So I'm finally starting a "warrior" character and I've decided to go with the Nord for obvious reasons. I noticed Nords have the highest starting 2h skill. That's their thing. What I also failed to notice until recently is that they start out with a specialty in light--not heavy--armor. Now I know you don't have to stick with what they give you, Skyrim is played however you want to play it, yadiyada... but I want to know all your opinions on a 2h/light armor build. Are the devs onto something with these starting specs?

I was going to do 2h and heavy armor because that seemed the most practical to me. You don't have a shield, so heavy armor is a substantial substitute. But since my warhammer is so heavy and I use so much stamina, maybe light armor would be a better choice? I could get faster stamina recharge and even miss melee (last perk in LA tree) which could be cool. But on the other hand, I could just invest perks into 2h tree to use less stamina >.<

I have very little experience with in-your-face warrior builds, so I guess I'd like to hear some pros and cons you guys have discovered with your playthroughs. I've yet to commit to anything but 2h, so I'm all ears for suggestions

My main is a light armor greatsword warrior, there is nothing wrong with this build, quite practical IMO. The stam regen perk in light armor provide me more power attacks, overall is quite powerful build i say.

You can block with 2-H so try out the right side of the block-tree.
2-h heavy armor warriors have a difficult start. They suffers from armor weight (sprint) and the power attaks drain the stamina bar in 2-3 swings. But later you can counter this with perks like "Conditioning" and Champion's Stance. Also try to enchant stamina or stamina regeneration.

Make sure to save money for training light armor, its the slowest skill in the game to build naturally and it doesn't start becoming effective until about 50 skill.

If you play perma death or Dead is dead and play on master, I recommend using heavy armor until you save enough money to train light armor to 75.

Light armor and two handed works great together, you will need to be quick on your feet in the beginning, but once you get the "deadly reflex" perk you can sidestep most enemy power attacks and the light armor stamina regen helps a ton.

My highest-level character (level 46) was a Light-Armor, 2-Handed Nord warrior. Aside from a few Speech level-ups I couldn't avoid, he leveled only three skills during the entire game: Light Armor, 2-Handed and Smithing. He also put Perks into only those three trees.

He didn't use spells or scrolls. He didn't use Blessings, Powers or Shouts, didn't do Alchemy, didn't do Enchanting and didn't use enchanted gear.

He's been my most challenging, most interesting and, by far, my favorite Skyrim character to date.

Idk how you can live without elemental fury on a two hander

You don't really have to worry about increasing stamina at all. just make a boatload of vegetable soup, and you can (shield) bash and power attack non stop. It lasts for twelve minutes.

i would say go light, mostly becaus i don't like heavy armor (heavy and clunky) and imo light armor looks better. but if you think long term heavy armor perk negate pretty much every disadvantage you start with and untill than you can use the steed stone so it's basically a matter of what you think look best (but i think light armor get a faster stamina regen perk that heavy doesn't have and that could be usefull if your going 2h and dubble usefull if you want to be a vamp).

I usually go 2H+HA, however I play Dead-is-Dead on Master which heavily skews build choices.

2H+LA is viable on all settings, albeit you will have a rather rough time of it until you get a high armor rating and certain perks; unless, that is, you go 'all-in' (so to speak) on 2H early (including buying training) and get certain perks to increase the efficacy of your Power attacks, which 2H melee literally lives and dies on. In addition, unlike a 2H+HA character you'll want to invest in, and regularly use, Block, because you won't have the tanking ability of that spec until/unless you engage in extreme smithing and as such need to reduce the rate of incoming hits.

Heavy investment into Restoration is also advisable, because you will get hit and it will hurt, especially in the early levels when enemy 2H-wielders are doing extreme damage relative to your AR and HP. Consider getting the perk that allows you to restore Stamina as well as HP with your heals, and definitely get Regeneration to increase the efficacy thereof, because you're going to need it.

