I've been using a bound sword for my main weapon. In the lower levels it is extremely effective I am curious if anyone much further on utilizes them and if they continue to perform over using an enchanted weapon?

Thanks.

87 conjuration here.

As you said, it is extremely effective at low level. And with the conju perk to increase bound weapon damage it will have your back into early-midgame.

HOWEVER, depressingly as it may sound... if you want it to be good mid-lategame (Meaning lvl 25+ in my book, Im lvl32 atm) you are forced to dump a whole 5 perks into the first one-hand skills to increase its damage by 100% and EVEN doing this, it will at most just be just as good as an enchanted daedric etc.The jokercard here is the enchanting tree in magic, if you will invest here fully and go for the 2xEnchants on each item perk - bound weapons will again be weaker.

hmm something to consider. Thanks for the information. Plan has been to use Bound Weapons and Atronarch support so investing heavily into the tree. Might need to alter this before going too far in. Already have mystic binding.

anyone's tried them out for the long run?

Im playing this exact build. Conjuration, with bound weaponry and summons. And I can say its really powerful.

The fireatronach is a good starter and youll mostly use this for everything (The AI aim is reaLly good, it rarely misses its target)
Frost atronach is huge, big and slow. Use this for tough melee bosses or spellcasters.
Alot of necromancers are DUNMER (50% fire resist, keep this in mind) use frost atronach here.
The Storm atronach is ranged as the fire one, but uses chain lightning attacks.

Now for the winner. Summon Dremora lord will ROCK your world. It has MASSIVE damage (Soloed a dragon, tested. Can kill a giant alone in 4-5 summonings, tested)
The dremora lord is insanely quick, good pathing, aggressive hostile behavior and has alot of cool lines. His damage is very, very good.

The game for me was about surviving untill I got summon Dremora lord. From that point its been the only spell ive needed.

Nice to hear it works so well. I took up blocking and Light Armor so I can tank for the fire guy. So far so good. Originally was going to try pure mage and destruction just didn't do it for me, got tired of kiting.

Just got my Dremora Lord on my Demonic Summoner and he kicks so much ass its not funny. So awesome.

I'm guessing you can't have a Dremora Lord and one other summon/zombe out at the same time with the last perk in Conjuration?

lv 36 here,
100 in alteration (all perk maxed)
100 in conj (only right side of the perk maxed)
50 in resto and almost maxed enchant.

It definately slows down in power, but I was still able to finish MQ in default difficulty without much problem. Not a cookie cutter, but still a viable.
Do note I have NOT put a single point into one hand/two hand perks yet.