It is assumed you have already read through the Gear and Arena sections on this site before ready this guide, if not, you should do so first as there are concepts there that need to be understood first.
Skill points and Races in this build section should also be read first.
POPS' BEGINNERS GUIDE TO HEAVY WEAPONS
Heavy Weapons Fighting (HWF) is just whack whack whack and call it a day, right? Wrong! There are a lot of decisions to be made that make a huge difference in how you'll play and what types of foes will give you the most trouble.
As you read through this guide, remember that these are just my opinions after driving Pops Barbarians and Moms Barbarians for a few seasons. Other HWFs will have different strategies, and most will have much better ideas... so take this all with a grain of salt and consider this a beginner's guide to "2H" or more accurately, Heavy Weapons Fighting.
First, the two foes that give me the most trouble are Mages and Versatile Weapons Fighters (VWF) who like to hide behind their shield and spam spells and strikes. When fighting another HWF, it becomes a battle of who can crit more and who stuns. These fights are generally over in a matter of seconds so getting into a debate about casting times and resist durations is useless. Mages give me trouble because the biggest enemy of HWF is stunning (or getting incapacitated). Therefore, with Mages, Ice Spikes, Wall of Fire, and Paralyze are the things to watch out for because they're the things that will keep you from fighting... and as a HWF that's all you've got. With VWF who like to hide behind their shields, the issue is hitting into their high block. They gleefully come out to play after that while you're standing there like an idiot. As you consider the rest of this guide, keep this in mind.
You can start getting artifacts at level 45, but in order to use what are called "end game" weapons and armour, you need to be level 50 or higher. This is when Blades starts getting interesting. Until then, do all the quests, grind in the Abyss, and start figuring out how to fight in the Arena. Do not get worked up when you're in the arena.
DON'T JUST DROP YOUR DEVICE AND TAKE A BEATDOWN!
Learn what works for you and learn what other people are doing. Blades matches you according to your trophy count, so it's very likely that even though you are level 15 (for example), you could easily get matched against someone level 96. You'll have zero chance against them, but see what their gear looks like. How do they fight? What spells do they cast? Do they block? Sometimes higher level players will let you win a round (and this can take a while as you chip away at their end game gear), sometimes they finish you off quickly. Either way, do not concede and do not disconnect. Just play it out and learn something.
As far as weapons and armour go under level 50, don't worry about it. Craft the best gear that your Blacksmiths will make for you. If you decide to temper it, don't temper it beyond Flawless (otherwise you're wasting materials). You should enchant all your gear so that you can be prepared for how awful Severio is at his job. He never gets better... so get used to it.
For help building your skill tree and planning it out, see the ES Blades Skill Tree Calculator, link in the "Links" section.
STATS
My current split is 350 magicka / 540 stamina, and I think that's been working okay. I just spent a month at 200 / 690 and that was a looooong season of not being able to hit Ward. If you go lower than 350 magicka, you may want to boost that with enchanted gear.
SPELLS
You don't really want to ask me about spells as a HWF, I stink at them. I tend to go all defensive spells (if I'm able to get them cast at all) and go with Resist Elements (RE) at level 3, Ward at level 1, and Absorb at level 1. That's literally all I have unlocked.
SKILLS
For skills, I use 3 things: Piercing Strikes (PS), Quick Strikes (QS), and Recovery Strikes (RS). They are called "double taps" because you tap once and get a couple swings out of it, and the swings deal elemental damage or ravage even if hitting into a high block. The are also stun-proof, meaning if you QS into a high block, you will not get stunned. RS is a must-have because it breaks your stuns, so you should always have this unlocked and equipped.
Some HWF also go with dodges because they also break stuns, but I find dodges to be waaaaay too slow. Dodges are cool because if you time them right, you can also avoid ice spikes and paralyze. I've never been good at that, so double-taps for me. It's important to keep all of these at skill level 1. Do not boost these (even with rings), because the added stamina requirements for the higher levels don't justify the small difference in damage. Keep them at 1 so that you can hit them more often (because at level 1 they have lower stamina cost requirements). Note that GuardBreaker (GB) can also be handy to deal with those VWF who like to hide behind shields. Note that I set GB to 3 because if I ever use it, I want it to stun the opponent longer.
