Dual Wielding Useless? - Page 4

I chose to pursue magic, as the pretty effects attracted my attention. I maxed out conjuration pretty soon, and now, I can summon dremora lords to do my bidding. They kick ass. I never had much time to use dual weapons, as I pursued what intrested me most. I am a high smithing level, so my sword is strong, while I summon dremora lords to help me in combat, and use SnS myself, Then if its someone, or something strong that we have killed, I use dead thrall, and sacrifice one of my dremora lords, for whatever I resurect, for 999 secs. I need to try dual wielding out....

In the begining it is pretty pointless, but the trick is to swing both at once, way better than one at a time. also, once you unlock all 3 words of the shout elemental fury, it is truly amazing, if you have good weapons, you can dish out tons of damage and pretty much own any enemy in the game using that shout, but then once your recharging again, dual wielding goes back to useless. but if you have the patience to get elemental fury, maybe you shouldnt give up on it quite.

Couple the dual power attack with high stamina and the Elemental Fury shout. You'll mince anything that comes at you. With two levels of Elemental Fury and two swords I've slaughtered a keep's courtyard full of bandits and highwayman in less than a minute.


When I'm not slashing everybody to ribbons, I normally carry an enchanted weapon with a lingering effect in my left hand and and unenchanted weapon in my right hand. I'll strike once with my enchanted weapon and then only use my right-hand weapon until the effect wears off. That way I can have the benefit of a magic weapon without draining its charges too quickly.

I'm not sure if anyone has pointed this out yet, I don't want to read the whole thread, but your left hand weapon determines the speed of your attacks. Therefore, you could have a dagger in your left hand and a mace in your right, so you attack at the speed of a dagger with a mace.

But even with that, i have not found dual wielding to be very useful, even with great power attacks. you end up relying on power attacks, meaning you must pour alot of points into stamina that you could be putting into health or magicka. I would prefer using one handed with a shield or spell.

I once sneak hit a foresworn for x30 AND x12 damage, by doing the two hit attack (not the power attack). I had a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other - can't remember which way around. But it looks like you can get the sneak multiplier for both hands - haven't managed to get x30 twice for two daggers yet though...

I wouldn't say useless, but I prefer a spell/sword, or shield combo. With 2 weapons, all you get is faster attacking speed, at the expense of block. Sometimes I drop in another weapon, when I'm CFed, but that's a last ditch, when everthing's already gone wrong. You've got two hands, either you can fill them both with a Bow, and at least have range advantage, 2 hander to block, and 1hk most things at your level, spell for magical effects, shield to block/bash, or another weapon to attack faster.

The left hand weapon affects attack speed, but an offhand dagger won't make a mace swing just as faster. The regular left hand attack is always slower then the same weapon on the right, so most people compensate by using a dagger. Mace/Sword actually has a higher DPS. The dual attack, and power attack's speeds are based on the Right hand weapon, so you could use a dagger in the right, and handaxe in the left (I often do, because you don't draw the left weapon, it just drops in to replace a shield, or spell) if you only do dual attacks, or the flurry. The left hand power attack with dagger, or sword is incredibly fast, and staggers. May be hard to land on a straffing enemy, so I usually use it to nail a Blocker. It does more damage, but uses more Stamina than a Shield Bash, with less protection, of course. It's a pretty nasty sting with a Drainheart Sword, though. If I'm doing it, that's my weapon of choice, because it replenishes Stamina.

Dual wield is just higher DPS, without a block. In capped armor, it's doable, but I'd rather have more versatility than more of the same. Play your way, though.