Dual-Wield / Two-Handed / Sword & Shield

[Irishman]

Righto, this thread is for the pure Warriors out there!

I wanna hear your thoughts, opinions, preferences, experiences, strengths and weaknesses of these 3main types of warrior offensive styles

I have had a lot of experience with the sword&board and regard myself as a pretty damn good warrior with this combo. The shield bash when timed correctly can be devastating to enemies as it staggers, inturupts attacks and can cause decent damage. The downside of this is the amount of stamina it consumes, which can be counteracted by an absorb stamina sword and other enchantments or stamina investments.

I have had a playthrough using a two-handed warrior and must say that it is fun! nice reach, ability to block (obviously not as effectively as a shield) and a high damage output. Again though, they are heavy, slow and use a bit of stamina.

Iv recently been playing as a lightly armoured dual-wielding beserker and must admit it is fun but challanging! With no defense, you have to rely on speed and mobility to kill without taking massive damage. It benifits from having a larger variety of power attacks, and if you have 2different types of weapons in hand, I believe it is more verstile (keep lighter/quicker weapon in left hand to optimise swing speed).

Im a bit torn between continuing my dual-wield beserker or to turn him into tank-like shield user or just the typical yet devastating two-handed brute...

 

[NikolaTesla]

I personally have preferred either a sword and a shield, or a sword and magic. Although I've played around with other styles, those are the ones I seem to come back to. For me at least, they're pretty fun to play, and have great versatility. Especially if you get the Spellbreaker shield. Although it's not the VERY best for deflecting giant hammers, it's the best for dealing with magic, if you don't want to put enchants into magic resist. But use whatever is fun. That's what I did. And sometimes still do.

 

[Hildolfr]

I went with dual-wield. I like the amount of damage wielding two weapons gives. It's similar to two-handed in the sense that you want to dish out as much damage as quickly as possible, but you forgo the ability to block in favor of being able to be a lot quicker. I've found that the elemental fury shout is your best friend while dual-wielding. It bumps your attack speed up to insane speeds and you're already dishing out so much damage... Things just sort of get chopped to pieces. I think in another thread I referred to myself as a walking blender. I also think heavy armor is necessary, especially at lower levels. You're going to get hit because you can't kill everything instantly and since you've no way to defend yourself, you simply need to be tough.

Two-handed is my second favorite, I think. The range sounds negligible, but it's actually not. And you can dish out some serous damage. I've never been able to use warhammers because they're just so damn slow. Longswords and battle axes, though, I've used. I stick with longswords more often than not simply because I don't like how the others look when you carry them. Their huge handles looming over your shoulder like that. Just seems silly.

Sword and board is great, too. I haven't played this way in a long while, though. I remember the shield being great for catching incoming attacks and for stumbling opponents. Plus, you can get some shields with great enchantments. I love Ysgramor's Shield. The one thing I wish about shields... I wish when you sheathed your weapon, they were placed on your back. I saw a mod screen capture once that had something like that and it looked epic. Unfortunately, us console peasants aren't so lucky.

 

[Ciocal Gricenchos]

For some reason I really enjoy a one-handed weapon with the left hand free. Somehow it's so much fun.
That being said, two-handed is my second favourite. Move left or right and hold left-click to win!

 

[raido KASAI]

I stick with longswords more often than not simply because I don't like how the others look when you carry them. Their huge handles looming over your shoulder like that. Just seems silly.

Doesn't sound silly to me at all. As many hours as you spend looking at your character while playing, there is something to be said for liking your image while doing it.

I originally started out 2H, though I worked on both 1H and 2H skills. Eventually I got to the point that with enchanting and good enough skills that the damage I could dish out with either was pretty close to even. Thus I ended up switching to 1H primarily because there was better variety and typically better quality in 1H animations out there. Add to that the lighter weapon weight meaning faster swinging then it was an easy choice. I occasionally dual-wield, sometime use magic in the off-hand, though primarily for candlelight or mage-light when dungeon-crawling. Candlelight in particular gives some interesting light play when going for interesting screenshots, but usually my off hand is free.

