Revision 5

Overview

The Dual-Wield build is Damiane's highest melee damage configuration in Crimson Desert, replacing the shield slot with a second rapier to maximize hit frequency and raw offensive output. This setup trades the defensive tools of the Rapier and Shield loadout for relentless aggression, making it ideal for players who prefer an all-in melee playstyle and are comfortable relying on dodges and positioning rather than blocks and parries.

Damiane becomes playable at the start of Chapter 3, after completing the End of Greed questline. Compared to Kliff, she has a lower health pool and weaker blocking, but compensates with faster attacks, quick-step dodging, and the highest single-target damage output in the game. The Dual-Wield build leans into these strengths even further by doubling down on attack speed and melee pressure.

To set up dual wielding, hold the left D-pad to open the Armed Combat radial menu. Hover over the shield slot and press R2 or L2 to swap the shield for a second one-handed weapon. The moveset changes completely when dual wielding; your attacks become faster multi-hit sequences with new animations that feel noticeably more aggressive than the standard rapier and shield moveset.

Recommended Weapons

The Dual-Wield build runs two rapiers in both equipment slots. Your weapon combination does not change the available moveset (all dual-wield combos are identical regardless of which one-handed weapons you pair), so the choice comes down to raw stats and Abyss Gear slots. The starter weapons from Chapter 3 form a strong foundation.

Early-Game Weapons

This pairing gives you the best of both worlds: the White Wind Rapier provides speed while the Grace Rapier provides raw power. Together, the Swift I and Destruction I cores cover the two most important offensive stats for this build. Both rapiers have 3 Abyss Core slots, giving you 6 total slots to customize your stats.

Mid-Game and Endgame Upgrades

As you progress through the story, several stronger rapiers become available through exploration, boss drops, and crafting. Keep these on your upgrade radar:

For endgame, prioritize rapiers with the highest refinement ceiling and the most Abyss Core slots. Raw ATK matters less than having enough slots to stack Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction cores. Refine both rapiers as high as you can afford; the attack speed increase at +10 is substantial. Consult the Weapon Tier List and Best Weapons by Type articles for detailed comparisons.

Recommended Armor

The full Demenissian Elite Uniform set is the best armor available during Chapter 3 and remains effective well into the mid-game. Without a shield, the Dual-Wield build depends more heavily on its armor stats and movement speed for survival.

The gloves and boots are the standout pieces. Each provides 13 ATK alongside their defensive stats, which is a significant damage boost for a dual-wield configuration where every hit benefits from the flat ATK bonus. The boots also grant both ATK Speed 1 and Move Speed 1, and the Haste I core adds further movement speed on top. This combination is critical for a build that relies on quick repositioning between attacks.

Accessories

As you find better accessories through exploration and quests, prioritize pieces with attack speed, critical rate, or movement speed bonuses. Flat defense accessories are less valuable for this build since the playstyle centers on not getting hit in the first place.

Abyss Core Priorities

With six Abyss Core slots across your two rapiers (three per weapon) plus additional slots on your armor, the Dual-Wield build has a lot of room to customize. The build draws its damage from hit frequency rather than per-hit power, so your core priorities reflect that philosophy.

Refer to the Best Abyss Cores and How to Equip Abyss Cores articles for information on where to find and how to slot cores into your gear.

Skill Priorities

Damiane's skills are organized into three color-coded trees: Stamina (blue), Spirit (green), and Health (red). The Dual-Wield build invests heavily in the Stamina tree for melee damage, with targeted picks from the Spirit and Health trees for utility and survivability. Refer to the Damiane Skills article for the full breakdown of every skill and upgrade path.

Stamina Tree (Primary)

The Stamina tree contains your core melee damage skills. These should be your first investments.

Spirit Tree (Secondary)

The Spirit tree provides defensive tools and crowd control options that compensate for the lack of a shield.

Health Tree (Tertiary)

The Health tree provides mobility and elemental tools. Invest here after your core Stamina and Spirit skills are online.

Combat Rotation

The Dual-Wield build operates on a tight melee loop: close the gap, unload your burst combo, create distance, and repeat. Without a shield, you have no safe way to absorb hits during your attack window, so the rhythm of engaging and disengaging is critical.

Single-Target / Boss Rotation

Against bosses, the goal is to deal maximum damage during each engagement window while maintaining enough Stamina to disengage safely.

1. Piercing Light (Charged) - Close the gap by using a fully charged Piercing Light. Charging mid-combo (during a basic attack chain) lets you trigger it instantly without the full charge time.

