All day today, i've never been able to cast a shout when i actually wanted to. I'll be in a fight, go to shout, and... nothing... Mash the button a couple more times? No good. Then either when i've lost tracking on what i'm aiming at, or finally when its already almost dead, THEN it works.

The shout is definitely off cooldown, i'm not attacking/casting, but it wont work. Frequently it'll mess me up really bad, because i'll stop attacking to try and cast shout, but when it fails i'll instinctively keep trying to shout, instead of going back to fighting, because i know something was supposed to happen, that i expected, and didnt, and i end up waiting too long for it.

Has any one else had this issue?

edit:

i've noticed, to a lesser degree, that it does this with attacks. I think i've linked THAT though to my character not bein on an even surface when i strike (because you cant attack while falling, and sliding is treated like a fall i notice)

If your fighting And get staggered you won't be able to cast or attack. I noticed this in my last dragon fight I had. You can tell when your staggered due to the camera slightly moving/shaking and maybe your arms play an animation, not sure on that one.

Same problem here. In fact, it seems like even the regular mouse buttons sometimes won't even work.

Anyway, I tried binding the shouts to another key (Z is just too annoying to hit during a fight), and assigned it to mousebutton 4 (one of the side buttons). Before that the shouts sometimes didn't work, but after I changed the key it wouldn't work at all. So I changed it back to Z, and now the game doesn't even recognize the extra mouse buttons anymore.

And shouts still refuse to work on a regular basis. Like attacking, or favourites, or hotkeys, or navigating menus, or the framerate... >_>

I think we'll just have to wait until either Beth brings out a monster patch just for the PC, or until the modders come up with a solution ;P
My money is one the latter, but we'll see.

Not the issue. I've noticed that too, but this is more like, the button just isnt working. Imagine standing there, mashing the button, you check your cooldown, its fine, make sure you got the shout selected, you do, try it again a couple more times, still not working. Finally it randomly works but not until WAY too late or you just completely miss.

Pretty obnoxious, specially when you REALLY needed it.

I suspect that I have been using the shouts wrong all the time. I believe I read that one has to hold down the "z" key to build up momentum, before releasing it. So simply pressing "z" never did anything for me in combat.

Some shouts should be powered up to use correctly, furthermore you cannot use them if you are currently being hit or are staggered from a strike, and they can be interrupted, this is by design; the same as not being able to strike immediately following a power attack and why sometimes powerful attacks will darken your vision.

You can do the same to npc's stopping them from attacking you, most noticeable if you are dual wielding daggers and have speed perks, or power attack with a two hander. Back off a little and then use you shout, I use them all the time with np at all.

same thing here, exact same thing here. If you check in the shout menu and try to change the shout while this problem consists, it says 'you cant change your shout during shouting'




I asked that yesterday here, the only answer I got was "shouts have a cooldown". People dont believe it is a bug, they all seem to think Im staggering or some other things. I hope to find a solution today :<

Gotten me killed a few times. Ive found that the game will randomly unfavorite a shout. Pretty annoying.

For the shout cool down examine your compass, it will be completely blue at the start of the cool down, lightening in colour and moving out to the edges becoming white at the ends and finally clear when you can use another shout. If you examine shouts in the magic menu the numbers at the bottom are the delay required to recharge, equipping the amulet of Mara reduces the delay.

Amulet of Talos is shout CD. Amulet of Mara effects... Restoration spells, IIRC?

I know they have a cooldown, dont you think thats one of the first things I checked for?

Its a bug where you cant shout sometimes. Thats it. Its not because of any cooldowns, staggering, or whatever.

This happens to me to.

I love the sheer number of people who completely misunderstand the issue. Its not a mechanic based thing, its a glitch that outright prevents you from being able to attack/shout, when all conditions state you should be able to. I'm talking standing still, the enemy is 10 feet away, your not being hit, your not getting hurt, your shout is well off cooldown, and every other condition is neutral as possible, yet you cant shout.

however though...

i've figured out a band-aid fix btw. Its [censored], but if you wana shout again soon you have to re-equip something in your main hand. I still dont know what causes the glitch to begin with.

The same thing happens to me not only with shouts but with power attacks and the mouse on menus, it just wont recognize the input and i have to do something else like run around or go into a menu before it will work again.

I have exactly the same problem with being unable to shout. I'm not being staggered or anything, it's not still cooling down or anything. I have had a few problems with shouts, this is a main one, but I also find my shouts keep unassigning themselves, so if I have one selected, it will randomly de-select itself. I also have shouted a word, but nothing actually happened. I think it was the fire breath shout, it came out as a totally powerless yell.

Have also had massive delays in unsheathing my weapon during combat, often up to five or six second delay between me hammering the mouse button and the weapon actually being ready. Could be linked, I don't know.

Still love the game though

I agree. I'm 65 hours in, and am still aching for more. Skyrim is a hellova game, when it works. I just fixed my CTD issue, which was becoming frighteningly more frequent. The large address aware patch seemed to do the trick.

I however have also noticed some issues when i go to attack as well. Though not as prominent, it can cause upsets enough to throw off the precision of battle (which i need as an assassin. I've missed a great many silent roll critical power sneak attacks just because i didnt attack when i hit the button, and just swiffed air 2 seconds after i had already let go, blowing my cover).

I have this issue too...
They barely ever work if i have a weapon out, but if i sheath my weapon afterward they instantly cast with no button presses.

"Shouts cannot be changed while shouting" is displayed over a Shouts menu with every option greyed out. yup.

I have encountered this almost every time I play. Either it will not allow me to shout (but I can do weapon attacks, move, etc) or there is enough of a delay that the shout happens late.

Yeah there's definitely a bug with shouts on occasion. Interesting note on the stagger issue, I'll have to watch for it. But I've noticed times where my shout just won't go off... no cooldown, and even if I change shouts it still won't work. I found switching spells does the trick for some reason.

You can't seem to stack Shouts with any other action your character is currently doing, i.e. if you're swinging a sword, you have to wait for the animation to complete and your character to come to a complete rest before the Shout key works. This is ridiculous. I understand why staggering would interfere with mixing weapon attacks with magic casting but I think you should be able to use the Shouts whenever you want because of its long recharge time.

I also get this, and it's only in combat. The PS3 version doesn't have this problem, only the PC. Strange...