and, as i just said above about the elemental guardian tails, they also deal the poison damage on top of the upgraded damage, and due to the fact they already scale worse then normal whips, you can just make them elemental without much of a loss.

not in dks 1 but in 2 I think there are special combos for wielding two of the same weapons, and yes in dks 1 people used to dual wield a lot in pvp, I don't think it is very fun or effective in pve though.

I run a dex build and I like to use a shotel in the right and silver knight spear in the left. The shotel has short reach but is quick and people always seem to forget that its power attacks go completely through shields, which is great for those annoying turtlers. With the spear in the right, I get an attack with very long reach and am also able to block (only 40% reduction though). The combined moveset from these weapons is pretty viable, imo, but you have to be good at dodging. I also use a crossbow and pyromancy flame as backups for extra options.

its better to just turtle through Dark Souls, but in Dark Souls 2 the weapons combine damage, since u need stats at higher by 1.5, damage dealt is also around 1.5 of your combined weapons. i tried this with 2 demon great hammers +5, i dont remember exactly but i think one L2 (or LB for xbox?) attack did around 1000 damage.

Hmpf. The blood stains I see most commonly are always the same: some wannabe-prododger two-handing a (ultra-)greatsword or a halberd dodging, and right after coming out of the roll, >BAM!< - dead.

Use a shield guys! If you want to parry, there is the targe shield. The defensive options a shield offers far outweigh whatever little benefit a second weapon brings.

A spear in your off hand can be fun, definitely not optimal but fun none the less.

My reasons for dual-weild is quicker access to bigger assortment of alternative weapons. I primarily use a sword in main hand + pyro flame in the off hand and my alt weapon set is a dagger(parrying & fast QCQ/finishing) and a longbow(mainly for sniping). That way I have a good weapon flexibility without the necessity of chaning the loadout on the go. This build lacks blocking but I am not relying on blocking and heavy armour with this build anyway. May not be for everyone for that reason but I found it better suiting for my playstyle, especially in NG+ and up where armour usefulness is lower.

Allow me to say very simply, everyone has a varying playstyle. I'm nigh unkillable PvE using a shield, but I'm made of wet tissue paper when I use a shield PvP. Whereas sorcery and swift attacking (basically blitz attacking) actually help against real people as I manage to outmaneuver them and land free hits. Would dodge rolling and blocking work just as well? Perhaps it would work better, but I personally am no good at using that strategy. Incredibly important to put all the info out there for people to use, but it's just inane to simply post "dual-wields are no good, just use a shield". That is one person's opinion about a style that just so happens to work well for them, an opinion; NOT a fact. Either offer facts to the discussion and respectfully mention your opinion, or do not mention your opinion at all.

Dual wielding can be uselful in some situations, Such as having a long thrust weapon in your off hand to poke your oppoonent at range,  but still keeping a shield in your secondary offhand slot to quickly switch if needed. Besides, the poke can stagger low poise players/enemies.

I'm glad to see this thread is still going after 3 years! :)

I agree there are so many different playstyles that this is not an easy question to answer. After playing DS for all these years, I now have several different builds and I play each of them differently in both PVE and PVP. For example, my tank build uses a greatshield to wonderful effect in PVE, however my turtling strategy is less effective in PVP where most of my opponents are constantly circling for a backstab and, due to From's infamous connectivity and collison detection issues, they can usually land a backstab while appearing to be nowhere near my back, so I try to fight more aggressively and only block sparringly.

On the other hand, my sorcerer build focuses on weapon buffs and quick attacks, and during PVP I try to a fast attack before the other player can and then just keep up the pressure, and that has more success for me against average opponents.

Although I readily admit PVP is not my strong suit and expert players beat me across the board. Guess I'm just hard wired for jolly co-op!