They give a VERY in-depth explanation about 1h vs 2h weapon balance for the Wizard. Very interesting stuff and it's nice to finally hear an intelligent well-thought out explanation on what Blizzard's thought process is.
Notable facts: DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING FACTS ARE PRESENTED IN THE CONTEXT OF CURRENT INTERNAL ITEM BALANCE, AND WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY CHANGE
Overkill is significant
2h weapons do 15~25% more DPS than 1h weapons
1h + orb matches 2h weapon DPS, and adds lots of extra stats on top of that
2h weapons have much better Arcane Power efficiency than 1h weapons, so long as all your arcane power comes from regen over time (i.e. +x arcane power / second)
After all equipment stat bonuses are taken into consideration, 1h+orb almost always has better character sheet DPS than 2h.
1h weapons are better at "fishing for procs" i.e. +x resource on crit
1h weapons provide better mobility due to less time spent standing still
Blizzard currently doesn't think the arcane power efficiency on 2h weapons makes up for the statistical DPS and proc fishing advantages of 1h weapons, and thinks 1h weapons are OP.
That comment on 1h weapons being better for mobility seems strange though. If hypothetically a 2h and 1h weapon setup had the same DPS (they don't, I know), a shot with a 1h would take less time, and deal proportionally less damage. So you would expect overall damage to be proportional to time spent standing still and to be the same regardless of weapon. I suspect that it may be possible to cancel attacks by moving. If it's possible to cancel attacks after a flat amount of time, then that would indeed favor 1h weapons, but without that kind of cancelling, 2h weapons wouldn't really have a problem. So for example, if you used a 2h over a 1h, you'd just need to spend longer amounts of time running away from enemies, longer amounts of time standing still, and deal larger amounts of damage.
So overall, I would expect both to have the same mobility, moving and standing still for the same amounts of time regardless of weapon. I would just expect 1h users would switch between moving and standing still more often. You could say 2h weapon users would require more foresight, while 1h weapon users would require more clicks.
Shockpulse does most damage but is far to dangerous in higher difficulties, as you'll have to be close to the enemy. It's the fastest way to kill Leoric (if you stand right next to him). Golden Electrocute is overall the most efficient damaging AP recharger. The damage is very good aswell: 150% + 105% + 73% (distributed to 3 targets). You get 26 AP back per cast (with Prodigy passive and a level 7 Golden rune). The range is huge aswell. Using Arcane Dynamo you also get a 50% damage boost for a meteor/blizzard every 8th Elecrocute. With this you should be able to spam a ton of meteors.
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"Traitors! Even in death, the armies of Khanduras will still obey their king!"
So overall, I would expect both to have the same mobility, moving and standing still for the same amounts of time regardless of weapon. I would just expect 1h users would switch between moving and standing still more often. You could say 2h weapon users would require more foresight, while 1h weapon users would require more clicks.
In D3 (and even D2) you have tpo keep in mind that:
i. Your sight radius is relatively small. Fast enemies can cross the gap between the screen edge and your character in 1.0 second or even less. Also, some skill have small range (Chakran, Grenades, Phen of Knives), so you need fast animations to attack and stay away from monsters.
ii. It's very difficult to hit enemies out side the screen (or simply inneficient)
So theres a minimal distance between you and monster so you can cast a spell before the monster reachs you. This distance depends on the time you take to cast a spell, the monster/projectile speed and the range of the spell.
I noticed while playing 2H bow DH that fast projectiles like arrows and arcane hydra bolts oftenly reached me between 2 attacks of my bow while it did never happen while i was dual wielding.
Imagine the following situation: You using a spell that takes 1.0 second to finish the animation. The spell range is 15 yards. The monster speed is 15 yards/second. In this case you will enable to attack and kite the monster.
Theres a simple model to describe the situation:
RT: Reaction time you need to scape from the monster, projectile.
CT: Skill/Spell casting time.
R: Range of your skill/spell.
MS: Speed of the monster.
RT = CT*R - MS
So, as long as RT>0 your reflexes might save you and kiting is possible. You can say that this combat mobility property of weapons can be ignored as long as you use long range skills and have godly reflexes. Thats not entirely true: if you facing multiple ranged attackers and they attack in different times, you will have frequencie of less then 1/2 second missiles being throwed at you. Unless your animation is lower then 0.5, it's impossible for you to avoid and attack back.
This is why fast weapons have more combat mobility then slow weapons.
