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.
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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.