I wouldnt chain it too much to the setting.

Most pictures you see from the setting are iconic ones. Not every Dark Heresy character is that iconic.

If course - some will be, but that does not mean, that every chirurgeon, sage, investigator and techpriest will be a dual wielding killer-machine of doom.

Some of course will be - but these are the one who will invest in it, and therefore should also be quite strong at it.

As a side note, most of the iconic (of course not all!) you find about 40k are ultramrine space marines anyway ;D and they are always over-the-top-drop-dead-iconic.

As a further side note - even if our oppinions differ very often, I like to discuss with you about it a lot, as you always have good points and use a polite way to adress them.

You are wrong anyway - but in a polite and detailed way... ;D

Well, as far as I see it, getting angry or aggressive isn't going to help things in the slightest. Plus, your points are usually fairly reasonable, they just tend to be irreconcilable with my own.

Anyway, I suppose increasing the talent tax would fix the problem, if there were a fair few talents to buff up basic weapons, too. Basically, even if there is a big delay in becoming super proficient in dual wielding, by the time you get to that point, people who stick with one weapon should be staying competitive themselves, which isn't necessarily the case right now.

I agree that the current taslent structure is not at its peak yet.

The trees lack some talents to balance out different orientations, and lack flexibility in general.

Also, later talent additions will be complicated to integrate (I dont want to hand write into my core rule book).

In the meantime I really think skipping the trees would be better, and instead give each talents a prerequisite if it really needs one. Better for future development and better for flexibility.

Also, the saved space in the book could be used for a handfull of new talents (like frenzy, Unarmed talents or armour of contempt).

I still think this could probably be balanced out with a talent on using one-handed weapons with two hands. Something that would bump up the attack roll by +20. It's easier to swing a melee weapon with two arms than one, and it's easier to use a handgun with both arms than one. This makes it viable for dual-wielder or single wielders. Is it a talent tax to people wielding one weapon? In a way, but a person is able to already wield one weapon at 100% efficiency, whereas dual wielding before the talent is at -20 and less than 100% efficient. Dual wielders are able to quickly be badasses, and single wielders are able to keep up with the Joneses if they wish, or they can instead go for heavy weapons.

Good idea - that would also allow for the badass one-hand Eviscerator Barbarian I always wanted to play

Conan the Acolyte