I just wanted to say how pleased I am with how good blocking is in skyrim, my block is at about 75 and I have all but 2 perks in the block tree and when you hold that sheild up in combat, its like you put a titanium wall in front of you. With the elemental protection perk even the strongest mages do laughable damage.

one of the few games that utilizes a sheild really well.

With the exception that a standard block does not use any stamina. If they added that it would be much better. Otherwise, It is pretty well done.