Dual wielding survs

Is it better to dual wield or use a two hander as a surv? All weapons enchanted with elemental force of course

Dual wielding by itself is not an option. You either use a 2h full time or do some advanced weapon swapping.

With 2 1hers, you can't raptor strike or harpoon (at 19 - may be more stuff at 29). So you need to go 2h to actually close and deal damage in melee.

What you can do, is have a second set of weapons that you can swap in to change up your playstyle to play at ranged. At 19, you have kill command (pet attacks) and serpent sting (talent) which can be used at range and aren't affected by weapon damage (so switching to a 1h doesn't matter). So having extra stats (and maybe procs?) and twice the elemental force can really make your range damage decent. Then swap back to a 2h to harpoon in to go back to melee mode.

At 20, you can use 2x bronze shortsword to test this for cheap. I don't know if shadowfang procs from ranged (I don't have extra shadow fangs to give to my huntard alt), but those are BiS dual wield for 19 and probably 20. At 29, the scaled shadowfang is probably the best agility (or close to it). If procs matter, double tulwar might be better than the loss of agi (and might be easier to obtain if you run with a 29 rogue/monk who will trade them to you).

Again, this is a breakdown of how it works at 19. Not sure what additional skills come into play at 20/29 and how they fit in. But you should be able to equip a couple of unenchanted heirlooms and see if you can no longer use moves or if their damage drops significantly.

Does weapon swapping to benefit from 2x elemental force procs make a huge difference? I'm personally too sloppy and can't concentrate enough to weapon swap enough that I've just been using a 2h.

You can make macros to "manage" it for you. But jumping from 6agi -> 12agi and doubling the elemental force procs is a pretty significant damage boost. If you're playing competitively, work on figuring out the weapon swapping. If you're pugging and having fun - you do you.


For the macros, you'll want to set up two equipment sets that basically don't change anything except the weapons. Replace the set names with 2H/1Hers below. Weapon swapping takes a GCD, so you'll want to spam the harpoon/raptor strike buttons to make sure they go off. Its best to hit raptor strike to switch manually if you know you're going to need it. The Serpent Sting macro can be a number of things. I personally go with a shift modifier that updates the weapons. Otherwise it goes as normal. Basically this will make the "default" state your 2h and you have to consciously hit shift with serpent sting to switch. You can tweak it however you want to make it work.

Heles said:

Does weapon swapping to benefit from 2x elemental force procs make a huge difference? I'm personally too sloppy and can't concentrate enough to weapon swap enough that I've just been using a 2h.

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I’m a bit like u in that it’s just easier to stick with the 2-hander. But it also comes down to play style. I’d much rather get into the thick of the action fast, so having the 2-hander full time suits me.
But the Huntards that dual wield have massive rot pressure from distance.
Having been on the receiving end of rot play Surv Huntards, I’d say it does make a noticeable difference. If u r willing to put in the effort, u will notice a dps increase.

Pretty sure weapon swapping still triggers a gcd

necroaqua said:

You can make macros to "manage" it for you. But jumping from 6agi -> 12agi and doubling the elemental force procs is a pretty significant damage boost. If you're playing competitively, work on figuring out the weapon swapping. If you're pugging and having fun - you do you.


For the macros, you'll want to set up two equipment sets that basically don't change anything except the weapons. Replace the set names with 2H/1Hers below. Weapon swapping takes a GCD, so you'll want to spam the harpoon/raptor strike buttons to make sure they go off. Its best to hit raptor strike to switch manually if you know you're going to need it. The Serpent Sting macro can be a number of things. I personally go with a shift modifier that updates the weapons. Otherwise it goes as normal. Basically this will make the "default" state your 2h and you have to consciously hit shift with serpent sting to switch. You can tweak it however you want to make it work.

Code:

#showtooltip Harpoon
/equipset 2H
/cast Harpoon

Code:

#showtooltip Raptor Strike
/equipset 2H
/cast Raptor Strike

Code:

#showtooltip Serpent Sting
/equipset [mod:shift] 1Hers
/cast Serpent Sting

Click to expand...

The macros work beautifully. Once I get used to the GCD of the weapon swap I think this will be much easier than consciously swapping weapons every second.

Ive personally seen 2h surv hunter out play dual weilders in 1v1 situations. In battlegrounds dual wielding seems funner to play, on paper. (haven’t played a hunter in bfa lol)