Better Lower THACO in Main Hand or Off-Hand?

HaHaCharade

Here's a question I've been wanting to get opinions on.

When you are dual wielding, is it more practical to keep the main hand THACO as low as possible and any off-hand hits are a bonus? Or do you try to put a higher plus weapon in the off-hand, since the main hand already has a low THACO?

Example in my game - Shar-Teel. She can have a 7/12, or an 8/11, depending on how I set it up. Just wondering how the math works out and what would generally be best? The way I figure.... 8 is aleady low enough to hit MOST stuff in the game, and eventually it'll drop more. The lower the off-hand, the better chance to make that attack effective?

Ammar

I think to theorycraft it in detail you'd need to be specific with your weapons, the enemy you fight, etc... but I am pretty certain that in most cases the superior move is optimizing main hand THAC0.

Usually you have the harder hitting weapon as the main-hand. That's one factor. Also enemies in the harder fights tend to have lower AC than in the easy fights, and you want to optimize for the difficult weapons. Most of the time when you get additional attacks (figher class, haste) you get them on the main hand.

HaHaCharade

Ammar wrote: »

I think to theorycraft it in detail you'd need to be specific with your weapons, the enemy you fight, etc... but I am pretty certain that in most cases the superior move is optimizing main hand THAC0.

Usually you have the harder hitting weapon as the main-hand. That's one factor. Also enemies in the harder fights tend to have lower AC than in the easy fights, and you want to optimize for the difficult weapons. Most of the time when you get additional attacks (figher class, haste) you get them on the main hand.

Good stuff sir. Also, in Shar-Teel (if Dual Classed) or another thief's case , I realized if you backstab often with her you'll want to keep the harder hitting weapon in her main hand (unless you want to juggle them constantly) since you backstab with the main hand.

jmerry

Unless you're a rogue (swashbuckler, blade), you're getting more attacks with the main hand than the off hand. Better to put your stronger weapon in the main hand, unless you're in that corner case when you're hitting on a 2 with main-hand attacks ... in which case it probably doesn't matter much.

By the same token, the third proficiency dot in two-handed style is a pretty low priority. I won't take it until I've maxed out proficiency in both main-hand and off-hand weapons, unless that character switches a lot

HaHaCharade

jmerry wrote: »

Unless you're a rogue (swashbuckler, blade), you're getting more attacks with the main hand than the off hand. Better to put your stronger weapon in the main hand, unless you're in that corner case when you're hitting on a 2 with main-hand attacks ... in which case it probably doesn't matter much.

By the same token, the third proficiency dot in two-handed style is a pretty low priority. I won't take it until I've maxed out proficiency in both main-hand and off-hand weapons, unless that character switches a lot

Good points. I've moved my more potent weapon to main hand. Appreciate the feedback always jmerry.