WEAPONS
Your best friend here are the Sigil store weapons. Get them in this order:
SpiderFang|
BreathTaker or Captain Kordan's Sabre (same weapon, different skin)
Stormkiss
Make you own Shock weapon
Second tier of Sigils heavy weapons:
SunderBlade
Maul of the Aureal
Some people say the Maul isn't useful unless you're fighting mages, but I have good success with it and I catch a lot of people on fire.
SELECTING ARMOR
The first decision when it comes to armour is Plate or Mail? This will affect the fighter you become as well as what additional gear to grind for. Pops started with Plate and the big advantage here is Armor Rating (AR). With Plate armour, you can become a "turtle" and sustain quite a lot of physical damage. Remembering that Mages and VWF who hide a lot are our worst foes, AR doesn't matter a lot here. AR matters a lot when you're fighting another HWF, but even then, if you can out-crit and/or stun them, you'll win that battle even if you're standing in your skivvies.
Mail armour has the advantage that you get 2 free resists. These resists come at a reduction in AR which makes you slightly "squishy". Considering who our worse foes are, however, you can see that these start providing more protection than just raw AR and I've become a strong believer that this is a good thing. If you choose to go the Plate route, that's perfectly fine and as I said previously, Pops started there and did well with it. If you choose to go Mail, then start with Dragon Scale because it's a lot easier to obtain. Daedric, Stalhrim, and Glass you'll need to get from the Sigil Store as "Divine" and then hope you get good enchants with them (and you won't). So, start with Dragon Scale which you can get from your Smithy.
ENCHANTING ARMOR
How do you enchant your armour? Your chest piece, helmet and boots should all be enchanted with Peerless Health. Since health obtains a 3x multiplier in the Arena, it only makes sense to take advantage of that. That said, if you're fighting a pesky mage, you might want to have a bunch of elemental resists boots and helmets laying around. Pesky mages don't do a lot of physical damage, but they do hell of a lot of elemental damage (including ice spikes and paralyze), so if you can negate that it's better than having the extra health.
GAUNTLETS
Enchant your gloves with Subsuming Stamina and you're looking for either max 126+ PDIA or 26+ PDOC depending on your PDIA vs. PDOC decision above. You want to stay consistent because it will stack. The reason you want to start with Subsuming is because you can use it in all of your loadouts.
Next, start working on your elemental gloves. You'll want level 10 enchants regardless, but work on either PDIA or PDOC (whichever you chose for your armour). As you try the enchants (it takes a while), rotate through the elements because it's easier to farm the materials rotationally rather than, for example, just going for fire gloves.
Once you have all of your gloves crafted, then you can start looking for the unicorn PDIA+PDOC combos.
RINGS
WARLOCK'S RING
As a HWF, you want Warlock's Ring (WR) because it gives you 24% attack speed boost (meaning you can typically get 2 crits in when your opponent stuns instead of just 1) and it gives you 24-29 points of retal against every element when cast from a spell (24 vs. frost and shock and 29 vs. fire and poison). This is a legendary artifact, so you can only get it in a Gold, Elder, or Legendary chest. You might get it quickly, you might never get it. When you do, celebrate and then head over to Staki and practice crits with your new attack speed. I practiced 30-60 minutes a day for about 2 weeks before I really got the hang of it. Don't feel stupid working with Staki - it's worth it.
Warlock's Ring is interesting because it has a lot of advantages, but it comes at a price. The price is the chance to add one more 1x to your stacked enchantment for Enchantment Synergy (ES). This is significant. Of my two toons, Moms is much stronger than Pops because she has stacked elemental rings (because she does not have WR). While I can usually get Moms into the top 75, it's really hard getting her much higher. She has other problems with her build, but the lack of speed is certainly one of them.
Therefore, if you choose to use WR, you'll want 1 of the rings described next. If you do not have WR, you'll want 2 of them.
