I tend to have higher value for created weapons that have Absorb Health then anything else. But what is the best enchantment for self-enchanted weapons? I have a sword that does Absorb Health 18 points, and this seems nice, but I want the BEST. Thoughts?

I always use artifacts, so enchanting weapons hasn't come across my mind.
I suppose Absorb health and an elemental enchantment?

EDIT- I just made a bow that deals fire damage and a chance to paralyze. I forgot how fun paralyzing can be.

Most powerful? Probably Absorb Stamina as it allows you to make endless power attacks. It's a bit overpowered in my opinion though.

For money/Skill Leveling: Banish

For damage: Fire

I've given up on enchanting weapons because I get tired of recharging them. I had dual Daedric Swords Health Absorb/Fire Damage and Stamina Absorb/Shock Damage and they didn't seem to be super effective versus the recharging frequency so I only enchant my armor now.

That being said I do always carry one weapon with Soul Trap on it to fill Black/Grand Soul Gems as necessary.

You may like the enchantment perk that recharges your weapon for every kill. There should be a hotkey that recharges your weapon with your weakest soul gem. Perhaps restricts what gems you use such as black and grand so you can save them for enchanting.

Absorb Stamina will give you the highest damage increase, as you can keep on power attacking forever.

Unlike how spells work, you only need 1 stamina to execute a power attack so there's no reason to make an enchant with a magnitude greater than that.

I tried that...it didn't work as advertised either. The problem for me may have been that those effects may be associated with the skill levels in various magic schools and my magic abilities on my warrior type are pretty low.

In my previous playthrough I made 3 bows with combos that I liked very much, so I've repeated the same combos for my current lass as soon as I got double-enchantment perk:

fire/paralyze
frost/soul trap
shock/magica damage

Those can cover me for dungeons, necro caves, or open-air hunting.

for 1H & 2H, I like to improve the unique weapons that I'm awarded or that I loot, and among those I've favored Dawnbreaker and Volendrung.
(Although it's fun to dual-wield Mehrunes' Razor & Valdr's Lucky Dagger.)

I think it's a matter of personal taste as to what's the "best." A melee guy might never like one of my bows; but for my mage-type, they've been essential.

I do this too. I usually use enchanted weapon in early game to give me extra damage. +10 fire damage is awesome when your sword is doing only 20 damage. But later on, as you gain skill in weapon and buff up the weapon with smithing, enchanting weapons feels less necessary. Also you can't use Elemental Fury when you have an enchanted weapon. Elemental fury is really fun.

Absorb Health + Paralyze for supreme cheapness.
Absorb Health + Soul Trap for convenience (you'll always have fuel to recharge the weapon).
Absorb Health + Absorb Stamina for endless power attacks and self-healing (probably even more broken than Absorb Health + Paralyze).

With an Absorb Health you can stand against a dragon and never drop below 90% health. I like my Soultrap + Paralyze bow because I am a crappy bowman. If I manage to hit once, the target falls over and I finish them off for their tasty soul.

Ah, yes, absolutely. OP, listen to that.

The only reason that doesn't work for my style is because I max Smithing and make Legendary Weapons and Armor before heading out.

Now, on both of my characters I use fast weapons (swords on the warrior dude and daggers on the assassin chick) so how does Elemental Fury affect 2-H weapons? I have plenty of Smithing skill and Ebony ingots so I may have to play around with a big ass axe.

I've read the descriptions on the wiki pages, but sometimes words and numbers belie the true behavior.

Also, the less you have to hit someone, the less your 1H skill goes up. So that could be annoying.

Elemental Fury increases the speed and damage of a weapon. The Shout works great on the Bosses at the end of Dungeons.
EDIT An Enchanted offhand weapon will work for a Dual Wielder when using the Elemental Fury Shout

Yeah. It took a while to get it up on my assassin chick because I will melee with her a bit. It went up pretty quickly on my guy though, however since I have no frame of reference of using non-Legendary weapons it might be noticeable to others.

Best effect? Paralyze. It's kind've one of the hardest to find in the game, but merged with another effect it can be quite deadly.

For example here's one weapon I made:

"Astonish (Glass Sword), Absorb 20 pts. of Stamina, Chance to paralyze for X seconds."

I like merging same colored effects together. Like Fire and Absorb Health are both red, and combined make a Daedric Sword unfathomable. Lol.

I recently saw on one of the wiki pages about experience gain. (not the uesp one but the other). It said that experience gain only depends on base + smithing, but not on fortify enchant or damage enchants. I haven't tested it myself, though.

I imagine the best combo would be 1 second paralyse with 1 absorb stamina, endless power attacks against a stunned enemy.

This is very effective combo. The reason I do not use paralyze is that it's too effective and it makes the game too boring for me.

My first priority is a Soul-Trap bow and I try to make one for my follower too...and provide them with arrows and soul gems. I really love Archery so this is a great way to keep any enchanted weapons, like our staves, fully charged and ready for action. I think Absorb Health on something is a top-level enchantment too and Paralyze (on a bow) can give you plenty of time to deal with the enemy or make a great exit.

There's nothing I love more than shooting someone next to a ledge with my paralyze-bow. One shot and gravity will do the rest

Oooooo, I may have to try this. How do you get your followers to use the bows you give them? Annekke and Mjoll won't use the bows I give them and I didn't notice if Lydia did.

Awesome.

I would like to get an absorb health enchantment going on my main blade. I have the health-absorbing Galdur Blackblade, which sits in Proudspire on a wall under Red Eagle's Fury, but I'd prefer to keep it as a memento. Same for the Blade of Woe. I have yet to find a regular weapon with that enchantment anywhere as loot. Have you guys been lucky enough to find one?

Yeah. ...on both of my characters...like before I found Waterbreathing ones. Don't hate me because my character is beautiful.

Do you check shops or just hope to find them?

I seem to find them all the time, IDK why. Paralyze and Absorb Stamina (even) are harder for me to find. It pissed me off cause with my Nord I didn't even find a Soul Trap enchanted item and I was almost LV30. So I went the Mystic Conjuration route with Bound Sword and got the perk that allows for ST'ing.

I seriously kid you not it took FOREVER just to find ONE Soul Trap enchantment and by that time I already had my Enchanting at 98 (kinda useless now!).

EDIT: Paralyze and Waterbreathing seem to be the rarest. WB being #1 in my opinion.. I've only found ONE in the several characters that I have and have never seen another since.

Makes me really sad because I want it so I can go ship looting! >.<

On my first character I was tripping over them. Probably because Volsung was the first mask I found.

On my second character I don't think I've found a single one. I finally had to buy an item to disenchant, but, to this day, I still don't think I've ever found one.