2. Running Attack - Immediately follow with a running attack to deal three rapid strikes in quick succession. This is the fastest way to build hit count at the start of your melee window.

3. Sword Flurry - Use Sword Flurry to continue the pressure while simultaneously dodging sideways to avoid the boss's counter-attack. At Proficiency level, use it twice consecutively for sustained damage.

4. Smiting Strike - Dump your remaining Spirit with Smiting Strike for heavy burst damage. At Proficiency, chain two strikes together. At Rend Armor, this will interrupt enemies through Super Armor.

5. Dodge Attack (Evasive Smite) - Dodge backward to create distance while calling down a bolt of light on the boss. This simultaneously deals damage and returns you to a safe range.

6. Heavy Attack x2 - From mid-range, execute two heavy attacks to deal damage while staying out of the boss's melee reach. This fills the gap while your skills come off cooldown.

7. Repeat the cycle from step 1. Keep enough Stamina for at least one dodge in reserve at all times.

Mob Clearing Rotation

Against groups of regular enemies, the approach shifts to cover more area while maintaining mobility.

1. Piercing Light - Dash through a cluster of enemies, dealing damage to everything in your path.

2. Sword Flurry - Chain into Sword Flurry to hit enemies around you while repositioning sideways.

3. Running Attack Chain - Execute the 3-hit running attack combo to cleave through grouped enemies.

4. Evasive Smite - Dodge backward and drop a light bolt for AoE damage when you need breathing room.

5. Smiting Bolt - From mid-range, use Smiting Bolt to hit enemies you cannot safely reach in melee.

When clearing mobs, do not chase individual enemies. Let them group up naturally, then dash through the cluster with Piercing Light and follow up with area attacks. Staying in one spot too long invites flanking.

Key Combos

The following combo chains are the bread and butter of the Dual-Wield build. Practice them until they become muscle memory.

Stat Priorities

When spending stat points (which carry over between all playable characters), the Dual-Wield build prioritizes the following order.

Keep in mind that Health, Stamina, and Spirit upgrades made on Kliff's skill tree also apply to Damiane, and vice versa. If you invested heavily in Stamina on Kliff before switching to Damiane in Chapter 3, those points carry over immediately.

Playstyle Tips

Never Block, Always Dodge

Without a shield, you have no reliable way to block incoming attacks. The Dual-Wield build is entirely dodge-dependent. Invest in Keen Senses early to unlock the Backstep (perfect dodge) mechanic. A perfectly timed dodge grants brief invulnerability and opens a counter-attack window that deals bonus damage. This is both your primary defensive tool and a damage opportunity.

Manage Your Stamina Budget

Stamina management is the difference between life and death with this build. Every melee skill costs Stamina, and every dodge costs Stamina. If you burn through your entire Stamina bar on an offensive combo, you will have nothing left to dodge the boss's follow-up attack. A good rule of thumb: always keep at least 40 Stamina in reserve (enough for one Piercing Light or two dodges) as an emergency escape.

Use Focus to Read Boss Patterns

Activate Focus at the start of difficult encounters. The slow-motion effect lets you read boss telegraph animations clearly, giving you time to plan your approach. This is especially useful when fighting a boss for the first time, since the Dual-Wield build punishes mistakes harshly.

Stay Mobile Between Combos

The Dual-Wield build is not a face-tank build. After each burst combo, retreat to mid-range and wait for your skills to come off cooldown. Use heavy attacks from mid-range to deal safe damage during this downtime. The rhythm of dash in, burst, dash out defines this build's playstyle.

Match Rapier Cores to Your Progression

Early on, the Swift I and Destruction I combination on your starting rapiers covers your core needs. As you acquire additional Abyss Cores from exploration and bosses, start filling both rapiers with Attack Speed and Cooldown Reduction cores. In the endgame, a fully loaded pair of rapiers with maxed Attack Speed cores transforms the build's damage output.

Endgame Optimization

As you progress past the mid-game, the Dual-Wield build's core philosophy stays the same, but the execution tightens. Here are the key adjustments for endgame content.

• Refine both rapiers to +10. The attack speed increase at maximum refinement is significant. The White Wind Rapier goes from ATK Speed Lv. 2 to Lv. 3 at +10, which is a noticeable jump in hit frequency.

• Max out Piercing Light Rend Armor. Level 3 Piercing Light ignores Super Armor, letting you interrupt endgame bosses that would otherwise tank through your combos and punish you.

• Unlock Imbue Element. After completing the required Abyss puzzles, imbuing your rapiers with Fire or Lightning adds bonus elemental damage to every hit. Since the build lands many hits per combo, the total elemental damage is substantial.

