For me, two-handed, one-shot kills are the best in the game. Nothing has been more satisfying, combat-wise, then to run a draugr gauntlet and crunching my warhammer into successive draugr with single swings. Bad part of two-handed is when utilized against more maneuverable opponents, mages, wraiths and dragon priests and the like. "Just stand still so I may club you squarely in the head!"

Thing is,I pretty much only use items I can hotkey because I despise pausing the game to dig around in menus. I even hotkey potions. For this reason, dual wield is useless to me and the perks I spent on it are wasted. I just simply cannot understand what Beth was thinking when they implemented the feature this way. I also can't understand why, with all the things people complain about on these forums; that there isn't more dissatisfaction with this issue.

I hear you . I don't make much use of hotkeys because they are so poorly implemented and I never know what will happen when I push a hotkey button. I put what I need into favorites and deal with short pauses in the favorites menu. For me, the lack of an immersive HUD and dark dungeon option is more of a pet peeve than hotkeys, but I understand where you are coming from because I feel the same way you do about those issues. They really should fix all this basic stuff before they worry about new kill cams.

A 100% rework of the entire keybinding and favorites system (hell, and every UI in the game...) is definitely in order.

Give this guy a Klondike bar.

Yes, you have to have weapon in right hand and spell in left hand. It will force the actor to use the 1h block animation. It gave me a laugh the first time i used it because i had a fire spell in my left hand and it looked like i was burning my other hand when they came together to block.

The 'Dual Wield Parry' MOD is so fun that I wonder why Bethesda didn't think of implementing dual wield the way it's executed in this MOD!

The good thing of this MOD is that it comes in different versions with different moves. The one I prefer is LeftHandBlock because it comes closer to real fighting styles employing paired weapons:
Attack button > Attack with right weapon
Block button > Block with left weapon (not as effective as a shield)
Block button and Attack afterwards > Quick counterattack (same as bashing but damage is based on weapon)
Two buttons at the same time > Dual wield power attack

That sounds interesting. I may give that mod a try.

DW just isn't that fun.

-The DW attack roots you (wtf?)
-Can't attack separably, must wait for one weapon to stop swinging, resulting in only 1 type of linked DW attack. (interdependent, aka fail).
-No parrying or blocking....what? (ultra fail)
-The hotkey system for DW is all fubar. Results in far too much pausing.


These are decade or older mechanics...yet missing in a 2011 RPG.

i use the whirlwind shout to get in and out quickly, that plus a talos amulet and necromagevamp works pretty well. other than that try to not get hit? im on a 360 so that makes it a lil easier to do so i guess

In addition to this, it works also with spells and weapon combination. (Albeit the spell must be forcibly in the left hand, no big deal).

It's funny to think that, in vanilla Skyrim, you can equip a shield and a spell accessing block, bash and power bash moves but you cannot block in any way with a weapon and a spell in the other. Some people say it's because of the Xbox controller lack of buttons but the 'Dual Wield Parry' MOD works also with a controller, although the choice of moves is somewhat reduced (not unbalanced, though).

as some earlier posters noted you need to be very aggresive
what i learned is that speed is essential getting the first power attack in will usually stagger the opponent giving you time to follow up with a second attack and a third , even ebony battleaxe wielding deathlords will fall quickly if done right and if you miss a attack and they swing their weapons your armour and HP should be enough to take the blow once or twice , and it is no shame withdrawing to a postion where you can recup and retake the initiative

However don't try to jump into a whole pack of enemies and try to do the same , always smarter to postion you so only one of them can hit you , but i think this is true for all melee combatstyles ; and don't neglect your armour perks armour is your best friend even light armour works well with dualwielding , i know because i am using a light armour dual wielding character

ps like always mages and archers are always the bane for any melee style specialist

I prefer a sword and shield but that doesn't seem to suit a rogue very well. One thing I did to make duel weild seem more useful is to equip an enchanted and poisoned blade in my off hand and use it only when I get into trouble. I have a little rule about not using potions or poisons during combat, and I don't want to use a poison or deplete an enchantment on killing low level threats. So I use my main handed weapon for everything like that, and I keep my off handed weapon for when I get into trouble.

I made a few rogue characters that use shields... the "targe of the blooded" is usually my favorite for rogue-like characters because it's the typical 'unconventional weapon' a shady character would use. Until I discovered the 'dual wield parry' mod, i always discounted dual wield as too unbalanced. If I were on a console (no mods) I would still refrain from using it.

2 is greater than 1.

if you want to rely on blocking without a shield you're doing it wrong. The main idea is that you do more damage, faster without any defense. You attack the moment you see an opening and if the enemy got back on their feet and not dead you retreat. You need to be more mobile, or have a lot of health, armor and healing.

