Weapons: weapon families and the Elder Scrolls Online noise

Fell and Sell weapon families split into fast and heavy weapons with a shield blocking option. Fast weapons trade raw damage for swing speed and stamina efficiency; heavy weapons trade swing speed for raw damage and stagger. Shield blocking absorbs incoming hits while the player waits for an opening. The fast-versus-heavy framing is attributed to guide sources.

Fast weapons recover quickly and fit short dungeon runs where the marginal stamina cost of every swing matters. Heavy weapons recover slowly and fit deep-floor runs where the raw damage and the stagger value outweigh the recovery time. The trade-off framing is attributed to guide sources.

Crafting raises the effective tier of a weapon without raising the unbanked-haul risk on the next run, because crafted weapons are personal gear rather than banked haul. That makes crafting the right way to push into a higher weapon tier when the dungeon side of the loop has the gold to spare. The crafting framing is attributed to guide sources; the existence of crafting is official Steam feature text ("Forge stronger weapons and tougher armor").