I m pretty much a onehanded sword + shield light armoured warrior. I tried two handed and it seemed slow and clumsy but good and overtime i adapted to it. Now i want to try dual wielding but i cant accept the fact i cant parry/block the attacks.

1.Those of you who dual wielders, what tips can you give me? How do i cope with no parry? And by the way i use an xbow as a backup.
2. When ever i press a weapon using quick slot, the weapon only appears on the right hand. If i want to use 2 swords, the right hand gets replaced and i have no sword on the left. Going through the inventory to rightclick another sword to hold in the left hand is quite tedious. Is there a quickslot for lefthanded weapons

Well for one you can strike faster if you have a lighter weapon in your left hand.

I don't think so if I recall correctly. It's not like magick use where some spells automatically default to a specific hand.

However, if you have 2H skill as well, the trick is to equip both your 1H dual wield weapons, then carry a battleaxe as your primary weapon - it gives you a reasonable block ability up front, and when you hit it's hotkey while you are equipped with it, you will revert to your dual wield combo, and vice versa so long as you use the 2H weapon hotkey.

Dual weilding is for the Savage fighter who is not scared to run in to battle swinging weapons around

Sword and shield is for the tactical warrior who will parry the enemies attacks and then strike.

2 handed is for the Pure warrior who goes for power over speed.

You'll have to do a bit of kiting, and not be afraid of taking big damage...in dual wield, the most useful perks, are the armsman, and the entire dual branch of one handed skill. Defense wise, you have to raise your heavy/light armor skills as soon as you can. After that..well, just choose whatever weapon you like most. I favor 2 swords, but most people favor the dagger/sword combo (dagger on left hand/sword on right) because it's speed.

I love dual wielding

EDIT: For favorites: dual wield svckS regarding this, what I do is to have a single type of weapon on left hand (in my case, is an absorb health ebony sword. I add it to favorites and change it if necessary from the fav menu, but I try to not do that often), and hotkey the right hand weapons (I alternate between dagger, and another ebony sword I assign them 1 or 2).

I like being able to block, but dual wielding does some serious damage. Using the menus is a little more annoying, though enchanting/naming your weapons helps

Invest in Health and learn to Cook Vegetable Soup and Venison Stew. You will get hit, but Your character has more of an issue with Mages and Archers. Opponents that run away are a problem for a Dual Wielder, because the Power Attack locks a character temporarily in one spot.
Dual Wielding has the highest DPS in the Game, Four Enchants hitting an opponent (almost) at once can not be achieved with any other playstyle in the Game.
Regarding Post 3 by Gungho1, a crossbow also works to allow hotkeying to bring up both Melee weapons equipped at the same time.

I honestly find dual wielding clumsy and ineffective. 1h+shield is much more fun and effective, and even two-handed seems to work better.

I have one character who dual wields war axes. The idea is... you have to not be afraid to take a couple hits when you fight someone/something. And pick the right perks in your One Handed tree.

I generally don't dual wield. I prefer the limited blocking of 2H, the protection of sword/board, or the flexibility of sword/spell. They're slower, but safer. However, there's some special armor in Dragonborn that supercharges dual-wield. It turns my Khajiit into a frickin' blender!

I suggest combining your dual-wield with a well-chosen Shout, maybe Elemental Fury, upgraded Frost Breath, or Dragon Aspect. With no defense, it's all about maxing out damage.

then i guess, i m not really into dual wielding then. Wouldnt want to take big risks especially when i m using skyrim redone...
I would use dual wielding if the power attacks were not locked on the spot. I hate running enemies.

What about a spellsword? Onehanded in right hand, shock spell in left hand to deal with mages?

How about using Dual Wield up close, and Destruction for Ranged?
The runners can be zapped in the back, and the fighters will come to Your character

This short video is a wealth of info on DW....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJEdi2WzkLc

k i have made up my mind. Onehanded + shield in the first 10 levels, then switching to dual wielding. Not going to touch magic as always.

Dual Wielding is undoubtedly effective, damage-wise. I took it up with my main because, after dreaming about it in Morrowind and Oblivion, i was finally able to do it.

But frankly, i ultimately found it pretty dull. You just slash at things until they stop moving. No variety, no tactics (unless you deliberately limit yourself by not doing the combo all the time). It's like morrowind combat all over again, with you and the mob taking turns hitting each other.
The one refreshing moment is when you use FUS to stagger.

Only my Assassin has it, and using both swords is his last resort, if an enemy manages to survive the crossbow and Shadow Warrior + dagger refuses to trigger.
It makes sense that he does HUGE amounts of melee damage if his stealth tricks fail, because he isn't very durable in the open.

But the idea of using Dual as a primary mean of combat makes me want to play Far Cry 3.

I tried dual-wielding but found it clunky and not easy to do properly - maybe console players will find it easier

Deathbrand light armour set + the 2 scimitars from the same quest chain can make your character brutally effective at dual wielding.

I enjoyed DWing for the most part. It could be improved a bit. Like how it looks aesthetically, but that is a minor gripe. Other than that, if you feel like dual wielding, dual wield. If not, try out something else. Whatever you do, have as much fun as possible.

I use all styles at various times. Different enemies get different tactics in different situations. I like to have my warriors multi-dimensional, so they are just as good at throat cutting in dark corners, to slicing and dicing with dual swords, to stabin' 'n hackin' wif some nord shield kissin', to simple chopping up with a battleaxe....it's all good so long as you're still standing at the end of it

Go in fast, use a double power attack to stagger then as many quick strikes as possible while they're staggered. Rinse and repeat. Both dual wielding perks are very useful.

Duel wield is like the 1h version of 2h, in the respect of missing your target allot & being more vulnerable on the defensive. If oyur using a shield, you can always use dual wield against weaker opponents & equip the shield for tougher foes.

I like the idea of duel wielding but find it impractical in a fight. I have a Bosmer who uses Destruction, Illusion, Archery and Duel Wielding. When in a situation where I find myself heavily outnumbered, I place a ruin just in front of where I'm standing and then use Frenzy. I then use my bow to pick off a few and then on the last enemies I use my duel daggers. So for me I find that duel wielding only really works on a few enemies whose health is weakened (Well if you don't mind getting hit then I suppose go nuts). I also think the addition of blocking using duel wielding would be a useful one. It would be easy just to hold down both triggers and then your character makes a X with their weapons to block. For characters that focus on Stamina and Magic over Health, as it stands, can't really rely on using duel wielding as their primary option for attack.