Power Bash is so effective against dragons, even with my 2H warrior! It's also great for interupting mages.

I shall start to try it again then

Interrupting mages is fun, but killing them is usually more effective. Especially if there are more than one.

Rooted to the ground? I guess you haven't tried the Block Runner perk yet, which allows you to block while not slowing down movement. I know, an amazing perk indeed. Especially when coupled with Shield Wall 5/5, yeah you'll be taking next to no damage. Not to mention Quick Reflexes, which slows time whenever an enemy tries to pull off a power attack... Perfect for countering opponents! Then there's Elemental Protection, which halves all magic damage! And of course Power Bash, which is essential against dragons and mages if you ask me.

Seriously, the Block tree turns Master difficulty into a walk in the park. If you think otherwise, you're simply not doing it right.

I would like block but then you have to keep equipping and reequipping the healing spells. Too much tedium for me.

For a shield and one-hand player, block is an extra weapon. Combined with the Fus meditation, it allows you to completely dominate one on one or two on one combats, and turns that weapon combination into the equivalent of a paralyse enchant, once you have the time down pat for bashing.

I've bashed high level opponents off cliffs, killed more than a few, and with the appropriate magic resists and enchants it can let you go head to head against magic users while minimising your damage.

It is slow to level up, and at level 60 character I have maxed a number of skills but not block, yet (and no grinding on any of them).

The one question I do have for those that have taken the sprint knockdown perk, does it work on whirlwind sprint shout? I've tried it without the perk, and you magically dodge around the target.

Edit:

As far as not being able to use spells and a shield, nah....I've hotkeyed the shield, and hotkeyed my combat spells and shouts, and it's only a matter of selecting the spell, casting, then selecting the shield again. Obviously, if you can't hotkey that's an issue..but if you can it's easy peasy.

The other aspect of block and shields is that you can shield with the left hand, and cast with your right hand. It's a seriously decent and viable combination....after doing if for a while, the AI started doing the same, and to be totally honest coming up against a couple of high level spellcasters who were also using shields really gave me a wake-up call...they weren't easy to take down.

As a confirmed one-handed melee player, I really think that the block skill is a real asset, without being OP...and by that I mean that it takes a long while to level, which means you access the appropriate perks at pretty much the time that you start coming up against tougher opponents. I don't think many people have taken the obvious power-levelling options so there hasn't been claims that Block is OP, and many people don't realise just how good it really is.

I wanted to try out shield bashing, so I made a sword and board and I am having a blast! I keep dropping boatloads of healing potions because I rarely get touched. Melee enemy? No problem. As soon as they start their windup, I step forward and bash! Bam! They stagger, I get 2-3 shots in before they recover.... and then Bam! Gotcha again! I just love looking at their faces over the rim of my shield as their eyes bug out when I smacker them. Magey-wuss? No problem! Whirlwind Sprint gets me up close and personal where I bash their squishy little selves into Oblivion. Hell, now that I've gotten a couple of perks up the right side of the tree, I can just bash some mages to death. Bam! Eat shield!! BAM!! BAM!! BAM!!!

Considering my previous two characters were a sneak archer (lvl 56) and an atronach summoner (lvl 41), I didn't think it would be this much fun!!!

P.S. Shield-bashing seems to raise your block skill alot more than just blocking alone. Maybe it's just me. Since I've built up my stamina, I use my left arm as much (or more than) my right in combat. BAM!!! BAM!!! MWAHAHAHAH

Yup.

With all the perks you can move at normal speed, take half damage from spells, and deflect arrows. Not to mention the damage reduction from melee attacks.

I have six characters I play and my sword and board redguard warrior is the easiest by far, even on the hardest setting.

How many hotkey buttons have you got. My 1-8 are quite filled already.

Block is useful once you get the hang of it and have put some perks into it.

The standard 8:

1: Dragonbane/Dawnbreaker
2: Skyforge Hand-axe (no enchant)
3: Ebony bow with soul trap enchant/Oathblade
4: Shield
5: Destro Spell (generally fireball or chain lighting)/Illusion Spell
6: Alteration spell (generally candlelight underground)
7: Restoration spell (generally grand healing, now)
8: Shout (generally slow time or unrelenting force).

