What is the strongest weapon in Skyrim without enchantments or DLC, and with maxed out Dovahkiin?

I love Bethesda games and have been wondering who would win the fight between Dovahkiin or The Lone Wanderer. I am trying to put aside my love for Skyrim to decide who would win a fight using hit points and defense points.

I have been reading through other questions but none have really answered mine. Assuming max perks for everything, what is the strongest weapon in Skyrim, not including DLCs or enchantments?


If DLCs aren't allowed, the strongest weapons are Daedric weapons. The Daedric warhammer has the highest damage per swing or all melee weapons, and with the right perk can ignore armour.


Studoku's answer is correct, without considering anything but base damage, 100 skill and perks the base damage of a Daedric Warhammer is the highest:

27 (base) * 1.5 (skill) * 2 (perks) = 81 damage

However, warhammers are also the slowest weapons - due likely to a bug, greatswords and battleaxes both swing at .7 attacks per second while warhammers swing at .6 (the bug being that greatswords should swing faster, which is fixed by the unofficial patch to put them at .75). Considering weapon speed, battleaxes and a few unique weapons do more damage per second than a Daedric Warhammer (it's notable that with Limbsplitter, Daedric greataxes also do an extra 3 dps bleed for 6 seconds after each hit, but since we're not considering the armor ignoring perk for warhammers or the extra critical damage perk for greatswords I'm not adding it):

Daedric Warhammer: 81 damage * .6 APS = 48.6 DPS

Daedric Battleaxe: 25 * 1.5 * 2 = 75, 75 * .7 APS = 52.5 DPS

Volendrung and The Longhammer are both unique warhammers that swing faster than normal warhammers. Volendrung swings as fast as a greatsword (.7 in the base game, .75 with the USKP) and The Longhammer swings at .8 aps, giving them the following DPS values:

Volendrung: Same as Daedric Battleaxe, 52.5 DPS

The Longhammer: 21 * 1.5 * 2 = 63, 63 * .8 = 50.4 DPS