Is there a clear winner here.

Well, as far as I know, the bleed damage from the axe perk is pretty insignificant. The ignore armor perk for maces is situational as many enemies aren't particularly well armored. The crit from swords, though, that's always useful.

My thoughts exactly. I like Swords myself but the mace of Molag Bal makes me want to invest some perks there.

I agree about the mace being situational but if you use the bleed when your playing on a hard difficulty you can hit them and block with your shield allowing you to protect and deal damage but I still feel that the crit from the swords is better.

Yes there is! Swords, plain and simple - as from a powergaming POV.

The bleed doesn't really add that much damage to make any difference, worthy of the spent perks.

The Armor Pen is not even situational, as enemies don't have armor skill ratings. They would need to be in full Daedric and how many of those do you come across. That's more rare than just situational. You can review the testing numbers on the discussion page in the UESP.

The Crit chance may the better of the three, even then I would rather spend those perks on something like enchanting to just increase my 1H or 2H skill. I would rather see a constant damage increase than rely on a chance happening. Plus you can benefit from the enchanting in other ways. ( NOTE : This does not mean or associate to creating some stupid suber uber duber weaopn or apparel.)

To add to this:

What I have done with my characters is just taken the FIRST of the 3 perks, in order to activate the critical chances in the first place. 3 perks total for a 20 percent is a heavy investment compared to 1 perk for crits in the first place or none at all.

The Mace does have the highest base damage though so it's still a good choice the swing takes longer but it's not bad especially if you connect it does stagger enemies better then the other two. You could make an arguement for all three really.

Do you mean argue as weapon choice or perk choice?
As weapon choice. I like the added swing speed over the small base damage. That is more of a playstyle preference.
As a perk choice. The sword wins out by a small margin, but I personally would not choose either. There is just not enough reward for the cost. IMO

You only really notice the bleeding damage when you are a much higher level than the enemy you are fighting. Which is why it seems pretty useless. Swords are probably the best bet.

Weapons all three will get the job done there really isn't a clear winner i prefer Swords myself but my most powerful weapon right now is Molag Bal's Mace so i use it to. I haven't invested in any of those perks if i do it will probably be swords. My point was if you were to choose the Mace it certainly isn't a weak weapon.

I read on one of the wikis all 3 perks in axe with a daedric axe does 18 points for 3 sec bleed dam and it stacks according to the wiki.Never tested it myself so take it for what it is worth.

I completely agree, especially MB. That thing is just wicked. It is one of the coolest weapons in the game. Not only looks but also one of the most effective as well. It is definitely a viable choice for a 1H char. Kick ass and enjoy your game.

swords ftw! so does the perk for sword crits.

There are VERY few enemies with any kind of armor
Bleed damage is very low, it stacks but only works on enemies that bleed
The crit for swords is 1,5 times weapon basedamage, so its x % chance to do 5-10 extra dmg

The conclusion is that theyr pretty much useless all of them, but on the other hand, at least they work unlike perks like "tower of strenght" that does nothing..............

Conclusion - crit from swords is best.

All armored NPC have armor. But not much. Just checked a couple, they have values of about 40-100. And since mace perks are percentage based, it doesnt help much, considering that DR is also percentage based. 5% more damage with 3/3 mace perks, id say.

What? No. A bit of enchanting overrides any of those. Enchant 1 level more and save youself these 3 perks for something else.

I like swords because they are faster, those bonus perks are pretty worthless all around.

None IMO. I only go for the first 2 power attack perks and max out the first perk.

Whatever one is best,I don't know.
But I do like the bleeding damage from my War axe,with 2 perks in it I can actually see enemies bleed.
If it's useless or not I don't care,I'm having fun with it.

As for spending perks on something that may or may not be usefull,my warrior can max out the perks for
Block,Light armor and Smithing along with all the perks I need in One handed and still have plenty to spare for
either Archey or Alchemy wich ever I choose.

Invalid argument, please read title of thread in which you are posting.

Mace are cool but I mostly use swords most of the time.

Tower of Strength works for me. It significantly reduces the effect that "Fus Ro Da" has against my Nord Warrior. I'm not playing fully patched though, so maybe a later patch broke it.

When a patch or mod comes around that gives creatures Armor Rating, and gives NPCs higher Armor Skills, you know what perk is gonna be the clear winner. My Nord Warrior does see a noticeable difference in damage against heavily armored NPCs (Bandit Chiefs, Random hostiles that spawn in full Ebony, etc) between his Daedric Sword and his Mace of Molag Bal. He's perked 3/3 Bone Breaker, so it does have some effect.

If you wanted to go by pure damage, Bleeding from axes is the best since it activates on every hit, works even when enemy blocks the attack, and stacks. It's basically like having a free, very weak poison effect enchantment that never runs out.