Two-handed builds hit different on Legendary difficulty and nobody talks about it

[DragonbornVet]

Been doing a pure two-handed Nord warrior run on Legendary after spending like 500 hours in stealth archer hell, and honestly? The pacing is completely different. You can't just spam power attacks into oblivion. You have to actually manage stamina, position yourself, use the environment. Feels like a completely different game.

The perk that staggers on power attacks (can't remember the exact name) becomes actually mandatory instead of just nice to have. And suddenly those perks in the heavy armor tree that boost stamina regeneration aren't wasted points anymore. Everything chains together in a way my archer never required.

Anyone else find that certain builds only click when you crank up the difficulty? Feels like Legendary was designed with melee in mind and everything else is just... easier.

 

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

yeah, the stagger perk (Impact, I think?) goes from "cool bonus" to "this is how you survive" pretty quick on Legendary. you basically have to chain staggers or heavy enemies will just tank through your stamina bar and wreck you. it's a completely different resource management game.

I'd push back a little on the "melee was the intended way" thing though. I think it's more that melee has to work harder for its damage, so the difficulty scaling actually exposes the build's depth instead of letting you brute force everything. my archer on Legendary still works fine but she plays nothing like my stealth archer on Adept - way more positioning, actually using cover, managing when to engage vs when to kite. the game just doesn't let you phone it in regardless of what you're swinging.

that said, two-handed definitely rewards the stamina management angle harder than any other playstyle. the stamina regen perks in heavy armor suddenly matter because you're burning through it constantly with power attacks and blocking. on lower difficulties you can just... not care. so yeah, I think you're onto something - Legendary forces you to actually use the full toolkit instead of just the damage button.

curious if you've felt the difference between greatswords and warhammers yet, or are you locked into one?