Two Weapon Combat

Training in Two Weapon Combat (TWC or 2WC) allows a character to swing a weapon in his or her off-hand.

Ranks and Training Point costs

Type	Square			Semi			Pure
Profession	Rogue	Warrior	Monk	Bard	Paladin	Ranger	Cleric	Empath	Savant	Sorcerer	Wizard
Max Ranks Per Level	2	2	-	2	2	2	1	1	-	1	1
Training Point Cost	2/2	2/2	-	3/2	3/3	3/2	9/9	12/12	-	12/12	12/12

Pros and Cons

The biggest benefit of two weapon combat is the extra swing that the character gets. There are a few things that are different when a weapon is swong in the off-hand, such as roundtime, Attack Strength (AS), and Defensive Strength (DS).

Roundtime

Roundtime when swinging two weapons is combined from the base speed of each weapon. If the off-hand weapon is just as fast as, or faster than the primary hand weapon, there is a reduction in the overall roundtime of the swing.

Attack Strength

The AS of a swing takes into account the character's skill with the weapon itself, and their skill in TWC. 3/5ths of one's skill in the weapon type accounts for the character's AS, while 2/5ths are the character's training in TWC itself. Also, if a character's strength bonus is higher than the character's dexterity bonus, the off-hand attack will be limited by the character's dexterity. More often than not, this comes into play when a character uses the combat maneuver, Surge of Strength.

Additionally, a character that trains in TWC twice per level has no chance of "not finding an opening for the off-hand strike" when swinging at a target up to five levels higher than themselves. Less training reduces the chances of the off-hand strike from occurring. Training in TWC 1.5 times per level reduces the level of the guaranteed strike to like-level with the swinger, and training only once per level reduces the chances to 80% when swinging at a target that is the same level as the swinger.

Defensive Strength

A character's DS when using an off-hand weapon is calculated simularly to the DS granted from their primary weapon training. While the primary weapon grants DS according to the following formula

Parry DS = (Weapon Skill+(STR/4)+(DEX/4)) × (0.20 + stance/2) + (stance × 25)

Off-hand weapon DS is calculated by the following formula:

Off-hand Parry DS = (TWC Skill+(STR/4)+(DEX/4)) × (0.10 + stance/4) + (5 or 15)

Where stance is a number between 0.0 (in offensive) to 1.0 (in defensive) and STR and DEX refers to the bonuses given to the Strength stat and Dexterity stat. The +5 at the end of the formula is +15 instead if the user is wielding either a main gauche or a sai in the off-hand.

External links

• http://www.play.net/gs4/info/skills.asp#twoweaponcombat
• http://www.play.net/gs4/info/combatguide.asp#combatfactors
• http://www.nilandia.com/combat/twc.htm