I stick with my sword nearly exclusively except for use of bow for sniper-like kills. For nostalgia and variety I do sometimes take out my Companions-Induction Skyforge Steel Battle Axe, but if it is serious battle I'm doing, my 1-handed mod katana (daedric sword level base stats) is what I go with.

Other than my initial escape from Helgen, one of my quirks is not using a shield. They are actually quite useful in the game and there are some cool looking ones too, but for me, it's full-throttle offense and a shield cramps my style.

 

[Irishman]

I went with dual-wield. I like the amount of damage wielding two weapons gives. It's similar to two-handed in the sense that you want to dish out as much damage as quickly as possible, but you forgo the ability to block in favor of being able to be a lot quicker. I've found that the elemental fury shout is your best friend while dual-wielding. It bumps your attack speed up to insane speeds and you're already dishing out so much damage... Things just sort of get chopped to pieces. I think in another thread I referred to myself as a walking blender. I also think heavy armor is necessary, especially at lower levels. You're going to get hit because you can't kill everything instantly and since you've no way to defend yourself, you simply need to be tough.

Two-handed is my second favorite, I think. The range sounds negligible, but it's actually not. And you can dish out some serous damage. I've never been able to use warhammers because they're just so damn slow. Longswords and battle axes, though, I've used. I stick with longswords more often than not simply because I don't like how the others look when you carry them. Their huge handles looming over your shoulder like that. Just seems silly.

Sword and board is great, too. I haven't played this way in a long while, though. I remember the shield being great for catching incoming attacks and for stumbling opponents. Plus, you can get some shields with great enchantments. I love Ysgramor's Shield. The one thing I wish about shields... I wish when you sheathed your weapon, they were placed on your back. I saw a mod screen capture once that had something like that and it looked epic. Unfortunately, us console peasants aren't so lucky.

Yeah I cant get over the huge handle either. I love greatswords and they look way better when sheathed. The only warhammers I use are Volundrung or the orcish Longhammer (higher swing speed).

Id love to have a shield on my back! Iv never really thought about it, but it makes soooo much sense! Be cool if they blocked arrows from behind if you decide to just unsheath you sword and leave the shield on your back

 

[Cherry]

I really don't like Sword n' Board. I've tried such characters, and they just seemed too weak early on. Fights just went ooon and oooonnnn... and the Shield was just hanging there, not really doing anything. Even attacks I blocked took a nice chunk of my health away. I'd much rather dual-wield or use a Two-handed weapon and avoid attacks.

That being said, my favorite is definitely Two-handed. I have a mod installed that adds a two leveled perk to 2-handed that increases attack speed by 15%/30%, which is simply awesome. What it does in practice, is that a well-tempered high level two-handed user has a higher damage-per-second than a Sword n' Boarder, giving 2-handed a reason to exist. (Please note I'm talking of high-level characters with well-tempered weapons). I like the Berserker type combat, where I just run in and swing at everything and not give a crap, and the more tactical Blademaster type combat where I take full advantage of Quick Reflexes.

 

[Irishman]

the more tactical Blademaster type combat where I take full advantage of Quick Reflexes.

Whats your definition of Blademaster? Isnt quick reflexes a block perk? I cant memba

 

[Twiffle]

IMHO 3 simple things.

light armor,
2 handed
vegetable soup.

 

[Cherry]

the more tactical Blademaster type combat where I take full advantage of Quick Reflexes.

Whats your definition of Blademaster? Isnt quick reflexes a block perk? I cant memba

For me, a Blademaster wields a Greatsword, and fights using skill, tactics and patience while a Berserker just charges in with bloodlust. I think Quick Reflexes (yes, it's a Block perk) fits the bill very well, since it allows me to easily sidestep an enemy's power attack and get some free hits on it. It's like total humiliation.

 

[Irishman]

the more tactical Blademaster type combat where I take full advantage of Quick Reflexes.

