This article is about weapon items. For the merchant type, see Weapons (vendor).
Weapons in Online fall into five categories. They are:
- Bows, used by the Bow skill
- Destruction Staves, (Inferno, Ice, and Lightning Staves) used by the Destruction Staff skill
- One handed weapons, including Daggers, Swords, Axes, and Maces, which may either be combined with a Shield for the One Hand and Shield skill, or used with one in each hand for the Dual Wield skill. All one-handed weapons can be wielded in either hand.
- Two handed weapons, including Greatswords, Battle Axes, and Mauls, used by the Two Handed skill
- Restoration Staves, used by the Restoration Staff skill
Weapons are not class or race locked, they can be used by any player character.
Unlocking Skill LinesEdit
Equipping a weapon from any class and killing a target will unlock an associated skill line. Using a one-handed weapon without a shield or second weapon is an exception to this, however, since it doesn't match any of the skill lines. To use unlocked abilities from skill lines you must have that type of weapon equipped (e.g. to use Grand Healing from the Restoration staff skill a Restoration Staff must be equipped).
Differences Between WeaponsEdit
For the most part there is no functional difference between weapons in the same category, so a dagger and an axe with the same damage rating will have exactly the same effect. The only exceptions are:
- The different types of staves do different elemental damage (Ice, Fire, Lightning).
- Two passive skills give different bonuses depending on which weapon you have equipped:
- Heavy Weapons (Two Handed) add extra damage for Greatswords, increase critical effectiveness for Battle Axes and armor penetration for Mauls.
- Twin Blade and Blunt (Dual Wield) adds extra damage over time for Axes, armor penetration for Maces, increased damage for Swords and increased critical ratings for Daggers.
Weapon MaterialsEdit
StylesEdit
There are numerous styles available to wear in Elder Scrolls Online. Styles can be categorised into two types, however both can be used to customise the appearance of your character via the Outfit System.
- Crafting Motifs — These are styles that the player can learn with the appropriate Crafting Motifs. Crafting armor or weapons in a particular style requires certain skills and ingredients. Motifs are typically used in conjunction with Crafting Writs.
- Outfit Styles — These styles are not associated with the crafting system in any way, and exist purely as visual changes that overlay their design over your existing equipment. Outfit styles are usually obtained during in-game Events.
Other styles exist in the game, but are limited, unavailable or yet to be released. This page serves as an outline of these.
Crafting MotifsEdit
Weapons and Armor can be crafted in a variety of styles. Crafting an item in a specific style requires a Style Material. Each character starts with the ability to create items in their own racial style, and other styles may be learned from special consumable books called motifs. These books along with secondary ingredients may be randomly found in containers throughout the world. The first fourteen motif listed below can be found throughout the world regardless of zone.
TraitsEdit
Traits are a special property that can appear on weapons, armor and jewelry. Each item can have a single trait, in addition to all other properties an item can carry, though items without any traits are also common.
Traits may be researched in order to craft custom items with the respective properties.
Constructing an item with a specific trait requires a special tertiary material. These ingredients can be retrieved by deconstructing items with traits, or refining raw ore, wood, leather or fibers, or dust. Crafting hirelings for Blacksmithing, Clothing and Woodworking will also commonly send all types of trait materials.
The magnitude of each trait depends on the quality of the item, improving the item will automatically increase the trait's magnitude.
Non-percentage values in the following tables are for Level 50 
160 items. Lower level items will have smaller values. See the individual trait pages for more complete info.
Weapon traits are available on all weapons - axes, swords, maces, daggers, greatswords, battle axes, mauls, bows, restoration staves and destruction staves.
All traits except Infused and Nirnhoned are twice as powerful on two-handed weapons as they are on one-handed weapons.
| Trait | Material | Description | Magnitude | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | Fine | Superior | Epic | Legendary | ||||
| Powered |  Chysolite |
Increase healing done by … | 1H | 2.5% | 3% | 3.5% | 4% | 4.5% |
| 2H | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | |||
| Charged |  Amethyst |
Increase your chance to apply status effects by … | 1H | 97.5% | 102.5% | 107.5% | 112.5% | 117.5% |
| 2H | 195% | 205% | 215% | 225% | 235% | |||
| Precise |  Ruby |
Increases Weapon and Spell Critical values by … | 1H | 1.6% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 3.1% | 3.6% |
| 2H | 3.2% | 4.2% | 5.2% | 6.2% | 7.2% | |||
| Infused |  Jade |
Increase weapon enchantment effect by … and reduces enchantment cooldown by 50% | 10% | 15% | 20% | 25% | 30% | |
| Defending |  Turquoise |
Increases Physical and Spell Resistance by … | 1H | 1428 | 1485 | 1542 | 1580 | 1638 |
| 2H | 2856 | 2971 | 3085 | 3161 | 3276 | |||
| Training |  Carnelian |
Increase experience gained from kills by … | 1H | 2.5% | 3% | 3.5% | 4% | 4.5% |
| 2H | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | |||
| Sharpened |  Fire Opal |
Increase Physical and Spell Penetration by … | 1H | 1428 | 1485 | 1542 | 1580 | 1638 |
| 2H | 2856 | 2971 | 3085 | 3161 | 3276 | |||
| Decisive |  Citrine |
When you gain Ultimate you have a … chance to gain 1 additional ultimate. | 1H | 19.1% | 21.2% | 23.2% | 25.4% | 27.5% |
| 2H | 38.2% | 42.4% | 46.4% | 50.8% | 55% | |||
| Nirnhoned |  Potent Nirncrux |
Increases Damage of this weapon by … | 11% | 12% | 13% | 14% | 15% | |
NotesEdit
- The Heartland Conqueror set doubles the effectiveness of weapon traits.