Not useless at all imho. Every time I play a block + one handed character I become badass Tank in melee relatively quick. Add in a few perks like the ones that govern power bash, the ability to absorb arrows, block running, shield wall, quick reflexes, etc, and it becomes exceedingly useful.

In fact: I think block is so useful that I prefer not to use it.

Block is not useless but I never use it or put perk points in it I just use a sword in one hand and magic in the other.

Guess it depends on how much damage you do. When it takes half a dozen or more strikes to kill the guy, some interrupts in there (so that he's not filling you full of icespikes while you're hitting him) is quite handy.

i.e, interrupting the mage lets you kill them. Instead of just falling over dead before you can.

have you ever held a Greatsword?! moving that thing around is most definatly not fast, if you know what your doing im guessing a dagger wielding agile warrior would put you down in seconds same with a light and nimble sword. not to mention daggers can change direction mid-swing a greatsword cannot without alot of effort and leaving all sorts of openings for those killing blows.

This with the Spellbreaker shield leaves almost no magical damage getting through whatsoever, hardly any magic thrown at you in game can pass as it's base stopping power is 50 and virtually no magical weapon exceedes that apart from a couple of exceptions.
You can take the pure piss out of Dragons and Dragonpriests alike, even very high level mages.
It isn't so good at stopping arrows but you can't have it all.

If you want to level block quickly, you can go annoy a giant and let him hit you. Went and did this the other day with my thief, just to even it up with his 1-H skill. He just puts up his shield, and stands there. His health regen pretty much keeps up with the damage he takes, on Master. In other words, Block is super powerful.

My recollection of SCA technique is that you don't swing a greatsword around. You hold it straight in front of you and use it to block. To strike, you use leverage. The tip moves fast for a small movement at the hilt. If you try waving it around, it throws you off balance. I can imagine a blow straight overhead would work, i.e. you lift the sword above your head then bring it down. But that does leave you vulnerable.

Block isn't that useful vs Frost Mages though.

Their ice spells will svck up your stamina and prevent you from using special shield abilities, you will almost not move at all while blocking the incoming spells and since the enemy is often double casting their spells, like ice spike, they will be able to shoot 2-3 at you in the time it takes you to swing anyway.


Switch to bow & user cover when you face a Frost Mage unless you intend to use shouts to get close unscathed.

Actually, size, mass, and reach do trump speed and maneuverability. You don't have to move something into position when it's there in the first place. "Parrying Daggers" are only effective against lightweight weapons, and came about as the Rapier became a dominant Civilian weapon. And even then, it takes incredible skill to get it to work effectively.

A Main-Gauche is used as a dueling weapon, paired with the Rapier or Smallsword for combat against single, unarmored enemies using a similar setup. Greatswords don't get much civilian usage because they're unwieldy in social situations, expensive, and overkill against unarmored foes.

Of course, I guess the thing that IS effective with Greatswords in Skyrim is the bashing ability - Especially once you get Disarming bash.

It is fast if you don't swing it around - You simply maneuver it around its center of mass. You don't need to do this with a dagger... but you can't get close with a dagger against a Greatsword because the Sword is already and always in the way.

Block is pretty pointless because with full armor and magic resist you already have a fully passive ability to resist 80-85% of all damage, with no need to melee, activating anything or investing 9 perks. If failed to achieve that, then obviously block will appear to be useful for protection.


Why? Shouts have a separate, remappable hotkey. (default M)

Weapon power attacks stun too. If its one mage, he is as good as dead. If its a group of mages, then for every interrupt done, the other mages throw firebolts at the player. Essentially it is an exchange of 1 firebolt(of the targeted guy) for multiple firebolts the other guys fires in that time. Pretty bad trade off!

Ive always used block, its very effective to use a shield with blocking. You can use the shield to defend incoming damage or use it as a weapon to do some bashing to open up some other options for attacking. Your going to take some damage if your blocking and your skill is low, just have to keep at it and you will get better, same with all skills in the game, also you could try making a better shield than whatever your using at the moment.

