Secondary weapon choice is not black and white

I've parsed more variations than I can count .... I'm finding it difficult to determine if a secondary hand dagger or the biggest hammer I can find is best for the secondary weapon.

Thoughts on this? Any data to support?

If the difference is that close, thats great. Easier to get a good secondary since there are multiple options.

Idk why a dagger wouldn't be better. It's got higher ratio right? And is affected by pinpoint unlike a blunt weap?

Mace is the only thing that will beat the piercers ratio wise (barely), but thats counting the + Magic damage, which should calc for full most of the time. You would lose out on the skill dmg increase from Pinpoint. With the mace you would gain blunt damage from feralize (when a shm is around), but I'm 100% confident the piercer is still going to come out on top in the end.

I'm not seeing this in my parse. Pinpoint seems to only affect the primary weapon because the secondary hand hit average doesn't change. Also, a mere 6% increase should not compare to the 100 higher damage of the best 1HB over the best 1HP. (Group gear). I'm baffled why my DPS isn't significantly changing when I change secondary weapons. I'm missing something in the "formula" or my parser lies!

I don't play melee. I have a ranger I play a little. He mostly bows. I frequently play SHD, but no duel wield. I have no answers on this topic.

Just yesterday I asked this very question when working on my ranger gear. I had heard years ago that the offhand is not affected by the weapon delay. It was best to have a low delay in the primary and the high damage in the offhand.

I feel like, based on the post about the parse, that the ratio is king even in the off hand. The best weapon for DPS is the best ratio.

I don't know if this is true but the reason to go with high or low swing rate is to increase procs or decrease reposte. At least I was told that, that tanks are better to have a high damage, low swing, given similar ratios, to reduce repostes, though my SHD probably benefits from a higher swing rate for more lifetap procs.

This is incorrect.

procs are normalized to attacking speed

It definitely does. You need to use a non dmg primary and only swing the offhand to seperate out the pierces. Also can not use your mash button, since there are piercing abilities with more dmg than your offhand.

Thank you for the data. I guess I did not notice the extra 1K (2K for crit) per hit increase. when you are stabbing 10 times per second ... it really adds up.

I'm somewhat out of date, but I'll toss this out there... At one point, the damage bonus was main hand only, making the off hand a pure ratio play. In that situation, I (rogue main, despite the avatar on this forum), generally preferred blunts for off hand since for the same ratio they are usually slower and that meant similar damage output for less damage taken from damage shields, ripostes, etc. Some of that still partly applies, but times (and AA's, especially!) have changed and the off hand isn't so much just a ratio play anymore. Take any advice you see that approaches the question from that angle with a grain of salt. If you're a determined mini-maxer, run your parses.

Off-hand hasn't taken damage from damage shields and ripostes in years because of the Ambidexterity AA, I remember using a non-ratio primary and a weapon in offhand for raids like Argin-Hiz back in CotF.

Better question - why do all the other weapons exist? They're just traps for players. Why make weapons of the same teir that are worse than others.

Cause dev incompetence from not playing their own game or listening to players that do.

Aren't the other ones more situational or class dependent?

Not really. There is a 1hp, 1hb and 1hs usable my several classes. The pierce is ALWAYS the best.
Just like with 2h, the pierce is also always the best. The only exception is if your class gets special weapons for it (monk/bl, knight ect)

I guess I just find more utility in heal tot and vamp procs. Bandolier is a great thing when it isn't just about DPS.