Thread: Question about 2hders vs. 1hders?

So I just recently started playing again after about a year. I was wondering since there are no weapon speeds on the weapons anymore if all the weapons do the same amount of damage? If so I was wondering wouldn't it make more sense that a captain use a Shield and one-handed weapon in stead of a 2 hander? Sorry if I have turned into a noob

Hello noob.

The weapon speed are normalized depending on the number of hand type (1h and 2h).

That said, all the 1h have the same dmg and 2h have the same dmg.

The captain got some bonuses that increase certain weapon :

+2%dmg racial on 1h/2h sword
+2%dmg class on halberd.



About the 1h/2h debate. Both are viable and it is left to you to decide.

Originally Posted by anarion_fingolfin

So I just recently started playing again after about a year. I was wondering since there are no weapon speeds on the weapons anymore if all the weapons do the same amount of damage? If so I was wondering wouldn't it make more sense that a captain use a Shield and one-handed weapon in stead of a 2 hander? Sorry if I have turned into a noob

At level cap, a captain wielding a 1-hander does about 25% less damage than a captain with a 2-hander. I don't know if that gap narrows at lower levels.

Because of weapon normalization about 55% of captain dps is now in auto attacks.

We used to lose somewhere around 50% dps for useing a 1 hander, but now that most of our dmg has been converted to auto attacks we only lose about 25% like SGWB Says.


So you just have to rationalize it out is gaining defense and stats from a shield worth 25% dps to you.

Originally Posted by anarion_fingolfin

So I just recently started playing again after about a year. I was wondering since there are no weapon speeds on the weapons anymore if all the weapons do the same amount of damage? If so I was wondering wouldn't it make more sense that a captain use a Shield and one-handed weapon in stead of a 2 hander? Sorry if I have turned into a noob

Originally Posted by SGWB

At level cap, a captain wielding a 1-hander does about 25% less damage than a captain with a 2-hander. I don't know if that gap narrows at lower levels.

There is one caveat. I ran my parses without a herald or archer. If you like to run with a pet, especially the archer, your total DPS loss will be less than 25%.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=337134

Long thread of my bla-bla on the subject. Some good info.

THank you everybody for the help.

OK, I'm curios about trying a S&B build, what is the best light shield out there for a captain?

Originally Posted by Dundorn

OK, I'm curios about trying a S&B build, what is the best light shield out there for a captain?

The best light shield atm is the one you get from the moors trade in person 893 defense or something crazy like that.

short of that one a nice crafted shield works fine.

If you are going to use a one handed weapon, you have to assume that you are tanking something that relies on legacies.

Would you ever use a one handed weapon on a DPS fight. Never in a million years.

But let's say you are fighting four or more mobs or it's a group that has sufficient DPS but you are there to off tank something.

Well, your one handed weapon (once you get to LIs) should have defensive strike armor bonus, kick cool down, melee power cost reduction, To Arms duration, telling mark increase, and maybe pressing attack targets increase. Those all help your group mates, keep you alive a bit longer and help conserve power.

Combine that with a nice healing emblem with all the usual stuff as well as traiting HOH and plopping down either a power or hope banner, and you can help the team by getting lot's of rallying crys off.

Now, you wont be doing a lot of DPS but you should be able to tank longer without having to rely on the minstrel or RK to heal you.

One handed weapons don't really have a place with solo play unless you find yourself in a fight with 4 or more mobs but that rarely happens and if it does you can usually run and re-set.

You done have the tanking skills that the real tanks have, but you can certain work your rallying cries for all their worth and still remain at 70% power/morale for a long fight.