I believe in Inferno overkill won't be an issue. Further range, crowd control and defense stats become very important. Having a Barbarian tank in your team, with taunt, will increase the kill speed enormously I assume, as he can hold enemies in place. He'll be worth more then let say a 4th damage dealer that has to run away with the other 3.
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"Traitors! Even in death, the armies of Khanduras will still obey their king!"
I think a lot of the "target dummy DPS" calculations neglect the importance of fast cast speed in a game where your casts can be interrupted by hit recovery, abilities (fists of thunder) and knockbacks.
Even if a slower cast speed gave higher target dummy DPS (and it seems like it doesn't), interrupts VASTLY penalize slower casts. Just ask anyone who's ever played PvP in WoW. Given a choice between a 2000 DPS, 1.0sec spell and a 1500 DPS, 0.5sec spell its pretty obvious which one will be easier to use on a harder difficulty.
I think a lot of the "target dummy DPS" calculations neglect the importance of fast cast speed in a game where your casts can be interrupted by hit recovery
What game would that be?
Though, I'd add kiting into the reasons to cast faster, but it's been brought up already.
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They give a VERY in-depth explanation about 1h vs 2h weapon balance for the Wizard. Very interesting stuff and it's nice to finally hear an intelligent well-thought out explanation on what Blizzard's thought process is.
Notable facts:
DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING FACTS ARE PRESENTED IN THE CONTEXT OF CURRENT INTERNAL ITEM BALANCE, AND WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY CHANGE
That comment on 1h weapons being better for mobility seems strange though. If hypothetically a 2h and 1h weapon setup had the same DPS (they don't, I know), a shot with a 1h would take less time, and deal proportionally less damage. So you would expect overall damage to be proportional to time spent standing still and to be the same regardless of weapon. I suspect that it may be possible to cancel attacks by moving. If it's possible to cancel attacks after a flat amount of time, then that would indeed favor 1h weapons, but without that kind of cancelling, 2h weapons wouldn't really have a problem. So for example, if you used a 2h over a 1h, you'd just need to spend longer amounts of time running away from enemies, longer amounts of time standing still, and deal larger amounts of damage.
So overall, I would expect both to have the same mobility, moving and standing still for the same amounts of time regardless of weapon. I would just expect 1h users would switch between moving and standing still more often. You could say 2h weapon users would require more foresight, while 1h weapon users would require more clicks.
In D3 (and even D2) you have tpo keep in mind that:
i. Your sight radius is relatively small. Fast enemies can cross the gap between the screen edge and your character in 1.0 second or even less. Also, some skill have small range (Chakran, Grenades, Phen of Knives), so you need fast animations to attack and stay away from monsters.
ii. It's very difficult to hit enemies out side the screen (or simply inneficient)
So theres a minimal distance between you and monster so you can cast a spell before the monster reachs you. This distance depends on the time you take to cast a spell, the monster/projectile speed and the range of the spell.
I noticed while playing 2H bow DH that fast projectiles like arrows and arcane hydra bolts oftenly reached me between 2 attacks of my bow while it did never happen while i was dual wielding.
Imagine the following situation: You using a spell that takes 1.0 second to finish the animation. The spell range is 15 yards. The monster speed is 15 yards/second. In this case you will enable to attack and kite the monster.
Theres a simple model to describe the situation:
RT: Reaction time you need to scape from the monster, projectile.
CT: Skill/Spell casting time.
R: Range of your skill/spell.
MS: Speed of the monster.
RT = CT*R - MS
So, as long as RT>0 your reflexes might save you and kiting is possible. You can say that this combat mobility property of weapons can be ignored as long as you use long range skills and have godly reflexes. Thats not entirely true: if you facing multiple ranged attackers and they attack in different times, you will have frequencie of less then 1/2 second missiles being throwed at you. Unless your animation is lower then 0.5, it's impossible for you to avoid and attack back.
This is why fast weapons have more combat mobility then slow weapons.
Even if a slower cast speed gave higher target dummy DPS (and it seems like it doesn't), interrupts VASTLY penalize slower casts. Just ask anyone who's ever played PvP in WoW. Given a choice between a 2000 DPS, 1.0sec spell and a 1500 DPS, 0.5sec spell its pretty obvious which one will be easier to use on a harder difficulty.
What game would that be?
Though, I'd add kiting into the reasons to cast faster, but it's been brought up already.