Dual-wield vs 2-hander logic

[andreios 1]

I have a question regarding weapon choice for Windwalker monks.  I have seen many references here and elsewhere that dual-wielding is better than two-hand; generally I have seen the statement that a 2H weapon needs to be about 10ilvl better than the average of a dual-wield pair.  What I have not been able to find is the logic behind this.  What is going on that makes dual-wield so much stronger?  Is it inherent to the class (Way of the Monk?) or simply a product of current itemization?  Thanks!

 

P.S. - Feel free to get as deeply in-depth as you like.

[Nathaniel 0]

2 Handed weapons (Staves and such in this case) give close to or equal base stats than the dual-wielded counterparts, but end up with lower spellpower/intellect generally than Dual Wielded weapons of equal ilvl, as well as being able to have 2 enchants (offhand and mainhand).

 

 

[Nathaniel 0]

generally you'll want dual wielded over twohanded because of the double enchantment possibilities, and staves/twohanders of equal level only give ~about the~ same base stats anyway (aside from spellpower/intellect), so enchanting an offhand with 160+ intellect or so is a nice, if small, addition. for most classes you'll find dual wielding has had a little extra weight added to its side of the scales.

as another example, frost deathknights do roughly the same dps at same ilvl in both twohanded or dual wield, but dual wielders get the on-hit auto attack procs more often, like killing machine and rime, than the two handed counterparts do, so they are able to use buffed abilities much more often, allowing them to pull ahead with the right timing for cooldowns and suchlike, aswell as being able to have two enchantments, which then also gives higher damage output. Twohanded frosts' usually go for fallenc rusader, 15% str and 5% heal or something, but a dual wielder can get both that and razor ice, increasing frost damage done or damage to targets affected by frost, something like that.

[Hybrys 199]

This is regarding Windwalkers not Mistweavers.

 

I couldn't reply to this because I genuinely don't have a good answer. The way I heard it originally was that they didn't do the averaging of the enchants, autoattacks, or other procs very well, and that more hits meant more frequent trinket and Dancing Steel procs, along with slightly more autoattack damage (due to Way of the Monk)

[Brewmonksta 157]

Im fairly sure there is also a relationship with the number of melee swings 1H vs 2h and the resulting stacks/smoothness of TeB generation and as hybris mentioned more trinket proc "chances" and enchant proc "chances".

[andreios 1]

That all makes sense.  With the math I was trying to work out it seemed like the damage itself was almost a wash, but the proc frequency increase definitely makes the switch worth it.  Thanks for your insight!