The alternative equipment/spells are all situation dependant. If I enter into a place where it's obvious there's going to be, say, a brawl with a big number of draugr and deathlords, then I hotkey appropriately.

That's what I'm doing at the mo. I wanted to make my battlemage not just a robed mage in heavy armour, so I dropped Conjuration and use Block with Destruction or Illusion in my right hand. Bashing then flames is a pretty good combo. My stats focus is 40/30/30.

A greatsword was not historically used as a fencing weapon and the idea that you can move one around faster than a dagger is ridiculous. Moving one hand with barely any weight is faster than moving two hands syncronously with a somewhat greater weight in them. No, greatswords were not even close to as heavy as the game oddly (and very unrealistically) depicts them, but they still weighed a good deal more than a dagger. The advantage of the greatsword was greater reach and greater impact, which meant they'd have an easier time knocking aside enemy weapons, which effectively would leave the enemy soldier more or less unprotected.

Not that I wouldn't rather try to "block" a weapon swing with a greatsword than a gladius, if push came to shove and I absolutely had to do that, but trying to block a mace or hammer swing with either weapon is crazy. I weigh roughly 95 kg and if I put that into a swing with a blunt weapon then it will overpower your wrists easily, no matter what weapon you're blocking with. It doesn't really matter how strong you are because your wrists were never made to tolerate that much force.

If you want to stop the attack from knocking you off your feet then you need to be proactive and stop it before it gets momentum or redirect the direction of the force. Or use a shield and let your entire arm take the force, which might still knock you off balance but at least isn't going to disarm you or break any bones. God help you if you actually tried to use a sword to block a 20+ lb hammer-blow from someone strong enough to wield such a hammer.

Trying to hide behind a static block the way the game lets you do it is just a road to suicide, so complaining that it's unrealistically inefficient doesn't really make much sense in my book. Weapon-based blocks really should have been timed counter-swings that intercept enemy blocks if timed right and do little if done wrong. Parrying with a hammer would seriously stagger the enemy, for obvious reasons, but would require spot-on timing and leave you wide open if mistimed.

Of course weapons with a long haft would also allow you to use a staff grip and block with the haft, and that option really should've been in the game as well. Greatswords occasionally had unsharpened rosettos for a reason. That reason wasn't just that it looked mean but that a wielder could safely move his hand closer to the center of the blade for improved accuracy. And speaking of details, there really should've been more focus on the footwork as well.

A small sidestep at the right time is all it takes to make a hammer-wielder thunder past you with his giant overhead swing of unstoppable momentum, leaving him entirely open to whatever form of retaliation you feel like handing out. And since the hammer-wielder can't stop his momentum either, he essentially commits to the action seconds in advance of it landing, which is precisely why it wasn't ever a good idea to use giant hammers and make huge power attacks. Pretty much any foe would see the swing coming, calmly step out of the way, and finally counter-attack while you're recovering from a heavy swing against thin air.

Blocking is awesome. It minimizes damage taken from normal attacks ( i always use it), really nice for bashing and interrupting enemies, and great for power bashing and disarming them and making them stagger. Blocking is very well implemented in this game.

Weapon Blocking works just fine -- in fact, you can block better with a weapon at a high skill than you can with an iron shield.

100 Block skill:
Daedric Shield - 63% damage resist
Any weapon (they are all the same) - 60%
Iron Shield - 56%

The Shield Wall perks all act like +10 Fortify Blocking enchants, i.e., with a rank of 3 in Shield Wall, you will block with a 2H hammer for 78% damage resist at skill 100. The descriptions for the perk are incorrect in-game. Note that the cap for active blocking is 85%, which stacks with AR, and you can easily hit the cap with a potent fortify block enchant or a couple of perks and a high skill level. If you have your AR capped (80%) and your blocking capped (85%), then you will only take 3% of the damage you would with no equipment -- a 100 damage attack does 3 damage instead.

