Hi, Im having a hard time deciding which weapons should I buy for my monk (inferno act 2 atm)
I have about 500k igg to spend, but Im so confused with the game mechanics that I cant decide what to buy, maybe you could help me:

Attack speed questions:

When I dual wield two 1.4 attacks per sec weapons, it says 1.61 attacks per second. Does it mean each hand or combined?

When I put a main hand with 1.5 attacks per sec, and 1.4 on offhand, it says 1.72 attacks per sec. If I put the 1.5 on offhand the speed goes down to 1.61 but the dps doesnt change. Does it mean that I want a very very fast weapon on main hand cuz its the only one affecting my speed?

When I dual wield two magical 800 dps no stats 1.4 speed weapons, I have about 12k dps and 1.61 attacks per sec. When I change offhand to a rare sword with 550 dps, 50 dex and 1.5 attack speed, my dps is 10.5k with 1.72 attack speed.
Wouldnt it be smarter to change my main hand to a very fast (1.75ish) weapon even if it only has like 600 dps (with some stats) instead of my 800 dps 1.4 attack speed mainhand?

If two weapons have 800 dps, one is 1.2 attack speed and one is 1.4 attack speed, would the 1.2 one do more damage with abilities ? (since the tooltip says % weapon damage and not % weapon dps)
If thats correct, do I want a slow offhand?

Thanks for reading, and please do not post if your not sure!

The weapon speed on your character sheet only accounts for your main hand speed, with the dual-wielding .15 bonus added in.

The DPS on your character sheet accounts for everything.

Your attack speed will be affected by the speeds of both weapons. This is something the character sheet "lies" about - it doesn't average out the attack speed of your offhand for when you alternate hits with your primary attack.

As for abilities -- all non-spirit generating abilities use your main-hand damage (and attack speed as well, though it matters less for stuff with cooldowns). All spirit-generating primaries alternate between your main-hand and off-hand.

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 14 2012 10:30am

the onscrean number is the speed for the prime weapon (glove side)
if you swing your weapon 1 time when use a combo skill, then you see the speed of your second weapon

example:
weapon A = 1.4base speed + 25ias on it
weapon B = 1.4bas speed, no ias
offwepaon ias = 30ias

swing speed weapon A = 1.4base weapon speed*1.25weapon ias * 1.15duel wield bonus * 1.3offweapon ias = 2.61attacks per second
swing speed weapon B = 1.4*1.15*1.3 = 2.09attacks per second

when use a combo skill, avarage ias = (2.61+2.09)/2= 2.35attacks per sec

i noticed, if i use spama spirit consuming skill, the weapon not switch, the ias stays at 1 number


yes the slow weapon whit the same dps will do more damage in a hit, but swing slower, resulting in same dps

Okay, this is getting kinda complicated.

I should want both weapons as fast as possible for high spirit regeneration, but it means lower ablity damage... So what weapon speed should I aim for?

Also, is the character screen also "lieing" about dps, or offhands just dont add that much dps?

Maybe I should get a very very fast offhand, even with a lil lower dps, cuz its not affecting ability damage and it's dps doesnt seem to affect total dps that much?

You character screen's DPS is correct. It's in fact the only reliable stat on the page, really.

As for your questions about gear choice: generally for monks, the higher DPS the better. Unless you're playing a caster monk (in which case you wouldn't be using a 1-hander anyway), you'll want to optimize for DPS first, IAS second, and everything else after that. (strictly talking about damage optimization here)

Unlike other classes that do a lot of hit and run, monks need to stand still to do any kind of meaningful damage, so the DPS of your weapons/char-sheet directly translates into the DPS you actually do, regardless of whether it's done with 3 hits per second or 1. The advantage of doing it with 3 hits is obviously that you'll get a lot more spirit (and LoH), which is why IAS is such an important stat for monks.

As for trading off DPS vs. IAS -- that'll most likely be a situational thing. It depends on how much IAS you're trading off for how much DPS - I'm sure there's a sweet spot somewhere, but it's not one that has an absolute answer or an easy formula because of all the variables involved. As a rule of thumb though, it's good to make sure that *both* your weapons have decent speed and are reasonably close to each other in DPS, because otherwise, you'd be better off with using a shield.

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 14 2012 10:49am

It seems that the offhand has a very low effect on your dps... If I use two 800 dps weapons I get 12k dps, with one 800 and one 600 I get 10.5k... But if I use a rare 600 dps weapon I can get a much faster one, maybe with more stats like dex, vita, etc so isnt it worth it??
Tommy also said offhand doesnt affect ur ability damage, so shouldnt I go for the fastest possible for high spirit regeneration?

You pretty much use a shield in offhand over a wep unless ur weps are indlsane atack speed and life on hit i guess.

Are you not able to read what I wrote?

Your offhand doesn't affect ability damage, so stuff like Sweeping Wind, Lashing Tail Kick, or Wave of Light ... use your main hand damage. But spirit-generators like FoT, Deadly Reach, Crippling Wave, and WotHF (your primary sources of damage) all alternate between your main hand and offhand.

But with a shield you attack very slow, get very low spirit and then less dps?
Why not get a very fast offhand even with a bit lower dps than main, with stats like dex and loh? Your dps remains about the same and you attack much much faster.. It also seems beter than dual wielding two weapons with high dps and medium attack speed..





Yeah I got that, but offhand weapons hardly changes your overall dps on character screen... I have 12k dps with two 800 dps weapons, and 10.5k with one 800 dps and one 550 dps...

This post was edited by Bash1337 on Jun 14 2012 11:13am

With a shield, you lose a flat 0.15 attack speed. Depending on the relative damage of your weapons, putting on a shield may result in more or less DPS, because instead of alternating weapons, you'll be doing every hit with your main hand.

Example: I use a 1k DPS one-hander, and equipping anything less than a 950 DPS off-hand results in lower overall DPS for me.



Is DPS the only difference between the 550 DPS weapon and the 800 dps weapon? What other stats are on those weapons? How much dexterity do you have? What's your attack speed?

This post was edited by irimi on Jun 14 2012 11:14am