Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?

[Ravagemk2]

With the, not exactly small, collection of items in this wonderful game to find and/or forge, what are some of your equipment approaches and/or favorites?

As I mentioned in my other post, I'm still quite the newbie to the game, and some of the item descriptions are dubious at best.(Bearclaw Talisman anyone?)

Personally, I've sofar been trying to get as much offensive ability on my non spellcasters, so I often end up with 2 weapons on my stuff, usually completely ignoring defense unless I don't need more weapons.

Is dual wielding, regardless of weapon types, preferable to a 2 handed weapon?

2 copies of the same one handed weapon tend to deal more damage then it's 2 handed counterpart.(I think?)

Anyone here ever tried wielding 4 weapons on the 4 armed commanders/pretenders? If so, just how deadly did they get?

I've noticed the Air and Fire domains let you build RP boosting items, always a good investment I'd assume?

I can definately see the usefulness of items which generate magic gems, especially if you don't have a Turmoil+Luck scale setup or the item makes a gem type you don't have easy access to.