man I thought a shield character would be fun, don't know why.

can't believe how boring it is. I finally got enough to disarm, which is someone cool. But it's painfully slow to level. It's like I just have to sit there with 2 enemies and afk with the button taped down to skill up. I kill stuff slow or fast, block still takes forever.

But I thought power bash would be good. Not impressed, even with the 5x dmg bonus.

I never blocked as a 2 hander character. I just destroyed everything, no need to block.

next character is gonna be a meele khajiit. hope that's better than this guy lol.

are you kidding me, i never had as much fun as seeing all kinds of things fly in the air after i charge with my shield, really fun.

Blocking is great. It lets you set the pace of combat.

lol you must be talking about the 100 charge perk or something.I don't have the patience to even get another skill point. most boring character I have ever made.

Sounds like somebody needs to raise the difficulty slider to master...
-Loth

that's not going to make the block skill level any faster

Shield is good if you like to use sword and magic, and don't want to invest into a tank character or a ton of armor perks. Of course blocking isn't as fun as offense but I like bashing once in a while. If you have enough stamina you can bash people off ledges like a mini fus do rah and it's fun.

Are you sure? The Block XP is based on damage taken/absorbed, and setting the difficulty to master doubles incoming damage... go play with some giants, if you don't want to raise your difficulty. Also, the damage you do with bashing raises your XP bar, and having perks in the Bashing side of the Blocking tree makes you level faster. Shield bashing, in general, raises your skill more than blocking damage.

-Loth

PS I originally meant that master difficulty might alleviate some of that ennui that was leaking from your posts.

I was told shield bashing does not level block. you sure about that?also yes I agree knocking people off edges with shield bash is pretty cool. Knocked a bandit chief who was owning me off this huge dwarven ruin.

This is my source:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Block

Scroll down the page until you find "Gaining Skill XP"
-Loth

how far do you guys focus into the one handed tree while playing a shield character? Do you shield bash more over one handed power attacks?

I like blocking... makes melee combat feel a bit more tactical, rather than just slash, slash, slash.

Bashing while an opponent is attacking can interrupt their attack, stagger them, and give you an opening for a full-force attack of your own... and bashing does provide skill.

Perhaps it's a better complement to light armor vs. heavy as another form of damage mitigation, but I personally like the skill. Currently my character is around ~58 in both Light Armor and Block. Haven't really had to try to keep one in pace with the other.


Even split I'd say? I like to bash, then follow with a power attack. That takes a good investment into stamina, or lots of vegetable soup, but stamina is a fine investment for a physical damage based character in any case. My 1H skill is currently more 70-ish, but I can account for that by hacking apart beasts such as bears and trolls while circle-strafing around them. No need to block if their teeth and claws are facing the wrong way throughout the fight.

Spell Breaker + Greater Ward = Ultimate Turtle.

Getting the Quick Reflexes perk really opens up the possibilities with blocking. Having that extra time to react to an enemy power attack gives you an edge in catching them with a shield bash, and what could have been a painful attack from the bad guy becomes an opportunity to put a dent in his head with your weapon of choice while taking no damage whatsoever. BTW, bashing with a 2H weapon does a LOT more damage than bashing with a shield, and is scaled according to weapon material type. Bashing with a Daedric Warhammer with the Deadly Bash perk does upwards of 60 damage, IIRC. You can also bash with a torch (of all things), and this sets enemies on fire -- which can be hilarious in the right context. Nothing says "pwned" like being killed by a friggin' torch.

-Loth

Bashing definitely raises Block. I raised it from 15-25 doing nothing but bashing mudcrabs and pounding back stamina potions. I may have blocked 1 or two hits, but I mostly stun locked mud crabs with bash and and ran away till my stamina bar filled back up. Kinda cheap, but it worked!

yeah I got quick reflexes.

How far do you go into 1 handed? I assume you all max out the block tree.

1 handed you max out the initial damage perk for weapons. How far do you go up?

bumplets n crumplets

This. Shield bash them to stagger, and then hit. Shield back up, wait for an opening, then shield bash again. Of all the combat styles, it's the nearest to a real fight.

Nut hug, shield is the best!

i don't know how anyone can play melee without a shield at all.

feels wrong to me to stand there and take beating after beating. combat feels way better, if i am able to block their hits.

if i only want to do dmg i play archer or mage.



but shield + heavy armor is seriously op. you are basically forced to either play on master or stay away from smithing perks, that's why i am playing with light armor and light shields now.

You should go and see a frost troll and block. You should get to 100 pretty quickly.

Leveling block & armor is dependent on how much damage you take. So more damage you take faster you'll level up.

I can, because I wield Pain in my right hand, and Agony in my left hand

And when the killmove procs...

Boy, do they feel the Pain and scream in Agony as I cut their f-ing head off. One of the best finishing move ever.

On Topic:
I like my shield character. Before that I was wielding Pain and Agony (see above), and I just kill everything on sight. Now I have to actually FIGHT, but what makes it all worthwhile is the Bullet Time effect.

Makes me feel like a pro gladiator. Oh yea

Nothing like catching a double wielding assassin in the middle of a power attack with quick reflexes and giving them a power bash...very entertaining.

Go block some Giants. They'll raise your Block skill fast as hell, even on Adept. I used them to get my Block and Heavy Armor up to 100 on my Nord Warrior. Between perked 100 Block, perked 100 Heavy Armor, and perked 100 Smithing, it's absolutely ridiculous how little damage he takes.

Quick reflexes certainly makes using a shield fun.

If only I could keep my shield (and sword) equipped while casting spells like in Oblivion. Oh well...