I started a melee character a few days ago EPIC. How do people say its boring?

Because it′s repetitive?

I like melee.
Though I like magic as well. I tend trying not to limit my characters to "melee only" or "magic only" not put them in a specific class. I use what I can to kill whatever is threatening my health.

Probably due to expectations and play-style. If you come in expecting Ninja Gaiden style game-play and find out that it's not Ninja Gaiden style game-play, you're going to be disappointed. And if you're a member of these forums, chances are that you'll come on here demanding better and more.

I find it repetitive often but still not boring. I love powning normal bandits and getting powned by anything harder.

I enjoy it quite a bit.

It depends on what type of melee I'm playing I suppose. I'm having a blast dual wielding daggers or dual wielding one sword with one dagger.

Sword and shield melee tanking/turtling got old quickly for me though. It was usually: block -> bash -> (power-)attack -> continue if not klilled.

Neither is the melee system an interesting, mainly character-skill based system in which I, as the player, do not have a lot of control but get to see interesting fights (like in classic cRPGs), nor does player skill really matter. Blocking, when it is possible (not if you're using a spell or a second weapon for instance), is relatively useless as having blocked a strike doesn't give me that much of an advantage; especially with two-handed weapons I still hit slower than my enemy can counter-attack, and despite blocking I still take a lot of damage. But more annoyingly; I have almost no control over my character, but not because some sort of AI has control over him; NOTHING is controlling that character. I make random steps in random directions, cannot abort swings even if I only just started to raise the weapon (making it extremely annoying to fight alongside companions as I hit them a lot because they walk in front of me and I can't abort the swing anymore), and I can't even control which side my weapon is supposed to come from (with a companion to my right I'd only do swings from left to right that get stopped when the weapon hits the enemy; but no, not in this game, the weapon goes right through everything and I can't really decide how the swinging motion is supposed to look).
My character isn't moving exactly the way I want, nor can I change the incredibly long animations once they have started, nor is any sort of AI or skill check system in place. My character simply feels awkward to control - it's supposed to be purely player-skill based (except for the damage output), but player skill has little to no relevance due to the character being nearly uncontrollable and the overly simplified blocking system not even being useful, resulting in the only useful tactic to be hit-and-run, which is hardly an interesting combat system.

Sometimes it's not what you play, but how you play. I like the timing of blocks and managing by stamina and health while keeping track of multiple enemies, or a dragon flying overhead. I also have a mage that I enjoy, when I want to just see things go boom and hang back. He takes a diffrent play-style and mindset in combat.

I enjoy both, for diffrent reasons. I've found neither repetitive yet. I always swing my axe and wave my hands in the air, but no encounter ever goes the same exact way.


I don't know what platform you use, I play on my console and only mod for my wife on the computer. But, I've had none of the problem you describe. I can time my blows and counters and use the resulting effects on enemies to my advantage.

I've only lost control of my character on horseback, when it wanted to turn right off a mountain-side, and when a courier forced me into dialogue while I was in combat.

We're talking about Skyrim, Spec... dunno what game you're playing. Sounds horrible.

I have no idea what game you're playing works great for me.
And if i hit a companion or can't abort a strike i put it down was my own overactive instincts.

Wall of text.

Huh? It works for me, haven't experianced anything like this

I found the old Sword & Board combo to be the most dynamic. Offers a lot of versatility and lets you set the pace of the fight.

I believe he has caught the awful disease of cynicism.

I agree. A warrior was the last archtype I tried playing, on the assumption that it would be the point and click easy one. I found it to be the most engaging. Stealth archer was repetitive (stealth - instant kill - stealth - instant kill). Pure mage was repetitive (summon - nuke - run). With my warrior it actually feels like i'm involved in the fights rather than a specatator. Not in one on one fights, but when you're facing 4-5 enemies and at any moment can be attacking, defending, healing or moving it makes fights way more interactive. My only real complaint with melee is that you do become very very strong after a while. At around 80 in heavy armor and 30 in smithing very few enemies pose any kind of threat (playing on master and wearing only steel armor). It seems that every other youtube video about skyrim is showing how to exploit smithing/alchemy/enchanting - and yet it's blatantly overkill to do so. My armor rating is almost maxed, without really trying.

My newbie impression of melee combat is that it feels too loose. Targets slip out of range too easily, and there is not enough feedback to tell me precisely when I can launch my next attack.

I'm having many of the same issues as spec, so I just ended up using a two hander and heavy armor for my warrior, with little or no leg work. Later characters were stealth characters and used two onehanded weapons when in close combat.

When I see an enemy starting a two handed attack and hit the block key, my shield usually comes up a bit to late, so I take the full hit head on. After trying that a few times, I ditched the shields and never did look back.

I wouldn't really count that as a negative. But yes, it's not as obvious as Oblivion's block -> stagger -> flurry -> rinse -> repeat -> profit.

I partially agree. Personally I enjoy melee in Skyrim because, coming from Oblivion, it's a step forward. However, it's still true that melee could benefit from some changes/additions. Here some examples:

1. Add ability to cancel attacks that already started by pressing the block button
2. For daggers and swords, add a 'thrust' attack to complement the already existing vertical and horizontal swings. This helps differentiate between weapons
3. Add directional blocking: from-top-to-bottom powerattacks cannot be blocked by simply pressing "block". You have to press block AND look up. Same for the rest of attacks
4. Make enemies (and yourself) always react to getting hit. Each hit should cause a visible recoil/stagger in which the opponent cannot attack but can still block and bash

if you take the slow time perk that stops being an issue. You can pretty much block, shield bash (stun), or move out of the way at will. It also lets you know exactly when an enemy is power attacking vs normal attacking, which is equally valuable. One on one you can pretty much block a single enemies attacks all day long. Facing multiple enemies gets even more interesting as you end up with long bursts of slow motion allowing you to weave in and out of them.

You can actually already do that for any strike that comes consecutively after 2 consecutive strikes. Why only after 2 consecutive strikes? Honestly, I have no idea. Although yes, being able to do that would be nice.



Things of this nature would require a complete combat system overhaul and if they're going to go with that, I'd rather it not be a Mount and Blade copy. Besides, your example implementation of directional blocking would be terrible in my opinion. This is especially true when you consider that in third person there's no differentiation in animation when aiming up or down.

Um...nor would there be in a real fight. Your opponent isn't going to stop every thirty seconds for a blow-by-blow anolysis of what you did and what you could do better. It's up to you to be the judge of when you attack, if the game told you it would be virtually playing itself.

I don't mind the melee combat in this game, because it's melee combat. Melee combat is repetitive, especially with a shield and sword. Two-handed weapons make for a bit more entertainment and innovation, but ultimately it still comes down to a combination of strongest arms and longest reach. In real life, most duels are resolved in under five blows, so you should probably be thankful that this game isn't as realistic as most of you seem to want it to be.

Uh, how exactly do two-handed weapons make for a bit more innovation?