[Poll / give-away] Do you use the offhand?

Hi gang!

First: Some of you will know exactly what I'm getting at here. If you do I'd appreciate it if you could keep quiet about it for now and just take the poll (or make a general comment). Thing is: I'm trying to keep bias out and some people's opinion could change if they knew why I'm doing this.

Question: Are you using the offhand?

You do know the offhand I hope? Ever since 1.9 got out we could apply shields to our offhand. But rejoice because there's tons more which you can do with 'm besides holding a shield. Some players like myself heavily use this while mining and doing cave exploration (you hold either a pick or a sword in one hand, and keep your torch in the offhand for quick placement and/or lighting of the area when playing with OptiFine (and the dynamic light feature enabled)).

But it can also do wonders for building. Whenever I'm placing slabs I usually keep several stacks in my hotbar and one stack in my offhand. I start placing and as soon as my hotbar runs out my offhand takes over so that I can continue placing down blocks. Then I switch to my other hotbar slot (mouse wheel) and the placing continues. This allows to me place several stacks of blocks in one run without any delay.

I also use this trick the other way around: when replacing blocks with other blocks. I keep a pickaxe in one hand and my blocks in the other. So as soon as I removed the original blocks I can then place the new blocks without having to bother myself too much with switching all the time.

What about you?

This poll actually has some importance to it (at the very least for me) so I'm raising the stakes. When the poll is over then one lucky voter will receive a Minecon t-shirt promo from the luck of the draw (random.org).

I use it to hold heads that look good with my outfit #Fashion?

i use it for a bow, bow in offhand and tool in main so i can strip mine and have personal protection on me (kind of like carrying a pistol eyyy)

Basically for shielding

I use it mostly for mining; torches in one hand and pick in the other because of optifine, as you mentioned.

When playing Bingo (on Chin's server) I use it to hold the map. When in UHC, I use it for bows/shields (I switch out during combat for whichever is most effective). When in town, I never use it.

For torches mainly but also to repair tools/armor when grinding the xp.

What I use the slot for depends on what I am currently doing.

Well, it looks like you're writing forum posts right now, so... yeah, let's hear it!

I use it for Building and Shields, but Sometimes food.

like your baked cousins?

Exactly

I use it to add to my collection...

Ze bump!

I usually forget you can use the off-hand nowadays, even though I really appreciate the feature. But I hardly ever play anyway, as you probably know.

Exclusively for steak or items I need repaired through mending

Right now my main use for offhand is for a bucket. Swimming around killing squids for ink and don't want to bother going up to the surface, I keep a bucket in the offhand to breath when I'm running out. This lets me keep killing squids steadily. Otherwise, I use it for all the other things like torching while mining or bow/sword combo. I've never bothered with a shield.

Mainly use offhand for tool repair in tandem with XP & Mending enchantmet.

no bias he says, then shares a list why the offhand is awesome 2 use

i think the offhand is esp. cool when moving llamas around. u lead one llama, others follow, then get on ur horse and you can lead a whole herd 2 wherever u need them 2 go. but if u keep it in offhand u can still do other stuff with ur main hand.

Can you empty the bucket again, or can you only use that trick once?