Not everyone has "full armor and magic resist". And then there's the long part of the game until you do have that to also consider.

(i.e, I don't consider "late game" circumstances to be a good argument against the utility of other skills & actions. Like.... "light armor is useless, you can get a perk to make heavy armor weightless!" True, but since you only get that perk at 70 skill - i.e, "late game" - it's not a valid argument against using light armor.)

I agree here. I have my Elven shield and use it sometimes, but I find that with my Destruction (fire) in my left hand and a good enchanted sword or mace in my right hand, I can deal with anything so far, at Level 34. The destruction can slow opponents down and weaken them for a blow with my one-handed weapon.

This is the second or third real life sword fighting reference in this thread - thankfully referencing the SCA, although I respectfully disagree with the observation. Comparing parries between a two weapon fighting style instrument like the main guache and a (usually) two handed striking instrument like the "great sword" (open to interpretation) is really comparing apples to oranges. or more like apples to breadsticks. both food, both good, but not the same.

there are effective counterstrikes with a greatsword for deflecting your opponents weapon or putting him at a disadvantage to counter your next move, and they are not easily translated to a game. Nor are they similar to using a dagger for a parry or counterstrike, which, against a larger weapon is more about footwork and where in their swing and on the weapon your strike is placed. Hoping to catch a broadsword with even a well-made main guache during the "business" portion of an overhead swing is a recipie for a mangled arm and trip to the floor. This latter rock vs scizzors match does favor the greatsword.

In skyrim you are either "blocking/parrying" or you are not. Or "bashing". In other popular games, parry is a passive bonus reflected in a % change to avoid some or all damage. Neither compare well to SCA sword fighting.

Furthermore, why settle for 80% damage resist (Some hits are so big that even 20% is painful), when you can have up to 96% Damage Resist?

block has the ability to turn every mode in novice mode. it's only getting hard in master mode, but only because the enemies get lots of life and shieldbashing takes a lot of stamina

Block a Giant's or Ancient Dragon's melee attack and watch as your block skill skyrockets to 100 !!!!

Yet, I still got sent into Orbit

Really and truly you take Blocking to be able to Bash. Dodging attacks is superior to Blocking them. You can do this at level 1 and it requires no Stamina to perform and you take no damage at all. The reason you would use a Shield is if you use 1H weapons and do not want to dual-wield and be able to Bash, plus it is an extra piece of Armor you can put stats on. Don't even bother with Blocking Perks, take the Bashing ones. You can use these with 1H or 2H weapons.

Try Dodging when you're surrounded by enemies or backed against a wall/into a corner/in other tight spaces. Dodging requires you to give priority and offensive momentum to your enemies. Blocking disrupts the enemy's offense and allows you to counterattack. So, Dodging attacks is inferior to Blocking them.

Surrounded by enemies? Lol the most "enemies" you fight at once in Skyrim is like 3 things at once. It is not hard to dodge attacks you just run around them and watch as enemies whiff trying to hit you. It is very easy to dodge enemy attacks. Just keep moving enemies attack very slowly.

block doesnt block 360degree (edit: actually i dont know that, only assume!), so being surrounded with block as the only defence is going to fail. Why not going for 96% DR? This is a very valid point. However the game simply doesnt offer enough challenge for it to be needed, and makes player overpowered. In my opinion there is much more utility to gain from a spell in the second hand, then from a shield which duplicates things you were gonna have anyway.



Neither do i, but i see block users arguing with "block runner", which also have 70 skill reqs. And especially early game, it has been my experience that block simply doesnt block good enough compared to a simple heal&evade, as carrotfeets already said.

Have you invested some points into health? Because my warrior character can literally tank a giant for hours while blocking...

I put two points into health for every point of stamina, and none into magic.

Why would you even tank a giant. He starts his bash attack, you sprint forward past him and have completely free bashing for good 3 seconds, while he is finishing his moves.