SureAI

Okay so I have a few questions about the weapon tiers as well as about crafting gear.
At first I figured the top tier gear was the Aeterna but now I'm confused cause of two items I've found. One was a pair of heavy boots, starting with the word "wings". It didn't state it was part of a set and it had no effect which gives me the impression that it is a possible set and maybe craftable. The other item I think was named "The Shield of the Destroyer", had a good effect but what I found most interesting was its skin. It was Daedric. It was the first and currently only daedric item I have come across. And I mean the Skyrim-craftable Daedric skins, not the special/signature skins.

Now my question is, is Aeterna the highest tier of weapons/armor that can be crafted or is there higher? I just found it odd that level 50 Handicraft could craft everything (outside of the level 80 backpack) compared to level 100 Handicraft.
My other question is, is it really worth crafting your own weapons and armor. So far I've just been using armor sets and enchanted weapons I have found. The weapons themselves seem at the same damage level as the ones I can craft. The armor sets seem to be always better since set effects and all the armor effects are so strong compared to just slightly higher defense.

Thank you

handicraft has made me a few nice weapons, for instance with 70 in smithing & a blacksmithing potion... i made a sword of righteous what-have-you that did 60 damage (at 100 one-handed skill, not sure what that would be in old money).

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oh, and i used that sword till the very end, couldn't find anything better.

I don't know about armour (since the sets are basically superior in every way), but I've generally found that crafted weapons are better than their uncrafted counterpart. E.g. a crafted steel sword had a damage of 11 while a bought one had a damage of 10 (don't remember exact numbers, sorry), so handicraft is useful definitely for weapons.

I have not found anything better than Summon Sword IV, at 95 one-handed skill have 90 damage.

Handicraft I recommend capping at 50 after maxing out Rhetoric (quest options, extra quest rewards, makes buying and selling really easy method of making money when combined with +better price items). Afterwards, do whatever with your crafting points (Alchemy and Enchanting scaling seem broken, with players who tested ridiculous high numbers like 800 enchanting show there is scaling, but it seems to be balanced really badly).

The best weapons AFAIK are Aeterna that you self enchant after refining them (reports say 50-100 is a minimum increase for handicraft damage, like 1-2 points, so don't bother unless you've somehow maxed everything else), and at least two or three uniques, spoilered below if you prefer to surprise yourself (spoilers only tell what they are, not where to find them):

[+]

(Lightbringer unique 1-handed sword, 1 less damage than an Aeterna Mace, in one of the game's hardest areas, Black Widow's Elegy Greatsword [on one NPC or crafted via wishing well reward recipe] which matches Aeterna Battleaxes, and Commander's Greatsword which boasts the highest damage in the game, on 3 enemies in total).

The armour sets are definitely the best thing to have in the game over crafted armour.

Summoned are stronger. You have 40% higher damage (in Sinistrope tree) for summon weapons

Anyone know about Staves? Can their power be extracted, are there blank staves to enchant?

No, no enchantable staves in Enderal. This feature came with the Dragonborn DLC to Skyrim and Enderal doesn't use anything from the DLCs. Maybe some modder can make the staff enchanting available in Enderal?

Armor sets do seem to be the most effective. I am wearing the "Fallen" set right now. It was very disappointing to find out that no matter how high your crafting(handicraft) skill you can only improve a weapon or armor once. And enchanted weapons cannot be improved at all. I wasted a lot of money buying handicraft books until I found that out

After becoming very skilled at smithing in Skyrim I had hoped to go the same route with Enderal, so it was a bit of a shock after investing in bunch of enchanted weapons and the handicraft skill to find out this was pretty much a dead end here. Now I am hoping to take an improved weapon and enchant it to get to a better level of damage.