Is there any benefit to using one type of weapon over another? I just started s Dunmer Warden.

mrjenkins44 · June 2017

I just started this game. Played Skyrim before this. I started a Dark Elf Warden. I have a two-handed weapon with him right now.

Should I be using one-handed and shields? Or a bow?

I am kinda confused how these weapons fit in with my build.

Any help would be appreciated.

IcyDeadPeople · June 2017

By the time you reach the endgame, you want to have a lot of flexibility to come up with a build using various weapons. So ideally by the time they reach max level, most people try to level up most of the weapon skills and every class skill, along with the three armor skills and Fighter's Guild, Mages Guild, Assault, Support, Undaunted.

While you are just starting out and doing quests, exploring delves, however, your build doesn't really matter. You can kill the enemies with almost any kind of weapon and armor, any random gear you find. Most try to always wear at least one piece of light, medium and heavy at all times to level the armor skills and keep swapping out some the abilities on your bar to level up the class and weapon skills.

Later when you want to try PVP or the endgame 4-person dungeons, maelstrom solo arena or 12-man trials, then it becomes important to figure out a specific build, with combination of certain armor sets, weapon and class abilities, etc.

For right now, probably you want to level up 2-hander first as that will give you access to a good charge ability and a stamina based heal (Momentum/Rally), but as I mentioned, try to level up every weapon and all your class skill lines at the same time. (The skill line for bow or 1hand and shield will level up if you put one of those abilities on your bar while you kill stuff with 2-hander or turn in quests)

dpencil1 · June 2017

@mrjenkins44
Do you primarily want to use magicka or stamina based skills? The more magicka and spell damage you have, the more effective skills that use magicka, including those from the destruction and restoration staves. And conversely for stamina and weapon damage boosting skills that cost stamina, including all melee weapons and the bow.

It's best to choose one path to go down and build your character around that. So if you wanted to be a Magicka Warden, you'd put your attribute points from leveling up into magicka. You'd wear light armor, preferably with magicka enchantments. You'd wear armor sets that give bonuses to magicka, spell damage and spell crit. You would use either use two destruction staves or a destro/resto staff combo. All the skills you would put on your bars would cost magicka.

If going stamina, the opposite would be true. Medium or heavy armor, dual weild and bow or two hander and bow are usually good setups.

Using a particular weapon type and slotting skills from that weapon's skill tree will level up that weapon tree and those individual skills.

At the start you can experiment with each weapon type, unlock their skill trees, and see what skills look interesting. There are plenty of build videos on Youtube that highlight endgame setups, so you can look at what people usually run at endgame to priorotize which skills you'll want to focus on.

Hope that helps.

SydneyGrey · June 2017

I have a Dark Elf magicka warden. I use a flame staff with mine, since Dunmer get a bonus to fire magic. She has a magicka build instead of a stamina build, though.