perks do not stack on SnS. Vicious for example, 100% confirmed does not stack. 0 damage increase when having a 2nd vicious. Also, dropping some of your main stat for the 50 int passive is only worth if the large majority of your hits are backstabs, the more you hit the front or side the less worth it is.
They don’t stack
overall hatchet is the highest damage and easiest to play. Defy death allows you to ignore a lot of mechanics and the weapon simply does the most damage in a lot of situations. Sometimes it’s not the best and sword is close in terms of damage so if you like the weapon go ahead and use it 
I have personally tested a few months ago that lifestealing on both sword and kite shield also do not stack.
It’s a shame that they don’t. I don’t think it would be OP if they stacked. It would make sword and shield more viable.
I wanted to say. shield has vicious and sword has rogue for example they have multiplier for inc crit damage so. if yes , yes. not 2 vicios ofc 
Well SnS is already pretty viable in both PVE and PVP. it’s directly behind hatchet it terms of DPS for PVE and it’s great in PVP for a variety of builds.
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If you have on your sword and shield, vicious + keen + enchanted + bane + empowered + refreshing, it does good damage.
So definitely yes, if the tank does not have leadership, and you have leadership, as you will be giving a +10% damage bonus to the whole team. The exception is Ancients where there is a -15% slash damage penalty.
if you have bane that penalty doesnt count so its still good ^^
Actually SnS has highest dps out of all weapons outperforming even hatchet 
so yes, you can definitely use it.
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I am interested in trying SnS/Blunderbuss build.
Once i finish my main set 
hey all, ty for the input. lots to think about.
How can I stay in light when I equip a shield. It immediately goes in medium category. Probably I need light chest piece also?
I guess you are referenckng the dukesloth video?
Keep in mind this is only true for light attacks / heavy attacks (sustained single target dps) and doesnt take skills or other situations besides sustained singletarget dps into account.
We have no way of telling currently how good a weapon performs in detail and there are also different damage profiles for a number of situations.
Rapier and spear both reach almost the same dps but can actually benefit from skills. Thats an indicator these weapins both outperform sns / hatchet.
But yes, sns is a very competitive choice and is easily in the top 4 together with hatchet, spear and rapier.
and then there is vg…
major trophys etc, dealing 5k crit heavys… rip
It still counts, everyone uses bane so you still get -15%
Its exactly that video. Skills are included. While hatchet skills increase hatchet dps slightly, sns skills don’t. With sns you reach best dps by simply spamming light attacks + heavy for enpower.
He counts with hatchet abilities, check it again.
The difference between hatchet and sns is negligible, both are extremely viable options. But for some reason SnS is very underestimated. Not only it has very good dps by itself but it provides leadership which is huge.
After watching that video I switched to s&s dps today. Did a bnb m10 and was doing identical damage to the hatchets in the group.
SnS is pretty strong as DPS - bit hidden op actually.
What matters is damage, so if your build deals good dmg, it is viable.
Yep.
You want bane+rogue+refreshing move on the sword, and I personally run Keen, Vicious, Keenly-Empowered, and Fortifying Shield Rush on my shield. You could run bane on the sword and shield, as an alternative. They DO stack.
All SnS perks stack except for:
Keen, it doesn’t stack at all.
Vicious stacks, but it has a hard cap of 20%, so you’re losing 4% to DR.
Empowering Leaping Sttike, Contagious Reverse Stab, Fortifying Shield Rush for abilities. I run a VG with Putrefying Scream and have Nullifying Oblivi as well.
I run 266 str, 200 dex, 50 int, 5 con in light.
Fortified shield rush on shield is 33% and makes a huge difference as a 5 con light dps, ESPECIALLY in corrupted dungeons.
Sword users deal 20% more damage to slowed users, final light chain hit slows mobs, but so does shield rush and it has a low cooldown. Also weakens them by 10%
Between keenly empowered and one heavy strike, you’re nearly empower-capped. If slash damage on ring, you’re empower-capped. Oblivion is great for when keenly empowered isn’t active or if you miss a heavy strike in your rotation (heavy strikes grant 30% empower for 5s, 7s if you have the Empowered buff)
Idea is to use Leaping Strike when all buffs are active and it’s a super short cooldown, so you spam it a lot.
Love the build. It’s a lot of fun, but it has a real rotation with little room for error. It definitely competes with hatchet if you play it right, but remember hatchet has a low skill requirement, if any, and a super simple rotation, and that’s why you don’t see many sword dps. Also most tanks run leadership and that’s the big perk of a dps sword removed.
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