Weapon of choice

Just curious what most peoples' preferred weapons are. From reading this forum it seems like most people enjoy going the sneak route and prefer bows and daggers, but I love to hear about builds and the weapons people use to compliment them.

I've been using a sword and shield.
The sword does less damage than the other one handed weapons, the axe and mace, but it swings faster. I prefer to have the speed over the damage because I can land more hits after I stun the enemy with my shield.

Though I like the sound of the extra damage from the enemy bleeding perks you can get in the axe and battle axe trees, and I really like the sound of the mace and warhammer perks that negate the enemy's armor.
Does anyone have experience with those they can share? Does the bleeding damage from axes and battleaxes make a big difference?

I'm really tempted to re roll as a Nord specializing in Warhammers and dump all my points into health and stamina, neglecting magic completely, so I have the stamina for multiple power attacks and have the health to make up for not having a shield. Having enough stamina for multiple power attacks with a warhammer that ignores 75% of the enemy's armor sounds like it could be fun...

So what is your preferred weapon? How do you use it and what do you do with your build to compliment it?

Dual-Wielding Swords.

I've tried the Sneaking and I've tried the Two-Handers but they can't even come close to the damage. What does it matter if you're jumped by a group of giants when in a few hits you can make short work of all of them anyway.

As far as stats, I ignore dumping points into magic (despite the fact I have Alteration at 70 for +30% MR).

The rest go into Health/Stamina with about a 50 point spread between them (in favour of health). Once I took the Conditioning perk in Heavy Armour i've found I have more than enough stamina for most fights.

A5ko said:

Dual-Wielding Swords.

I've tried the Sneaking and I've tried the Two-Handers but they can't even come close to the damage. What does it matter if you're jumped by a group of giants when in a few hits you can make short work of all of them anyway.

As far as stats, I ignore dumping points into magic (despite the fact I have Alteration at 70 for +30% MR).

The rest go into Health/Stamina with about a 50 point spread between them (in favour of health). Once I took the Conditioning perk in Heavy Armour i've found I have more than enough stamina for most fights.

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Nice. I completely overlooked duel wielding. There's so many things to try in this game and you really have to put in the time to get the perks that show the true potential of different builds, it's not something you can test quickly because it's unfair to judge a build quickly. I like reading these things and getting ideas for the character I want to roll next.

I like to smash people's skulls in with a nice heavy sledge.

My current character is your typical steal archer. I'm still at low levels and only work on Smithing after getting back into town from an adventure so it's pretty even with my stats. Currently using an upgraded Imperial Bow, (waiting to come across some ore to upgrade the Orcish Bow I recently made). When things get in close I've got an Orcish Waraxe (upgraded) in the right hand and a single shot summon Flame Arty in the left. So far, all of the armor I've made has gone onto Lydia as once the furball starts, she's usually front and center taking the hits.
Stumbled across a Lunar Sword while traveling from town to town so I'm waiting for my smithing to get high enough to upgrade it - when it is, I'll probably switch to that, depending on the damage it can do. It resides in my house for now though.

At the moment I am playing an assassin so duel wielding daggers (30 x Dmg bonus), using a bow for sniping and also have 2 swords for backup in an open fight.

While in general I prefer swords (I love katana's and duel wielding them) but what weapon I use does depend on the char.

At some point going to roll an Orc focusing on 2H battle axes

My first char was all about swords - the 'bullet-time' critical kills with swords look really sweet. My second (current) char is using a 1h mace at the moment, which is surprisingly effective in sneak attacks - but I'm about to get the Backstab perk so will be switching to a dagger soon.

Can't go wrong with a bow, either.

Onyx said:

At the moment I am playing an assassin so duel wielding daggers (30 x Dmg bonus), using a bow for sniping and also have 2 swords for backup in an open fight.

While in general I prefer swords (I love katana's and duel wielding them) but what weapon I use does depend on the char.

At some point going to roll an Orc focusing on 2H battle axes

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I've been looking online but haven't found anything conclusive, does the bleeding damage caused by axes make a big difference? Because it sounds like everyone just describes it as basically a poison, like 1-3 damage over a period of just a few seconds. The extra critical chance for swords and the ignore armor % for maces and warhammers seems more useful. Though axes are just cool from a role play standpoint so I could see that. Any character with a 2 handed axe or that duel wields axes is ok in my book.

