Two handed vs one handed with shield.

[Chase2D]

I'm playing on legendary and I was wondering which is better?

[danconnors]

If you're planning to fight dragons you want a shield. Especially on legendary difficulty, where the shield's enchantment against either fire, ice--or both--will keep you from being incinerated or frozen by the dragon's breath. Ditto for mages; the shield adds to your protection against their elemental attacks.

You will do at least as much damage with a one handed weapon and a shield bash as any two handed weapon, and you will be MUCH harder to kill. I have found that even with a shield and a dagger I can drop warriors swinging two handed hammers with ease.

[Chaos Epoch]

Theoretically, duel wield + any 720 second cooked food item that increases stamina by a point per second on top of elemental fury should stunlock and murder any dragon.

[Aki]

Some block perks also affect 2handed weapons which can be nice even if you're switching between shield and 2handed gameplay.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by danconnors:

If you're planning to fight dragons you want a shield. Especially on legendary difficulty, where the shield's enchantment against either fire, ice--or both--will keep you from being incinerated or frozen by the dragon's breath. Ditto for mages; the shield adds to your protection against their elemental attacks.

You will do at least as much damage with a one handed weapon and a shield bash as any two handed weapon, and you will be MUCH harder to kill. I have found that even with a shield and a dagger I can drop warriors swinging two handed hammers with ease.

If using a shield Spellbreaker is your friend against dragons and mages, the ward it projects completely blocks fire/frost breath. and magic instead of just reducing the damage. It also has the highest armor rating of any shield.

[Siddha]

Eventually your shield becomes a weapon and the Quick Reflexes perk is very powerful especially against two-handed heavy hitters

[FauxFurry]

One handed with spells in the left hand is more versatile than either of those play styles. Yes, that does not answer the question but the question has no one right answer.
It is all based upon what one desires or context.
For example, the Bloodskal Blade is Two Handed so that would be my preference for 'cool factor' but Dawnbreaker with Spellbreaker is over-all far more effective as defense and offense against Dragon Priests.

[Sabaithal]

One handed weapons are faster and allow more movement during swings.

Two handed weapons do twice as much damage bug are slower and unwieldy.

[Darth Triggerus ☯]

Never had much use for dual wielding, it kind of limits your options. You do nice damage but don't have much utility nor damage avoidance.

Sword and Board is one of my favorites for the versatility. You can easily switch out to one handed spells to heal yourself, give you're more armor, summons, or just sling a few fireballs while the bad guys close in. And right before baddies go toe to toe, you switch to your shield

2 Handed weapons is my 2nd favorite. The ability to sink alot of damage into a single hit is useful. Most enemies with go down in a single hit or two, but it's kind of boring.

[Chase2D]

So overall which would you consider better on legendary?

[Jon_Smith]

On Legendary your limitations are going to be due to the fact that many enemies will one shot you, they lock you into a killing animation and just boom, done. This means you need to be able to do crowd control and avoid attacks.

Swinging a two handed sword is fun but reckless, you'll die alot and be relying on a load of quick saves to repeat fights, kind of makes Legendary abit redundant (Its an awful setting anyway as it just lowers your damage and raises opponent health turning it into a game where you just have to hack over and over and over and over at every Draugr).

One handed + shield has alot of advantages. Higher armor rating helps, less enemies can one shot you, enchantments can help with resistances, mages can be difficult because their range attacks can take you down before you get them. Stun locking them with a shield is a decent strategy.

Two handed extra dps won't make up for the more exposed you are since enemies will still take ages to go down.

I'd also recommend getting ice form asap, when faced with 3-4 enemies they'll often dogpile you and you cannot tank the damage, freezing them gives you some breathing room to attack one at a time until they unfreeze. It can turn the tide.

Once your character gets enough health and is tanky enough perhaps try out some two handed weapons (its also good to try out if your character hits 100 in One handed) but switch back to two handed when you hit a tougher enemy.

[Chase2D]

Originally posted by Jon_Smith:

On Legendary your limitations are going to be due to the fact that many enemies will one shot you, they lock you into a killing animation and just boom, done. This means you need to be able to do crowd control and avoid attacks.

Swinging a two handed sword is fun but reckless, you'll die alot and be relying on a load of quick saves to repeat fights, kind of makes Legendary abit redundant (Its an awful setting anyway as it just lowers your damage and raises opponent health turning it into a game where you just have to hack over and over and over and over at every Draugr).

One handed + shield has alot of advantages. Higher armor rating helps, less enemies can one shot you, enchantments can help with resistances, mages can be difficult because their range attacks can take you down before you get them. Stun locking them with a shield is a decent strategy.

Two handed extra dps won't make up for the more exposed you are since enemies will still take ages to go down.

I'd also recommend getting ice form asap, when faced with 3-4 enemies they'll often dogpile you and you cannot tank the damage, freezing them gives you some breathing room to attack one at a time until they unfreeze. It can turn the tide.

Once your character gets enough health and is tanky enough perhaps try out some two handed weapons (its also good to try out if your character hits 100 in One handed) but switch back to two handed when you hit a tougher enemy.

I’m close to 100 in two handed and I’m around level 20 however as you said I keep getting one shot so I wondering if shield and sword would better to switch too.

[Perplex]

Originally posted by Lady Aeleanor:

Originally posted by Chase2D:

I have been using two handed but the problem for me on legendary is a can’t block most attacks( archers are very annoying) .

Build the Shield skill and you can block damage from arrows.

Better to sidestep and not get hit at all.

[Jon_Smith]

Originally posted by Chase2D:

I’m close to 100 in two handed and I’m around level 20 however as you said I keep getting one shot so I wondering if shield and sword would better to switch too.

You'll still get one shot but the extra armor can help tip the scales slighly so maybe that enemy can no longer one shot, but more importantly the shield and shield bash stuff means you can dance around more. Because the one handed item is way faster you can shield bash, whack they pop your shield back up before they recover then back away or bash again. If you leave yourself open they can still one shot you but it gives you superior tactics to wailing on them with two hands which are too slow meaning that you are left open for long enough for the enemy to lock you into a kill.

[Rez Elwin]

Actually armor plays no role in deciding if you get one-shot or not, at least when it comes to the animations. When you get killed with an animation it's becuase your health it too low (even at 100%), the game does not factor in your armor during its calculation. If you would die while not wearing armor from an opponent they get the chance to kill you with an animation on each strike. Since you are taking a significant amount of damage in legendary player killcams are more likely and no amount of armor will change it if your health isn't high enough.

[jreese46]

Originally posted by danconnors:

If you're planning to fight dragons you want a shield. Especially on legendary difficulty, where the shield's enchantment against either fire, ice--or both--will keep you from being incinerated or frozen by the dragon's breath. Ditto for mages; the shield adds to your protection against their elemental attacks.

You will do at least as much damage with a one handed weapon and a shield bash as any two handed weapon, and you will be MUCH harder to kill. I have found that even with a shield and a dagger I can drop warriors swinging two handed hammers with ease.

Believe it or not, a lowly, weak ward will help considerably, with dragon attacks.