I would like to try dual wielding, but i am unsure if it would be beneficial, if i lose that damage reduction from the shield. Thoughts?

I personally dual wield, but make sure that i have my dodge high and dex -> armor passive up. I feel that it helps clear waves and single targets very fast, while only losing a small amount of dmg reduction. I'd say give it a shot, unless you are doing hardcore mode :P.

DW gives extra IAS. If you have high dodge rate, mantra of evasion with rune backlash will stand you for a long period with mobs die quickly.

While the damage reduction is nice, if you can find 2 weapons with good stats (DPS, LoH, Crit/Crit Damage%) Then you should be ok. If you armor is sufficient already then its doable. The only unfortunate thing is that its expensive to eek out extra stats the higher you go... :(

The key is finding the right gear. I just switched from a decent 1h sword with shield to a daibo with with LOH. Until I find another better 1H I like the extra damage the diabo gives and, most importantly, was moderately priced. Decent 1H weapons are crazy expensive.

I use a shield, but I'm set up for survivability. lots of life on hit, ias fist, high life, lots of resists etc. but not much dmg unfortunately. if I get more life on hit then I may consider dual wield.

I actually have found that the damage I put out Dual Wielding makes me more survivable. When i was using a shield, I would hit enrage timers too frequently to get anywhere useful, but when I switched to Dual Wield, I found that the extra attack speed kept me alive longer with Life on Hit, and allowed me to do greater damage.

I built a set with relatively negligible dps stats just so that I could gear up cheaply for inferno farming. The only real thing I bought that was very valuable were dual one handers with about 750 dps each and a combined loh of about 1400. I also grabbed a blue amulet with another 550 life on hit and the end result was a monk that could completely face tank everything in act one, stood in desecrates/plagues and even arcane sentries and didn't care. I had solid survivability moving through act 2 but definitely had to switch out some skills for better survival oriented things.

End result after running one with everything, mantra of healing with the resistance boost rune was only about 12k dps, 2 attacks per second with just shy of 2k life per hit, 700ish all resist, 30k life.

I had thunderclap as my main dps rather than the armor boosting rune on deadly reach and several other non survival choices, I can't really speak to act 2 and above for heavy farming, I've got survival, but it's definitely most efficient for me to kill act 1 rather than act 2 for gear now.

Rough build was something like http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aciXjQ!UaX!a.Zbac

I got through act 2 easily once I had good life on hit and ok crit chance gear. Dual wielding is totally viable. Zusias has the right idea but I feel that build is a little boring definitely not as cool as pooping out 20 tornadoes.

stats: 16.8k damage (28k buffed without overawe), 801 resist all (arcane stacked), 4600 armor, 32k health, 500 LpS, 1k LoH, 1.5 atks per second, 33% dodge, 24% crit chance. In respect to gear I am wearing pretty bad gear with the exception of my 2 one handers. I would say about 6 million at action house will get you geared better than myself (I made some bad clicks with other builds in mind). Importance of item stats is DPS>dex>life on hit>resist of choice>resist all>crit chance>atk speed> crit damage (vit is somewhere in there depending on other stats go for 35k, 800 resist is nice, and oh how I would love to have +5k armor)

Of couse once you get to act 3 DPS, crit chance, crit damage, atk speed, and vitality(depending on resist and armor) become increasingly important as long as everything else is good.

build:
fists of thunder (thunderclap)<<best spirit generator and great dps (left click)
sweeping wind (cyclone)<<so satisfying to watch tornadoes and amazing dmg 45% circle plus 20% tornados (right click)
breath of heaven (blazing wraith)<< pop off a heal get about 30% of my life back and do 15% more dmg for 45 secs (1)
blinding flash (faith in the light)<< nothing attacks me for a second or 2 and I get plus 30% dmg for 3 seconds (2)
serenity (ascension)<< invincible for 4 seconds legit godmode (3)
mantra of conviction (overawe)<< this makes it all worth it enemies take 48% additional dmg for 3 seconds (4)

passives:
One with everything duh, beacon of ytar for more bursts of high dmg, invincibility, and healing, and seize the initiative easy +1k armor.

Killing stuff:
I have no spirit regen except for my left click. I build up full spirit find an enormous crowd and its on. Take a little damage use (1) breath of heaven, then (2) blinding flash and (4) mantra of conviction at the same time, then (right click) sweeping wind. (sweeping wind right after casting buffs so tornadoes keep your buffs) continue to spam (4) mantra of conviction whenever you can so enemies take 48% damage as much as possible (only lasts 3 seconds). Use (3) invincibility when in trouble and spam (2) blinding light as frequently as you can.

I can pretty much face tank everything no problem, kill elites in a few seconds. It can still be tricky maneuvering around desecrator, fire chained, vortex, crazy affixed beasts that have no right to be in act 2. Regardless you should be able to kill them all the same, know when to back in corners or to milk the invincibility with kiting. This is the most fun way I have found to play diablo so far. When teaming up it can make things more difficult than expected because things just stay alive longer and have more chances to hit you all at once.

I think the main issue should be what you are going for... If farming I think dual wield is definitely better because you really want that fast clearing speed. But if you want to progress through the game (do people still have this as a goal?), then shield is a good option because your gear doesn't have to be nearly as good as if you're DW-ing to survive.

Then you also need to consider the amount of money you'd need to spend on two good one hand weapons; you can get a high crit shield with decent stats for pretty cheap, but two high dps weapon with LoH, crit, high dps can get pricey.

Posted by DHAdmin at 08/01/2012 03:24 PM

Honestly I feel like a dual wield monk could be good (don't know your class) as they get a bunch of extra dodge from a passive skill if dual wielding. However it can work for pretty much any class as long as the rest of your gear is good, if your dying in act 2 still, perhaps a shield is best for you.

I love using backlash rune for farming, so having the extra dodge for more dps is awesome!

If you dual wield make sure to keep your weapon dps similar to each other. If one weapon is significantly better then it's better to use that and a shield with dps stats.

Dual welding is better i think,especially if you want to do a crit centric build

I used to use a two hander than farmed a decent dagger, did dagger+ board for a while

but my opinion nothing beats dual weld. sword and board was nice for a while but couldn't get my DPS high enough. needed the extra 100+% of crit plus is 15% IAS

I recently started a MF Monk,and i feel that the "Dual-Wielding" passive is a must have skill,that +15% dodge is feeling really good when you switch on two handed and also you get a bigger dps and also the LoH(if you have on both weapons).

But as a MF Monk i feel i need the shield cause of the 20% mf and survavibilty but i think if it is about dps gear and facerolling inferno dual wield is way better than one hand and shield.

I personally dual wield for the increase attack speed bonus. Higher attack speed with my high loh setup makes up for the increased dmg taken due to the reduced armour lost without the shield.

Using a shield is cheaper and works better if you're just trying to beat inferno, but farming is a lot slower. The better your items get the less important a shield is, dual wielding becomes the better option once you can comfortably survive without the help.

I never use a shield. But from what I have seen, shields are more usable if you are in public games with other high DPS friends. It turns monk into a tank.

my monk survives pretty well dual wielding. the dps benefits outweigh the defensive benefits

Im a fan of dual wielding, one thing to keep in mind is depending on your spec you probably want a slower mh and faster oh.