I'm thinking sword main hand for high DPS. Mace off hand for power moves to stagger. Also, everyone says go light for regen stamina bonus. But I don't see why you wouldn't want heavy for survivability

I use two swords. Stuff dies when I power attack so that works ok.

You can reach the armor cap in light armor just fine.

Seeing as there is a cap on armor rating (somewhere in the 600s, check that thread on Maxing Armor and Damage), almost any armor can be improved to reach that level.

I use the following:
Krosis
Dragonplate Armor
Ancient Shrouded Gloves
Ancient Shrouded Boots

My armor rating is 570 something and I don't even have 100 light armor.

As for my style of Dual Wielding, Daedric Daggers are the way to go for me, as I can get sneak attacks of 30x damage, and in open combat, I am almost unparallelled.

Thats kind of dumb that its like that, I found out AFTER I had my Daedric set, but The Steed Stone takes care of the weight. Anyway, I've used it the entire game so far, and I use Double Axes at this point. I had originally an axe and a sword, then an axe and a mace, but I went double axes eventually. Probably gonna end up switch one Axe for a Mace, though.

I do sword and dagger. The dagger is so I don't have to fiddle with favorites for sneak attacks.

Hearing a lot of dagger talk. Is dual wield only viable paired with sneak?

I just do double sword. One with fire/paralyze, the other with shock/soul trap. I enjoy the combo.

Well, dual-wield is great for sneak, considering you want to do as much damage as possible so that the target cannot have a chance to retaliate.

Given that the Assassin's Blade perk (15 times normal damage with Daggers, resulting in 30x S.A.C.) daggers are common in dual-wielding.

In a sense of open combat, I'm almost certain that daggers swing faster than any other 1h weapons.

In addition to that, I'm particularly drawn to daggers, as it fits my playstyle.



I could help YOU a lot more if you gave some goals that you want to achieve through dual-wielding, such as max. damage, DPS and what not. I'd be more than happy to help you.

Just wanna try it all ya know. My 2h/heavy armor, sword/board, stealth archer, destro/conjur, are all pretty "played" out. I kinda imagined just going in blades flying, hence my question about heavy armor.
I chose redguard for the stam power. But if dual wield is really only viable with 2x dagger sneak attack, I may as well roll cat

Dual wield is viable for any situation if you're smart about it.

I believe Maces do the most damage, but swing the slowest.

Daggers, doing the least base damage but swinging the fastest.

In between from lowest damage/fastest swing to highest damage/slowest swing

Daggers>Swords>War Axes>Maces

Don't quote me on that.

I'd just say combine what you think you'll like, and you will probably do well.

Dual wielding does not work how I expected it to. Putting a weapon in both hands I realise you can press both attack buttons at the same time, but pressing alternate buttons doesn't attack any faster than just having one weapon. Does it only get better with perks or am I doing it wrong?

I wondered this as well... Even tho I press LMB, RMB, or both together, I swing one then the other... is this the correct way to dual wield?

I'm workin my dual toon now. Dual just seems to give you nifty double power attack. Which hits 3 times if I'm seeing correctly
But you perk it twice for increased speed as well as damage
Dual seems to just be, kill him fast before he hits your block-less backside

On the xbox I'm under the impression that tapping left or right will give a fast light swing. And holding down either trigger will give a hard slow hit. I don't think there are any other speeds except perks making the two speeds faster.

I dual wield two Bound Swords. It gets the job done very well if you perk mystic binding and one-handed tree. I wear Heavy Armor for the extra defense. I don't have stamina issues, while having the steed stone and 200 total stamina on level 35.

Alternating swings with each hand keeps a constant flow of dps while letting you continue to be mobile and either dance in and out or range or dance around the enemy while hitting them, where as attacking with both weapons at the same time, be it normal or power attack, stops your character and hits with both weapons.

Tis just an fyi. ^ ^

Stamina regen is worthless in combat. However you can reach armor cap with Light. At the end of the day Heavy provides more tangible benefits to a warrior type and all points of the game. At early points Heavy provides better protection and Light better sneaking unless you pick up the spell muffle then light offers nothing of real value other than looks.

You only need 1 stamina to power attack so just getting an absorb stam enchant if you want to chain power attacks.

Ive been dual wielding since starting stealth character. Using daggers is difficult to fight with initially with the speed perks so start with short swords and learn to swing them each once at a time fluently. Then move onto daggers or just keep shorts, I wouldnt see a problem with slower swinging weapons.

sword and dagger

Dual Maces enchanted with fire because ive yet to come across many mobs that are even resistant against fire except for flame astranochs. frost is just not worth it with half the creatures in game being atleast 50% resistant to frost damage.

I go dual sword and power attack with both, minimal button mashing and you still combo out. Basically I charge in and begin power attacking. Every once in a while I just spam right hand and throw in a few left hand hits but mostly it's right spam until I get blokes, then it's back to dual power attacks til stamina runs out.

I use dual swords and switch to a dagger in the right before a stealth attack. I don't press both triggers when stealth attacking, because I want to get the slit throat animation. It seems to work most of the time. Does anyone know if you can get an animation with a dual swing?
In combat I've been using power attacks until I run out. It's important to time the attacks so you hit the target fully. After I run out I start using my sword with absorb health or my fire sword, depending on my health level. So I sort of alternate attack hands as needed, but I mostly go with my right handed fire attack, as the absorb health sword runs out of charge quickly. Also, I use both swords at the same time a lot. Just pressing them quickly does a dual attack. Is this attack what is governed by the speed boost for DW?