[Beginner] How many charges should I add to my Steel Sword of Arcing?

[Seniӽ]

I'm enchanting for the first time, and don't know how many charges I should add to my steel sword of arcing, so I came here to find some suggestions. I'm a Ranger, so I mostly use my bow, so my sword isn't going too see too much use, but I'm also a beginner so that may change later as I find more use for it. Any suggestions?

[Nazenn]

Depends on how often you feel like going back to your inventory to refill the charge on your sword. The less charges you have, the more powerful your enchantment is, but also the shorter it lasts which means a lot more soul gems being used as well. Using soul gems isnt a massive thing in late game, but in early game, especially if your only enhanting with a petty soul gem or the like, you can go through charges pretty quickly

[Clever Monkey]

I hate recharging so I usually go the most charges and least damage. most of the time I forget to recharge so I usually just stick to enchanting armor and tempering the weapons to the max.
Maybe I will make something with paralyze, soul trap or the like with max effect and minimum charges but not often.

[Eternie]

I quite like a paralyze for 2 sec and a small shock enchantment for as many charges as possible. That obviously changes depending how good you are enchanting and which perks you have selected.

[Seniӽ]

I tried going for the middle and most balanced, but they got wasted by a group of 3 hired thugs who decided to kill me because I stole pretty much every potion in Arcadia's Couldren. And that was the SECOND contract on me in the day.

[Dexter]

I do low damage with the most charges for all weapons, because the game is too easy as it is and I don't like my weapons to be too over-powered because I want skillups.

I do carry a bow with some power to more easily perform one shot sneak attacks when I feel like being sneaky.

The weapon enchantments I have been using the most are drain health 10, combined with soul trap for 1 second.

It is always nice to carry a weapon for emergency use that deals massive damage though.

[Bomb Bloke]

I enchant my weapon "because I can", but I have absolutely no patience to go into my inventory and recharge it. I've got the perk which auto-recharges weapons when killing critters, but it's far too slow to rely on (or be any value at all, really).

Apparently there's at least one blade - Keening - which doesn't consume charges. You need to clear out the College of Winterhold's main questline to get it, though.

[Munkee]

Originally posted by Senix:

I tried going for the middle and most balanced, but they got wasted by a group of 3 hired thugs who decided to kill me because I stole pretty much every potion in Arcadia's Couldren. And that was the SECOND contract on me in the day.

I stole a pickaxe from a orc mine to get Ebony ore. lol. Apparently that meant death.

To be honest, I never wasted time on weapon enchanting. I save all soul gems for when I enchant armor. Like when I master enchanting I will make all my armor protect me from magic and breathe underwater.

[Bomb Bloke]

Bear in mind that if you haven't mastered enchanting, recharging weapons is one way to gain enchanting experience.

[mpd1958]

One other thing you should remember about enchanted weapons. If you have to recharge often then you will need to carry alot of filled soul gems, while an individual gem weights very little, alot of then can add up very quickly. And if you use soul trap then you also have to carry empty gems as well.

I played alot of hours just to get my smithing and enchanting to the point where the sword I was using did good damge and I got the dual enchantment perk. Used Shock and Firey Soul Trap.

Two to three hits and everything was toast, even dragons although I didn't need soul trap for them.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by mpd1958:

One other thing you should remember about enchanted weapons. If you have to recharge often then you will need to carry alot of filled soul gems, ...

Or one daedric artifact related to Azura.

[mpd1958]

Originally posted by Bomb Bloke:

Originally posted by mpd1958:

One other thing you should remember about enchanted weapons. If you have to recharge often then you will need to carry alot of filled soul gems, ...

Or one daedric artifact related to Azura.

Quite true, I forgot about that.