Whats your definition of Blademaster? Isnt quick reflexes a block perk? I cant memba

For me, a Blademaster wields a Greatsword, and fights using skill, tactics and patience while a Berserker just charges in with bloodlust. I think Quick Reflexes (yes, it's a Block perk) fits the bill very well, since it allows me to easily sidestep an enemy's power attack and get some free hits on it. It's like total humiliation.

I dont think Iv ever got that perk before! It sounds really cool and Im definetly going to look into that, thanks

 

[Twiffle]

Whats your definition of Blademaster? Isnt quick reflexes a block perk? I cant memba

For me, a Blademaster wields a Greatsword, and fights using skill, tactics and patience while a Berserker just charges in with bloodlust. I think Quick Reflexes (yes, it's a Block perk) fits the bill very well, since it allows me to easily sidestep an enemy's power attack and get some free hits on it. It's like total humiliation.

I dont think Iv ever got that perk before! It sounds really cool and Im definetly going to look into that, thanks

On a side note, if your on Xbox Quick reflexes perk can lock up, freeze or crash all the time, and i dont think it got fixed on the last patch

 

[Irishman]

For me, a Blademaster wields a Greatsword, and fights using skill, tactics and patience while a Berserker just charges in with bloodlust. I think Quick Reflexes (yes, it's a Block perk) fits the bill very well, since it allows me to easily sidestep an enemy's power attack and get some free hits on it. It's like total humiliation.

I dont think Iv ever got that perk before! It sounds really cool and Im definetly going to look into that, thanks

On a side note, if your on Xbox Quick reflexes perk can lock up, freeze or crash all the time, and i dont think it got fixed on the last patch

Thankyou! Im on Ps3, but issues like that have a habit of being on both consoles

 

[Cherry]

I dont think Iv ever got that perk before! It sounds really cool and Im definetly going to look into that, thanks

On a side note, if your on Xbox Quick reflexes perk can lock up, freeze or crash all the time, and i dont think it got fixed on the last patch

Thankyou! Im on Ps3, but issues like that have a habit of being on both consoles

I used Quick Reflexes when I used to play on Xbox, and never experienced anything like that. Now that I Think about it, I've never even heard of such a crash.

 

[Gigapact]

Righto, this thread is for the pure Warriors out there!

I wanna hear your thoughts, opinions, preferences, experiences, strengths and weaknesses of these 3main types of warrior offensive styles

I have had a lot of experience with the sword&board and regard myself as a pretty damn good warrior with this combo. The shield bash when timed correctly can be devastating to enemies as it staggers, inturupts attacks and can cause decent damage. The downside of this is the amount of stamina it consumes, which can be counteracted by an absorb stamina sword and other enchantments or stamina investments.

I have had a playthrough using a two-handed warrior and must say that it is fun! nice reach, ability to block (obviously not as effectively as a shield) and a high damage output. Again though, they are heavy, slow and use a bit of stamina.

Iv recently been playing as a lightly armoured dual-wielding beserker and must admit it is fun but challanging! With no defense, you have to rely on speed and mobility to kill without taking massive damage. It benifits from having a larger variety of power attacks, and if you have 2different types of weapons in hand, I believe it is more verstile (keep lighter/quicker weapon in left hand to optimise swing speed).

Im a bit torn between continuing my dual-wield beserker or to turn him into tank-like shield user or just the typical yet devastating two-handed brute...

