Dual Wield or Dual Handers: The Great Debate

Right now a great debate is going on as to the weapon style of Tanking Frost Death Knights. Some claim that dual-wielding is the way to go because there is a talent for it in the frost tree, nerves of cold steel, and that the only tank weapons, aside from the Titansteel Destroyer, are one-handed weapons.

The other side claims that two-handed weapons are the way to go arguing that nerves of cold steel is for dps frost Death Knights, and that although most of the tanking weapons are one handed, the boss’ chance of parrying you is increased, and ultimately more stress on the healers.

Blizzard has posted that they did not intend for dual-wielding to be a tanking alternative, but they do not have problems with it existing, and are happy that people have taken it up as an option. So where does that leave us?

In all reality we’re not sure Blizzard really intended Death Knights to become main tanks at all.  I mean, look at those tooltips.  Both talents seem to be better suited for a DPS spec than tanking.  But since we have to live with the fact that DK’s want to tank (and yes, some make very good tanks), we might as well talk about it.

Really good DK tanks who have also tanked as a warrior or paladin will tell you that being dependant on rune combos and cooldowns makes tanking as a DK a much more challenging proposition.  However, when they blow all their cooldowns they are basically unkillable for 30 seconds.  That’s a LONG time to be OP.  Patch in Frenzy, Maexxna enraged, pop all your stuff and it’s pretty easy going on healers.

However, Healers will also tell you that healing a DK tank can be an out of body experience most of the time.  DK’s take a LOT spikier damage than any other tanking class, so healing a DK is very scary (unless you’re a tree, and then you begin to feel like you could heal anyone through anything).

Both side’s arguments are broken down into one core issue: survivability. Let’s start with the dual-wielding point of view. Almost all tanking weapons are one-handed, thanks to previous classes only having the option of a shield. This has created the longstanding tradition of having one-handed maces, one-handed axes, and one-handed swords as choices for the average protection pally and warrior.

This weapon trend passes into the tanking Death Knight, but they will use two one-handed weapons instead of one. This extra weapon will make up for the stats that are lost with the shield, and give an extra rune, an extra swing, and more threat. These things taken into consideration make the dual-wielding tank a viable choice for Death Knight tanking.

The two-handed point of view argues otherwise. Due to the fact that you have two one-handed weapons, your chance of getting parried has more than doubled; and parries from bosses are really scary. When a boss parries, they attack you instantly, and it resets their swing timer.

This is especially problematic for bosses who hit extremely hard (think Prince Malchezzar, Phase 2). This, however, was answered by Blizzard and now the bosses that hit extremely hard are ones that cannot parry (Patchwerk).

The threat still persists, however, that a dual-wielding tank will be parried much more often, therefore they will sustain more damage from any other boss than a two-handed death knight.

In conclusion, both sides are right, and when you choose your style, you must consider both arguments. You may have more bonus stats and an extra rune while dual-wielding, but you will absolutely take more damage. Likewise, with a two-handed weapon you reduce the chance of being parried, but you are reducing the amount of avoidance you have in general.

We’ve seen good tanks with both styles tank heroics and raid bosses with no problem and do a damn good job at it, although the number of really good dual wielding DK’s is very low, but that probably has a lot to do with gear choices.  We’ll discuss those choices in another article.