Name, Damage, Weight

Imperial Sword 09/10
Nord Hero Sword 11/9
Skyforge Sword 11/10
Elven Sword 11/13
Glass Sword 12/14
Ebony Sword 13/15
Daedric Sword 14/16


Early levels whatever you can find, with Daedric being the best. Late game Nord sword is the best, because it is the lightest and damage will come from smithing anyway.


Without smithing, you will either have to invest heavily into weapon and armor perks, or die. And i bet skyforge damage will not be enough.

You are limiting yourself when you do not just pick the best weapons from the loot you find.

You also should pick smithing if you plan for a melee character. As you advance with your skills will Skyforge Steel only be a phase until you find glass, ebony and daedric weapons.

If you are only looking for a sword as a secondary weapon, i.e. for an archer, then join the Companions and stick to their Skyforge Steel. As a mage should you not join them when you truly want RP. Rather summon a sword and find the Dawnbreaker. As a thief do you only need to sneak into the Jarls' quarters and some other places, unlock display cases and help yourself to a good and enchanted weapon.

Can you improve nord hero weapons?

Yes, they count as steel weapons, and have the exact same damage as Skyforged weapons but lower weight.

Smithing is the best but if you wan't the best unique sword you can get early on with doing a whole guild quest line, I'd say go find meridias shrine and work for the dawnbreaker....the damage is decent enough to hold you til later in the game and the power to explode flames when killing undead helps early on when exploring draugr filled dungeons

I'm not a fan of daedric weapons and the ebony sword is hideous IMO so i decided to wait til lvl 50 to get the dragonbane (it's a leveled weapon). Thru use of smithing enchants and potions as well as my 1h skill perks, the damage is 300 which is just right as it doesn't 1 hit kill the toughest enemies...i could get the damage higher but I'm not a fan of 1 hit kills on everything in the game

Ancient Nord weapons tend to have little value, but decent damage. Also, Labyrinthian (I think) has some unique Draugr which have spectral weapons which are really cool are pretty decent. My first weapon was the two handed skyforged greatsword dropped by Farkas early in the Companions quest line. He drops his sword and later shows up with it, but his dropped sword is still on the ground. You can pick it up. It may disappear eventually, not sure but I grabbed it and used it forever.

Plus you can get blacksmithing potions from the potion dealer, so using that to make your initial weapon better would be something I'd try next time (at least till I was a better smith). And even though you aren't a good alchemist, you can still make fortify smithing potions yourself.

the problem with weapon damage is that mobs health scales wildly. If i go for low damage weapons, ill have fun with regular folks, but impossible to beat bosses. Vice versa, having a weapon which deals with bosses, will oneshot regular mobs. For that reason i have in backpack braces of weapon experience "boss bracers", give +++% weapon damage, and equip them when facing a tough enemy, or just wanna get through(dragons). Otherwise i stick with a low damage "fun" weapon.