Skyrim:One-handed

One-handed governs your effectiveness when using one-handed weapons, including daggers, swords, maces, and war axes. With the addition of dual-wielding, one-handed weapons can be put in both hands in any combination. The higher your skill in One-handed, the more damage is done with one-handed weapons. The One-handed skill tree has a total of 10 perks, requiring a total of 21 perk points to fill. Each skill point grants a +0.5% bonus to the damage dealt with one-handed weapons (+2% for NPCs). This bonus stacks with the ones provided by the Armsman perk and by Smithing-related improvements.

In-game Description: The art of combat using one-handed weapons such as daggers, swords, maces, and war axes.  Those trained in this skill deliver deadlier blows.      

Skill Perks
 
 
 

  The bonus damage is calculated using the base damage of the weapon. 
  Paralyzing Strike s effect is affected by Alteration-modifiers, such as the Stability perk.  

Skill Usage
Approximate weapon characteristics are given in the following table:



"Speed" determines the frequency of attacks, in number of attacks that can be performed per second. "Reach" determines how far away an opponent can be and still be hit by the weapon. "Stagger" multiplies your base Staggering chance by this amount.

It should be noted that the overall weapon damage balance is only kept when the weapons are not upgraded or enchanted. As soon as you start smithing or enchanting your weapons, the damage shifts more and more in favor of the faster swinging weapons - especially daggers. For example, a Legendary Iron Dagger has damage per second of 18.2 - 20% higher than a Dragonbone Sword, and as it swings 30% faster it would also apply enchantments 30% faster. However, daggers have no stagger value and shorter reach; as such, swords are usually preferred. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that heavier weapons consume more stamina for power attacks, and axes/maces are heavier than daggers/swords.

After performing a power attack, the next two regular attacks will be faster than usual. This is a mechanic (bug?) unique to one-handed weapons. This trick can be chained (power attack, two regular attacks, power attack, etc.)

Dual Flurry
The Dual Flurry perk also works on regular attacks. As long as you hold a weapon in your off-hand your main hand will swing 20%/35% faster, even if you don't use your off-hand at all. 

Bladesman
The Bladesman perk works off of the base damage of the weapon, which is a fraction of your total damage at high levels. For example, using a Legendary Daedric sword with 100 One-handed skill and 5/5 Armsman perk levels, you will deliver 72 damage per hit. However, base damage for a Daedric Sword is only 14; so with 3/3 Bladesman perk levels, you would have a 20% chance to cause an additional 10.5 points of damage, resulting in an average increase of 2.1(~3%) damage per attack.

Bone Breaker
The Bone Breaker perk has nothing to apply to most of the time. For example, the Dremora Lord - one of the most heavily armored NPCs in Skyrim - has a total Armor Rating of 193, giving it a damage reduction of around 35%. Level 3 Bone Breaker would reduce it to around 18%, or in other words: increase the damage you do from 65% to 82%. It is useful to note however, that the relative damage gained when moving from 65% to 82% effective damage is actually more than the face value of a 17% increase due to that figure being contextual to the base damage of a strike against an unarmored opponent, and not contextual to the actual end damage done by each strike. If a base damage strike of 100 is diminished to 65 by armor rating, and raised to 82 with the presence of Bone Breaker, the contextual damage increase actually exceeds 26%(82/65), and is therefore quite useful against heavily armored opponents, as rare as they may be.  Most other enemies, like Bandits or Falmer however, will not even have half of a Dremora Lord's Armor Rating, and many more, like all animals, Dwarven constructs, and Dragons have no Armor Rating at all.

Hack and Slash
Hack and Slash causes extra damage over a given period of time based on the material of the war axe used. It's stackable and ignores armor. Things that don't bleed, however, such as undead and Dwemer constructs, are immune to the effect.


    
   
   
   

One-handed Fighting Styles
See Skyrim:Combat.

Skill Increases
Character Creation
The following races have an initial skill bonus to One-handed:
+10 bonus: Redguard
+5 bonus: Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orc

Trainers
Amren of Whiterun (Common)
Athis of the Companions in Whiterun (Expert)
Chief Burguk in Dushnikh Yal (Master)

Skill Books
2920, Morning Star, v1
Fire and Darkness
The Importance of Where
Mace Etiquette
Night Falls on Sentinel

Free Skill Boosts
+1 One-handed (as well as Block) from Amren (Whiterun) for finding his family sword.
+1 One-handed (as well as Block) from the Ghost of Old Hroldan (Old Hroldan Inn) for completing the quest The Ghost of Old Hroldan.
+1 One-handed (and other combat skills) from Giraud Gemane (Bards College) for completing the quest Rjorn's Drum.
+1 One-handed (and Block, Heavy Armor, and Archery) from Wulf Wild-Blood  for finding his brother during Filial Bonds .
+5 One-handed (and to all other combat skills) by selecting "The Path of Might" from the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.

Gaining Skill XP
Weapon skill gains are based on damage dealt against valid targets (those whose health can be damaged). You can increase your skill level fastest by choosing a one-handed weapon that causes the most base damage in a given time period.
Boosting One-handed damage via skill perks or equipment enchantments does not result in more XP per strike, nor does improving your weapons at a grindstone.
You can exploit certain targets for training combat skills, because they are essential, and therefore cannot normally die; because they are expendable; or because they have high health or can regenerate health. They are not normally "enemies". They include: Shadowmere, Hadvar or Ralof during Unbound, creatures you have conjured, Paarthurnax (before starting his quest), and M'aiq the Liar.
Note that the target in question must actually sustain damage for it to count. For this reason, practicing on invincible targets such as Children and Brynjolf will not level your skill.
If you have the Dawnguard Add-on installed, wielding a Dragonbone dagger in the left hand and a Dragonbone Mace in the right hand and performing a dual-wield, simultaneous, non-power attack (tapping both attack buttons simultaneously) with them will net the most experience for a given enemy. Be sure to equip the dagger in your left hand, as the off-hand weapon dictates the striking speed of this attack. Combining this with the Dual Flurry perks will further enhance the XP per second, while adding the increased attack speed of the Elemental Fury shout will garner the highest XP per second possible.
One-handed power attacks will not increase the XP per blow since XP is earned based on weapon damage, not the extra damage done from the power attack.

Notes
Blade and Blunt skills from Oblivion no longer exist. Melee skill has instead been divided between One-handed and Two-handed.
If your only weapon is in the left hand (off-hand), finishing move animations will not appear.
You can combine Critical Charge with the Silent Roll perk for a more powerful sneak attack.
Dual Flurry can benefit from Necromage; x1.35 is incremented by 25% (multiplied by 1.25) to 1.6875. You must be a vampire and have Necromage before taking Dual Flurry to benefit. The enhanced speed bonus will remain even after being cured.

Bugs
 

References