Guild Wars 2

It bothers me, and many others that when dual wielding two one handed weapons your auto attack will only use one. This bothers me because the character then lacks the aesthetics of attacking with two weapons, damage output compared to a 2h sword or hammer which hits for a considerable amount of damage, while i would be wielding two one handed weapons but only using one. My point is i would like to see auto attack incorporate both weapons upon dual wielding this problem has caused me to stir into 2h sword instead of dual wielding which i would prefer to do.

I know that feeling. Wielding two hands then attacking with one hand as if your left hand is broken. What is the point of two weps when you use 1. Might as well grab a big one and just stick with it. The skills are nice but in a real fight would you only swing or defend with your offhand once or twice every 2 minutes?

Prepare to get flamed by GW Fanboys saying you’ve been pre-programmed by WoW to thinking you should be able to swing with two weapons.

To Dgenerate : Well the thing is i have been playing guild wars longer than i played wow and started guild wars earlier. I just have seen in many video games as well as real live videos or movies that characters dual wielding usually attack with both weapons.

I know right? Makes little sense.

Oh I WISH the default auto-attack chain incorporated an off-hand weapon whilst dual-wielding. It would really give me the illusion that, as a dual-swords wielding warrior, I’m actually legitimately using both weapons.

Thieves actually attack with both weapons, and certain weapon skills do in fact use both.

However, most of the time the offhand weapon has it’s own attacks with their own animations. It would create all sorts of animation clipping if they were also included into the Main Hand attacks. Or leave your offhand doing nothing(Or the wrong attacks) if they disabled offhand attack animations entirely.

As you probably know the first three skills come from the weapon in your right hand while the two last skills comes from the weapon on your left hand.
(Except for Thieves)

Many of the animations follow the same rules.
Thus when you see your opponent moving his right hand you know that he’s probably using one of the first 3 skills, whereas if his left hand is moving he’s using skills 4 or 5.
Many Utilities seem to use off-hand too.

It’d be cool to see auto-attack alternate between weapons but I think that it’s this way to let good players read skills very fast.

To Illushia: From what i have played of thieves your auto attack in no incorporates your off hand weapon, you still only use your main hand for auto attacks, and as for the animation clippings it is something i feel needs to be done if it is what it takes, they should not have set it this way in the first place..

To LastDay: I understand each weapon you wield comes with its own attacks, but that doesn’t give the right to take away the use of both weapons in auto attacking, it is dull and highly unlikely to ever dual wield and only swing one weapon at a time, For the “read skill” action that you speak of there could be charge ups for certain skills or little movement hints, i feel like you are ripped off compared to characters that use two handed weapons or one hand and a shield because they get more use out of their equipment as for dual wielders they are only going 50% with their auto attack dmg.. which reduces bleed stacks crit chance, speed, dmg , etc etc etc.

Ah, I thought at least Double Strike used both weapons.

I’d love to see the full use of carrying 2 swords. I dont care if It does any extra damage, I just would love it if the animation for the “auto attack” would swing both.

^ This. It does not realistically make sense to me. Plus my character looks incredibly awkward swinging that one dagger or sword.

Don’t particularly care if the other animation would cause damage.

I think it’s because from arenanet’s perspective, there is no “auto” attack. You originally couldn’t set any ability to automatically repeat over and over, you had to press for every swing. They added the option because of complaints of fatigue.

So if you don’t think of your 1 key as “auto attack” (ala WoW and other mmos) but rather the primary attack with your main hand weapon (since 1-3 come from your main hand), the current system makes sense.

Also, from a technical stand point adding new animations for every dual wield combination would probably significantly increase the memory requirements of player models, something very key to be kept at a strict budget as you never know exactly how many will be in one location at a time.

Irony being if you were really holding 2 weapons like say as a martial artist.

No you would darn well never attack with both at the same time. Not even to pull an Anakin and lops off a head using em as scissors, it just would not work well.

In Martial arts the reason for using a shorter blade in your left or ‘offhand’ was to block and parry away blades.

Lunging at someone with 2 blades/dagger would be a sure way to take a fatal blow, not inflict one.

You youngsters need to watch more Bruce Lee =)

But yes as a video game I agree the disparity between the 1 button attack on one hand vs. 2 hand seems big…well that is only until you realize that attack speed plays a factor too. At least it does for me Engy, he attacks harder but slower with rifle, but faster and weaker with pistol. I believe this is how they balance it. the 2,3 skills however I think would be the most pertinent since for most 2h vs 1h they have the same cooldown length??? or do they?

