Question about Duel Wielding and damage rating?

[Lance]

<DIV>I hit level 11 and bought 2 knuckels that both do 5.3 damage rating I believe and was impressed by the damage but whlie grinding found a bo that has some decent stat buffs and has a damage ratingof 9.3. I was wondering how this rating works with DW?  Should I combine the 5.3 for a 10.6 rating or is there a penalty on offhand strikes or something? Just curious how this works, thanks in advance.</DIV>

[x0rtrun]

Just add their ratings together. From within a tier and quality level the dw will have a slightly higher combined rating than a 2hb. DPS is generally higher from DW, but you seem to take more damage from ripostes while tanking. The difference between DW and 2hb isn't very extreme. One is not clearly supperior to the other. <div></div>

[Cyngii]

<DIV>The damage rating gives you a nice baseline to work off of.  Unlike past SOE products you use both hands equally/independantly while dual wielding so if you have two 5.3 damage rating dual wield weapons you would have a total damage rating of 10.6.  The Bo you found had a damage rating of 9.3 so just looking at those 2 numbers the dual wield should do more damage.  The thing to keep in mind is the damage rating no longer takes any buffs, STR, or procs into account, so when comparing weapons you have to keep that in mind.  At your level the 1 or 2 STR you would potentially get on weapons wouldn't make up that gap in damage rating you mentioned, but later on it could when you can get weapons with 20+ STR and procs on them.</DIV>