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In Path of Exile, many players have a huge misunderstanding about how attack speed is calculated when dual-wielding weapons PoE 1 Currency. Both tools, like Path of Building (PoB) and the official wiki, generally assume that the dual-wield attack speed is the arithmetic average of both weapons' attack speeds, but in reality, this method is inaccurate in-game. Players often find their character's attack speed much slower than what these tools show. The root of this misconception lies in how exactly the "average" should be calculated.

For example, if you dual-wield one very fast weapon (10 attacks per second) and one very slow weapon (0.1 attacks per second), PoB will show an attack speed around 5.55 attacks per second (including dual-wield bonuses), which is a serious overestimate. What happens is that the fast weapon attacks quickly, taking only 0.1 seconds per hit, but when the turn comes to the slow weapon, it takes a whole 10 seconds to attack. In a full cycle of both weapons attacking once, you take about 10.1 seconds total, which is less than 1 attack per second in reality. This means the arithmetic average is not appropriate here, because attacks alternate. You need to sum the time each hit takes, not average the attacks per second directly.

This conclusion was verified by testing. The tester equipped a Brightbeak with attack speed 2.11 and a Mark of the Doubting Knight with attack speed 0.96. The in-game default attack time showed 0.69 seconds, but PoB displayed 0.59 seconds. Measuring 30 attacks with a stopwatch confirmed that the true time matched the game's value, which is slower than PoB's prediction. This shows that the real dual-wield attack speed should be calculated using the harmonic mean of the two weapon speeds, not the arithmetic mean. The harmonic mean formula is always smaller than the arithmetic mean, which explains why PoB overestimates.

The harmonic mean formula is n / (1/x + 1/y) for two weapons x and y, whereas PoB uses (x + y) / 2. The difference is significant, and only when both weapons have identical attack speeds will these two averages match. The greater the difference in attack speeds, the less reliable PoB's displayed numbers become. Even for skills like Dual Strike that use both weapons simultaneously, practical testing shows the harmonic mean governs actual attack speed—the arithmetic mean applies only in rare cases.

Players can manually adjust PoB results by adding a custom "x% less attack speed" mod according to the weapon speed ratio to better simulate real attack speeds. This correction matters mostly when there is a large difference between the two weapon speeds. For most regular combos, its effect is minor, but if one weapon is much faster than the other, the actual DPS drop is very significant.

In summary, whether you are an optimization enthusiast or a general player, you should realize that dual-wielding weapons with different attack speeds results in a real attack speed lower than what third-party tools or online calculations suggest. The best practice is to select two weapons with closely matched attack speeds to ensure smooth and high output. Hopefully, this research helps everyone understand POE's combat mechanics more accurately and avoid being misled by inflated displayed stats, thus saving time and effort when building your character PoE Currency.