» Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:49 pm
Some things to think about. Damage over time on a weapon stops when you land the next blow (gets replaced by the new one), so you generally set that to match the rate at which you swing the weapon. I.e. one second for a shortsword, two for a claymore, more for a warhammer. Any weakness you apply benefits the next hit, so the duration of that should be long enough to land another, so typically a second longer than the damage lasts, at least, or possibly double.
The greater the damage per hit, the faster the weapon runs out of charge. The soul you get from each kill needs to be enough to recharge what you just spent from the weapon, so killing mud-crabs with 40 points of fire damage on each blow is going to drain your weapon, even if you capture every soul. When you fight NPC's, you're unlikely to be carrying a lot of empty black soul gems, so you don't want to be relying on the enchantment on the weapon alone. A good weapon balances base damage with magic damage, so that it's still usable when it's drained - and watch out for durability, too. It's really annoying when you have charges left on a broken weapon.
You can only enchant or make spells based on the spells you can cast. That means it's useful to learn all the low-level destruction spells (the on touch version is usually the cheapest) so you apply them to weapons, and things like Soul Trap, which is always a good one to add to a weapon, so you can keep it recharged. There are a few spells you can only get from birth-signs (which can also come from the Runestones associated with them), or as a racial benefit (nothing you can do about that once you've started).
You can only apply one enchantment to a clothing or armor item, but you can use several on a weapon. That makes Sigil Stone enchantment better for defense, and Soul gem at altar better for weapons, as Sigil Stones have higher levels, but offer only one enchantment.
You can make spells with more than one effect, so you can summon a creature and turn invisible in a single cast, for example. The spells you buy only do one thing. Although you've already been given Bouyancy, which combines water breathing with feather, you can't buy any like that. So buy the components (weakest are cheapest) and make your own. You can buy spells you can't yet cast, but you can neither use a spell you can't cast as a component, nor make one that's above your level. Weapon enchantments are only limited on the input side - you must be able to cast a spell to use it as an enchantment, but the weapon can then inflict more than you could cast as a spell.