Milk drinker!

Well, certainly. It's an essential part of learning one-handed-and-shield combat. Gotta get the rhythm down. I like to lower my shield to lure them into striking, raise my shield and block, then hit them while they're staggered.

Where does 'quick reflexes' factor in? They do a power attack, and time slows...you can power bash, power attack or plain old jump out of the way.

Once you get your shield bash sorted, there shouldn't be too many times that an opponent can get in a power attack on you, if you are one on one with them. If you choose to let them get one in on you, then be prepared to accept the consequences...Beth can't really be blamed for a poor choice of tactics.

Who needs rhythm when you have Shield Charge?

I knock 'em all on their butts, slice 'em a few times, then lay 'em back down.

Pretty hard for them to cut your head off when they're floundering on the ground.

Really? I love it. While it can be a little rage inducing, I think it's more immersing.

At least they aren't entirely humiliating like BF3's ones.

I've got Shield Bash, but didn't take quick reflexes and I don't have my skill quite high enough to take Shield Charge.

Why haven't you got Shield Charge yet?

Man... go do this. You will look at Skyrim in an entirely different light.

Enchanting? Smithing?

pfft...

You've GOT to be kidding.

Geez....go play Final Fantasy or put the game on Easy.

Well FF has these nifty little spells/effects called Doom and Death...

So I doubt he/she/they would find much relief there.

Play on a lower difficulty if easy is what you want.

Oh no. You have to reload the game to your last save, which was probably about 30 seconds ago. I've never had to deal with this because I use a potion if my health falls below half, just because id HEARD of the executions. Its a mechanic of the game, it makes sense, work around it. I kind of wish there was a chance for an execution regardless of your health if you don't block a powerattack, not every time but at least a chance. The current combat is very, very easy. Even at master. 1v1 fights against melee opponents are a joke.

Oh, this first character is smithing but not enchanting.

Also, the whole "sprint" thing worries me. I've got the one-handed perk that lets you do sort of drive-by critical attacks when sprinting, but I haven't gotten it to work yet. It makes me worry about how easy it will be to use Shield Charge.

Stamina isn't as big an issue as you think.

Just tap sprint when they get close, don't rush headlong at them across a long distance and waste all that precious stamina.

It uses no more stamina than sprinting does.

Yeah, I've got a metric ton of Stamina, that isn't what I'm worried about. I'm just worried about getting it to work at all. I'll tinker with it later tonight.

Truly, take 'quick reflexes', and as Zyg's suggests, Shield Charge.

I initially didn't pay too much attention to the shield/block skills, just sort of had a block and bash approach to melee combat, but once i started taking those skills, i've found them far more worthwhile and useful than the comparable skills in one-handed. Now I consider that I wasted those perks in dual-wield and the sprint one.

Although the damage you dish out with your shield is marginal, comparatively, it is noticeable (this would be a nice improvement Beth), but the real advantages lay in the stagger and knockdown effects. You can get into those big groups of draugr in the undergrounds and happilly take on a bunch of them and have a right royal biff-up if you have decent shield perks....plus, it's tactical, rather than one-hitting them.

The other aspect with 'quick reflexes' is that you have a backup Shout, with 'Slow Time', so if necessary you can use it while your stamina regenerates. The other aspect is that you can follow the enchantment path and put stamina regenerating enchantments on your armour. That isn't so much improving your armour's rating, but it is maximising your fighting style potential.

Ah. I'm not enchanting with this character, but I will have to try the two Block perks.

Yes. I been decapped.

then lets blame it on the attacking magnetism.


The enemy doesnt decide to do a finisher. They decide to do an attack. The GAME calculates the attack would kill you, some invisable dice are rolled, and the chance of a finisher is applied.


even if nothing could have killed you? You are running around in robes. What possible defence could you have? Shields dont block all damage, sometimes very little.

How much health does your character have? Whats the maximum health you have had while being killed in one hit and against who?

My guess is you are a low armor, low health build trying to fight boss-like enemies. I can tell you, every lich I ever fought handed my ass to me regardless of health or armor. Not finishers, but they were just super strong for me.


When you are taking on really strong things, yes, they should be. You shouldnt be taking damage, so if you are, then you need to reevaluate your tactics.


The difficulty also effects their damage output. If you are taking too much damage and dieing a lot, then you are doing something wrong, not the game.


Again, if everything is instakilling you, then you need to either lower the difficulty, or buck up.

Perhaps, instead of all the attacks here... which for all intents and purposes are nothing more than beheadings of each other....

We could start to list stats and situations to divine this algorithm?

May not be entirely worth it, considering the CK is supposed to be out with 1.4... but just try and back off on the whole 'turn your difficulty down nub' sentiment.

Or whatever.

I can't say that I remember getting done in by anything with a one-handed weapon, though people say they do.

So perhaps 2H'd weapons have a higher chance of this?

Which one could infer that damage provides a factor, and I did seem to notice that my light armored characters had this happen more often.

So perhaps armor rating and weapon damage provide a good starting point.

ha it's a user problem...power attacks break your guard and your health was low enough to get finished, whats broken? If your having a hard time fighting balanced battles then put the difficulty on novice
I had a dual weilding forsworn cut my head off like scissors and i laughed how good he got me

You mad, brah? Bandit Chief better than you?

2H weapons do more damage so they're more likely to kill you. People aren't dying from one-handed hits; they're dying from 2H power attacks and magic. You can't drink a potion or dodge half-way through damage application like you can between two strikes from a 1H weapon. You're just statistically more likely to get an execution from 2H.

THIS!

Wow... People are still debating this?

Allow me to end this:

1) stop whining! (my best arnold inpersonation)

2) get over it. This incredible game has enemies that can F#&K you up.

3) bethesda will not and should not change this fact because some people complain about it.

4) if its too hard for you,






5) um... Stop Whining!

6) who told you you could eat MY cookie? (second best arnold impersonation)

I agree with this entirely.

Look, folks, I can be the biggest sarcastic [censored] in the world at times. I'm always loudly sighing and rolling my eyes and making sarcastic, dismissive, man-I-think-I'm-witty comments at the High Priests Of Morrowind and the hardcoe Gamer Brigade and the invitation-only PC Elitists Club and the "Hey, I drink Nothing But Mountain Dew And Play Nothing But World Of Warcraft" kids and the Grumpy Old Men Who Hate World Of Warcraft Without Really Quite Knowing Why, among others. I have earned my Sarcastic Internet Guy badge and wear it with pride. I made my obligatory sarcastic-[censored] response on PAGE ONE of the thread.

So honestly, if I can see some sense in both sides of an argument, then perhaps neither side is being dimwitted jackanapes. As the man said, the smart options are either to (1) try and deduce the algorithm based on observations from people's anecdotes, or (2) wait for the CK to come out and hope that it sheds some light on things.