Warrior: Dual Wield Question
 

When using weapons of differing delays to tank (assuming they both proc something), should I have the faster weapon in my main hand, or my off hand? Or does it even matter? I noticed in Sakuragi's guide, he has the fast weapons in the main hand, and the slow weapons in the offhand, but I don't know why. Example: Sarnak Warhammer and Silken Whip of Ensnaring combo. Sarnak Warhammer is 9/20, Whip is 14/24 (I think).

I guess I'm fuzzy on a lot of warrior mechanics.

Main hand with faster weapon for damage bonus.

Off hand put best dps weapon.

Faster weapon primary for the additional applications of the flat damage bonus.

Fast weapon in the main hand because your dual wield is checked after each main hand swing to see if the off hand triggers an attack. Therefore, the High DPS weapon goes in the off hand; which is usually a big slow weapon with high damage.

NO. The dual wield check is executed EVERY TIME your secondary comes off delay cooldown. If it passes, you swing, otherwise it goes into delay again and the dice is rolled again upon the next completion of delay.

You put the faster weapon in the mainhand because the damage bonus is applied on every successful hit, so more swings = more damage. You put the higher DPS weapon into secondary because there is no damage bonus applied to the off-hand weapon.

Awesome. Thank you for the clarification.

Assuming procs equal ...

always best ratio primary. always.

Once you get higher levels you have to factor damage bonus into the 'ratio' equation.

But yes ... best ratio primary.

No. Faster weapon main hand. To use your example from earlier... The Sarnak Warhammer 9/20 and Silken Whip of Ensnaring 14/28.. Whip is a better ratio, however Sarnak Warhammer should be primary.

You can calculate modal damage, which is also melee agro per swing, and compare the ratio of that to delay for both weapons and make an informed choice (Sarnak Warhammer is 8/20, btw).

In this specific case, considered at L50 which is the lowest level both weapons proc:
hammer gives ((8*2+8))/20 = 24/20 = 1.2
whip gives ((14*2+8))/28 = 36/28 ~ 1.29
So at L50 the whip will generate a bit more agro from melee alone than the hammer, BUT... stun proc is better agro than snare proc, and mainhand procs twice as often as offhand. So at 50 it looks pretty close to a wash but good dex (say 150+) would favor the hammer due to its superior proc (gogo shaman buffs). Also, as the mainhand bonus gets stronger (at 52, 55, & 58) the hammer will benefit more because it is faster. IOW, for these particular weapons put the hammer in the mainhand because it's usually better and never worse.

The stun proc on the hammer is also better than the whip's snare proc since many of those stuns will save some damage intake. That's plenty good enough reason to use it mainhand even at the cost of a percent or two less hate; that the hammer mainhand typically also builds slightly more hate, not less, turns the issue into a no-brainer.

Danth