Rune Hammer is secretly the best weapon Dawnguard adds and nobody uses it

[NordOfSolitude]

I've been replaying Dawnguard on my second character and I keep coming back to this enchanted hammer you can make after the Bloodline quest. Like, everyone talks about Auriel's Bow or crossbows or whatever, but the Rune Hammer actually slaps if you're doing a melee build.

The whole rune explosion thing on hit is genuinely useful for crowd control, especially in those later dungeons where you're getting swarmed. And the scaling is way better than I remembered if you've got smithing leveled up. My Orc warrior is basically untouchable with it plus heavy armor and the right perks.

Does anyone else actually use it or am I just weird? I feel like it gets completely overshadowed by the other Dawnguard gear but it's legitimately my favorite playthrough weapon so far.

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

Nah you're onto something. The rune explosion proc is genuinely solid for breaking up groups, and honestly a lot of people sleep on two-handed weapons in general because everyone's too busy min-maxing with dual-wield or bows. The Rune Hammer scales with smithing like any other weapon, so if you've got that leveled up it's gonna hit harder than most people remember from their first playthrough.

That said, I think the reason it gets overlooked is just because Auriel's Bow is so front-and-center in the DLC's story, plus crossbows were a whole new weapon type people wanted to experiment with. The Rune Hammer doesn't have that novelty factor. But for pure melee viability on a heavy armor build? Yeah, it's legit. The crowd control angle you're mentioning is the real draw - that proc can save you when you're surrounded.

What perks are you running with it? I'm curious if you're stacking something like Impact or just going full damage + armor.