I am rolling one handed with shield and right now i have a sword. The problem with the sword is that i never block because swords are so darn fast. the mentality of i can another hit in before blocking just keeps going and i end up NEVER blocking. I really want to find a mace that matches my sword so i can do the whole block attack block attack thing.

morguen87 said:

I've been looking online but haven't found anything conclusive, does the bleeding damage caused by axes make a big difference? Because it sounds like everyone just describes it as basically a poison, like 1-3 damage over a period of just a few seconds. The extra critical chance for swords and the ignore armor % for maces and warhammers seems more useful. Though axes are just cool from a role play standpoint so I could see that. Any character with a 2 handed axe or that duel wields axes is ok in my book.

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According to the guide book the extra dmg is around 1-10 over a period of a few seconds. This is after each hit. Now, while that might not seem like much, the experience I have had with 2H is that I am constantly moving (to avoid getting a smack down) so I weave in, hit, then weave out and it takes a few seconds before I attack again. With this perk, the enemy is still taking (albiet little) damage.

Also, according to the guide (as I have not tested) the 20% crit with sword perk equals around a 5% damage increase in the long run and the mace perk is only useful against enemies in heavy armor and less so against light armor and of no use against no armor.

As such I think one can make for or against for each one. It is a nice little bonus if you are sticking to one weapon, but I (personally) would not not use a weapon based on these perks. So really, if you like a particular weapon, these make em slightly better which is only a good thing


Hope this helps some

BigBeech said:

I am rolling one handed with shield and right now i have a sword. The problem with the sword is that i never block because swords are so darn fast. the mentality of i can another hit in before blocking just keeps going and i end up NEVER blocking. I really want to find a mace that matches my sword so i can do the whole block attack block attack thing.

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Also a good thing about a shield is BASH (2h can also do this). This is very useful when you see somebody about to do a power attack against you as if you are quick you can bash em to not only stop the power attack but it also dazes em for a second


At higher levels bash can knock most opponents on their butts (or off mountains) as well...fun for the whole family!

Blades Sword or the Katana as it was called on other games. Smithed it to epic so now does 37 damage

Jack Fulham said:

Blades Sword or the Katana as it was called on other games. Smithed it to epic so now does 37 damage

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The decapitation animation when you duel wield swords is so awesome (like SW RoTS) you slice em so they go on their knees, then put the blades in an X by their neck and then SLICE! Looks even cooler with duel Katana's!

Blades Sword and Dragonbane. Swords are just awesome in this game. I'd love to try out axes and maces, but the finishing animations with the sword just are amazing. The first time I stabbed someone... yes.

Hey quick question, does the Decapitation perk thing apply to maces as well? I know for a fact that it works for swords, makes sense for axes as well. If so, I wonder how a mace decapitation works. Just clean knocking someone's head of their body? Lol.

My favorite technical "weapon" in the game would have to be my voice. There's no better satisfaction then clearing a table with a shout, yelling at some bitch and havin' her fly out of the way, or lighting someone on fire by yelling at them. It's like if Tourettes Guy had magic powers

I dual wield daggers mostly, but switch between daggers and bow.

Dwemer Mace.

Migaluch said:

Blades Sword and Dragonbane. Swords are just awesome in this game. I'd love to try out axes and maces, but the finishing animations with the sword just are amazing. The first time I stabbed someone... yes.

Hey quick question, does the Decapitation perk thing apply to maces as well? I know for a fact that it works for swords, makes sense for axes as well. If so, I wonder how a mace decapitation works. Just clean knocking someone's head of their body? Lol.

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Not sure to be honest, I would imagine so as it does say 1H weapons. I would assume you smash the head to pieces perhaps?

I started with a Bosmer, so bow is my favorite weapon, and dagger will become my backup, although I have yet to kill anything but slaughterfish with it.

Nothing compares to sneaking through a fort, stabbing backs and slashing throats without ever raising the alarm. Daggers rule. I've been using the same two daggers for almost the entire game. Lucky's dagger in the left, and a dwarven dagger of frost in the right.