I also don't get much difference between a souped up sword and a souped up greatsword, certainly nothing that would make me use a greatsword instead of a normal sword in each hand. Just use whatever you enjoy more and stop overanolysing things, you'll just get yourself worked up about it, fact if the matter is any weapon in the game is more than powerful enough to get you through the game when upgraded and using complementary perks.

Uh, the base damage of a Daedric Greatsword is about ~72% more than that of the base damage of a Daedric Sword. However, you're missing something quite important. That's the base damage. The difference continues to become smaller and smaller the more crafting skills get involved.

The reason the gap is larger in your game is simply because you have not utilized the crafting skills to their best extent. You're limiting yourself and then claiming that there's a large significance in damage. That's like if I used a pickaxe and compared it to a Daedric Greatsword and then came to the conclusion that two-handed weapons do a significant amount more damage than one-handed weapons. It's nonsense.

There is no significant difference in damage numbers between a two-handed weapon and a one-handed weapon on the high end of the scale. It's not there. Only a one-handed weapon will do more damage in most circumstances because it's a lot faster. Much like using a lighter bow to get better DPS than a Daedric Bow.

2H all the way for my Nord barbarian. I don't really care which weapon combo is optimal, as it's getting to the point where I'm practically invincible anyway.

Damage wise you can't beat a 2 hander, especially when you consider the sweep perk. I think I killed 5 Draugrs in a single hit before... Also the 1 hit kills with 2 handers (inc. kill animations) bring a lot of satisfaction.

Lastly you can still block very effectively with a 2 handed weapon. I've fully invested perks in the right side of the block tree, and I can block a ton of damage with just my sword alone. Plus I regularly get kills just by power bashing, and if they don't die they will get disarmed and run around like headless chickens.

One handed, I like the Heal/Conjure spell smouldering in the other hand lol.

I have done exactly the same thing to both weapons. So that really does not apply. I have however figured out why the difference occurs.

I have my perks in two handed and you have yours in one handed. The 100% increase with all 5 of the bottom step is the difference in our numbers. Should someone do all 5 in both two handed and one handed we would have a useful comparison.

Uh... I'm talking but you're not listening. I have already stated that I utilized the crafting skills, weapon perks, and weapon skill levels. I'll elaborate since you don't seem to understand. What this means, and the main reason why I've been stating the high end of the scale, is that I'm using weapon skill levels of 100 (On both One-handed and Two-handed), both perked with the 5 rank damage perks. I'm also using the crafting skills which are also at 100 (With the appropriate related perks) to produce the best possible smithing bonus on both weapons and the best possible enchantments for both weapons.

The end result? What I stated. ~16% difference in damage between the two weapons. It's quite simple, really. The more you dive into enhancing your weapons, the more the differences begin to become negligible. Why? Because most of your power is coming from the crafting skills as opposed to the raw base damage of the weapons themselves. That's why you don't see a 72% difference as the end result. That is the same reason why you get more DPS from non-Daedric bows when you dive into the crafting skills. I'll give you some time to connect the dots.

Ahh. Well you have either scammed the game or have way more hours than me. Why would you do 100 and all perks for both one handed and two handed?

This I take it is a theroetical maxed build. What has that to do with any possible useful non scammed build?

Merely for testing purposes. I'm not actually going to play on a save that has both weapons perked. In any case, this whole thing of "scammed the game" is weak sauce. It's like people who claim that using 0% Magicka School reduction gear is cheating and what have you. I mean as if Bethesda is so stupid that they can't figure out that 25% * 4 = 100%. Really now? Then what is even funnier is people who condemn said gear and then state that using gear that reduces magicka cost by 95% is perfectly acceptable. Lol. Funny stuff.

One handed. Been using one Handed weapons since Morrowind.

Claymores? I thought they were Greatswords? ..

It's not theoretical at all. You're on a trolling high horse if I ever seen one in any case. Toodleoo.

They've been called claymores in previous games. He's referring to greatswords in any case.

Same thing.

