Offhand Weapons For Weapon Skills

I feel a little ashamed I have to ask this question, but it seems no matter where or who I ask, I always get a different response. I searched around on Wiki for awhile and couldn't find anything, so I'm just going to ask here.

When you weapon skill and have two weapons equipped through dual-wield, does the damage rating of the offhand weapon increase or decrease the damage of the weapon skill?

I'm aware that an additional hit is made from the offhand weapon for most weapon skills, but have been unable to find any official citation to confirm a yes or no response to my question. Everyone seems to be a pundit on this question, but I've heard so many contrasting responses that I just can't make up my mind.

The reason I ask is because I borrowed a friend's Kraken Club to break a couple of latents and got the feeling that weapon skills were generally weaker when offhanding the Kraken Club. I'm not gullible enough to assume that the Kraken will perform 2-8 hits as an offhand on weapon skills, thus increasing damage by eight hits, but I am curious if the low damage rating of Kraken Club compared to, say, Perdu Blade (on NIN75), decreases the overall damage of the weapon skill for the offhand blow?

Feel free to laugh at this question, coming from a NIN75 it must seem a little sad, but oh well! You never learn if you never ask.

Thanks in advance! :)

found this on wiki under dual wield


- During non-elemental Weapon Skills, an extra hit is performed with the secondary weapon. This does not apply to elemental Weapon Skills (such as Shining Strike) or special Weapon Skills such as Spirits Within.
- Weapon Skill Damage is based on the damage rating of the main hand weapon.

Well first of all, no ws period can do more than 8 hits. Even if DA or TA proc using a ws such as Asuran Fists will never gain an additional hit.

As for off-hand dmg, you will never find an official response b/c SE is evil and hasn't given one I'm aware of. Common consensus is that ws dmg is only affected by main-hand dmg rating, even though off-hand does an additional hit on most ws's.

Offhand weapon damage i do believe plays into factor, at least in my experience with rampage, which is a very random WS yes, but i've steadily played as war/nin with offhand axe and as offhand joyeuse and axe offhand did consistently put up not vastly higher numbers but definitely noticeable, say 50-100dmg per.

Might be better for you to go ahead and test this with another WS though due to the random nature of rampage crits, and double attack as war, and also the fact that i dont have it documented and it's just by eye :)

My experience could also be due to the fact that it's a B rated weapon vs an A rated, meaning loss of acc on that hand so more possible misses, i dunno i just know i do heavier rampages with an offhand woodsman or something than an offhand joyeuse

While i can't prove that it factors at all I can definitely say i personally do heavier dmg rampage as axe/axe any day, also though its a gain in stats to go axe/axe so its also another edge.

I may be too late but i'd like to note that from my experience the best way to go is to make your offhand weapon revolve around an increase in dps and/or attributes and bonuses that would benefit.

My thief friend has tried out various daggers varying in damage and delay while used offhand and has noticed little to no significance in WS damage change. Leading me to believe an off hand weapon's main purpose is strictly for DPS, WS enhancement or side bonuses that would benefit any other activity.