dual-wielding desires.
Watch out rogues; it’s Hunter-Loot Time!
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20 Responses to “Dual Wielding”
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typos in fourth paragraph:
Agility enchant for 2 handed is +35
Savagery is +70 ap.
Thank You Kindly,
Corwyn
imo, not going to change much ….but it will give options i guess, i dual-wielded for a long time back in those days.
but the old ZG fist weapon set was huge fun and when they proc’d ….. all of a sudden this huge tiger was chewing on u … lol … was awesome
Secndworst
I used to dual-wield almost exclusively until I hit Outlands, at which point there just wasn’t enough one handers that were prettier than the polearms I was picking up. However, I did snag a Stellaris in Mech one day, in the off-chance a good 1h AP/Agi enchant would come along, thinking that I’d just go back to Mech, grab another Stellaris when the opportunity presented itself, and dual-wield it. Good to hear my planning wasn’t wasted, although I’m still not sure that the two Stellaris-es with +20 agi on each would beat out my Hellforged Halberd with Savagery on it. I’d have to go back and check the totals to be sure.
Pre-[Blackened Spear], my two 1h weapons of choice was [Claw of the Netherwing Flight] combined with [Borak's Reminder], which were not only both quest rewards, but if you subscribe to the hunter AEP formula, gave you more bang for your buck than the [Stellaris]. Less agility on either, but they made up for it with the + to hit bonuses instead at the time. Not quite as good looking as the [Stellaris], though they still managed to match and have a white glow to them even before the enchants.
NICE post and being an Orc myself the +Axes Racial makes this even more of a possiblity, considering I ever get there, languishing at level 32 and saving every dime for my mount.
Im suprised nobody mentioned this, but for those really long fights, you can pop mana oil on a weapon.
A 2H wep = 1x oil for X/mp5 (cant remeber how much)
BUT
2×1H wep = 2x oil for Much More Mp5.
So if the look pretty even - duel wield ftw!
I have dual Stellaris since I could go to Mech. ^-^ Instead of +15 agi on each though, I went with +30 int on both to get some more mana and because I was too cheap to buy the +15 agi. :d This worked for me though since I never raided, but looking forward to the +20 agi for 1h.
+5 BRK Cool Points to Corwyn. Thanks for the corrections; we must have been sleeping.
What about the Fel Edged Battleaxe http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23542#created-by with the +20 Agi and either a +Agi gem or +AP gem in the red slot? How would dual wielding these stack up? You get lots of +Hit and +Crit from the axes so just wondering.
I’ve always prefered Duel Wield to my Pole Arm, but with BC there’s really been no reason to. Now with this new enchant on the horizon, Lleu will be farming Mech until he get two of these axes. Thanks for the heads up BRK!
I friend of mine just introduced me to this site. While I have been doing my best to take in all the information I can I have to find anything dealing with this question.
From everything I have read on other sites dual wielding dereases your “to hit” rating by 20% and that along with the base 5% miss rate seems to lead to a whole bunch of missing. Do the benifits gained by dual wielding with +20 agility really outway the base “to hit” penalty.
Wile it is true that when dual wielding your ability to hit with your off hand is severly reduced, this does not impact your chance to hit with your ranged weapon, so if you are at range you get the full benefit of the increased crit and AP from your agility.
cheers, Fatboy on Khaz Modan and Aman’thul
Anon makes a very good point about duel wielding. It is in fact the only reason that I don’t duel wield. The miss chance. If anyone tells you that a hunter doesn’t find himself in melee range often (especially in PVP/Arena, etc) that person is either lying or out of touch. And when I’m dancing with two rogues and have a healer healing me, I can’t afford to miss anymore swings than I have to. And close to 2k raptor strike crits make me giggle a little too. Now for raiding, when nothing is up in my face, I might have to take a look at duel wield and carrying an extra set of weapons with me
sonic spear:
70 agility(35+35 enchant)
30 stamina
24 hit rating
1.75% crit
I may have to find the 2 stellaris tho, that ingrigues me, I’venever dual weilded because I couldn’t find 2 weapons that add up to better than 1 2H weapon
Oh man… BRK, you just made me die a little inside (and feel really old all at the same time)
How could you possibly justify ganking those sweet rogue/warrior weapons and not be Duel Weilding the Bone Slicing Hatchet?!?!!?!?!?!!
Bone slicing hatchet was the precursor to the Stellaris. You can NOT do a write up about Stellaris and NOT mention the BSH. When enchanted they could easily last from where you got them on a Baron run all the way through Frankris in AQ40. They were that good.
Old school hunters know what I’m talking about, but for those who don’t…
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=18737
I miss them..
SHAME on you for not giving them an honorable mention and using the Dal’rends instead.. Melee huntard…
Dude! BSH never ever dropped for us. My Elune, we could run Strat Dead blindfolded we were so familiar with that place. Never saw that thing drop one time. We had Eye Macros and could do 45-minute baron runs - with the right group, pretty casually.
Never saw the BSH. Not. One. Time.
Yet another reason BRK did PvP until his eyes bled.
Trust me, I can understand what it’s like to beat your head against the PVE wall and not get the drop you want. For that you are forgiven, but they still deserve to be mentioned!
I dual wielded BSHs until I picked up the epic 1-h axe that dropped of trash mobs in BWL (the name escapes me atm). With both of them having +15’s on them, my hunter is 63, I haven’t found anything so far that I can justify replacing them with.
Armory is Sights on Blackhand.
Any advise on weapons I might be looking for in my grind to 70?
When I read about this new enchant I was very happy. But then going through all of the one handed weapons and trying to match my current stats on Legacy w/ +35 agi, it really isn’t comparable. Although it is a very valiant attempt to give a +5 agi advantage to duel wielding, for hunters the stats just don’t add up.
Yeah took me many many runs to get my dual BSH. Those were some nice weapons back then.
I have two Stellaris waiting in my bank to use on more mana-intensive fights cause of the mana oil I can put on both of em. I snagged them over the course of my rep-runs in mech while trying to get to exalted.