i am in the process of making a melee char. but i am not to sure how to do it. i eventually want to have one melee..one magic..and a thief type char. i was wondering wut is the most effective/not boring way to go. 2handed...sword and shield..or duel weidling..any advice would be great thxs..

also does shield wall perk work while blocking wit a 2hander

Really that's up to you, I like 2h and dual weild. I have had char's for both, and I love the battleaxe so 2h win's out. You can block and bash with sword and board, just block with 2h. Can't block dual, so hit fast and don't let enemy counter. I haven't done a sword and board yet, plan on it to do civil war.

does the perk in shield wall in block work wit blocking wit 2handed weaps??

First: Shield wall does work with 2-handers IIRC.

As for the different melee types:

Weapon and Shield:
This type will focus on using the shie?d to stagger your opponent and negate damage. You will have a very good defence, but this is the weakest offensive melee type.

2-handed:
The 2-handed style is about hitting hard. This style have a very high damage per hit, but lack the defence given by a shield. A 2-hand wielding warrior can block melee attacks(not arrows), but this is much less effective than with a shield.

Dual-wield:
This style is about hitting fast. You will have roughly the same damage per hit as a weapon and shield character, but you strike much faster. The satback is, however, that you will not be able to block at all.

Ultimately, it's your choice.

However, for a safe melee build, one-handed and block are pretty decent skills. Block does work with two-handed, but it's not as effective, and certain perks only apply to shields, such as the 50% reduction in magic attacks...and you will find that perk to be very helpfull against dragons or higher level spell casters.

A lot of people see Block as a defensive skill, but used properly it is actually a very strong offensive one...the stagger effect of bashing and power bashing should not be underrated, and can really win battles for you.

You can never go wrong with some sword and board.

depends on your playstyle.

i find 2hand more hack'n'slay and way less tactical than sowrd'n'board.... but a lot of ppl in this forums seem to prefer 2handed.


dual wield is all about powerattacks. you hit like a truck, but i got bored of it. i also hate that you can only do standing powerattacks

Here is a cupla things that might help.

It took me forever to figure out how to work dual wield because it is glitched where it will unfavorite one of your weapons whenever you equip a spell or shield or staff . Also if you use two weapon types or two upgraded weapons of the same type it will unfavorite them when you equip anything else.

What this meant for me was that dual wielding was unusable. However, if you equip your two melee weapons, of any type and even upgraded, don't favorite them, then favorite a bow you can switch from melee to bow simply by equipping and unequipping the bow with the hot key. On the downside you still can't really use spells without it messing up your favorites. You can even have different melee weapons hot keyed to your main hand, but you have to leave the off hand alone. You can also hot key healing potions though no problem. So the point of this is if you go dual wielding I suggest also use a bow or possibly a staff would work as well hot keyed, also hot key a healing and stamina potion and never use spells...

If you aren't dual wielding then take the first shieldwall perk but not the next ones as they are only 5% unless in late game you have perks to burn. Then get fast reflexes an absolute must have. As far as the other perks on that tree I don't use them. Personally I never notice the power bash or badly dash doing much anything more then just regular bashing with no perk, and the deadly bash just wastes a bunch of stamina.

Well, technically a thief IS a melee character.

I've played a 2-H and a sword/board class. Using a shield definitely increases survivability, and I can see lots of advantages in the block tree. But I got sick of clicking so much with a 1-H weapon.

Just keep in mind, it's not too hard to do both styles with one character. You can always swap out weapons mission by mission.

Very true. Aside from the stagger effect, a Daedric shield with powerbash can do 68 damage so if you have the stamina to chain bashes, you can kill even high level foes outright while taking no damage.

It seems to me that if you have the stamina to chain bash the regular bash will work as it still staggers the foe momentarily enough to get in a hit or two and takes less stamina making it easier to chain bash for lower-mid level characters. Daedric shields aren't exactly easy to come by. It definitely sounds more effective with deadly bash if you have the stamina but at lower levels it never seems to do much to me. I think it is a perk I might get later on when better shields show up and I have a lot of stamina....