Okay, so my Dual Wield Character:

High Elf (I know, don't judge, I don't fit races to my character type normally, I like to think they're unique individuals) that wears light armor. Since I'm so tall with High Elf, I feel superior to everyone . I absolutely love this play style, because you can absolutely just savagely beat the plops out of anyone before they have a chance to recuperate and attack back (especially when they stagger). That would be the strengths of it, dealing so much damage at once. For weaknesses, I do think not being able to block sucks because once you run out of stamina, it gets a little tougher because now you just whack at them with each weapon. It was fun though because I didn't realize you go do so many combos at first. For example, I had no idea you could: Press down both left and right at the same time, they do that power attack, but then you press it down again right before they're finished and they continue the power attack without using up stamina. Deals massive amounts of damage with that. It took me a while to get the timing down for the second part, but once I finally got the hang of it, all feared the Dragonborn. For this character, I went all out with smithing. I got three sets to the armor cap: Ancient Shrouded DB, Blackguards Armor and then Glass armor. So when I was feeling evil, I used DB with Daedric weapons or Blackguards with Ebony weapons. When I wanted to feel pretty I put on Glass with Glass weapons I also did enchanting to increase stamina, and some other things. I prefer to keep a dagger in the left hand (to control speed) and a sword in my right to up the damage output. All of my weapons daggers had Absorb Health and Soul Trap (for my Black Star so my weapons will always be charged) and the swords have Absorb Health/ Absorb Stamina OR Absorb Health/ Paralyze. I do love this build a lot. And I know enchanting isn't "warrior like" but whatever. I also know sneak is not "warrior like" but I used it.

Now for my one handed/ shield Character:

I just think this build is fun and funny at the same time. Because I love just killing enemies purely through bashing them with my shield. So I have some stocky Orc with heavy armor and two handed banging the hell out of my shield, and I bash him very quickly, and he just goes falling back. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Oops the Orc is dead. I guess the only weakness I think of here is that if you run out of stamina, you are weakened because all you're left with is a one handed weapon weakly whacking (also though depending on your weapon), unlike Dual Wield. But, then again, you have a shield to block. I can't really see to much weaknesses here. I do believe I paired up heavy armor with this. In the beginning I used steal, then upgraded to Ebony. Once I got in the higher levels and kicked it up to Legendary, I got the Daedric armor and weapons. My experience with this build was that it was nice to have a safety net, so to speak. Because if you're lower on health and stamina, you can just put up your shield to protect yourself, mostly. I really liked that about this build. But I agree with everything you said about this build.

Two handed:

No, no, and no. Well... more so really I never had the patience to work it up (my one character only got to level 16 with this). Coming from dual weild and one handed shield, it was just WAYYYY too slow for me. Granted, you do more damage and have a larger range. However, the weakness I noticed were the slowness of attacks. So by the time you attack, something has already been hitting you (especially those dual wielding forsworn). But I can't really talk because I don't have a ton of experience.

To wrap it all up, those were my experiences mostly! Favorite is Dual Wield, second is one hand/ shield.

 

[Perkless in Skyrim]

I'm not much for Dual Wield. I guess I like being able to block too much.

I waffle back and forth between two handers and sword and shield. When I do pick two handed I generally go for the greatsword since it's the fastest. I may do another Nord or Orc with a Highlander (there can be only one!) theme.

 

[Vaga8ond]

I like the idea of 2 handed attacks, the tactical approach to cutting someone's head off, however it just uses way to much stamina for me and the swing is too slow. I like the idea of blocking but I don't care for shields so my compromise is using a one-handed attack with open hand (for blocking). The option is not present but I chose two hand just as I considered it the closest thing.

 

[ShadowHunter]

I really like Dual Wield. It is fun slashing through tons of enemies with a sword in each hand


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[Irishman]

I like the idea of 2 handed attacks, the tactical approach to cutting someone's head off, however it just uses way to much stamina for me and the swing is too slow. I like the idea of blocking but I don't care for shields so my compromise is using a one-handed attack with open hand (for blocking). The option is not present but I chose two hand just as I considered it the closest thing.

Iv only tried that method for 1 or 2 battles in my whole Skyrim gaming career. As blocking with a weapon is worked out by how high a weapons damage stat is, I was getting hammered even when blocking. I shall have to try this method again though with a higher smithed sword...

 

[KaitoGhost]

I've done them all, and time after time, I keep finding myself going back to the mighty greatswords. Not sure what it is that draws me back.

I don't much care for dual wielding. It's not fluid enough for me, I suppose.