What's the level prereq for this?
Does it also depend on what class you are?
There are "dual" swords in D grade which is lvl 20. Anyone can use them (who have D grade masteries and even a sub 20 can use them but not well - you will miss a lot) but to truly get the most out of them you would have to have the Dual masteries. As far as I know (and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) only blade Dancers and Gladiators (lvl 40) have these masteries.
You get dual sword masteries when becoming a gladiator or a bladedancer at level 40. The general weapon masteries everyone gets under level 20 and mystics always get apply to dual swords but all the other weapon masteries do not.
Anyone over level 20 can use duals without penalties (if they are the right grade duals).
yepp. and even if you "can" use duals at lvl20, I would say ALL classes would benifit more from other weapons, at least 99% of the time. two-handed sword > dual-swords.
unless you dont care about money, at least (you will waste a lot of shots due to misses with dual-swords)
as a general rule i would say every melee class in game (not daggers) should use a 2 hander from 0-40 if you cant get a 2 handed duels are the way to go
Dual skills start at 40 and I've since had improvements at 43 and 46. Triple Slash is particularly good with a rapid fire of three hits. Its power increases with 43 and 46 but there seems to be a bug that sometimes stops soulshots firing after the triple slash.
I don't agree to using duals 0-40. You get better skills that apply to single swords and blunts and nothing for duals. The lack of skills for duals shows its not a planned avenue, even though its possible. Having said that, I would liked to have been able to afford some duals at a lower level and had the chance to try them.
What about Polearms? Wouldn't they be good with outside buffs?
I used duals from 20+ because my friends gave me 107's when I got D-grade. But I realized I should've used a Claymore or a Titan Sword but a Titan Sword didn't exist back then!