I have got to act 1 inferno using a fairly standard blizzard/hydra build and a decent DPS 2-hand staff I found. But I'm finding now that it just doesn't cut it.

I currently have about 1.5million gold. I'm wondering if this is enough to get a decent 1 hand weapon and offhand that will help me to farm act 1?

I've looked in the AH and maybe I'm searching for the wrong stats or my expectations are too high, but it seems like it's nowhere near enough.

Does anyone have any advice about what stats I should be looking/search for and how much I should be expecting to pay?

The tough part about 1 handers is theyre generally more $$. +INT, LoH are what to look for usually.

I prefer them however, especially for blizz/hydra cuz i feel like the quicker speed make the blizz animate faster.

For the offhand, look for a source with +minmaxD, +INT and some +crit would be a bonus.

If i had 1.5mil to split up i think i'd spend 1mil on the weapon and the rest on the source. but in a better scenario i'd maybe save up a little longer. but if your goal is to farm act1 that should be ok!

Sorry i don't have more specifics but I'm at work

Using a One hand + Offhand is nicer because of the attack speed, but not necessarily for damage. If you feel as though you're doing enough damage but not getting it out quickly, then yes, go for a 1H. LoH and Lifesteal are great and probably the cheapest way to get a hold of that specific attribute. Amulets and Rings tend to be much more expensive for LoH, at least in my experience. I could very well be wrong

But really, it's important to be able to know where your stats and gear is. Maybe your gloves could be better, since they provide IAS, CD, CC and high Int (upwards of 300). Or your Helmet, which can provide a large amount of INT, CC and APoC.

If you're building on a budget, it helps to look at all of your gear as a whole, not as individual pieces.

I farmed all of Act 1 and Act 2 with a 2h staff. If I had 1.5mil gold I wouldn't spend it on a weapon. Try to increase your dps with other pieces of eq and maybe try an archon build - something like magic weapon, familiar/sparkflint, diamond skin, archon, etc. If you can get your dps up to about 30 or 40k you should be able to melt everything in archon mode (at least in act 1). Also don't be like me and neglect Crit chance/crit damage. its' sooooo important. I ended up spending many millions extra on eq that had a lot of int/vit, and now doing act 3 i got rid of all of it in exchange for crit eq :/

I was able to get through Act 1 farming with a Blizz/Hydra build and a 2H weapon without much issue. What issues exactly are you encountering? Maybe you should invest your gold into equipment with higher armour, all resist, and vitality. Although a better weapon will increase your DPS, it doesn't necessarily mean your survival rate will dramatically increase (unless you do an Archon build and melt everything in your path, but even then the timer is just too long imo).

If you're dead set on purchasing a new weapon & offhand, you're going to need more than 1.5mil unfortunately; otherwise, the weapon/OH you purchase won't really contribute that much anyway to make a noticeable difference.

To expand on what friendlybendy is talking about with raising your DPS holistically: this helped me out, Wizard Gearing Guide (Simplified)

-BOIS

You can easily upgrade your weapon for under 1 mil, just look up 2 handers with 300+ vit/int with LoH

You can easily upgrade your weapon for under 1 mil, just look up 2 handers with 300+ vit/int with LoH