Let me see if I can show when a 2H would be really advantageous. You know there's skills that say things like, "Does xxx% weapon damage as fire," right? Well, you might wonder why a dagger that says 2000dps doesn't do as much damage as a 2H axe that says 2000dps. That's because the big number at the top of the weapon isn't an accurate measure of the damage the weapon deals, it is an estimate of how much damage
per second it can do.
That bow up there shows that it does 1511.3 dps, but this isn't really the number we're looking at when deciding whether to use it with a WD. Instead, look below to the damage number, the one that says "929-1400 Damage." When comparing weapons, you really want to use the average of these two numbers, so (929+1400)/2=1164.5 average damage for this weapon.
If you are using a lot of direct damage skills (like the blowgun), then none of this probably matters to you, since the slower "1.30 Attacks per Second" of a 2H weapon like this will offset the lower damage of a faster weapon like a dagger. You'll notice that 1164.5 * 1.3 does in fact = 1513, which is where you get the big number at the top of the stat box. For a dagger (with an attack speed of 1.50) to do the same amount of dps (big number), it only has to have an average damage of 1511/1.5=1007, and this is actually the direction you want to take if you are using a lot of skills/items that say things like "Chance on hit to xxx," or "+yyy life per hit" (i.e., proc-based effects).
However,
if you are using skills that say things like, "Does 1500% weapon damage as poison
over 5 seconds: Cooldown 15 seconds,"
then you really don't
care what the attacks per second number is, because you're only going to be able to cast it once every 15 seconds anyway. And in a case like that, especially with the WD (whose style of play is usually "stand out of the way and let your minions do the work"), then you just want to maximize that average damage by whatever means possible (boosting your prime stat, wearing items that add add'l base damage, etc.). This is especially true since your minions' attack damage is directly based on the same number.
(Disclaimer: This is how I
think it works, at least it sure seems to)
Again, though, I'm not sure why people choose bows as opposed to 2H maces, etc., unless the reasoning is that if you're out of mana then you can at least shoot at the enemy from afar as opposed to having to go toe-to-toe.[DOUBLEPOST=1399141182,1399141123][/DOUBLEPOST]
20 yards? Really? Man, that would be helpful. (though occasionally annoying if you're saving health globes for later)
There are quite a few WD skills that say things like, "This effect is extended by your gold/health pickup radius," so that item gets to be pretty handy in those cases.
--Patrick