Hello, so i've been playing skyrim on master difficulity, and i found myself trying to use blocking, with or without shield, but it just never works.. U still take 3 hits and die, so whats the point of blocking? I've tried joining imperial side, but first mission, when i go into prison, im already being attacked by two persons wielding two handed weapons, defending does nothing, i just get insta killed, even when im wearing heavy armor and blocking, am'i not yet ready for imperial quest line?

I personally found blocking completely useless, its much better evade damage all together because after couple of hits, you need to run restoring health..

This sounds like the cause of your problem, to me.

Been awhile since I went sword & board but I do recall that blocking perk that slows time during an enemies power attack to be pretty awesome... you could step out of the way Matrix style and get quite a few hits in before normal time resumed...

Have you perked it at all?

One of the Companions can train you in it if you don't like lame Mudcrab grinding...

It's a solid skill for any melee character IMO, and works quite well... timing your bashes right can basically stun lock an opponent, especially if you use a certain soup exploit.

I do all right until i get to fight guy with 2 handed crusher axe, then im defenseless, nothing helps, only timed bashes and avoiding damage, but is tanking possible in master difficulty?

Just quit playing on master difficulty. All it does is gimp the amount of damage you receive and give, and the amount enemies give and receive. It doesn't improve enemy AI nor their loot nor anything else.

Might as well just use lesser-quality gear on Adept, instead.

To op.
Don't believe a word of it mate.
I play on Legenday and my block absolutely stops enemy damage
But the key is this.......you have to put in the time to level you char and build your block skill.
Once you get block to about 40 you'll see it make a good difference, in fact just carrying a shield equipped improves your armour rating by the shields rating.
plus, your shield is vastly more effective if it has the block enchantment and more effective again if you take the shield wall perks.
There's no shortcuts to Nirvana ..........time and practice my friend.

Finally let me give you a solid example.......
Now my char had a high armour rating (530) so she doesn't take much damage without a shield anyway, but this Argonian thief in glass came at her duel weilding and doing his twirly power attack thing ok. Her shield skill was about 50 and her glass shield has a basic protection around 84
Without a shield he was doing around maybe 50 damage per hit
Shield raised he could barely do enough to notice, maybe 15 damage
Then I perked my three saved perks onto shield wall and his power attacks did nothing, I mean nothing at all! My char was healing up as fast as he could take any point off her.

So don't be put off at low levels you can't expect the shield skill to provide instant invincibility. Like all skyrim skills it has to be worked on and at mid level it really begins to pay off. And remember the harder you are hit the faster it levels just like regular armour. Start with wolves and build to take harder hitters in stages. Buy or make better shields like you do armour. And if you do enchanting stick block on it at a high enchanting skill for a super strong defence.
Get good with your shield or come home on it.............

I tend to agree with this.

Blocking does work just fine. Like others are saying, though, it is a skill that needs to be developed like any other skill. You won't have armor at the cap early in your character's life, likewise, you won't be able to block as well as you will later on. Pick your battles early in the game. Soloing bandit chiefs, for example, isn't recommended at early levels. Unless you like the frantic pace of running around and dodging a lot.

Block works for me on adept. Never tried master.

You have to min max a bit depending on the difficulty.

I was experimenting a bit and its noticeable when you have 5/5 level 100 block. But its been a while.

Two-handed weapons are supposed to hurt. I mean, just look at them! IMO, such weapons should shatter your shield (and the arm bearing it).

I pretty much do what you do - power attacks, pre-emptive bashes, and sprint-dodging are my usual strategy against 2-handers, even if I'm playing a heavily armored character. Granted, I generally play on Expert, but 2-handed attacks are no joke there either. I guess I never considered it a problem that I couldn't play the attrition game versus heavy weapons.

It is unfortunate that Block and the other defensive skills are difficult to level up without goading mudcrabs. Especially when the magical equivalent, Alteration, is one of the fastest to level (in my experience).

Two handed attacks are obviously going to have more force than one-handed. A power attack will break through an opponent's block (usually), so it obviously happens the other way as well.

Like others have said, the key is perks, tbh.

