The quaintness of dual wielding

It's been almost two years since the pivotal two-handed weapons adjustment, which, among other things, was the beginning of the end for dual-wielding as a mainstream option for warrior.

Before the update, the rates of TP gain and auto-attack damage were generally superior for dual-wielding configurations "most things being equal," as the multi-hit properties of Joyeuse and Ridill amply compensated for lower native sword skill and 8 axe/8 sword seemed to be a popular merit option anyway, leaving no room for great axe merits.

There does not seem to be any simple quantitative comparison of dual-wielding configurations with great axe in terms of rate of TP gain and damage per second, so I did some quick calculations. The following is a "most things being equal" comparison of four canonical dual-wield weapon pairs with Perdu Voulge and Fortitude Axe from the standpoint of auto-attack efficiency, as represented by base damage per second (a modification of the usual "DPS" ratings assigned to weapons per FFXIclopedia accounting for double attack and 95% hit rate) and TP per minute.

Comparison of theoretical auto-attack efficiency of various weapon configurations at 95% hit rate and given 15% double attack rate (no Store TP)

Configuration	Hits/round	Hits/sec	Base DMG/sec	TP/round	TP/min
Maneater/Ridill	2.91175	.4271	18.52	16.01	140.96
Maneater/Joyeuse	2.548375	.3822	15.67	13.76	123.85
Ridill/Joyeuse	3.275125	.5339	20.17	16.37	160.19
Maneater/Iron Ram Pick	2.185	.3013	14.46	12.67	104.88
Perdu Voulge (17% DA)	1.1115	.1323	12.70	15.22	108.76
Fortitude Axe (17% DA)	1.6535225	.1968	12.59	22.65	161.80

All of these values are averages. Base damage per second could be considered a measure of "damage over time" potential. If (average) pDIF and hit rate were held constant across all these options, then Ridill/Joyeuse is the clear choice, which is basically saying if you're farming too-weak mobs. As for rate of TP gain per unit time, which has nothing to do with weapon damage ratings, it was always pretty obvious that axe/sword and Ridill/Joyeuse were more efficient in this respect.

Of course, the aforementioned update eviscerated the normally silly notion of most things being equal as the adjustment brought ample attack and accuracy bonuses (accuracy affecting rate of TP gain when accuracy actually matters, duh!) and Raging Rush was modified to be able to critical hit. Given how parsimonious the "development team" generally was (and is), it was almost unfathomable that the STR-to-attack and DEX-to-accuracy "ratios" were "increased" to 1:1 (from 2:1) before they were scaled down to 4:3.

How about another measure of efficiency, like TP "fed" to a mob per unit time or ratio of damage to TP given to a mob? To the extent that it matters, dual-wielding options were generally worse than great axes (Fortitude Axe aside), which could have been considered an acceptable trade-off back then. But, since the two-handed weapon adjustment really undermined the relative efficiency advantages of dual wielding, the trade-off is not that appealing now for mid-level events like Einherjar or Limbus where you not necessarily be at maximum hit rate. The first floor of Central Temenos is a good example of where dual-wielding would be a complete joke. Again, you didn't have to crunch numbers to have realized that.

Comparison of average TP "fed" to mob per attack round (no attack speed reduction, no Subtle Blow)

Configuration	TP fed/ round	TP fed/ min	Base DMG/ TP fed
Maneater/Ridill	24.75	217.84	5.10
Maneater/Joyeuse	21.40	192.65	4.88
Ridill/Joyeuse	26.20	256.31	4.72
Maneater/Iron Ram Pick	19.22	159.12	5.45
Perdu Voulge (17% DA)	18.56	132.58	5.74
Fortitude Axe (17% DA)	27.61	197.24	3.83