With all the perks and upgrades etc, dual-wielding is awesome.I used to dual-wield maces (Ebony Mace and Mace of Molag Bal)... it did get a bit too easy though at one point. Also with the Elemental Fury shout I was able to kill a dragon in one move on Expert difficulty. Twas madness I tell thee!

Don't worry about blocking - your enemy will be dead by the time they try to hit you!

Nobody is questioning that a shield is more effective than a weapon to parry an incoming blow (for example, you cannot parry arrows with swords, ninja style) but dual wield, in its vanilla implementation is a bit too extreme. I've done a bit of fencing and the offhand weapon (usually smaller) is mainly used to parry or counterattack. The over-the-top acrobatics seen in modern movies are just stunts...

I have done some fencing too, both USFA and SCA and I would agree with this, although I would add that if you are good with both hands, you can use two weapons of equal size to effectively fend off two opponents coming at you from opposite sides, especially if you are more skilled with your weapons than your opponents. But the idea that you are going to double your damage by attacking with two weapons at once is perhaps fun in a video game but not very realistic. I might like to see a dual wield system where the offhand weapon had the same mechanic as the shields but replace block/bash with block/counter attack, and make the counter attack work so you can do it at any time regardless of where you were in your right handed swing.

What, realistic swordplay?!? Gedouttahere!

Actually, it would be pretty cool if they hired a true expert RL swordsman and gave him leeway to make it real in the game... pffft. Like that'll ever happen.

That would be cool, although perhaps challenging to implement effectively because of all the variety of fighting styles that come with using a variety of different weapons from different cultures and periods of time. Katanas are primarily for slashing, axes for chopping and bashing, short swords and rapiers for stabbing, claymores for hacking, maces for bashing, etc. Trying to make a system where all these weapons would realistically interact with each other could be a challenge. IRL, longer weapons have a huge advantage over shorter weapons, unless the guy with the shorter weapon can get close enough for what fencers call "in fighting," at which point, the guy with the long weapon is going to have to create some distance before he will be able to make much use of his big weapon.

I remember this one time back at fencing practice, there was this group of marital artists who were working out in the same gym and they were bragging about how their dual wielder could take out any fencer with a pair of sai. We all laughed cause those sai were not more than two feet long, but the martial artists were insistant, so our coach took them up on the challenge and defended himself with an epee. It was not even close. The guy with the pair of sai could not get close enough to land a single blow and our coach kept piercing the guy's arms with his epee (not literally of course, since these were practice weapons with plastic buttons on the tips). Just so we could finally have a definitive end to the challenge, coach finally let the guy get a little closer so he could pierce his heart. The martial artists packed up their gear and we never saw them again.

Distance is the key to winning a swordfight. Footwork is far more important than bladework. First thing you learn in any fencing class is footwork, and they will drill you on that for a while before they ever put a sword in your hands. Fencing has been described as "physical chess" and it would be awesome if they could program some of this stuff into a video game, but it might be quite a challenge to realistically depict a variety of different weapons going up against each other.

I wasn't talking about the realism, but the ingame technical standpoint.
I think the technology is a bigger setback.

If there would be an easy way to fluidly control your blows, and similarly a way to parry said blows, it might work. Also, footwork was mentioned, how would you control footwork in a game other than just moving left-right-forward-backwards?

I agree


That is how you would control footwork -- the movement buttons. The issue I see is programming it so that certain weapons would respond reslistically when someone is too close. For example, if the guy is in your face, there is no way you are going to hit him with a swing of your warhammer. The best you are going to be able to do is bash him with it. You would have to create distance before you could swing it at him.

If you are too far away with a short sword or dagger, the best you will be able to do is nick the guys arm, but if you get inside against a guy with a warhammer, you can stab him through the heart for huge critical damage. So the amount of damage you can do with a short light weapon would depend somewhat on the distance you are from your opponent.

But what if he is wearing heavy armor? It would be pretty tough to pierce ebony or even plate armor with a stab, so you would have to try to stab him through a joint in the armor, which would take a lot of skill to hit. Lots and lots of different variables if you try to map out melee combat realistically.

Dual wielding is a really good way to get killed with a low one-handed and armor skills. Otherwise, it's a way of raining down DPS on your enemies. You generally don't miss blocking because things die before they can deal much damage to you anyway.

I've been dual wielding since day one, and have very rarely used shields. I do use Spellbreaker sometimes, like Dragon breath attacks or Dragon Priests, but thats about it. I dual weapons most of the time, but I will do weapon/spell or two spells at times. I play on PC, but havent really looked into getting the dual wielding block mod. Like the guards say "the best defense is a good offense."

I've been a fan of dual wielding going all the way back to Marathon 2 (FPS) and Exile 2 (RPG). By my quick research the first Marathon seems to be one of the first video games to feature dual wielding. I do it in a lot of games, especially when there are no special skills/perks needed.

Especially when most gamers only know charge > swing > hit.