Board Thread:Skyrim/@comment-124.197.17.180-20140717102252/@comment-24700384-20140726072907

If you hit 700 BASE on a 1h wep, you resto looped it, or you used every available perk/skill/bonus in all expansions, end of discussion. If you MAXED out the pots/gear alone to make the creation happen, it'd be insane to hit 300. The gear/pot bonuses you're using to hit that mark only add a percentage to whats already there damage wise, same for skill tree points. The skill tree points mirror each other in 1h vs. 2h multipliers, and 2h's START with nearly twice base damage vs 1h's (duh?). Same goes for gear enchants, 1h vs. 2h (simply put: Daedric sword base damage = 17 per hit, Daedric Warhammer base damage = 27, and the Daedric GS and Mace base damages are 24 and 19 respectively, for the record...now run the multipliers past each). If you want to involve Seeker of Might/Shadows, Azidhals set, Necromage, etc, it's a whole new ballgame with lotta new larger numbers, but 1h's still don't reach over equally made 2h's, unless you count both in a dual wield, which for this arguement, is just silly.

When I first got the ability to do so, I smithed a Daedric Warhamer that went JUST over 600 with the perks/gear/pots I had at my disposal in vanilla Skyrim, which were hardly perfect....if the Daedric swords I smithed at the same time would have even TRIED to come close to half of that per hit (exact same smithing pattern btw, pots/gear/etc), I wouldn't be running a Warhammer at all. (Except that whole pesky thing about ignoring 50% of enemies armor rating full time vs. 30% crit CHANCE.....hell, I'd rather dual weild maces too.)

If I used EVERY non exploit bonus at every players disposal, in all combined DLC's, in every phase of crafting to make a Dragonbone Warhammer, I can't say exactly what it would do per swing, I know it'd be the most boring weapon ever after a few kills, and 1k+ per swing sounds generously low. If I did the same with a DB 1h sword, I guess I could see....500+ maybe? Maybe even your 700, I dunno honestly. My 5-600+ Warhammers/4-500+ bows got boring after a bit and I stopped going for max....recently I've been running dual wield Ancient Nord Pickaxes with no ranged weps/abilities to get some fun back in the game. I'll have to try a max smithed Warhammer/Sword soon and see where they stop.

Sorry to the OP for going off track in his/her thread, and in getting ebony weapons mixed up in my previous guess two posts back....In answer to your ORIGINAL question OP, the Ebony Blade isn't really good damage wise compared to pretty much any weapon in it's class, and becomes a toothpick to almost anything above. If you get it EARLY on it can be nice with the vamp enchant maxed out, but once you can smith enough to hit the Arcane Blacksmith perk to improve your EB, it's only ten more levels to go to smith a real Ebony Greatsword, that you can enchant properly....make more iron daggers. If you need a real use for it, max out the vamp, give it to your follower along with a solid heavy armor set, and let em tank for you, it's a great wep that way. Thats all the use I ever found for it.....but you could have your follower (Vilkas/Lidya seemed best to me) wielding a Giant Club at ANY level you get brave enough to sneak through/kill the giant and mammoth at Tumble Arch Pass or a few other Giant camps....soooo nuts to the EB. I kept Lydia on my main through the entire game, and she never switched to anything else I handed her, save for bows for ranged combat. She's STILL smacking Legendary Dragons around with it if she gets the chance.