Dual Wield, utility and opinions please.

[Oregonaut]

I would really like to dual wield axes at some point. The visual image of a raging humanoid approaching some poor creature with disturbing alacrity amuses me. This brings me to my questions:

1. Is it going to be functionally "worth" it at lower/mid levels to find a way to dual wield?

2. For that matter, how does one acquire the ability to dual wield?

3. Finally, since I really (and I do mean really) like axes, does having a faster weapon in your primary mean you swing at a faster rate?

[neighbortaru]

you get dual wield by getting the ninja job to 10 which means...
1. you need to get another job to 30
2. do the quest to unlock the ninja job
3. level ninja to 10 (should get higher to be of any use)
4. set ninja as the sub job at 20

so the answers to your first question would be yes, but the earliest you can get it would be at 20

[ValisOfValefor]

Well heres what I can tell you

1. In my own opinion go with great axe till 50 (though keep both leveled if you wanna be the best), you can do duel axes after 20, but its really not worth it

2. a ninja subjob, when you get to 30 you can unlock the ninja job

3.duel wield 1 combines both delays and brings the total delay down by 10%
and if i remember right everyone uses the higher delay/damage in the main, (though i think everyone has the higher delay/damage in the main hand for weapon skills)

[Oregonaut]

Excellent, thank you.

Now, I need to go trawl the Ninja pages to find the subquest.

[Ryddr]

Answering 2 first because it is necessary for 1.

2) Dual wield is a level 10 job trait of the Ninja class.

1) Normally only warriors Dual wield axes because they are the most proficient with them. Only a War/Nin that's level 20 or higher can do this because they need the sj (Nin) to be level 10 for the dual wield job trait to be in effect. It does work quite effectively, but only if they Warrior's axe skill in kept high and best if accuracy food is consumed because not much accuracy gear exists around that level. At higher levels War/Nin is very powerful and has access to even more useful Nin abilities such as Utsusemi.

3) Having a faster weapon in either hand will increase the overall speed of your attacks. Also, the Dual wield trait becomes better with time. You acquire it at Nin lv 10, and I think the first upgrade is at Nin lv 25. These benefits will increase your effectiveness with dual wielding.

[Feba]

yes, dual weild lv10

notes:

-Keep your high damage Weapon in your mainhand. Delay is added up, however WS damage is based off your mainhand weapon.
-WAR/NIN should NOT be used just for Dual Weild. WAR/NIN doesn't have any real benefit until Lv24, with Utsusemi. Utsusemi is inferior to /MNK when main tanking, and is only very useful for dual tanking or subtanking (especially being trick dummy)
-WAR/NIN has three big "boosts", which you pick is up to you, but they are where they truly start to shine
--Lv48: At this level, WAR gains an axe which has good stats.. and ACC+10. With Dual Weild, you can get an additional +10, for a total of +20, which is very helpful when fighting IT mobs.
--Lv50: DWII kicks in at this level, which will give you a higher delay reduction. Since the TP update, this is slightly less important, but still, it helps.
--Lv55: This is what most people will consider the seperator between Ax and GAx. Axe gains Rampage at this level, a very potent WS. arguably one of WAR's best.

If you want to play WAR/NIN before those, you will need to play at the absolute best you can, which as a new player will be very difficult. If you want to experiment with Dual Axes, and make some money doing it, you might enjoy leveling BST to 24, then trying utsusemi and dual axe while soloing.

There was a similar thread recently about Axe VS. GAxe, which you should read. Great Axe will probably be the superiour (fucking. English) weapon for you, and it's not all bad.

Great axe is great fun when you're double attacking consistantly and in general owning shit.

[Karinya]

The above is pretty much true, but I'd also like to point out that the accuracy bonus of two viking axes (+20 acc) is still HALF the evasion reduction from Shield Break, and Shield Break improves everyone in the party's accuracy, not just your own.

Unless it's a monster that Shield Break just will not stick on (i.e. ice resistant: out of common or semi-common exp mobs, I think only skeletons are ice resistant), you'll still see more effective accuracy from an early Shield Break than from viking axes. And so will your party.

Rampage is nice for raw damage, but arguably breaks are still better. WS damage doesn't make up that much of a party's overall damage in any case - I don't think I've ever seen it above 25%, usually 15-20% (that's including SC effect damage).

[Feba]

True about Shield Break, however that excludes you from SC, and Viking Axes work from the moment you engage, not from after you WS.

Most PTs have SCs about 75-40% into a fight, not at 100% (When breaks are most effective)