Dual Blades - no holds, no disorients, no nothing?
the secondary effect on DB is -def on almost every attack, and 2 (iirc) knockdowns (3 if you count sweep combo 
). Also to compensate for that you got the combo system as well. Thing is you're solely comparing it to the brute's primaries, which are roughly the same as tanker secondaries.
However, dont forget DB is also available for scrappers and tankers. If you check their secondary effects, there are less of those holds/stuns as well. For example theyre lacking in: claws, ninja blade, katana, broadsword and spines only got an immob as real mez effect. However all these sets got their other fancy stuff. Also I dont recall fiery melee from brutes get mezzes either, and elec has at best "chance to.." mezzes (chance to sleep, chance to stun)
"god, how many devs did hami have to sleep with to get ED?"
Total Cat @Stagefright
-def is only on ablating strike, no other attacks.
The thing with dual blades is the combo system. Which gives you four diffrent combos to perform each with diffrent effect.
Weaken - lowers def and accuracy of affected targets (pbaoe)
Empower - gives you additional boost of dmg and acc
Attack vitals - places a damage over time effect on affected targets (melee cone)
Sweep - adds 50% dmg on finisher and gives a knockdown effect (pbaoe)
So no, we have no real secondary effects, one power with -def, two with knockdown. and thats it. What we do have is those comboes. They each have uses. Attack Vitals and Sweep most commonly used as they give best damage and smoothest chains as they share no powers in their combos. Weaken is in my opinion awesome for elite bosses and AVs etc.
DB has far more secondary effects than my fiorst brute did. Compared to fire its loaded with them.
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Simple answer is you dont need them, the combo system and the quickness of killing more than makes up for it.
Every set has its own secondary effects. Stone Melee gets a lot of knockbacks/knockdowns, Energy Melee has chance to stun, Fiery Melee gets extra fire damage over time.
Dual Blades has its combos and the knockback/knockdown effects. More than enough secondary effects, if you ask me.
Hmm... what about PvP then?
Seems to me that holds are VERY useful.
PvP? With DB? Sorry, but DB is not that great for PvP, especially when compared to other brute sets, and the lack of a hold is the least reason for that.
And what if it had one hold? That would be quite useless against anything but squishies... and a squishy who goes into melee with a mezzing brute (e.g. EM) without breakies deserves to die.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
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Hmm... what about PvP then?
Seems to me that holds are VERY useful.
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As said, holds are useful only against squishies (and only if their mag > 3), since melee ats have good protection against it.
It means only during team pvp or ranged duels. And in team pvp or ranged duels, because of defects of these sorts of pvp, db is just a joke :
- no fury, as all brutes
- no combos, since to succeed 3 successives attacks is almost impossible to a melee at without ranged attacks
*sniff sniff*
So much for the hopes of taking my brute into PvP... 
I guess I should have picked SS or Energy... But DAMN, them blades are cool.
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*sniff sniff*
So much for the hopes of taking my brute into PvP...
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Keep the faith... Maybe, one day, the devs will add some pvp modes which could correct the way to play team pvp. So maybe one day tanks could really tanking (and not just taunting), brutes could see their fury growing (and not just stay at 0), melee armors and aoe could be useful... ^^
give a pvp zone without travel powers - theres your fury bar, and the use of tanks actually tanking, and hell - itll even let db's use a combo or 2 and remove al the annoying and boring travel power zooming combat bs :P
but main downside as i see it for any db set in pvp is the lack of a build up for that nice big fat dmg boost for a few hits thats really needed - on a plus db wtfpwns pve lol
I've made myself a popular dual blade / willpower brute some time ago... now, while it's fun and visually cool, I double checked the powers, and there are absolutely no holds / disorients or anything in there. Other sets like Stone or SS get some form of a hold.
So... what gives? Why? Any chance to around that?