Weapon swap kicks in at level 15. The question is; is it better to start developing skill in a second weapon before or after lvl 15. In most cases I have desided to not have a different second weapon but simply two of the same with different abilities etc., however I have a resoration staff templer and I was considering developing bow because of scatter shots knock back.
It's never to early to start leveling your secondary tab/tabs.
One small tip. If you only use one or two skills from bow you can put the skills that you normally use in the second tab and they will level up. You probably will not be able to use some of them though.
As soon as you hit 15 it is worth having a different second weapon. But of you leave it until later just remember if you get the training trait on your weapon you can catch it up quickly.
As soon as you hit 15 it is worth having a different second weapon. But of you leave it until later just remember if you get the training trait on your weapon you can catch it up quickly.
^ Spot on. I've used a bow from level 1 through to level 21. Bow is a level 34. I then put dual wield daggers and am now lvl 23 and my daggers are catching quite rapidly.
As soon as I was able to loot one each of the weapons I planned on using, (resto and bow in my case), which was pretty much as soon as I got out of coldharbor tutorial, I played with the first weapon until I was able to get a skill for it.
This didn't take long, then I switched to the other weapon and got a skill on the hot bar for it. I then swapped back and forth every level using one weapon getting used to how it worked, then another level with the other weapon.
Building up the skills for both while going along, with skill points from quests, skyshards and leveling. Also it helped me figure out which skills worked for me, which might end up on both hotbars, etc.
Long story but, to answer the question, if you have an idea of which weapons you want to use, the answer is, "start right way."
I agree with @Cabot, also keep in mind you just need to put one skill from the weapon on your bar, then you level up the weapon skill, regardless of whether you have the weapon equipped.