Post by Aadramelekh
Since you're fighting in forms, dual wielding offers you absolutely no benefitI have to disagree. Because we know druids in cat / bear forms do not benefit directly from the weapon DPS but rather from the Feral Attack Power derived from it, we could imagine druids getting the benefit of FAP from weapon DPS for offhand items as well as main hand.
As such, dual
wielding (@
darkpaw1) fist weapons or one handed maces (since both are available to druids) would yield a considerable benefit in terms of feral attack power compared to using one 2H weapon. For instance:
I'll take
Bloodfall as a reference.
Gutbuster x 2 gives: 90 agility, 106 stamina, 72 hit rating, 96 crit rating, 278 AP and 4808 FAP. 2 RED sockets.
Abomination Knuckles +
Keleseth's Seducer would give: 130 agility, 122 stamina, 96 haste rating, 46 hit rating, 33 armor penetration rating, 199 AP and 4808 FAP. 1 red socket.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but 4808 FAP looks MUCH better than 3358 AP on Bloodfall. Even if the other combined stats are lower, the difference of 1450 FAP is simply monstrous.
Of course, given the current state of feral DPS, such a boost would probably place feral druids on top of the DPS charts by quite a sensible margin and would require probably an in-depth redesign of talents or FAP-from-weapon DPS formula to balance the AP gained from 2H weapons versus dual wielding. With the current game mechanics, feral druids would be simply overpowered by gaining 1450 AP (before talents) simply for being allowed to dual wield.
Thinking about tanking, Bears would probably become top dogs in terms of TPS and gain improved survivability (the 1450 bonus AP - 1537 with PotP - would mean an additional 384 to savage defense shield). From this point of view I would actually consider dual wielding an excellent feature for druid tanks. The downside would be the lower value for stats like agility and stamina (as we noticed, that polearm would give ~30/70 more agility and ~40/60 more stamina). But as long as the overall stats (especially HP) are above a certain survivability threshold, this difference would be more than acceptable for a boost of 1537 AP, which would translate directly into an additional ~275 'paw damage' (imba threat boost as I said before).
Post by hashmel
Don't forget the availability of DW would allow cats to use such gems as
Black Bruise and, if applied to all weapons,
Heartpierce.
We can already use one or the other but we lack any useful offhand frills to make up the FAP and other stat differences without the availability of DW currently.
And DW Berserking.