Looking to protect yourself, or deal some damage? If it’s the latter, in Skyrim, a two-handed weapon is an obvious choice. These oversized instruments of brutality are good for one thing and one thing only: slaying enemies. And usually, slaying them in awesome fashion.
For those who have never done a two-handed run in Skyrim, give it a shot. It’s very fun. Sure, two-handed weapon users can’t cast spells, but who needs spells when the Dragonborn can breathe fire and shout people off of cliffs? Instead of making yet another stealth archer, boot up the game, grab the nearest warhammer, and make sure to keep an eye out for these legendary two-handed weapons.
10 The Rueful Axe
The Rueful Axe is surely an amazing weapon, with a cool design on the axehead featuring a pair of snarling wolf heads. It has an outstanding base damage of 22, and its Stamina draining enchantment is very useful. It’s easily one of the best two-handed weapons in the game.
However, for every reason to use the Rueful Axe, there’s a better reason not to use it. First, it’s the slowest weapon in the game, so there’s that. Second, in order to get it, the Dragonborn is forced to pass up the Masque of Clavicus Vile. It’s frankly not worth the trade-off, hence the axe’s position at the bottom of this list.
9 Steel Battleaxe of Fiery Souls
This battleaxe is listed not because it’s great on its own, but because it has one of the best enchantments in the game. With only 18 base damage, the weapon itself is nothing more than an ordinary steel battleaxe. However, its unique “fiery soul trap” enchantment deals 10 points of fire damage and also carries the effects of the soul trap.
By the time the enchantment runs out, the Dragonborn will have filled enough soul gems to recharge it, so the damage never really stops. However, the real fun comes in when the enchantment is stolen and reapplied to a better weapon. The axe itself just isn’t impressive enough for a high ranking here.
8 Ebony Blade
The Ebony Blade is an iconic weapon sometimes considered to be one of the best two-handers in the entire game. For a two-handed weapon, its base damage is incredibly mediocre at only 11. However, the blade’s unique effects are downright amazing. It’s the fastest two-handed weapon in the game, and its intense speed somewhat makes up for its lackluster damage.
It also has a very solid drain health enchantment that can grow more powerful, as long as the Dragonborn is willing to get their hands dirty. Not only that, this enchantment has unlimited charge. Unfortunately, the Ebony Blade is held back by its lack of upgradability, and its full damage output is just too low to be considered truly great.
7 Dragonbone Battleaxe
With its incredible base damage of 26, a simple Dragonbone Battleaxe is easily one of the best melee weapons in the entire game — plus, it just looks cool. As the Dragonborn needs 100 smithing to make one, crafting a Dragonbone weapon from scratch feels like a true accomplishment. When enchanted, a Dragonbone Battleaxe can become a devastating weapon on par with anything at the top of this list.
It’s worth noting that Dragonbone greatswords and warhammers are arguably just as good as their battleaxe brethren. The axe is simply the most balanced of the three. It does more damage than a sword, but less than a hammer, and its swing speed is a nice compromise between the two.
6 Longhammer
The Longhammer has a base damage of 21, which is excellent, but not amazing. In terms of raw damage, it’s outstripped by some of its more impressive competition. What makes it great is its inherent effect — “reduced weight”, granting it a 30% bonus to swing speed. This effect is not an enchantment, so it can be used indefinitely.
When it comes to damage per second, the speed bonus puts this hammer over the top, making it easily one of the best weapons in the entire game. The increased swing speed also makes the weapon more versatile by allowing the Dragonborn to react more quickly to incoming damage.
5 Dawnguard Rune Hammer
The Dawnguard Rune Hammer is an awesome Dawnguard weapon with a unique effect. In addition to dealing more damage to vampires (which all Dawnguard weapons do), bash attacks with the Rune Hammer produce fire rune traps. Rune traps are nice to have for melee characters, and the rune hammer lets warriors put them down without using any magicka. This has a nice bonus effect: it levels the Destruction skill.
Coming in at base damage of 22, as well as upgradability in the Steel Weapons category, the Dawnguard Rune Hammer is nothing to sneeze at. Its only real downside is that it can only be acquired if the Dragonborn has joined the Dawnguard rather than the Volkihar vampires during the Dawnguard DLC.
4 Bloodskaal Blade
This unique weapon doesn’t deal the most damage compared to other two-handed weapons (21 base damage), but it has a great effect. When making a power attack with the Bloodskaal Blade, it releases a wave of energy that shoots forward, dealing 30 damage to enemies at a close range.
The energy wave can hit archers and spellcasters positioned behind melee fighters, making it very useful. It’s also just cool to have a ranged attack on a greatsword. The energy wave can even be used to knock down lanterns and set off rune traps. All in all, the blade’s decent base damage combined with its cool effect make it one of the most fun and useful two-handed weapons to keep around.
3 Wuuthrad
Wuuthrad is a legendary weapon that’s especially deadly to elves, as evidenced by the screaming elf face in its design. It has a base damage of 25, which is comparable to the amazing Daedric Battleaxe. It also has an inherent effect that deals 20% extra damage to all elves — Altmer, Bosmer, or Dunmer.
Its very respectable base damage, combined with its cool design and fairly useful effect, make it one of the best two-handed weapons in the game. This symbol of Nordic triumph is held back only by its lack of upgradability. It’s also situational in that there’s less benefit to using it when there are no elves around.
2 Champion’s Cudgel
The Champion’s Cudgel, from the Dragonborn DLC, comes with the very fun “chaos” enchantment. It has a 50% chance to inflict an extra 25 points of Fire, Ice, or Shock damage. And it’s not either/or — these effects stack. The Cudgel might cause Fire and Shock damage, or just Ice damage. Or maybe it will hit all three for a staggering grand total of 75 bonus damage. The charge level is also pretty good, and only needs to be refilled occasionally.
It’s also one of the few unique weapons that can be disenchanted, so that cool “chaos” enchantment can be reapplied to something even more powerful. Of course, this enchantment would be pointless if the weapon itself were bad. Thankfully, the Champion’s Cudgel has a respectable base damage of 24, putting it on par with a glass warhammer.
1 Volendrung
Unlike similar unique weapons, Volendrung can be improved at a smelter using ebony ingots, boosting its base damage of 25 even higher. In addition to having a cool look, Volendrung has an extremely powerful enchantment which drains a ton of stamina. Because two-handed power attacks use so much stamina, this can be absolute godsend. With enough charge, the Dragonborn can use Volendrung to unleash a never-ending chain of power attacks.
However, the weapon’s main drawback is just that: its low charge. The enchantment runs out fairly quickly, requiring lots of soul gems. Therefore, Volendrung is best used in very difficult fights where constant power attacks are actually helpful.