I am confused. How can you get all those 100 skills, especially both two handed and one handed. I have built three characters and one has to fairly carefully select your skill trees and perks. It looks from what you have said that you have maxed out almost everything. How is that possible?

1 hand Dual Wield. I always forget to block so. Anyway I like to equip one sword with soul trap and another with ice and shock. I keep a backup sword so if my soul gems are full I can attack with shock, fire, cold, and paralyze with two swords.

displayed damage = (base damage + smithing increase) * (1 + 0.5 * skill/100) * (1 + perk effects) * (1 + item effects)

Assuming min/max Smithing and Enchanting loop, 100 skill, 5/5 Barbarian/Armsman perks:

Daedric Sword: 518 Damage
Daedric Greatsword: 605 Damage

14.38% difference in damage

Without smithing and enchanting, 100 skill, and 5/5 Barbarian/Armsman perks:

Daedric Sword: 42 Damage
Daedric Greatsword: 72 Damage

41.66% difference in damage

Thank you. I am to some extent enlightened. Nothing I want to do but I appreciate the information.

It's called playing the game? Not everyone plays the same. People play differently. They progress differently. They have different goals. They play different amounts of time. They use their time with different efficiencies. They do different things. They think differently. Not everyone is a carbon copy of you. In any case, it's fairly possible and there are more than a select few of players that have reached level 81 and a half, especially after the game has been out for quite some time now and people have had a fair amount of time to play it during the holidays.

Getting 100 in all skills is not impossible is what I'm trying to get at. o.O ...

You can actually get a bit more damage if you use the Notched Pickaxe and have the Ancient Knowledge power. Henceforth my ~16 percent approximation (Which is more like ~15.8%, but I rounded to the nearest percentage).

I love both to be honest, but since I dislike dying I had my first character as a sword and board kind of character. But with a mace instead of a sword of course since maces are preferable to swords imo. Made me a sad panda to discover that the mace perks are kinda useless since most though enemies don't have any armour. (What's up with that anyway? Dragons and Dwemer constructs should have a high armour rating dammit!)

No I see. I have to roll a new guy after I get to a certain point. I had 7 different guys in FNV because I'd get to level 30 and get bored by my godlike status and start over. I have 3 so far in Skyrim. My Mage is parked he is a lot of fun but he just wails on everything so got a bit boring. My Kajiit is fun and will be played more. My present two hander Battlemage is almost OP now too.

You guys are doing percentage of, I was adding it. Hi ho.

I forgot about those completely! I'll have to remember to include those in the future.

Don't feel bad, the perks for bleeding and critical hit percentage are equally as useless (Actually, a bit more useless) because they work on the base damage of a weapon rather than the current damage of a weapon. Say you have the Daedric Sword of Soundchaos' example, doing 518 damage. You land a critical hit, but that critical hit only does 7 damage because it's half the damage of the base damage of the weapon, which is 14. 518+7 = 525. The difference is not really noticeable in normal gameplay and it's visually unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

That's mainly because the added damage is ~1.4% of the damage you normally do. Miniscule. Bleeding works in a similar manner, working off of base damage. Now I'm not entirely sure if the Mace perks work off of base damage or current damage. If they work off of current damage, it's far more valuable than the other specializing perks, even if still being of very little value.

I got so caught up in the math, I forgot to throw in my two cents on the thread topic. I enjoy Block mechanics so I generally lean toward sword and board. However, Two-Handed with two points in the Block tree to get Quick Reflexes is a close second.


I'm with you on that. Characters feel stale to me once they hit god-status and I have to reroll and add new limitations to keep things interesting.

I wasn't aware the other perks were also quite useless later on. I guess that saves up perks for other stuff in later play troughs.
Edit: for the poster below me: from what I gathered on these forums the most meaningful enemies sporting any armour are bandits and perhaps Forsworn. And I'm not even sure on Forsworn but since you can loot armour of them I think they have armour. And it was my reasoning too, that my weapons would be more meaningful against nasty enemies like dragons and constructs but apparently it is not so.