heavy armor or light armor? which one is better?

Find items that fortify your health and your health regen. Ideally you'd want your enchanting skill at 100 so you can make items with 62 extra hp and 62% faster health regen

As sword n board on master I've just fit my characters use of restoration magic into his back story. ALL other forms of magic are banned, including enchanting, but without restoration it just turns into potion spam. Resto adds a little more tactics-wise and creates a less frustrating game.

Warrior play style is the best.

Cheers

Dodge attacks, shield bash and power attack. Only use your shield as a last resort when you know you won't be able to get out of the way. Dodge is the key.

To your first question, I'll chime in with what others said:

1. Don't use many power attacks, especially at low levels. They eat stamina, and don't do (IMO) enough damage for their limited use at low levels. I find shield bashing more useful.
2. Bring along a follower. At low levels (say, up to anywhere from 10-20, depending on difficulty and your play style) they can be very helpful to divide enemies and to help kill.
3. Keep your shield up. Fighting is not just about attacking. Watch the enemy, wait for them to swing, have your shield up, block their blow, and swing. You reduce damage, and hit them before they can defend. A shield bash as they swing is also nice.
4. Don't be afraid to retreat. Tunnels, doorways and such are good to help keep you from being mobbed. Standing in the middle of 5 enemies when your low level - even regular and light hitting ones - can be a fast way to die.

To your second question - on a sword and shield or a 2 hand warrior, I always go with heavy armor, myself. I want the defense factor. I go with light armor on thieves, and one duel wield warriors, where I want the extra speed.

Power attacks can repeatedly stagger an opponent and require no stamina, using them in tight spots has saved me a lot of times as I was able to get enough damage in to take them down before they attacked and killed me. Also blocking should be only used as a last resort when an attack can't be dodged, you take damage when you block, you don't take any damage if they miss you completely, and it's a good tactic to bait out attacks which can easily be dodged and then countered with a quick attack from yourself.

Power attacks absolutely use stamina. And since there's no dodge button/maneuveur, I prefer not to trust to last second movement to avoid a hit. Yes, I back off an enemy at times to regroup, but "dodging" per se, not really for me. And at low levels, I find the stagger chance to be limited, especially since using repeated power attacks drains your stamina, which can be used more effectively -IMO - by bashing.

You won't have much stamina to bash with at low levels, power attacks can be used with no stamina, shield bash cannot. Practice dodging, blocking doesn't cut it on hard difficulties as too much damage penetrates, you would not kill a boss or group of enemies without healing just by blocking, it's impossible.

Why do you keep saying a power attack can be performed with no stamina? It cannot - it uses stamina, therefore you need stamina to use it. Just like a shield bash.

To me, the difference is in the recovery - from a power attack, if you DON'T stagger (which you don't always do) you must recover, and swing again. From a shield bash, even if you don't stagger, you can go directly to a weapon attack, and then raise the shield again - essentially using the shield as a second weapon, or as a jab in boxing - a set up for the right hand/weapon. The power attack, IMO, is like the big right cross - great if it lands and staggers your opponent, but if you miss, or don't stagger him, recovery time is longer and leaves you open.

You can power attack to stagger an opponent with no stamina, try it. It's a risk worth taking and if you anticipate what the NPC is going to do you can time yours after he throws a power attack, even if yours doesn't stagger him you will be able to put up your shield to block his next attack, if it does stagger him time another power attack just as he recovers, rinse and repeat for a load of free damage. power attacks are 95% safe as long as you know when to use them, it's a risk worth taking.

Your method will not work at master difficultyI guarantee, the only way to kill stuff at master is to negate damage completely as much as possible, this can only be achieved by dodging and staggering the enemy, power attacks are the only way you can kill channeling mages at low levels as well, especially if they are using frostbite, because you won't have any stamina to bash them with.

Since you instead you do't need stamina to power attack, let's just agree to disagree. My way works fine for me.

As to shields and mages, go see Peryite about Spellbreaker. Mages will never trouble you again.

This is the point of a warrior class. Who cares if it is cheap. Do you kick ass and survive by doing it? Then why stop? You need to spend that gold on something after all. You forego magic and alchemy so you make up for that weakness by always buying pots. It's what a warrior is suppose to do. They put them in the game for a reason, and made vendors sell them for a reason and gave you gold for a reason.

You need stamina to carry out a power attack, but you only need 1 stamina to carry out an attack that would normally deplete 50. So if you get any stamina regen to the point where you would get 1 point in the time it takes to swing, it will appear you need no stamina to use your power attacks. If you have no stamina regen, the attacks will continue to fail. Just about any source of stamina regen will work. Stews from cooking are a great source of long term stamina regen.

Spellbreaker is overpowered, I do not want to use it. It's also not me insisting power attacks are possible without stamina, it is FACT.



Consumables are also way too strong, they make it possible to not even care whether you get hit or not.