• Stack Attack Speed across all available slots. Attack Speed outperforms raw ATK for this build because Damiane scales with hit frequency. Every extra hit procs critical chance, applies elemental damage, and builds stagger.

• Master the Keen Senses counter. In endgame content, a single boss hit can kill you outright. The perfect dodge into counter-attack chain from Keen Senses is both your safest defensive tool and a free damage window.

• Upgrade Smiting Strike to Level 3. The Rend Armor upgrade on Smiting Strike lets you interrupt Super Armor, giving you two Super Armor breakers (alongside Piercing Light Rend Armor) for the toughest boss encounters.

Pros and Cons

Dual-Wield vs Rapier and Shield

The choice between Dual-Wield and the Rapier and Shield build comes down to your comfort with purely dodge-based defense. Both builds share the same skill tree investments and combat flow, but they differ in risk and reward.

Many players start with the Rapier and Shield configuration while learning Damiane's kit, then transition to Dual-Wield once they are comfortable with boss patterns and dodge timing. Both builds are viable through the entire game.

Related Articles

• Damiane - Character overview and lore

• Damiane Skills - Complete skill tree breakdown

• Damiane Rapier and Shield Build - Alternative build using Rapier and Shield

• Best Damiane Builds - Comparison of all Damiane build options

• Build Guide: Damiane - General build guide

• Dual Wield Build Guide - General dual-wield mechanics guide

• Rapier - Rapier weapon type overview

• Weapons - Full weapon database

• Abyss Cores - Complete Abyss Core guide

• Builds - Overview of all character builds

Post-Patch Crit Rate Fix

A recent patch corrected what the notes described as a visual bug on jewelry and the Kuku Flame Resistant Chest. In practice the issue was functional, not cosmetic, so those pieces really were handing out double critical rate. After the fix, a critical rate necklace such as the Engraved Silver Necklace now gives the advertised 4 critical rate instead of 8, and the chest no longer contributes a doubled amount either.

The practical consequence for builds is that critical rate has to be rebuilt around weapons and Abyss Gear slots. To hit the 15 critical rate cap you generally need the highest crit-rate weapon available for your type plus 2 to 3 Insight III gears in the weapon, with a crit necklace and a crit ring filling out the remainder.

Rapier Build Math (Post-Patch)

For a rapier-and-shield heavy-attack build, the cleanest way to reach the 15 critical rate cap is:

• Rapier: 2 critical rate at max refinement plus 3x Insight III abyss gears (9 critical rate).

• Necklace: a crit-rate necklace such as the Engraved Silver Necklace for the remaining 4 critical rate.

• Rings: two attack-speed level 4 rings like Mark of Darkness; each also adds 6% stamina regeneration.

If you prefer using Crow's Pursuit (the homing heavy-attack proc from the chapter 5 boss), be aware that dropping an Insight III gear for it means you cannot reach crit 15 on the rapier without moving crit onto other slots. The plain three-Insight rapier is the reliable crit-15 baseline.

Damiane-Exclusive Gloves

The only gloves in the game that hit attack speed level 4 on any character are crafted from Cloth Armors of the World Vol. IV. The recipe book is sold by the back-alley vendor on the north end of Pailune, just outside the OTC, and he only opens the listing once you reach 100 trust with him.

With the exclusive gloves and two attack-speed level 4 rings you settle around attack speed 12 at full refinement. Terra Cloth Gloves (attack speed level 3) land you at attack speed 11 instead, which is functionally very close because attack speed above rank 10 gives diminishing returns. Either option is fine if you have one already refined.

Armor Gear Slots

• Chest and helmet: 3 Stamina Regen abyss gears across the two pieces (18% stamina regen), plus your two attack-speed rings at 6% each for the 30% stamina regen cap. Leave one slot for an imbue or Momentum (Turning Slash damage) if you lean on turning slash often.

• Gloves: 1 Relentless for general play; swap it for a Bane/Shred/Rend/Shatter matched to the enemy when you are doing boss sessions.

• Boots: Bane or attack-speed gears depending on whether you want 15 attack speed at full refinement or extra enemy-type damage.

Rapier Lightning Loop

The loop is built around spamming the lightning-strike heavy attack from outside melee range. When an enemy closes in, combo heavy to turning slash for the lightning-infused ground strike, then evade back out and resume the heavy-attack rain. The lightning bolt itself does not trigger imbue procs, so imbue abyss gears are optional flavour rather than core damage.