they are all good.

and for the arrowdmg perk....

think about the high lvl draugr with ebony bow. you know.. the ones that like... 3 shot you. the shield perk reduces them to 0


first thing i would take is the left side, to get the shield running perk as quick as possible

This is a great thread - I always develop blocking as a minor skill but never invest in perks. Many of the solutions here deal with problems I am facing so this is just great - thanks everyone!

This is slightly off topic but I do light armor and most of the great shields are heavy - is there a way to reproduce spellbreaker as a light shield? Or is this so special it cannot be forged/enchanted?

I tend to ignore the "heavy/light" marker on shields. My light armour wearing warrior uses Spellbreaker, and I never even noticed it was "heavy", doesn't seem to make a difference.
All shields should be free from "heavy/light" armour settings though, as they have their own skill tree (block).
Unless there is a difference that I have overlooked. (None of the "full suit" armour perks mention shields, so I am assuming that a heavy shield won't affect the light armour perk negatively. Maybe?)

I supposed once one gets a high enough armor rating it does not matter - but I use the 25% matching armor perk which is great at lower levels. When I go to a heavy shield I lose this. Then again, once one goes above 567 (?) armor rating this is immaterial.

Edit: I did see when I use the wrong shield I lose the matching armor perk. I assume this is true.

Ive only used the perks on the left side along with only 1 point spent in the first perk.

Ahhh okay, well I don't really pay attention to the numbers, I just look at it, if it's cool (and light), I'll wear it, I didn't take any of the matching set perks cos I didn't want to lock myself into a single armour type, not that it would make a difference anyway cos heavy armour is so low that if I used it I would probably be toast. More toasted than I am usually lol.

The single piece of advice I would give to anyone starting out from scratch, don't pay attention to numbers, they will just bog your mind all the time.

Informative thread.

I prefer sword+shield, and it's nice to know that the whole shield tree is useful.

Essential block perks, in my opinion, are Quick Reflexes and Block Runner. Block perks that I find very useless is pretty much the whole right side of the tree. Power Bash is too slow to initiate which means that it's difficult to land without getting hit. Furthermore, if you meditate on Fus the difference between a Power Bash stagger and a normal Bash stagger is negligible. As for Deadly Bash, personally, I find that Bash damage does not really compare to the damage you can inflict with your weapon and thus find the additional damage to be negligible. The Disarm perk is chance based and requires a Power bash, so I'm not a fan of it.

While Shield Charge is useful, I personally find it to trivialize most melee combat in the sense that you can shield charge nearly any enemy in the game, a shield charge that basically acts as a melee Fus Ro Dah, and then just spam the crap out of them. In other words, it's very useful, but I don't find it to be of much fun.

I find Block Runner to be useful because it pretty much eliminates the penalties of blocking. You can now use block without it interfering with your footwork. This goes hand in hand with Quick Reflexes because Quick Reflexes is pretty much there for everything that you normally can't dodge with regular movement (Things like Bear/Sabre Cat/Chaurus/etc. leap attacks, forward humanoid power attacks) and makes some things that you would normally be able to dodge much easier to deal with (Dwarven Sphere blade leap attacks, Dual-wielding power attacks, etc.). In the case of Dual-Wielding power attacks, it will last for quite a while allowing you to quickly dispose of a fair amount of enemies while they're in slow motion and you're not.

As for the Deflect Arrows perk, if it wasn't a pre-requisite for Block Runner, I'm not sure if I'd get it. The area for which a can shield deflect an arrow isn't that big. Also, it seems to be bugged or improperly worded as it does not completely eliminate arrow damage, it just reduces it (By a large amount). I'd have to test if it actually reduces it by the same damage as normally blocking an arrow without the perk or not. Aside from that, the arrows deflect off of your shield and you can pick them up if you want to.

Elemental Protection is good for dealing with things like Dragon breath and magical damage and it stacks with magic and elemental resists. Solid perk to add another layer of defense versus elemental damage.

Just my two cents. o.o

Shield bash has saved my butt many times on master against bosses and dragons. Nothing shuts the yap of a shouting dragon like a good shield bash in the teeth. Works every time.

Ah Deflect Arrows, under normal circumstances it is lack luster. However, there is a bug with Deflect Arrows that sets block % to the cap of 85% for all incoming attacks. I've tested this on the 360 and it's true. I was able to take full power attacks from giants at level 10 with my shield raised and having the Deflect Arrows perk on Master. I could block as many as 10 power attacks before dying. Again, at level 10 with 1 perk in Shield Wall. http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block

Seems like that's a bug that was introduced with one of the patches after v1.1. Doesn't work like that in v1.1.

