Shadows Warriors dont have to use daggers to be the most efficient killer.

My character is using the Ebony Mail and his boots are enchanted with +47% Fortify Sneak and Muffle and Im using a fixed Ebony Blade (170 damage +30 Life Absorb) and Im getting the kill animation most of the time and more or less 50% of them are decapitation kills. The Devastating Blow perk states:


But you obviously dont have to be standing to decapitate your enemies.

The muffle enchantment on my boots is what made this tech possible cause it silences my sword. The muffle perk and the enchantment on the Ebony Mail wasnt enough.

Is the timing difficult? The advantage I've found with one handed weapons is you can get dual flurry, making the timing relatively easy.

Right now Im using a dual wielder and Im having a tough time getting the animations. Ive been switching between the Blade of Woe, a Blade's Sword, and Mehrunes' Razor and no difference.

Forgive me, but is the ebony mail even necessary? I've been able to get silent kills with my own muffled boots without issue. If it matters, I enchanted the boots personally (UESP mentions that "generic" muffling equipment seems to be only 50% effective, relative to the effect you get by enchanting yourself). Since Ebony Mail is definitely less than ideal for a lot of character builds, this seems relevant...

The Ebony Mail's muffle effect helps to silence the weapon a long with the perk and the enchantment on my boots. Most Shadow Warriors use daggers cause they're silent. Anyways, if you're looking to do instant kill animations almost every time you're better off with daggers like the Blade of Woe and Mehrunes' Razor, but that can get boring doing the same thing over and over and all this does is mix it up and make combat more interesting.

And no, the Ebony Mail's poison enchantment never interupts my sneak attacks. I dont know what some people are talking about cause they just stop and stare while they get poisoned, but they cant see me. Sometimes they run away in terror as soon as they feel it.

That may be, but you seem to have missed my point. I can get silent kills without daggers, using just a regular pair of muffle-enchanted boots. I don't see where the Ebony Mail becomes necessary for this.

So are you saying that if you use a sword with Shadow Warrior you get more decapitation animations?

Like 5/10 times with a 2 handed sword.


I never said people need to wear the Ebony Mail but it helps. I was just saying what I was using to muffle a 2 handed sword. The Ebony Blade still functions as a 2 hander and does not benefit from the sneak attack perk for one handed weapons. You still only get x2 damage from sneak attacks but it does the job most of the time.

Damn. My girl's never used 2-H weapons. So when you're face-to-face and go into Sneak what happens?

Well, I actually just realized that you have to wait for them to attack and then crouch-sneak attack before they can hit you for it to work. When you go into stealth while in striking distance and then quickly attack you will either decapitate them or do the standard kill animation.

My chick uses daggers so what is the standard kill animation for 2-H? ...that straight stab move?

Yeah, the stab move. It's pretty boring.

I wonder of a 1-H sword will behave similarly to the 2-H since I've already got a bunch in the 1-H constellation? Although, I think I've gotten the behind the back throat slash on my dude with a 1-H sword so it may behave like a dagger.

Im using a dual wielder right now and I rarely get decapitations. Maybe 20% of the time. One handed swords have a variety of animations though. You do cut throats with them like a dagger.

Yeah, I was pretty sure I had seen the sword do that (been a while since I played my dude ).

I dual-wield the daggers, but every now and then I have Invisibility in my left hand and she does the spinning back-hand decapitation. It's less ceremonial than the dual-wield scissor one, but more flashy and a little cooler.

My dual wielding swordsman also uses daggers. I have the Assassin's Blade perk. He uses the Blade of Woe and Mehrunes' Razor but Im just now starting to think using unenchanted daggers would be even more effective with the Elemental Fury shout. That is just devestating. May even be better for my Blade's swords. I only have 2 out of 8 of them enchanted. I havent tested it yet so I dont know.

Yeah, you get a LOT more decapitations with swords than daggers. 90% of the time with my sneak thief I get the throat-slit-from-behind animation though, which is equal parts gratifying. Decapitations only when I'm not sneaking around but maaaan they look rad.

Yeah, I do get a fair amount when not Sneaking, but it's usu the scissor one so I'll have to single wield to see the back-hand slash more often.