The title may seem provocative, but I'm not looking for heated opinions on which you like best, but more suggestions from either side on what I might be missing in my comparison.


When I got to Black Forest the first time in Valheim, I first made a sword, which just seemed obvious to me. Then I found atgeir and fell in love. Not long after that I tried the sword secondary ability, saw the huge numbers, and have been a sword guy ever since.

Lately I've been trying different weapon and armor combinations, and really love a light-armor, knife/dagger build. I ran that all the way through Mistlands, and it's awesome! The one fault that I found is the inability to hit multiple targets.

That showed up fairly early when I was in the mountains in troll armor and an abyssal razor. It would tear through single wolves like nothing, but I died to a pair of wolves. One went down quickly, but the other one got a good hit in and staggered me, which didn't end well. There were a few more time, like multiple seekers that could have been easily handled with a sword, turned into a tough fight with Skoll and Hati, which are awesome otherwise.

I also tried a run with atgeir as my main (and only). It is very good overall, but I found it awkward in tight spaces and I had a hard time aiming the primary attack, so I gave up on it. I still carry it most times as a secondary for AOE damage.

I finally decided I had to try clubs to see if I've been wrong all along preferring swords, and if there really was something that made clubs/blunt fundamentally better.

I do really like Frostner. It's a pretty unique weapon. It seems like mistwalker trumps it in all ways. Of course it should, given that it's two biomes later, but I don't know what blunt weapon at that level matches mistwalker. I'm still quit a ways from that, though, so I'll reserve judgement.


Currently I'm fairly early swamp with a bronze mace, bronze bucker, and troll armor. All level 3 I believe. I mostly use a flint axe and bow (for troll) in black forest (I pretty much skip meadows), but I did use the torch a fair amount, so my skill is not zero, maybe 20?

First observations in swamp:

1. Skeletons are noticeable easier to kill with the mace, but they are just pests at this leve.
   
2. Blobs seem easier, but I have never had any issues with blobs with any weapon.
   
3. Fighting a single draugr seems pretty similar to what it's like with a sword. I haven't tried a 2* or elite yet, but a 1* went down easy enough.
   
4. The secondary attack against draugr seems pretty good. Probably not as good as a sword, but good enough at this point. I almost 1-shot a 1* with a parry + secondary.
   
5. Troll are atrocious. I didn't even know they were resistant to blunt until I took one on. It works eventually, but takes forever. At this stage I'm used to taking down trolls with no problem.
   
6. I haven't even taken down an abomination yet (although I did let a troll do that for me), and I don't dare.
   
7. There is a stone tower with a body pile next to the crypt that I'm currently working. I don't like those, due to the difficulty getting to the body pile, but it's usually not too bad with a sword. I tried it with the mace and had to retreat. Every swing would hit at least one side of the doorway, and two draugr, which means it was doing very little damage.
   
8. I was surprised by a daytime wraith when I first entered the swamp (why's it getting light all of a sudden?!?), and had no problem with the mace.

I'm trying to be open minded, but so far I have to give the upper hand to bronze sword in early swamp. Is there anything I'm missing, or that I might be taking the "sword" approach to and putting the mace at a disadvantage?

I should add that I know you can take out troll and abomination with bow, and I know all the other methods. I find bow boring, though, and I'm trying to compare melee weapons, so please don't suggest that.

I'm probably going to head to the mountains soon. I don't generally build many iron items. I haven't found the trader yet, so Frostner and iron sledge are not an option, but I don't think it's fair to evaluate clubs without including those, so I'll find the trader one way or another.

I'm not really concerned about a single wolf with a bronze mace, but I am a bit concerned about more than one, so I'll have to be careful. On the other hand, stone golem should be easier if I decide to take one on.