How do I properly use two-handed weapons in Skyrim?

Solution 1:

Two-handed weapons have greater range than one-handed weapons, you have to take advantage of that: going backwards while swinging is a good way to minimize hits received, bash the enemy by blocking and attacking if they are in your face, then hit them while they stagger.

Blocking is less effective without a shield, so bashing should be your preferred mode of defense. Might want to enchant your weapon with drain stamina so you can always keep on swinging and bashing.

Overall, I feel two-handed weapons are less effective than one-handed weapons, because they offer less versatility and your DPS doesn't benefit as much from smithing. You're also missing out on shield enchants and blocking effectiveness, as well as the ability to cast with your left hand.

Solution 2:

A major advantage of the One-handed build to the Two-handed build is that the Block skill tree has perks that only affects you if you are using a one-handed build (Elemental Protection, Deflect Arrows, Shield Charge). Also, some strong unique weapons like the Dawnbreaker and Dragonbane are one-handed only.

Also, from Two-handed rebalance mod description:

Two-handed weapons scale very badly with Enchanting and Smithing bonuses. Enchants and weapon tempering apply the same fixed bonuses to any weapon, regardless of their attack speed. This means that a faster weapon will benefit much more from said skills, because it can apply the damage bonus more often. With 100 Smithing, 100 Weapon Skill, as well as Armsman/Barbarian Perks, a one-handed Daedric sword will slightly outdamage a two-handed Daedric Greatsword. That is not even taking damage enchantments into account, which would widen the gap even more in favor of one-handed weapons. (Keep in mind, I'm only talking about a single one-handed weapon here, not dual wield!)

In the end, two-handed weapons are unwieldy because of their low attack speed. They slow the user down while he's attacking, practically negating their range advantage, they use a lot of stamina to execute power attacks because of their weight, and nevertheless they WILL be outdamaged by a single one-handed weapon eventually.

Mods

If playing on the PC, I recommend these mods to somehow make Two-handed builds comparable to One-handed builds:

• Two-handed rebalance or Two-handed rebalance - conservative dps version

Mod description:

Adds a perk that gives the player +30% attack speed with two handed weapons (split up into two ranks with 15% increase each). This will increase the average damage output, allow two-handed weapons to benefit from smithing/enchanting much better and also help with defending yourself, because you can go back to blocking, bashing or evading much earlier, and won't be stuck in an attack animation, which can be quite frustrating. Overall damage will still be lower than that of dual wield, as it should, but higher than sword and board. Your attack speed with a Greatsword will be at about 0.9, so it'll be a little bit slower than a one handed sword.

The new "Defensive Stance" Perk (at 40 2H skill) allows you to block 30% more damage while holding a two-handed sword. Blocking enchants, on necklaces and such, don't work for two-handed weapons, so this Perk will provide you with a better defensive option, to compensate for the lower damage compared to dual wield. Defensive Stance will stack with Shield Wall from the Blocking Tree. Of course, Shields will still be much better for defense because of their option to be enchanted, and perks like Elemental Protection.

These new perks will make two-handed a good, balanced option if you don't want to go full on offensive mode with dual wield, but don't like hiding behind a shield either. The inherent drawbacks of two-handed weapons are still there: You'll slow down to a crawl while attacking, and you don't have the flexibility to quickly switch out your offhand. (Consider that someone who goes sword/board can still just pick the dual-wield perks and switch out the shield for another weapon or even a spell at any time. If you go down the two-handed route, you're commiting to that playstyle.)

In the end, I think this mod will buff two-handed weapons pretty well, without making them overpowered.

• Two-handed Dawnbreaker

• Wyrmslayer - Two handed Katana (a Two-handed weapon with the same unique enchantment as Dragonbane)