It's hard for a lotta' people to visualize the importance of weapon speed. I mean shit, most people barely understand DPS. But weapon speed is important, not just in how much damage you do in the long run... but it's something you can actually see.
I'm in the process of leveling so, currently, these are the weapons I'm using right now: Wodin's Second-Best Shanker as my main hand dagger and Saronite Ambusher as my off hand dagger. Now what I really love is my Savage Cobalt Slicer sword. I had both the Savage Cobalt Slicer and the Saronite Ambusher made for me with materials I created myself (since I'm a miner). I love the Cobalt, it's such a huge, 'freakin' awesome lookin' sword. And I had it created before my Saronite Ambusher, so I was using it for about two days. Mainly just for looks.
But looks aren't important... damage is. And when talkin' about white damage (damage from your auto attacks), speed is very, very important, especially for your off hand.
I took my blades out on a training dummy, considering my Cobalt is a slow, 2.70 speed and my Ambusher is a 1.70 speed. I let myself just auto attack my target. What's interesting to watch is the speed of your off hand. With my slow, off hand sword, for every main hand dagger hit, my off hand sword would hit, but it would take two main hand dagger hits before my sword would hit again. It's clearly visible that my off hand sword was not hitting as much as my main hand dagger. But with my off hand dagger, the Ambusher, with a quick speed of 1.70, my off hand dagger hit exactly as much as my main hand dagger.
To put it into perspective, here's how many hits were made with my main hand dagger and off hand sword, in let's say 10 seconds.
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Sword
Main Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Sword
Main Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Sword
Main Hand Dagger
Here's how it went with my main hand dagger and off hand dagger, for the same amount of time, 10 seconds.
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Much more hits were taken place. Now the DPS of the Savage Cobalt Slicer sword is 104.2 and the DPS of the Saronite Ambusher is 106.8, so their damage per second (DPS) is the same, so all this stuff about speed shouldn't matter, right? If this was my main hand weapon, sure, but we're talking about the off hand, and weapons in your off hand do 50% less damage, so this is why you want a weapon that is faster in your off hand so it'll hit more often. "Weapons equipped in the off hand generally do 50% less damage than they would do when equipped in the main hand, and many players equip speedier weapons that hit quicker to mitigate this effect."
So, when it comes to weapon speed, this is something you can actually see for yourself in action. And don't worry, there are swords that have a fast speed for your off hand, like my PvP sword was, but they're rare to come by until you get into PvP rewards or end game type of stuff. It's much easier to just go with daggers for your off hand. (Although I like the animation of a sword in the off hand much better than a dagger in the off hand.)
This outta' clear up any confusion about weapon speed and DPS and how it all works for your character.
Jeaxx
Off Hand Dagger
Main Hand Dagger
Off Hand Dagger
Much more hits were taken place. Now the DPS of the Savage Cobalt Slicer sword is 104.2 and the DPS of the Saronite Ambusher is 106.8, so their damage per second (DPS) is the same, so all this stuff about speed shouldn't matter, right? If this was my main hand weapon, sure, but we're talking about the off hand, and weapons in your off hand do 50% less damage, so this is why you want a weapon that is faster in your off hand so it'll hit more often. "Weapons equipped in the off hand generally do 50% less damage than they would do when equipped in the main hand, and many players equip speedier weapons that hit quicker to mitigate this effect."So, when it comes to weapon speed, this is something you can actually see for yourself in action. And don't worry, there are swords that have a fast speed for your off hand, like my PvP sword was, but they're rare to come by until you get into PvP rewards or end game type of stuff. It's much easier to just go with daggers for your off hand. (Although I like the animation of a sword in the off hand much better than a dagger in the off hand.)
This outta' clear up any confusion about weapon speed and DPS and how it all works for your character.
Jeaxx
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