^ No one is saying that attacking with dual weapons simultaneously is a good idea whatsoever. The discussion here is that the animation should involve both weapons in an alternating fashion.

Just another old fart hanging around video game forums spewing his nonsensical intellect trying to prove to others he has the answer for everything due to his age old wisdom.

Next time you post, please think things through.

This is not a martial arts style game for one. Secondly martial arts also implies use of two swords at one time, not just as a block or balance. There are dual sword martial arts styles.

Third, I do really laugh at being called a youngster and thank you.

To UnderTow & Maurier: Well either way if you choose to claim it as “auto attack” that does not matter, your attacks should incorporate both weapons or switch between each of them then go for atleast one hit with both, and the whole debate saying attacking with two blades would get you death… there are people lobbing fireballs and summong skeletons to murder me i dont think real logic matters too much, and besides that… there are ways to parry with a one hander, that doesnt mean you need to take away the offense.. which is why some one would use two weapons and not one.. if your worried about defense use a shield not another weapon..

OK lets switch it to thinking about guns… or fireballs. Instead of swords.

If you were dual wielding guns you would be less accurate and do LESS damage to your opponent trying to fire both at once.

This one I know is fact….was proven on Mythbusters.

Makes me wish the Thief’s dual weapon skills applied to every class. It just makes so much sense and adds more when thinking about what weapon combos to use. =/

Maurier.6094:

Irony being if you were really holding 2 weapons like say as a martial artist.

No you would darn well never attack with both at the same time. Not even to pull an Anakin and lops off a head using em as scissors, it just would not work well.

In Martial arts the reason for using a shorter blade in your left or ‘offhand’ was to block and parry away blades.

Lunging at someone with 2 blades/dagger would be a sure way to take a fatal blow, not inflict one.

You youngsters need to watch more Bruce Lee =)

But yes as a video game I agree the disparity between the 1 button attack on one hand vs. 2 hand seems big…well that is only until you realize that attack speed plays a factor too. At least it does for me Engy, he attacks harder but slower with rifle, but faster and weaker with pistol. I believe this is how they balance it. the 2,3 skills however I think would be the most pertinent since for most 2h vs 1h they have the same cooldown length??? or do they?

Death Blossom, Cyclone axe, really anything that has any kind of spinning or flourish at all are terribly impractical to do in real life too. Rolling is an especially bad idea and i’m not sure how it became a standard dodge.

Honestly, real combat in a game would be pretty boring.

Servanin.5021:

Maurier.6094:

Irony being if you were really holding 2 weapons like say as a martial artist.

No you would darn well never attack with both at the same time. Not even to pull an Anakin and lops off a head using em as scissors, it just would not work well.

In Martial arts the reason for using a shorter blade in your left or ‘offhand’ was to block and parry away blades.

Lunging at someone with 2 blades/dagger would be a sure way to take a fatal blow, not inflict one.

You youngsters need to watch more Bruce Lee =)

But yes as a video game I agree the disparity between the 1 button attack on one hand vs. 2 hand seems big…well that is only until you realize that attack speed plays a factor too. At least it does for me Engy, he attacks harder but slower with rifle, but faster and weaker with pistol. I believe this is how they balance it. the 2,3 skills however I think would be the most pertinent since for most 2h vs 1h they have the same cooldown length??? or do they?

Death Blossom, Cyclone axe, really anything that has any kind of spinning or flourish at all are terribly impractical to do in real life too. Rolling is an especially bad idea and i’m not sure how it became a standard dodge.

Honestly, real combat in a game would be pretty boring.

And on the other hand, unrealistic moves like Death Blossom or Cyclone Axe look and feel cool/fun.

So would swinging both weapons.

To Maurier: Hey thats cool man, im not here trying to be an “important big shot” I’m here expressing an issue that i feel strongly about and so do others, not an ego thing brother.

thank goodness i play a ranger and a sword pistol thief.

:|

It seems quirky, you are right, but I do not think it should be changed because of the underlying system. The attack skills are tied to the weapons in main and offhand. Your auto-attack isn´t technically an auto-attack, but the repitive use of your fastest recharging attack skill in the main-hand. In this regard, I think it is better not to mess with the animation for dual wielding.

And to Dgenerate: If that is the best addition to this topic you have to offer, you can as well keep quiet.

The only problem I see with having a both weapons strike is that for melee weapons the default auto attack is usually 2-3 different skills being used back to back and those skills are tied to the main hand wep. Me personally I would love to see both weps being used with the auto attack though.

I have a wonderful idea for how to fix this issue. This should work for the most part. Constructive criticism is welcome, of course.