The next thing to realize is that the primary rings boost for HWF are basically useless. You don't want any of your "skills" boosted (because it'll cost more stamina for not enough benefit) and you probably don't have any of the spells unlocked anyway. Therefore, craft whatever rings you want. In other words, you don't need to craft Ebony Faerite rings that take 12h... just craft or buy anything.
First, enchant your rings with Subsuming Stamina and you're looking for either max 126+ PDIA or 26+ PDOC. If you get both, I'll submit to your awesomeness. However, depending on your PDIA vs. PDOC decision above, that's what you're looking for here because it will stack. The reason you want to start with Subsuming is because you can use it in all of your loadouts.
You'll want to work on your elemental rings next. As with gloves, you'll want level 10 enchants regardless, but work on either PDIA or PDOC (whichever you chose for your armor).
Once you have all of your rings crafted, then you can start looking for the unicorn PDIA+PDOC combos.
NECKLACES
Necklaces are a giant pain in the butt. You know how crappy of a job Lond does crafting necklaces? He almost never gives you the primary boosts you want. You know how crappy of a job Severio does enchanting literally anything? Now, put those together... the odds of getting Lond to make the necklace you want and then having Severio give you the secondaries you want are amazingly low. Regardless, you'll get something and that's better than nothing.
So what do you want? As a HWF, you want the following primary boosts (in order):
* +5 Enchantment Synergy (ES)
* +5 Matching Set (MS)
* +5 Barbarian
* +5 Augmented [frost, shock, fire, frost] Ranks
If you don't have +4 or +5 ES, the necklace is junk and should be scrapped. To be super clear, without ES the necklace is useless to you.
Assuming Lond ever gives you something useful (and he will), you take it over to Severio and what do you want from him? It's best to craft "retal" necklaces.
Then, the secondary bonuses you'll want are any combination of:
* Shorten Stun 20%
* PDIA
* PDOC
Again, PDIA or PDOC depending on your armor and both is a unicorn.
Sammie, the first Heavy Weapons Fighter to top the table as Grand Champion heavily favoured PDIA and EDIR (Elemental Damage Ignores Resistance) as these secondaries were "always on", as they require no activations (like 'on condition') and their damage is added every hit regardless.
CRITICAL STRIKES
The key to HWF is mastering Critical Strikes (crits). If you hit your crits, you'll win a lot of fights, especially if you work in a few combo crits. Timing is everything and lag is your enemy here. Getting good at crits is a matter of spending time with Staki and practicing.
When you get Warlock's Ring, be prepared to go back and train with Staki until you get the hang of critting with the new speed.
Once you are able to crit Staki at will, take it to the arena. The speed is slightly different, your brain is processing a lot of input, and you'll have lag. All those things make it hard to crit, so practice in the arena as well. Give yourself a few rounds where you don't care about winning or losing, just how well are you critting.
ATTACK CANCELS
Attack cancels are your ticket to stunning your unsuspecting foe. Once you're tagged an attack canceler, people are wary of it and get a lot harder to stun, so just be advised that it's not a silver bullet. You'll get away with it from time to time, but the better players will avoid it.
Describing how to perform an attack cancel is easy. Mastering it in the arena is anything but.
To attack cancel, mash your thumb into the screen to raise our weapon and continue holding it even after the weapon is as high as it goes. Just hold it there. Then, when you're ready swipe your thumb straight down the screen. You know how on your phone you "flick" windows off the screen to close them? It's kind of like that, except you swipe down. Then, 1 millisecond after you've completed that motion, use your left thumb and block.
Again, spend time with Staki until you master the attack cancel and you can stun her most times. As with crits, your next step is to take it to the arena and practice there. The overall speed, chaos, and lag makes it a lot harder to attack cancel there.
TO RE OR NOT TO RE
When you start a match, you have a choice to make in the first 0.1 seconds. Do you mash Resist Elements (RE) or do you go on the attack? It's really up to you and how you like to play. Pops mostly goes on the offense, but if people start guessing that's his plan, he'll hit RE. Never do the same things over and over.
Note that if you are an RE masher, then you probably also want the Maximum Power (MP) perk on your necklace to make it last even longer.