Probably. I am playing the latest patch v1.3.5.

Without the arrow deflection perk, how much damage do you take when an arrow hits your shield?

Cos there has been alot of times where I have been blocking archer shots (gotten pretty good at doing it, by the time I get to them my shield has more arrows in it than they have in their quiver lol), and the arrow has stuck into the shield, I took damage still, but unsure if it was mitigated damage or full damage. Anyone know?

Also, do arrows stick into your shield with the perk, or do they literally just "ting" and fling off?

When arrows hit my shield they usually bounce off. If an arrow hits your shield the Deflect Arrows perk kicks in and you resist 85% of the damage because 85% is the block damage reduction cap. So you still take 15% of the arrow damage if the arrow hits your shield.

Eh without the perk...I need coffee...

They "ting" and fling off. Kind of like if the archer shot something in which the arrow cannot stick into. As for how much damage do you take when an arrow hits your shield without the Deflect Arrows perk? I'm not sure. It's possible that they both have the same caps. If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say that if you're at the blocking cap with your shield, you'd mitigate as much damage without the perk as you would with the perk. The only difference being that arrows get deflected and dropped to the ground for easy pickings with the perk.

Ahh okay, thanks guys.

So to sum up, you take damage regardless of everything, it's just how much damage. Got it.

As a note to anyone who cares, if you "aim" at the archer while blocking, the arrows hit your shield more often, at least that's what I have noticed during my playtime.

Well said overall on your post but i had to quote this one. Don't forget that the purpose of bash is not the damage it does alone but the interrupt/stagger, which is the bread and butter of a shield warrior

Correct.

I wasn't saying that the sole purpose of bash was to deal damage, but was rather giving my anolysis of a perk that adds more damage to a bash. Bashing, even with the Deadly Bash perk, deals very little damage in comparison to the damage you can dish out through your weapon. Because of that, I don't find the perk to be very useful since it adds very negligible damage to something that already does negligible damage resulting in a fairly negligible perk.




You pretty much have to intercept the arrow with your shield as opposed to your person. However, I find that the area to intercept the arrow is not that large. Often times I find that arrows get through or simply get avoided. I'm not sure what difference having a bigger shield would have (If any), but in any case, my experience stand point comes from using a Daedric Shield.

PS.
Enemies don't always aim at the same place, so adjusting aim has to be more of a dynamic and twitch execution rather than a static look at X endeavor. (Or so it seems based on my experiences)

Some great info here...thanks folks

I agree with above, even the small bash can be a god send in the right situation.
I was fighting a Silver Hand Leader, and he had an Orcish Warhammer (sword and board vs 2 handers... I still lose a lot of my fights against 2 hander foes, they deal deadly amounts of damage), I was down to next to no health and was expecting a kill animation off him (like the 2 previous times I tried to take him lmao), but I just chugged a few skooma's and used up the stamina in small bashes, just trying to wait out the fight while I get back some health. Along with just "Fus" to stagger him a little to get more distance.

Something else I wanted to ask about too, and may as well ask here as it's basically on the subject.

The above fight, the SilverHandLeader had a damage magicka enchant on his hammer, but his enchant seemed to break through my spellbreaker, on just a normal block. (Not that it mattered on my warrior)
So, here's the questions:
Do enchantments ignore armour/shield?
Do enchantments get weakened (like the blow) when it connects with my shield and not my face?
Should spellbreaker be able to block enchantments?

Yes of course

Fair points, I base all my former statements on my over-use of Spellbreaker lol.
Yeah I know they will aim different places, and will even lead shots if I am moving (try running left, then when they fire just stop dead, the arrow should fly past you where you was going to be, they are good shots ), but the "aim at archer" is really just a little tip to be taken and improved upon by others.

Nothing beats catching every arrow in your shield though, kinda makes you feel like it's an action movie scene or something when you take next to no hits!

Enchantments aren't reduced or mitigated like physical damage, so in a sense, they do ignore armor/shield. They do not ignore magic/elemental resistances and while I have not tested it, I assume elemental protection also protects against elemental enchantments.

I'm not entirely sure how Spellbreaker interacts with enchantments, but taking an educated guess, I assume that it might work similar to if a spell was being cast on you. So it probably does negate damage from enchantments and breaks like normal wards if the enchantment is too much for it.

Well Spellbreaker didn't negate the magicka damage I took, although I can't remember if it was a stronger than Spellbreaker enchant, either way it's no biggie, not often I come across people with enchanted weapons.



I love fighting mages with spellbreaker, I just block and walk up to em laughing. The visual effect is quite cool too, especially on dragon fire breath attacks. Might have to get a screenshot of it for my avatar or something.