Also, bashing with weapons does a bunch more damage than bashing with shields. The better material weapon and block skill you have, the more damage you will bash for. If you have a daedric warhammer, a 100 skill, and the deadly bash perk, a bash will do 102 damage per smack!

-Loth

A few things...
1) Spells require magicka to function and that means investing points that otherwise could have gone into stamina or health.
2) Timed blocking is very powerful against single enemies even at lower levels and at high level (granted, with the block runner perk) you can move around freely and block entire crowds.
3) At high levels shield block will make single melee enemies completely useless.
4) Shield charge is laughably entertaining and of course madly overpowered. It's effectively an unrelenting force shout with no timer. svcks to be a badass forsworn when you're spending more time on your ass than dual wielding your crap forsworn weapons.
5) Block runner (and the prerequisite elemental protection) makes mage fights fairly trivial, since you can simply lift your shield and run them down. Shield bash them for an opening and then, as the Bosmer sword-master said, hit 'em hard.
6) Stats for my current glass shield: 94 armor, 6 weight, increase frost resistance by 50%, increase fire resistance by 50%.

What could single-hand magic do that would compare? Why have a healing spell out when you can avoid getting hurt in the first place? A staff might make sense and summoning spells would also work, but then you can also use a staff in your right hand behind a shield and switch to a melee weapon when convenient. Same thing with summoning spells.

My main is level 100 block. It's good. And fun too. You can run while blocking with a high level perk. There are some really good shields out there.

Maybe it's the most well thought out perk tree.

I think shield bash is overpowered, because it interupts anything any opponent is doing. Even dragons. I guess that's the intention, but maybe it should use more stamina then.

It's fun to timely block a dragon bite, then get back to beating on him.

Probably not useless for certain characters, but I can honestly say I never used it even once

Never have used block, ever. Find a good 'oll spell to be more effective.

How do you know spells are more effective if you've never used block, ever?

That's the way it works IRL. A shield is designed for defense with maximum coverage , a two handed weapon is designed for offense, more concerned with doing heavy damage due to it's mass. A 2h weapon is so much slower because of it's mass, it will be less efficient as a blocking device, A dagger is commonly used quite effectively in a dual wielding situation with a sword in the primary hand and the dagger in the off hand (typically a large dagger called a Main-Gauche which is French for "left-hand") used to parry incoming blows, because of its speed and maneuverability, it's quite effective in that role. Speed and maneuverability trumps size and mass when it comes to effectively blocking and parrying attacks.

It's easily one of my top 3 skills in the game haha.

What universe are YOU living in? A greatsword is NOT a parrying weapon. Parrying weapons are always small and light, ask any fighter in the SCA whether he would want to try to parry with a Greatsword or a dagger/main gauge. A greatsword is a hack and slash attack weapon, and cannot be effectively used to defend against anything lighter/faster than another greatsword.

Assuming your destruction will always be an average/above average level, is single-casting adequate? I assume the shield would make up for lack of offense? The more I think about it the more I want to try it. Never personally seen it done

I roll with a Dark Elf with the 50% fire resist. You'll find 50-60% fire and frost (for that matter) protection shields common. And 50-60% fire/frost armor pieces aren't uncommon either. The point, you can get 100% fire and frost resist fairly early in the game, you just got to cycle your shields. That takes away Dragon Breath attacks big time, and a host of other elemental spells, traps and specials.

Shield bash is the linkage to your melee combo attacks. Start with a power attack, shield bash, attack, attack, fus ro dah, power attack, shield bash, shield bash, shield bash - you can power attack again, i like to switch it up and Frost Bite the last of their life, I'm perked and they usually just lie there all frozen like. Muhahaha, it's kind of dark jedi like.

Shield with spells - totally doable. ^^^ I roll with a shield and frostbite frequently and it's fun . Shield Bashing and chain lightening has utility in small narrow hallways with a train of enemies. Shield Bash and a Fire Ball rotation works. A lil twist when you want nuclear: Scroll of Fire Storm, Shield Charge, Fire Ball, Shield Bash, then just keep balling and bashing.

Find a pressure plate or trap. There's a money spot and frost ruin it. Post up, let your enemies come to you and shield bash them, holding em where the trap eviscerates them.