What is better, training strength or 1-hand-skill ?

[Reskal]

I want to play a 1 hand warrior but i'm not sure where to spend my points in, should i go for strength, for more dmg or for 1 hand skill, for more crit chance ?

[A Rock Seller]

Both. Melee, be it 2H or 1H, benefits from STR greatly. I haven't played around with builds enough to tell you if you -need- to raise STR but I can tell you it's extremely useful. Plus, you don't have much else to put points into (other than your weapon skill) in order to improve your effectiveness as a melee fighter.

[kris.aalst]

Indeed both. STR doesn't only increase damage but also allows you to use better weapons. 1-H skill doesn't only increase crit chance but also improves the technique of your character, meaning he'll swing the weapon more proficiently and can perform chain attacks.

At first, it's probably better to increase STR a bit to be able to wield a decent weapon early on, and to a lesser extent for that bit of extra damage. As soon as you think you have an okay weapon and have some learning points to invest, I'd pick 1-H skill. Not for the crit chance as crit hits only become essential in late game, when you either crit and do massive damage or you don't do any damage at all. But the fact that you, the player, clearly feel that Nameless, the player character, learned to fight better does open some more possibilities in the form of opponents you couldn't dream of handling before, even with some more STR and/or a slightly better weapon.