2-hand or dual wield?

[Sain34]

Is bear form damage based on weapon damage? If so 2-handed my be better. I think if all things were equal dual wield for the extra stats?

[Nuuma]

I havent looked at the bear skills very hard, so correct me if Im wrong.
I believe they are based on main hand weapon damage.
Equip a 2-hander for higher bear form damage.
It may just be me, but dual-wielding seems to make man-form hit faster, but makes bear form hit for less at the same speed as a 2-hander.

Bear-form damage, go for 2-handers.
Man-form swifter attacks, go for dual-wield.
Both are at your preference, so play as you like!

(my bear-man is not quite 30, so take my advice with a grain of salt)

[Valamar]

Level 33 - Agmaur - The Claw (Red line)
I haven't looked at the actual combat result numbers.

Two things to comment on --
1- Relentless Maul -- Impressive animation, but does very little damage. Only 48-43 Common damage each opponent.
Compared to a normal Thrash which does 12-13 (Main-hand) Common Damage, when equipped with a decent two-handed axe... that damage is dramatically increased.
2- Thrash is apparently "stackable" -- i.e. there is a Thrash-tier 3 deed -- we (my kin) have been guessing that means 3 Thrash attacks in a row.

Put another way, Thrash will take out Agmaur undead in 3 attacks, while Relentless Maul does not.

Similarly, against the various Créoth (5K), Thrash is the only attack which does significant damage.

[Gilean-EU]

2- Thrash is apparently "stackable" -- i.e. there is a Thrash-tier 3 deed -- we (my kin) have been guessing that means 3 Thrash attacks in a row.

Yes. If you hit with Trash several times in a row, each Trash hit does more damage. There is maybe 3-second window to hit again, and then for the third time, or it "resets" again. After Trash T3, the skill resets to normal again. You can see the icon changing for each version of Trash. Trash T3 does significant amount of damage!

[ararax2]

So lets see,

Lv 39, going 2h
Red Line.
Expose is the key to damage You ignore 40% of Target Mits (To ALL Targets), and it refreshes when you enter Bear form high enough in the red tree.
I've done Thrash T3 around lv 35 and crit for 2800 Damage.
Once you lose expose its better to drop back to man line unless you want to dump out a T2/3 Thrash or toss out bash for DoT.
Bash is pretty vicious of a bleed. and Slash T3 is a pretty vicious bleed as well.

At low lv executes pretty useless, but I see long term potential.

Ferocious Roar In red line is your AOE burst damage. Its auto crit.
Get 40ish Rage, Hit Ferocious Roar Go Bear Form
Then
Relentless Maul
All hits will crit AOE. Thats like 250 per hit (At lv 35ish). Higher up Relentless Maul does its damage 2x faster for way more AOE damage.

Biting Edge also works this way when you are in man form. Nice big AOE damage.

[nelar]

Yes. If you hit with Trash several times in a row, each Trash hit does more damage. There is maybe 3-second window to hit again, and then for the third time, or it "resets" again. After Trash T3, the skill resets to normal again. You can see the icon changing for each version of Trash. Trash T3 does significant amount of damage!

Thrash damage only increases if you are red traited, and only if you have enough trait points to have Raining Blows.

Relentless Maul is an AoE skill. Like a lot of other classes with AoE skills, it's not all that effective against a single mob, but really shines when you have a bunch of mobs bunched up in front of you.

2H does more damage with Biting Edge (Man Form) as well as Bear form. Dual wield does more damage in Man Form. You could switch weapons to maximize damage, or choose which weapon type based on how much time you spend in each form.

[ararax2]

2H does more damage with Biting Edge (Man Form) as well as Bear form. Dual wield does more damage in Man Form. You could switch weapons to maximize damage, or choose which weapon type based on how much time you spend in each form.

But at low lv the weapon investment is pretty steep. Its probably not cost effective to have a second/third weapon before say lv 53/60.

At cap I can see this being viable, but as far as leveling, theres no real need for more damage.

[Gladnagl]

I use two weapons to load up on crit/parry/evade stats, Beorning is now at L29. I also like the look of a Spear/Club combo.

[Decyfer]

I use a 2H. Man form hits like a wet noodle regardless of DW/2H, bear form is where all your damage comes from at lvl 100, and its quite easy to have high uptime of it. As far as i can tell there is no difference in attack speed in bear with weapon choices, making 2h clear winner. Currently i can get 20k Thrash devestates and 35k executes on lvl 100 mobs with a 2h.