Minecraft is all about exploration and creation. For many players, the Creative mode is what Minecraft is meant to be, but Adventure and Survival modes do have their appeal. Actually, they just got a lot more appealing after the 1.9 update which just went live on PC. The biggest change in 1.9? You can now dual-wield items and, holding one in each hand, use them independently. Shields have been added to the game, so this is really going to shake things up.
Before you go equipping a shield and boldly swinging your swords and axes about, you should know that a cool-down has been added to attacks, so now you’ll need to time your swings more carefully. A special sweeping attack has been added for swords, and axes now have a special crushing blow attack. 1.9 brings a myriad of additions and changes, so I’ll just list them all for you:
Added shields
Attacking now has a “cool-down” delay, making it more important to time your attacks
You can now hold items in both hands (default quick key to swap items is ‘F’)
Swords have a special sweep attack
Axes have a special crushing blow attack
Added the elytra
New mob: Shulker
Expanded The End
Added Chorus plants
New Purpur blocks
New End Rod block
Added dragon head block
Ender Dragon can be resummoned
Added beetroot and beetroot soup (from MC:PE)
Added grass path block
Added igloos
Armor protection values have been lowered
Added tipped arrows
Added spectral arrows
Added Frost Walker enchantment and frosted ice block
Added a whole bunch of new sound effects
Added sound effect subtitles
Brewing Stand now requires Blaze Powder to activate
Added skeleton riders
We believe we’ve fixed MC-10 and a whole bunch of other issues
Removed Herobrine
Source: VG 24/7