is dual wield good for a guardian?

[Dr.Jek]

<DIV>I have a 24 guardian, and was wondering if dual wield was good for him or if I should switch over to a slasking and shield type? I plan on taking this character to 50 so I wanted to know what would be a good choice? Thanks</DIV>

[Sazzabi8]

You are better off using a 1hander and shield if you are tanking for the extra avoidance and blocks. If you arn't taking any noticable damage from mobs a good 2hander is usually going to be best so you can cast in between swings and do more damage. If you have dual wield weapons that are far superior to your 2hander go ahead and dual wield. <div></div>

[Drulak]

I never use a 2h nowadays. If i am MT i use 1hs and shield , else i use dual wield (then again i have 2 HQ dual wield items) But if u look at attack stats , my dual wield always beats my 2h attack score. (i have 40th HQ 2h wep too)

[Ariz]

<P>I've tended to dual wield almost exclusively when I am out soloing. I picked up the Polished Granite Tomahawk as soon as I could. Add in the manastone and you can either fire it up when the PGT procs to gain power with no hp loss or let the ward absorb some hits if the situation dictates.</P> <P>For group situations its usually back to the trusty 1-h'er and Shield but there have been plenty of times where a healer has been consistently running high on power, at which stage I could swicth back to dual wield to eek out more damage.</P> <P> </P>

[Pik'ee]

I've always used DW when soloing, and when tanking easier mobs. As the others said, the PGT is a fantastic tool. So much so that even when using a shield, I still used the PGT, because even though it doesn't have that much damage compared to a 1 hander, that's not my concern as tank. The ward it procs helps out the healers, and added power from the proc means more taunts or CAs for me. I still DW with the PGT at 49 if I have no chanter in my group, although I now use the Screaming mace when I have my shield strapped on. There is real right and wrong though, I tend to DW mainly so passers-by don't mistake me for a paladin <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[Rodney]

<DIV>"even though it doesn't have that much damage compared to a 1 hander, that's not my concern as tank"</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This seems to be the general thinking on damage for a guard, but some test I saw last week tell a different story,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1hp of damage = 1 point of taunt.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>You can do 20 dps with a PGT and 50 dps with a fabled 1hs, lets see thats 30 dps more with a good 1hs. Over the 10 sec of a taunt refresh thats 300 extra taunt value from the damage and 400-500 from the taunt.  I carry 4 dw's 3 1h handers and 2 2 handers and I still consider the PGT to be one hell of an AWESOME weapon. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>the test was posted on this MB will look for the link to add</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=3&message.id=13977&query.id=0#M13977" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=3&message.id=13977&query.id=0#M13977</A></DIV><p>Message Edited by Rodney on <span class=date_text>07-17-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:20 PM</span>