Okay, so I've decided to try out a dual sword wielding warrior, but I'm hung up on a couple of details. Firstly, which armour type should I be using? For example, I want the extra stamina for the dual power attack, so I'd quite like the wind walker perk, but on the other hand, with no shield my defence is going to be limited, so I think I'd like the heavy armour for protection Any help would be much appreciated

I have two Ironswords (Legendary) And use heavy Armor (Steel Armor on Legendary improved 3 times with health regeneration) Imperial Bracers Legendary with enhanced one hand skill, Imperial Boots Legendary with Frost resistance

Go ahead with light armor. The only weapon that matters in dual-wielding is the one in the right-hand, you can have whatever in the left. It only needs to be there to activate the dual-wielding perk that boosts attack speed.

Go light armour. No blocking means you need to be quick to dodge in and out of attacks. Can get heavy armour and use the Steed Stone for the same speed effect.

I like to dual-wield daggers sometimes for an up close and personal throat slit and/or decapitation. In order to do so and not be killed before you get there, as well as escape undetected, requires stealth. Ancient Shrouded . . . for when you absolutely, positively need to kill someone quietly.

Sneak skill also helps.

Quite a bit, actually.

Thanks for the replies, pretty helpful stuff


The problem is, I'm going to try for a more warrior, in your face based kind of build, I can see what you mean though, a dual dagger sneak attack probably doesn't leave much left standing


I think there's actually a perk in the heavy armour tree which gives this effect too, may also be something for me to consider

Basically, I'm just worried that later on in the game I may regret going light armour due to taking so much damage, but it'll be too late for me to try to start putting perks into sneak This needs more deliberation....

A shield is as much a weapon as an off-hand sword is. Plus, if you take the 100 blocking perk, you can go "Bowling for Bandits".

Dual-wielding weapons is a pretty simple approach.

Kill them before they kill you.

For me, Orcs make the most sense for this build because of the Berserk ability.

Other than that, you're going to need lots of potions if you don't want to enchant/smith yourself some decent weapons outside of Daedric quest equipment.

Yeah your right but the skill level required is 90 I believe (if not it's 100) where you can use the steed stone at any level. Nonetheless, still wearing heavy armour and using the stone is effectively pointless imo (except for the extra weight limit). Heavy Armours better for taking hits, sure, but if you're getting hit at all in mellee while dual-weilding you're doing something wrong. But that's just my style, you might prefer something different.

I completely agree, shields can be lethal, especially with the slow time perk, enemy power attacks become a thing of the past, however I've played a sword and board build, and I can't explain it, but it felt a little boring to me I won't lie, one of the main attractions for me wanting to dual wield is the decapitation execution, it has to be one of the coolest things I've seen in this game



I might very well come back to this in a different playthrough though....

I haven't been able to get into dual wielding because of how much damage you take when you don't block attacks.

You're right about the Heavy armour perk that lets you speed up, but I'm pretty sure you can't get it until level 70ish, so you'd already have to have been in a fair share of fights to have it.

I ended up using unrelenting force to start off just about every fight - line it up right and you can throw everybody in the room into a heap in the corner. Sprint over and do a couple of power attacks and half of them will be dead before they can get up. In retrospect I wish I'd gone the light armor route like I did with my two-hander, with good smithing you can get your damage resistance up near the cap anyway, and the difference it makes in stamina used while sprinting (which you'll be doing a lot of) is immense.

don't bother with enchanting, use elemental fury. I prefer daggers+ only having one word of the shout so it recharges faster.

That's why light armour is the better choice to go for with when dual-wielding imo. Quick on your feet means you don't need to just stand there and take every hit thrown at you. You can just as easily step back quick enough when the enemy throws a swing and go in again for a blow after.

The Berserk ability is nice, but as far as race is concerned I'm pretty laid back, I enjoy playing them all Orcs are probably the best classes to play as far as a warrior is concerned, but I'm just not sold on them I think it's the teeth

I think I may branch into stealth a little, since that seems to be the easiest way of playing a dual wielder, and then I feel that I could justify going light armour Thanks for the replies guys, been extremely useful, now to go and try and put some of this advice into practice

I might try that on a later character then. I think I tried playing like that but I was using heavy armour and didn't have the perks that sped up dual wielding, so it can't have been very effective.

Stamina is your friend

That's why I mentioned using the Steed Stone earlier if going for heavy over light. It removes the move speed restriction when wearing heavy armour allowing you to move just as fast as in light. As well as plus 100 to your carry limit.

I have perks into sneak, light armor and swords dual wielding. At earlier levels I struggled in combat but at level 41, the only thing that gives me challenge are mages with those darned ice spikes that slow me down. With the 100 sneak perk and a pair of daggers, I can on hit just about anything with some good timing -- with the 100 sneak perk you can get backstabbing (15x) damage from an enemy who knows you are there if you can get your hit in within a second or two of dropping into sneak mode. The only trouble I have is that every once in a while some bandit or soldier gets a good critical hit on me and drops me in one swing, which is always surprising since I have an armor ratign of 422 and 330 helth points. There are enough perk points to get what you need from the one handed (dual wielding), light armor and sneak trees and still have plenty left over for other stuff, like smithing.

What's the cap for damage resistance? I didn't even consider this Might seal the deal on Light Armour