“Auto attack” swinging both weapons:
-Reduce #1 skill damage by 50% when dual wielding
-Double the attack speed with #1 skill when dual wielding (maybe a little more for more damage?)
-Effects from #1 skill that are applied on hit (the sword’s bleed, for example) are applied every second hit

>>Irony being if you were really holding 2 weapons like say as a martial artist.
No you would darn well never attack with both at the same time. Not even to pull an Anakin and lops off a head using em as scissors, it just would not work well.
In Martial arts the reason for using a shorter blade in your left or ‘offhand’ was to block and parry away blades.<<

I don’t know why I’m getting into this, but – I fence – so …

If you are using two blades of different lengths, yes the shorter blade is used for parrying most of the time … though not always, it can be used in close if you lock your opponents sword with your main hand or even your body. (real sword fighting is very physical)

If yer using two weapons of the same length you might use one to attack and one to block, or you might alternate attack and block. (you might also use both to attack at different heights and angles – this is a good opening for a kick, too)

It really depends on what style you’re using. (and what style you’re fighting)

With all that out there – attacking with your off hand isn’t easy and if you’re not really used to doing it you can forget. Not only that, you will probably only use it for certain attacks for a long time, so having it animated for off handed attacks makes sense from that angle as well.

BUT, this is a video game and none of that matters. What does matter is it takes longer to do if you want it to look good, and means more money – more resources. Since you can have so many things in your off hand, syncing them up for normal attack animations seems like a waste of effort.

I agree, this bothered me a little on my dual-swords warrior. The off-hand weapon just dangles there until you use an off-hand weapon skill. It’s just a little odd, is all. Changing the first weapon skill from

“Strike
Damage: 8”

to

“Strike
Damage: 8 (x2)”

denoting that it’s eight damage split into two attacks, with accompanying animations, would be nice. Even if it only works with certain combinations of weapons (i.e., not a dagger/pistol setup).

I would rather it did too, but im assuming its so that you can figure out what skill they are using so you know whether to dodge or not, as certain skills use right hand and certain ones use left hand.

If its not for that reason, then i have no idea why they dont alternate hands.

This is how i would fix it. Since i play sword/sword mesmer i’ll use her as an example.

So the skill one skills usually have three tiers of attacks. First tier should attack with main hand 2nd tier attack with off hand 3rd tier would attack with both.

Say i am using sword/pistol animation point this would be kinda of difficult to apply since pistol is ranged. But first tier would be a slash 2nd tier a close range shot or a hit with the hilt of the pistol and 3rd tier would be stab(since i cant think of a reasonable animation for using a sword/pistol at the same times)

Drakos.3456:

It bothers me, and many others that when dual wielding two one handed weapons your auto attack will only use one. This bothers me because the character then lacks the aesthetics of attacking with two weapons, damage output compared to a 2h sword or hammer which hits for a considerable amount of damage, while i would be wielding two one handed weapons but only using one. My point is i would like to see auto attack incorporate both weapons upon dual wielding this problem has caused me to stir into 2h sword instead of dual wielding which i would prefer to do.

Exactly, good points. I’ve been feeling the same way about that issue. Hopefully we’ll be able to TRULY dual wield sometime soon.

Autoattack is a matter on convenience only, as there are no white-damage-attacks in gw2, you get to skip the 1-1-1 clicks before the 2-5-3-4 clicks. Saving your keyboard a bit. It is still the main hand ability, and not a dual-insertweaponhere-ability.

If the ability would say “Swing with both weapons to do X damage” then it should swing with both weapons. Instead you attack with both weapons through the means of clicking both 1 and 4 for example.

indeed, I have not played a dual-wielding melee character extensively, but aren´t there fast recharging offhand abilities? If you want the feel, use them (if they exist). While I can see your point I fear once they start messing with the mechanics of 1-hand/1-skill it could really lead to a tail of glitches. Rather not.

Actually there is a really simple solution to this problem: so you have the 1,2,3,4 and 5 weapon skills and the 3 first are for your main hand weapon (except thieves) and the 2 last for your offhand so just change the 1st weapon skill to swing the two weapons that you are wielding not necessarily at the same time but like the offhand is doing something rather than just holding the weapon and you could just leave the 2-5 skills as they are so that there would be 2 skills for each weapon.

At least this is my opinnion on how it should be done :P

I like the realism tbh, they removed the gameyness of tanks, so why not the gameyness of dual attacks.

Maybe the thief trait of having the 3rd skill being a dual weapon skill might be cool though.