The point is you can use a power attack whenever you like, theoretically no, but in reality yes, because you cant swing quick enough to end up with 0 stamina before your next attack.

What difference does that make? I never use pots but on boss fights. I never get low enough to even need them even on master setting. But there is a reason they are in the game, not to just collect money or look pretty in your pocket. Especially for a class that doesn't use any healing they must rely on them. I roleplay a warrior who doesn't use magic because of his hate for it, so pots are his best friend. I don't see why if they help him play he should banish them from his life based on some silly idea that its cheating. Why else are they in the game? Warriors use health pots and modern healing techniques (bandages) in every RPG I have played, no reason to break that tradition here. To me, and I am sorry to offend, but that just sounds like WoW mentality. I remember always being mocked for using pots in PVP and PVE, was told its cheating. Never could wrap my head around it, but then again I am a old school RPG fan.

Potion spamming is only a low level issue. Once you upgrade your armor and raise health, it's just one or two potions during the tougher fights.

The only time I use power attacks is by accident, usually when I hold the attack button down too long. I save my stamina for blocking and bashing.

My Nord warrior is an alchemist, which helps with the potions. Even during some tough boss fights where he was facing multiple enemies and spamming potions, he always had plenty more where that came from. Just loot ingredients as you travel and make potions when you're back in town.

Having quick reflexes means that your warrior should never get hit with power attacks. The elemental resistance shield perk reduces magic damage by 50%, which is very handy. If you don't have any of the shield perks that let you run with a shield, then the unrelenting force shout comes in handy to stagger mages while you close in for the kill.

At early levels I'd buy potions, but over time, I relied on alchemy to make them. I save money to pay for trainers.

I never said it was cheating, I said they are too strong, and make the game to easy, you use them all you want, it's your game.

The same is true of shield bashing. And again, I prefer the one-two effect of a shield bash - which can do decent damage with the deadly bash perk added - followed by a weapon.


Fine, choose not to use Spellbreaker. Your choice.

As you your fact - again, let's agree to disagree. Especially since you've provided no facts - just your repeated statement.

Ok, but don't give bad advice to people anymore.

Um, yea, sure, whatever.

^^^^This.
1. Low levels are tough for pure warrior types. You don't have a lot of health or stamina to really effect a defensive or offensive play style yet. You also don't have good armors, if you are even lucky enough to find a full suit. You don't usually have a good shield or good weapon unless really lucky to find one. And cash is in short supply... So you will be getting thumped a lot at lower levels, until you master your Warrior craft.

2. Use a follower. They can be really useful whether as additional offense, or to serve as a distraction tank. I prefer archer types on my low level guy, but really ANY type can be useful. You can do mini-quest to get Faenal (riverwood?) on your side for nothing, or go to The Bannered Mare in Whiterun and beat Uthgerd in a brawl. Those are two dirt cheap options early.

3. Grab potions when you can. I would suggest doing enough alchemy to make your own health and stamina potions so you can save a few coin over the long haul. Once you know which ingredients make those two potions, you can focus on buying them when available or harvesting them as you roam.

4. Going for Light Armor perks could surely work. While you get less overall armor level, when you master the art of the Warrior- you shouldn't be getting hit all that much. Learning to use shield blocks, how to avoid enemy power attacks, timing and weaving your strikes, these will all result in you taking less full shots to the body so to speak. Light Armor also has a perk for stamina regen. This allows you to either opt for a lower stamina spec, or to be more aggressive in your stamina usage (for those bashes, blocks, and power attacks.) I reiterate, your shield ought to be taking the blows if "ur doin it rite." Perks in Blocking will make it very useful for both defense, and for tactical offense. At higher levels and better armors along with Perks, you can afford to take some hits though. (This is why life at low levels is tough. All the dancing in the world isn't going to help you avoid ALL hits.. and the ones that get through can 2 shot you)

5. Use a bow for ranged attacks. You don't have to go crazy in Perks there. But a few to raise it's damage, or maybe even get you the zoom and slow-down (at least 1 slowdown level) can really help. Since you aren't spending any Perk points in magicks, you ought to be able to spare a few points for Archery.

6. Really make sure you fill out that Blocking Perks. Otherwise archers and mages will rip you a new one. Mages will still be a threat, but you'll at least stand a fighting chance.

Archers are a pain for me I have to run in close so they switch to a knife or something, I don't do any blocking you see.

Mages are easy though, I'm a Nord so I have great frost immunity against dragons and Necromancers. Plus I use the Lord Stone for more armour and 25% magic resistance, finally I bought training up to level 70 (cost me a fortune) in Alteration so I could put three perks into magic resistance there, only problem with that is its expensive perk wise as you need to spend extra perks going up the tree towards magic resist.

I suggest you turn the difficulty down to adept and stop using any self-boosting like potions, scrolls and magic.