Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed

Two-handed weapons are unrealistically slow in the base game, which makes their damage output compared to one-handed weapons vastly inferior in the mid-to-late game, especially if damage bonuses from tempering and/or enchantments are involved. They're also much more easily interrupted, and even their long reach is useless against retreating targets because those will simply have moved out of range by the time the swing would have connected. This is on top of the design drawback of two-handed weapons disallowing the of use spells, staves, shields or torches in the off-hand.

It would all be a lot better if the damn things weren't just so excruciatingly slow. Even the game's NPCs acknowledge it: there is an interaction in which Ria complains to Vilkas that using a two-handed weapon "just feels so slow", only to get told that she'll eventually get used to it and then become faster. That conversation gave me the inspiration for this mod.

Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed introduces a simple gradual progression in attack speed as the player character becomes more proficient in the use of two-handed weapons. There are different versions depending on the perk overhaul you use:

• The vanilla version adds a 5% increase to attack speed with two-handed weapons to each rank of the Barbarian perk.
• The Ordinator version achieves this in a slightly different way, by making the first rank of the Two-Handed Mastery perk increase attack speed by 5% for every 20 levels in Two-Handed or part thereof.
• There is also a Vokrii version that works similarly to the Ordinator version by adding this to the only rank of the Two-Handed Mastery perk (If you're using an old Vokrii version (lower than version number 3.0.0), there's an old version of Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed that works similarly to the Vanilla version, adding a 5% attack speed increase to each rank of Two-Handed Mastery).
  

So in the vanilla version, you'll start out with vanilla attack speed and end up with 25% faster attacks at maxed out Barbarian. In Ordinator or Vokrii, at a Two-Handed level of 20 or lower, you get a 5% attack speed increase, then 10% at levels 21 to 40 and so on, up until 25% at levels 81 to 100, provided you have unlocked the first/only rank of Two-Handed Mastery. Each individual increase is barely noticeable, creating a feeling of gradual progress. In the end, you'll still attack noteably slower than you would with one-handed weapons, but it's a lot less ridiculous than in the base game.

Both the vanilla and Vokrii versions are also available as variants that are compatible with Attack Speed Framework, which you'll probably want to use if you want to stack any two sources of attack speed modification such as Elemental Fury in conjunction with Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed. Since Ordinator itself is not compatible with Attack Speed Framework according to both mods' compatibility lists, I haven't made an ASF-compatible Ordinator version.

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Installation and compatibility notes:

Just drop the relevant .esp file into your data folder and activate it with the management tool of your choice. There are five versions of the file, of which you use exactly one:

• If you're using vanilla perks and not using ASF, pick the vanilla version.
• If you're using vanilla perks and ASF, pick the ASF-compatible vanilla version.
• If you're using Ordinator, pick the Ordinator version.
• If you're using version 3.0.0 or higher of Vokrii and not using ASF, pick Vokrii version 1.1 (if your version of Vokrii is older than that, pick version 1.0 of the Vokrii version, available under "old Files").
• If you're using version 3.0.0. or higher of Vokrii and ASF, pick the ASF-compatible Vokrii version 1.1 (if your version of Vokrii is older than that, pick version 1.0 of the ASF-compatible Vokrii version, also available under "old Files").
  

Since there is no way to add different requirements for different files on the same mod, you will not be warned about a file's requirements when you try to download it, so you'll have to pay attention manually. Blame Nexus, not me.

There is currently no version that's been developed for or tested with any other perk overhaul, but the vanilla version will work with any overhaul that doesn't modify the Barbarian perk.

IMPORTANT: All five versions are standalone and not designed as compatibility patches for the vanilla version. You'll ever only need to use one of these files at a time. If you're using any version for one of the perk overhauls, make sure to load it after the respective overhaul file, or it won't work. I'm pretty sure load order is not important with ASF, but it can't hurt to load Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed after ASF, anyway, just to make sure.

Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed is compatible with all mods that don't change the affected perks. It's probably incompatible with any perk overhauls other than Vokrii or Ordinator. If you want this implemented for any perk overhaul that currently doesn't have attack speed buffs in its Two-Handed perk tree, let me know and I'll see if I can figure something out.
However, I will not make versions for total game overhauls or any other large-scale game mods that require more preparation than putting an .esp file into my load order. The reason for that is that it's a nightmare to playtest across different versions if I have to completely rework my entire game folder every time I change the overhaul I'm working on. I hope you understand.

If you notice any bugs or incompatibilities, please let me know.

I have been made aware that a similar mod exists for Oldrim, but only after I made Scaled Two-Handed Attack Speed. This is not a ported tweak, it's entirely my own work.

That's all there is to say, I guess. Have fun playing.