I actually don`t like the combat as much as I did in oblivion. To me it feels delayed and unresponsive and I feel like the most inacurate fighter in the world. I think it the lack of mobility while fighting that makes it like this the most, this is where the majority of the clunkiness comes in.. Swinging your weapon takes time and feels wild and it seems the opponents just sidestep out of the way and nail you while are recovering from the swing. They also seem to be able to attacjk faster then the player and don`t seem to suffer too much from swing recovery. When you are low on health in a fight and go to move away to heal ,the opponents suddenly have double the attack reach they had when you had full health. Holding block while having a shield on doesn`t seem to do anything. Archers still shoot you and the shield block sound and animation seems random no matter how much you hold it down. Kind of like how it was in morrowind. The final blow cutscenes get annoying after awile and you just wanna turn them off. My companions have also died multiple times because they get in the way while fighting, they don`t flank to attack, they get right in front of you and get hit by you.

The game itself runs great and smooth and looks decent. The combat could be improved a little.

all in all it's not much different from Oblivion IMO. Maybe a little more satisfying, but the mechanics are the same. I was expecting it to be a little deeper

The best compliment I can give Bethesda about the combat in Skyrim is that it makes me want to play. In previous games, I found combat to be tedious and uninspired. In Skyrim, however, I find myself wanting to engage in combat--the animations are great, the weapons swing and hit hard, the updated magic system is light-years ahead of the previous games, and it all just amounts to a thrilling and fun game.

Was it the witcher 2? That game had the best feedback system ive ever seen.

Actually, now as i think it most likely were witcher 2.

And now i am going for animation. Bethesda really need to start learning proper animation for next game. They need to go look at Two Worlds 2 or GT4 IV for good animation. It feels many animations are like 5 frames. Aka, they are not as smooth as they should be.

there is no timed blocking syatem in skyrim. beth once said holding block button executes bash and you need to time your block but currently this turned out to be false. actually if you time your block exactly as your opponent is about to attack more often than not you fail to block at all...

plus the indispensable block perk that makes everything move in slowmotion except the player when an enemy is about to land power attack totally discourages timed blocking. if you try to time your block not only will you fail often you wont benefit from the perk aforementioned.

personally i find lack of enemies staggering when i just block their attack quite annoying cause if they dont stager i find it hard to attack without getting hit full swing, which more or less defeats the purpose of block. some enemies such as draughrs show significant stagger reaction while most other enemies(humanoids, beasts...) dont stagger when their attack is blocked. hope beth patches it later.

Open favorites menu, ctrl + 1-8

It's GREAT. I am using 2 swords and on certain quests you have to face dozens upon dozens of soldiers at once. It's a great feeling just cleaving and cutting your way through enemies amazingly fast. (Swords are the fastest one handed weapon. that coupled with a dragonshout and the dual wield speed bonus)

Archery is great! You wouldn't call it combat, but backstabbing with daggers is also great. Especially with 30x multiplier.

I was a bit shaky at first, but I've really gotten a feel for it now. I was rescuing a stormcloak being escorted by imperials, and after I took out 2 of them, I took out the last with a one hit finisher! Shortly after the stormcloak was almost killed by a wolf...

It's like Oblivion, except better.

The overall health is lower and the damage is higher, so combat is a lot quicker and you tend to be forced to do something else than just stand in one place and spam the attack button or you would just die.

The lack of blocking in dual wield hardly matters, because even if I can block I still die from the damage...

Dual wield + Elemental fury = Slaughter

Glad to hear most think DW is the least fun to use as it gives me something to look forward for my second playthrough.


BTW, it seems the better you are with the weapon the better the finishers you get. I chopped off first head with dual swords yesterday.

Archery and sneak-archery are great, much better than Oblivion... feels like the arrows actually hurt this time. Melee combat feels a little light, the enemies hardly react to being hit, and the hit detection seems a bit arbitrary. I miss locational damage (from Fallout etc)! All in all, the melee is about the same as Oblivion but a bit slower-paced, ranged stuff (including magic) seems a lot more fun.

For what you need the ctrl for? Just a number will do.