Diablo – How to a demon hunter wear a dagger and a hand crossbow

The most obvious difference is that the Archery passive gives you a different bonus depending on your weapon type of choice.

A second difference is the choice for the secondary hand - with a hand crossbow it's either another hand crossbow, a shield or a quiver, while with a bow or crossbow the only option is a quiver.

Finally, there's another very important attribute beyond just the affixes and DPS: attack speed. While DPS dictates how much damage you can do per second, different attack speeds really encourage different styles of play. Slower attack weapons can get rid of enemies before they can to you, but higher speed weapons have a mobility and no-overkill advantages. I usually prefer higher-speed weapons even when it means sacrificing some DPS.

Then you dual wield two weapons, and you compare a 2 handed weapon, it automatically compares it to both your main hand and off hand at the same time on the damage gains section.

I equipped a one handed crossbow. compared it to my 2 handed bow for an upgrade of 4197 points of damage. Keeping the same Hand crossbow in my primary I equipped another hand crossbow to my offhand, which increased my damage. Then I compared it to my 2 handed bow again for an increase in if 2940 damage.

It shows the status upgrades versus the main hand but its factoring in both weapons. It also factors in a shields stats if you use one.

EDIT: As of patch 1.0.3, 2 handed weapons are now compared against the weapons in both of your hands.