During the early levels, hit-and-run is the order of the day; both to string out fights, so that you're only facing 1-2 opponents at a time, and to give you room to cast heals/take potions so that their next hit(s) do(es)n't kill you. I highly recommend dumping all level-up points into HP, for a couple of reasons:

1) You only need 1 point of Stamina to do a Power Attack, which can be gotten either from various soups/stews or by doing a regular strike after each PA
2) You want a lot of heath in order to prevent enemy heavy-hitters from 'rolling' a kill-cam hit on a Power Attack of their own
3) Some opponents do high-extreme damage with each strike after resistances are taken into account, so you'll want a large HP reserve when fighting them

As a Warrior, you may also want to invest in Archery in order to thin out groups before they reach you, although it's by no means required to do so. It would also give you a way to harm Dragons that are still airborne, albeit they can be difficult to hit while flying.

I play a 2hd nord warrior with light armor. Quick and deadly. Learn to actually fight, don't just stand there hacking and slashing, move around, block, us power attacks and try to get out of their power attacks if you don't want to block bash them.

Heh, I had to look up Elemental Fury on UESP to even know what you're talking about. I don't know what to say, I didn't have a problem. Maybe it might have made life easier on that character, maybe not. Who knows.

Oh, and something I didn't mention earlier. I didn't put any points into Stamina. It all went into Health. I figured that would make up for having less AR. That strategy seemed to work pretty well.

This was incredibly helpful so thanks for the suggestions. I'm really liking this build. I'm investing into 2h like there's no tomorrow and my guy is a f*cking powerhouse.

I'm trying to stay away from magic because my guy is mostly a brute. Also, I'm not having a whole lot of trouble staying alive thus far. The more I think about it though, the more I like the idea of investing into health. I've been doing stamina, but in later levels I fear I'll run into trouble. Plus if I DO go LA, i get stamina regen anyway.

Main reason I'm doing such a drastic character change is also for some new RP changes. I'd like to cook for health/stamina regen. Is it hard to get ingredients for effective stews and such?

Again, thanks for the post!

what LA do you like? none of them seem practical for a warrior really. that's the main thing holding me back from going LA

IDK if this has been said yet.. BUT..

Elemental Fury will become your Greatsword(s) beeeest friend!

I had a build like this.. but then I missed using a Shield so I remade my Nord (for like the 3rd time lol). It is a really fun build though I will admit. Just IDK.. 2H I guess isn't my thing. I did Sword+Board in TES4.. it just felt right.

I know I can't wait to get it! My Nord loves Talos and is all about shouts. It's a great alternative to magic. (anybody know if you can enchant for shout reduction?)

And I feel like sword & shield is just too "been there, done that" haha. Idk, I really wanted to do something different with this guy and the starting 25 pts in 2h just made the decision that much easier. Although no doubt, both playstyles are great fun

I love Skyrim

No, sadly you cannot enchant or even disenchant a Talos Amulet. BUT, you can pray at a shrine AND have the amulet going at the same time. (Wiki proves this)

I do it all the time with WWS (Whirlwind Sprint), makes its cooldown almost non-existant in a way lol. I use EFury with my current Nord (1H) and I love it.. even more so then my enchanted stuff. Attacking as fast as a Dagger.. but with a Sword? Yeah..

I myself (literally) just took over Fort Snowhawk for the Stormcloaks pretty much single handed, lmfao. Just my Nord Hero Sword+EFury..

Haha I remember that one with my archer. I posted up on a rock or something right outside the fort and mowed down a group, and as my stormcloak mob moved toward the next group, they were finished off before my troops got there. They had to be pissed to run everywhere only to find their enemy dead. I would've felt bad for them, but I was too busy being a boss

So 40% reduction is the best we can get? That's not even half...

Alright I'm really tossing this around in my head. will I notice a substantial difference without LA? will I really be less powerful/be able to pull off less power attacks? I've never used HA... and I wont be slow with that perk... so is there a real disadvantage? (I can afford perks in HA)

bumpity bump

Does the blessing of talos work? Every time I try to use the shrine, it says my shout recharge time is reduced 0%.

Yeah I think it's a bug. Maybe it's placebo effect, but I feel like it always works

Here dude, check out my build it's similar (though I'm an Eldar and incorporate illusion and restoration). http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1361466-my-new-build/page__fromsearch__1