Hello guys,

So I've never played demon souls because I don't own a ps3, so I jumped right into dark souls without any experience.

I picked a thief, and so far everything has been going good, I'm just pass the tutorial where the giant bird picks you up. Anyway, so what are the benefits of dual wielding? Do I get any stat bonuses or something? It seems like my attacks only swing with one weapon at a time, and I'm mainly just using my mainhand attack. Can I parry while dual wielding? Is it just cosmetic??????

i@plop1920: it tends to be a bad idea because the negatives far outway the postives. For one no there is no stat bonus, its only the attacking blade that does the damage. Secondly blocking with a sword isnt a good strategy because you will take damage anyway and you cant block arrows, infact dual weilding makes blocking pointless as pretty much all bad guys will be able to break your guard and stagger you. If your just starting out go for a spear or a long sword and a small sheild which will allow you to keep your distance, which is a good idea for a non-armor class. hope that helps.

if you get a parrying dagger it's not so useless. well, at least in demon's souls.

Thanks for the replies. So other than just looking cool or making the game harder for yourself, there's no positives to dual wield over a dagger/shield as a thief?

@plop1920: not really man. You can parry with some blades but the timing is really precise and not all enemies can be parried. You should really focus on movement and dodging considering your class. If you want to make it harder give it a try but for your first run through its best to have your shield to fall back on.

@Largo6661: Alright, thanks again

First run through, at least until you learn the spawn patterns, use a shield. In Demon's Souls one of the best PvP setups was dual katanas, but I don't know how that will pan out in this game. Eventually, though, you should be able to play the game with no shield, but that's takes a bit of memorization and playing it safe first.

Just use DW for boss battles where block is useless anyway like when you have someone else to tank for you. DW deals more damage as burst than 2handing the same weapon.

From my experience with demons' souls you can use your offhand weapon to inflict status effects such as poison (achieved via upgrade by mercury stone), or gain bonuses like increased damage when your health drops below 30% (morion blade).

DW is good for PVP or if you are a total baller; otherwise, sword and board is generally the way to roll.