Slightly OT, this is where weapon and equipment degradation was useful in previous games. In Oblivion, for example, a huge hit could break your shield, making it obvious as to why you suffered damage. The logic is still there in Skyrim (power attacks need better blocks to eliminate), but it perhaps can seem like block is ineffective without the actual degradation to your shield or weapons.

No idea -- I do it exclusively on Legendary

With 5/5 Shield Wall, blocking with a one-handed sword is pretty effective for mitigating (melee) damage, even on Master.

I've found no problems when going sword and board on Master, but I tend to tank myself with Smithing and alchemy potions, but I can eat a Draugr Deathlord's battleaxe with a Nordic Shield with relative ease.

I'd say your issue is the difficulty level you have it set on. The difficulty in Bethesda games doesn't make the game any more difficult, it just makes enemies damage sponges and unnecessarily drags out fights and makes it tedious.

Yeah, you definitely have it set way too difficult.
I hear the Novice setting makes the game a breeze

So, you wanted the game to be challenging, so you set the difficulty to Master... Well, from my point of view, increased difficulty just makes things tedious at best, and unplayable at worst depending on what you're trying to do. I opted for the "Deadly Dragons" mod, and it allows me to customize my settings for just how tough enemies will be. I usually run with it set to an additional +50% health and +50% damage for my opponents. It makes a challenging game without making it boring.

As for block, it works just fine, but you have to build it up, and you have to give it perks if you want it to be effective. I try to let Gerdur, Sven or Hod catch me picking their pocets early on, and then I just fight defensive with my shield until I've increased the skill a good bit. Have to be careful not to kill them with a bash though, eh?

Step one: Turn up difficulty.

Step two: Go to forum and complain that the game is too hard.

Just kidding, of course, but there's a learning curve with melee combat, especially against enemies with big 2-handers. They have the reach advantage and the damage advantage, so giving them even more of a damage advantage just makes it that much harder.

Yeah I reckon Beth should have made the game locked on to the Novice setting.

That would please at least half the whinging Milkdrinkers out there

The whole point of having harder settings is to add the challenge. Your supposed to rise to that challenge and beat the damn thing in glorious combat.

Do ya think Vilkas or Farkas would be saying "oh no! It's a bit too hard for me.....lets find something easier to beat up"

Crank it up to Legendary get that shield out and kick some butt................

Using a shield, with the correct perk, is a hell of a defense against arrows. All you really need to do is block with your weapon if your health is high enough and you put all the ranks you can into Shield Wall, but arrows will still do massive amounts of damage, especially if there are several archers after you. A shield can be a lifesaver, for those who want to lug one around.

Also, the difficulty slider is a joke. There is no "challenge" afforded by adjusting it.

For me, using a shield is a pain because I prefer two-handed weapons for fighter characters. The shield my offer protection against arrows, but it's very hard to close with an archer while blocking with a shield and then switching to a two-handed weapon if you ever manage to get close enough.

I have two issues with the difficulty slider. The first is that combat tends to get boring after the first half hour or so of bashing a skeever with a warhammer... let alone a dragon.. I once fought Mirmulnir for two game days, and went through maybe thirty or more Whiterun guards. It was exciting for the first hour or so, eh?

As I mentioned earlier, I much prefer the Deadly Dragons/Deadly Creatures mods.

Second, I hat the feeling when I build a fighter character who is supposed to be a tough guy, but find that the average barmaid does five times more damage with her dagger than I do with that battleaxe, and she can take hits that would kill me instantly. Talk about a milk drinker, eh? So there I am, the infamous dragonborn, wearing badassed armor, and I'm a complete wuss... Spongebob Squarepants takes on the Expendables...

Hah, right? Great difficulty slider there, Beth

Heh, if you use "deadly Monsters" though, you can turn enemy health and damage do insane amounts, while leaving them with vanilla armor and stamina, or just toughen them enough to make battles interesting, and you can do it with differences for undead, humanoids, wild animals, dragons, and whatever. You don't have to be a wuss to have a challenging game. It's waaay better than Beth's difficulty slider.

I love that mod. I adore it. It's an absolute must-have mod in every game I play.

You PC people and your mods make me so jealous.