The weapon category includes all talents related to the different types of weapon within ESO. Each subcategory allows you to increase the efficiency of the corresponding weapon type. Furthermore, there are many active abilities that allow you to perform unique skills. There are 6 weapon skill lines in Elder Scrolls Online. They include Two-Handed weapons, One-Handed and Shield weapons, Dual Wield, Bows, Destruction Staff and Restoration Staff trees. Each of these 6 weapon skill trees has 5 active and 5 passive abilities, each requiring 1 skill point to learn. Some of the active abilities can also be morphed for additional effects and utility. Passive skills in all weapon skill lines have 2 ranks each. Without further ado, below are all 6 weapon skill lines.
Two Handed Weapons Skill Line
Two handed weapons include axes, maces and swords and are used by players who aim to dish out tons of damage in the front lines.
The Two Handed Weapon skill line is for fearsome warriors who prefer all-out attack over defense. This skill line will help you to fight against multiple enemies or against one enemy in a duel. There are 5 active and 5 passive abilities found within the skill line.
Abilities found in the Two Handed Weapon skill line are diverse and will help you in many situations. For instance, Cleave will be great when there are several enemies in front of you. Critical charge will be useful for sudden attacks and for fighting against archers and mages. Uppercut is a great spell for controlling the enemy as it both stuns and knocks down the target. Reverse Slash is a great finishing strike because it deals damage according to an enemy’s missing health. Momentum dramatically increase weapon damage and gains even more extra damage for a moderate duration. As you can see there are great skills for different situations.
There are also great passives that do not require activation. They always give different bonuses after you master them. Heavy Weapons passive increase the efficiency of heavy weapons giving different bonuses to different weapon types.
The Two Handed Weapon skill line is diverse and has all skills you need in battle. Just remember that all active abilities require stamina and you need to be mindful of your stamina pool in order to be able to use these abilities effectively.
One-Handed and Shield Skill Line
For tanks looking to get increased defenses One-handed and Shield skill line has a great assortment of both passive and active skills to hold your enemies in line as well as help you live through encounters.
One Hand and Shield skills can be used if you hold a One-handed weapon and Shield in your hands. Unlike Dual Wield abilities or Two Handed skills, this skill line provides you with defensive as well as offensive abilities. It doesn’t mean that there are only protective spells in this tree. No, most of the active abilities deal damage, but the damage level is not enough to be an all-out damage dealer. If you want to be top DD in ESO this line will not help you. But if you would like to be a Tank it is the perfect choice.
General difference from other weapon skills is this skill path allows you to use a large arsenal of protective and controlling abilities. Puncture reduces armor and taunts the target. Low Slash reduces weapon damage and snares the target. Defensive Posture reflects the next spell projective and shield Charge stuns the enemy.
The passive abilities of One Hand and Shield skills increases the efficiency of blocking. Although you can block with any weapon in ESO, shields allow you to block damage more effectively. But you need to use the shield in order to get benefits from this skill line. If you don’t use a shield often you won’t get the most out of this line.
Dual Wield Skill Line
Clearly focused on melee damage characters who like fast attacks, Dual Wield skill line has plenty of tools to help you accomplish your goals. Like every other weapon tree Dual Wield also has 5 active abilities, two of which are morphable, and another 5 passive skills that require you wielding two weapons.
The Dual Wield skill line is for those who like to hold one handed weapon in both hands. It consists of skills that will help you to deal more damage with your dual wield weapons. There are also several abilities for crowd control.
If you have MMO experience this skill line will not surprise you. It has all you need for being a Damage dealer or Assassin. There are spells that deal damage, blind, apply DoT, snare and deal increased damage to low health targets. A full arsenal for pure Assassin archetype. The great thing in Elder Scrolls Online is that nobody forces you to just use the abilities in your build. You can effectively combine them with your class skills to create your own awesome build.
The general downfall of Dual Wield abilities is that it does not provide players with enough armor and protection. Sometimes you will feel this, but to be honest it’s not so important for hardcore damage dealers. If you care too much about protection you probably should look at One Handed and Shield line or you need to create your own build. If your goal is to be a top DD Dual Wield weapons will be a very good choice.
Bow Skill Line
Archers are one of the staples of Elder Scrolls games, and they certainly didn’t get left behind in TESO. The Bow weapon skill line has plenty of useful active and passive spells that can only be used while you have a bow equipped.
Every player can use Bow Skills only when holding the bow in hands. If you are not going to use this weapon the skill line will be almost useless for you. Bow is a ranged weapon in ESO that allows to hit enemies without coming close. This weapon type is used by assassins very often because it allows performing sudden ranged attacks from sneaking. Sometimes you will be able to kill enemies with only one shot. The general advantage of this weapon type is that it has a rather big radius that allow your character to kite foes. Bow Skills also have big radius making your character very dangerous warrior on every battlefield.
You will find bow skill line very helpful in both PvP and PvE. They will make your attacks even more dangerous.
Destruction Staff Skill Line
Destruction staves are the bread and butter of mages looking to deal damage, and the staves in their arsenal have fire, frost and lightning damage. Abilities in the Destruction Staff skill tree include both offensive and defensive variants.
Destruction Staff is a ranged weapon in Elder Scrolls Online. There are different types of staffs: fire, frost and lightning. The difference between these types of staffs is in their damage type – fire staffs deal fire damage and so on. The type of the destruction staff also influences the passive effects. For example Tri Focus passive will give you different bonuses depending on the type of the staff you equip.
Destruction Staff skill line has 5 active and 5 passive abilities. Each active ability can be morphed once you reach the 4th rank for this ability. As any other active ability in ESO each skill can be morphed only once.
Restoration Staff Skill Line
The whole point of the Restoration Staff skill line is to keep yourself and your allies healed up. A vast majority of spells in the tree are focused on healing, with some giving your allies shields and other buffs. Using Restoration Staves and the abilities in the aptly named skill tree is for many builds the only way to heal themselves, so this tree is popular even with some DPS-focused builds.
Restoration Staff is one of several weapon types in ESO, but unlike other weapons you can’t deal damage with this type of staffs. You can only heal your allies. That means this weapon type is the best for all healers. How to fight in battle with this weapon you may ask? The answer is – you are not required to fight if you are a healer in your group but you can switch between 2 sets of weapons in Elder Scrolls Online. This allows you to use restoration staff when you need to heal and other weapon when you need to deal damage.
Restoration Staff like any other weapon type has a dedicated skill line. You can use these skills with a Restoration Staff in your hands. If you switch to other weapons the skills will be replaced.
If you have the question of how to build character, besides weapon skills, be sure to check out this guide. You can enjoy total freedom of making character progress in ESO then. Just like other MMO’s, if you don’t have enough time to level your character, we can use ESO Gold to purchase not only gear and weapons, but also awesome items in game. Of course, you can buy ESO Gold right here in Mmogah, since it’s a so reliable ESO Gold seller that more and more players chose to buy ESO Gold from. Whenever you need to buy ESO Gold, our Live Chat is 24/7 online.