NEW INFO:
So what I found out so far are that the bleed damage is a flat amount per rank and the bleed damage total is determined by the quality of the axe. IE. Iron Battleaxe with 60 2H does a total of 1.5 bleed damage from 1 power attack, whereas Daedric Battleaxe does a total of 6 bleed damage from 1 power attack. I assume regular or power attacks are irrelevant and the bleed will still do the same amount. Also, bleeds seem to "stack" or stagger in the sense that 3 consecutive hits yield the same amount of bleed damage as if you were to hit 3 times and wait for the bleed to stop each time.

Each rank into Limbspitter increases bleed damage by 1. Using Daedric Battleaxe, 1/3 is 6 damage, 2/3 is 7, and 3/3 is 8 total bleed damage.

It is also highly likely that the bleed occurs during each swing, as noted by the stacking/staggering effect of it. With this assumption, it is also safe to say that the bleed perk is more or less a direct increase to axes' dps. IE. Daedric Battleaxe with 3/3 limbspitter gets +8 damage per swing. This would mean that Axes and Maces have the best sustain damage vs Swords' burst damage with their critical perk.

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NPCs not affected by Bleed:
(Note: NPCs not listed are affected despite not looking like they should be)

- Dwarven automatons
- Draugrs
- Vampires
- Skeletons (including Skeletal Dragon)
- Reanimated (Atronachs ARE affected)

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Hi, I just want to start a theory-crafting discussion on how much damage that bleed perk actually gives. So far I have been running tests to find out a few things about it. To start off, my nord warrior is level 21 with 60 into 2-Hand and 91 smithing. With 1/3 Limbspitter. I'm using a Legendary Daedric Battleaxe which does 82 damage at my level.

Using the console command 'getav health' after clicking a local whiterun guard, he has a health pool of 252.


Test 1: 1/3 Limbspitter with 1 power attack and 2 regular hits results in 252 to 87.54. 164.46 damage total with consecutive hits and waiting the bleed out at the end.

Test 2: Same as test 1, but this time waiting the bleed out on each strike. Results in 252 to 87.54. Same damage

Test 3: 1/3 Limbspitter with 1 power attack results in 252 to 164.63, waiting the bleed out.

Test 4: 0/3 Limbspitter with 1 power attack results in 252 to 170.63. 6 damage difference.

Test 5: 0/3 Limbspitter with 1 power attack and 2 regular hits resulted in 105.54. 18 damage difference.

With these tests, I can conclude that the bleed is a flat damage amount possibly related to the damage of the axe and that the bleed either stacks in magnitude per consecutive hit or each hit applies a bleed effect that stagger resulting in the same damage over time applied.


For comparison purposes:

Legendary Daedric Warhammer - 87 damage

Test 1: 0/3 Skullcrusher with 1 power attack results in 252 to 165.98.

Test 2: 1/3 Skullcrusher with 1 power attack results in 252 to 160.43. 5.55 damage difference.

Hard to say which perk yields better results per point with just 1/3 of each, but I'd assume mace will eventually win if fighting armored npcs. Will test more as I get 2/3 or 3/3 of the respective perks.

Hope this can be useful to others so people can eventually get some definite answers on how exactly useful is the bleed perk. If you find this uninformative, I apologize for wasting your time.

Bump for the night.

Looks like it could be a flat damage of B = (D+Q)/6

B is Bleed Damage
D is Item Base Damage
Q is Item Quality Bonus

In this case it is (25+10)/6 = 5.83

Rounded up it fits.

We need more tests, preferably a Daedric Battleaxe with no added quality bonus. That would equate to (25+0)/6 = 4.16

Had time to test Badprenup's theory and unfortunately the bleed damage still turned out to be 6. So it seems rank 1 bleed is a flat amount of 6, not sure if it's the same on all axes though. This is just for Daedric with 60 2-Handed skill up.

EDIT: So the bleed is affected by the quality of the weapon. Tested with an iron battleaxe and the bleed damage seems to be 1.5.

Try an unupgraded iron battle-axe?

It was unupgraded. I tested between non-upgraded and legendary daedric battleaxe and the bleed seems to be 6 damage still. I could be certain that upgrades do not affect it. I'll do more tests again tomorrow however to double check.

After further testing it seems that reach perk point into bleed will increase the damage by 1. So 1/3 Limbspitter with Daedric Battleaxe is 6 total bleed damage, and 2/3 is 7. I would assume 3/3 will be 8.

Axes and maces are weak in comparison to swords at high levels, so I wouldn't worry.

Swords at high levels have a few points less damage, but hit much faster, so they have a much higher damage over a period of time. Also the critical perk is the most damaging.

Considering at high levels the perk that makes maces ignore damage resist, isn't useful due to enemies having huge amounts of hp rather than a high damage resist, the mace perk is rather useless.

I can't speak for 2h weapons though.

Yes this is also probably true for 2h weapons, but I'm just merely shedding some light on the axe perk since its very vague atm.

EDIT: Also, I would like to point out that the bleed damage is most likely occurring during each swing, since I've noted the stagger/stacking mechanic of it.

Added a list of NPCs that are not affected by bleed, of course this is common sense, but for those who are curious. Also added a point saying that the perk literally just adds additional damage to axes.

Shameless bump.