While Armsman, Barbarian, Sweep, Fighting Stance (need it for Savage Strike), Savage Strike, Dual Flurry, Dual Savagery ,Champion's Stance (same as Fighting Stance), Devastating Blow are useful the rest are useless. Max critical damage is 10, enemies have 0 for armour rating, and bleed damage is too insignificant to matter.

Even though max critical damage is 10, enemies have 0 for armour rating, and bleed damage is too insignificant to matte? The rest are useful if bland.

Yeah the USEP confirms it.

Where?

At any rate, I wouldn't say that perks in these trees are "mostly useless". You're only criticizing 6 out of 19 (and you're right, they really are worthless).

In other words, they're all useless except for most of them.

I know that all animals, dragons, etc have 0 AR. For NPCs, the old "complete design freedom" thread said that none had over about 80 AR which would only be 10% reduction so nothing to consider.

ha I'm glad that I'm not the only one who read it that way

What he should've said is that the weapon specific perks are useless

I agree. those six are pretty worthless. The rest of them are pretty useful.

The bleed effect is the most useful of the three because of the stacking DOT. However to get a bang for your buck you best be packing Ebony or higher.

As I use one-handed swords almost exclusively (when I'm not pulling out the bow), I have only ever bothered with sword-related perks. I don't find any of the useless per se; some are more important than others, but they're all useful in some way.

Plus, I never tire of beheading animations. Never.

Guys, im fairly certain OP is referring to the weapon-specific perks, not the generic perks.

Anywa, yeah, they are all fairly useless. Enemies never have any significant AR to warrant the mace perks, the bleeding of the war axes is too little to matter, and critical strikes in general are of no importance in skyrim.

Aye, the bleed effect is one of my favorite perks. IMO no perk is wasted when it comes to combat skills, as long as it keeps you alive it ain't a waste

The Bladesman perks aren't completely useless. I find it easier to trigger kill cams with it and in a pinch that is always useful.

Those weapon specific perks are not worth the investment. They do help improve the damage form a given weapon, but not for the cost of 3 perks. Those points can be better spent.

?Useless? No perk is "technically" useless, while debateable. Nonetheless, there are numerous perks that are simply not worth it.

I invested in those three Bladesman perks. I think they help (instances of crits skyrocketed), but the most notable change came after getting Savage Strike (it was suddenly Decapitations R Us, heads rolling everywhere). I won't bother with Paralyzing Strike at 100.

The beheading one is the one I strive for, the rest don't seem to make much difference because my char is killing most enemies with one blow from pretty early on (I'm always a specialist and never spread myself thin).

So, the perks are useless, except most of them...

One persons useless is another persons fun.

The idea of making my opponets bleed is quite entertaining. Hitting harder against beefier armored opponets is nice. Hitting harder on anything with a crit with my sword makes me smile.

No matter what numbers you throw my way they will not detract from the fun to be had with those perks.

Just my 2 septims =)

I say with One-Handed skill, you're gonna want/need Armsmen up to level 2 (above that feels kinda cheap to me, but that could change when I switch to Legendary), Fighting Stance, and -- duh -- Savage Strike. If you wanna play around with Dual Wielding definitely get 1 Dual Flurry 1-2, and Bladesman is definitely worth the points. I've been playing around with Hack and Slash and I'd say the same about it too.

Same goes for Two-Handed skill, though remember that those weapons use more Stamina so if you're into them, add Stamina accordingly.

With Archery, I went forever with only Overdraw 2/5, and it took me like 3-4 months to try Eagle Eye and I don't even know how long before I tried Steady Hand (I think level is fine). I recently started using Critical shot 1-3, Power shot, and Quick Shot, too. all are totally worth points.

If you're using a Nord character, there seems like there's some sort obligation for using War Axes, too...

This guy got it.

There we go