I played a little bit of Oblvion recently and noticed something while fighting a lot. Blocking is good, but it's not need in melee situations. You can move backwards when they attack, which i did a lot. The only time i used my shield was when an archer was shooting at me. This is the only weakness i see with dual wielding. (spells hit you no matter what IIRC). It's easy to avoid a lot of hits. Surely you will be hit a lot, but not continueously. When i noticed this, i counted how many times a melee enemy hit me while i tried dodging. Basically, he hit me 1 out of 5 strikes. Most of those were power hits. Remember you have double the damage, so fight cautiously, dodging hits. Dual wielding is still a great way to fight the way i see it. Just those damn archers.

Well, backwards movement has been reduced in Skyrim so I don't know if this will be a viable startegy.

todd said something about not being able to do that. i will look for a link

In the gameplay video when whoever was duel wielding, they were moving backwards to avoid being hit as well, im pretty sure i saw.

I am not talking about running backwards and slashing. I am talking about stepping backwards like 2 steps as your enemy swings, and then stepping foward for an attack. I have known bakwards movement has been reduced since January.

but is skyrim you cant run back at the same speed you run forward...
and you wount be able to run back beffor the attack hits....

gaming tip circling npcs also delays there attack response ,easier to use circle strafing melee with game pad than mouse and keyboard user

The game NEEDS to have evasion and NEEDS to have counter attacking to compensate for a lack of blocking. Even with bare hands you can put your fists up to shield yourself against other brawlers.

Moving backwards from the enemy simply isn't proper dodging. Sidesteps, fakes and counters. That is what should be available to the stealthy and nimble. You're not gonna see a heavily plated warrior juking and dodging. He can withstand many hits because of his armor. But light armor classes need to be able to excel at this skill to avoid taking massive damage.

Ok? And you cant take those 2 steps back as fast anymore.

Thanks to modders it will only be a matter of weeks until every possible combat tweak you could want will be on nexus. As long as the factory combat engine builds a strong enough foundation it can probably be altered to individual tastes.

How utterly meaningless, to me...

Exactly. No one doubts you will be able to defeat enemies while dual wielding. But in won't feel good. There is no need to a solution, but something (a mod I suppose) that makes dual wielding feels like dual wielding, not as if you where fighting with a broken bottle or you where a hulking jugernaught impervious to physical damage.

Console?

Yes.

So.... something we won't be able to do in Skyrim will be okay because we can instead do something else that we won't be able to do in Skyrim?

I don't know if you missed it OP, but dodging is gone, backstepping speed has been reduced and the only direction movement speed can go from the default is slower.

In the run-up to TES VI, Beth is going to be apologizing for dual wielding.

Did they state why you can't block dual wield or has this not been officially confirmed yet? With archery supposedly deadlier negating the need to run back and shoot, I would imagine attacking and archer from a distance without being able to block must have been accounted for some how when balancing.

I'm just hoping for something more in-depth than button mashing.

That to attack.
This to block.
That is all.

Meh. I need something with more depth. Doesn't have to be complex; just needs to be engaging.

Backwards movement is a lot slower and harder and even if it was the same as in Oblivion that wouldnt make up for it. Would be kinda stupid to just run back and hack and slash the same time. Not exactly realistic or immersive combat. Parrying while dual wielding should definitely be included. We shouldnt be able to block arrows and it shouldnt be as efficient against big weapons but it should still be there.

In my opinion, people who want blocking with Dual wielding don't really know that balance in even single player games is good.

except in skyrim, you can get a shield perk... "elemental resistence" i think it was called... which apparently allows you to block elemental spells.

i recall reading something about it long ago in one of the earlier articles about oblivion, im pretty sure.

so shields are alot more useful in skyrim than they were in oblivion.

In my opinion, people that think having some form of blocking or parrying with dual-wielding breaks balance have a very rigid, unimaginative, and false idea of how certain concepts must be incorporated. For one thing, success and blocking capabilities associated with the various types of blocking (with a sword or with a shield, for example) vary depending on the utilized form of blocking. A shield is inherently better for defense than a sword due to its design, wide area, and solid wall-like structure. For another thing, damage or one's swinging speed while dual-wielding can be done to different degrees. Bethesda doesn't have to pour as much damage as possible into dual-wielding attacks to somehow make additional blocking some balance-breaking feature as you think it is. I don't even understand how one's attack speed or damage would be all that significantly increased while dual-wielding. Considering the weight required to be behind a successful swing, swinging both swords at the same time or having each one deal as much damage as just one each while both are being swung at the same time doesn't even make sense. The real advantage of dual-wielding isn't this misconception of somehow killing things incredibly quickly and powerfully, it's to have an offhand weapon for a specialized parrying style.

what is block? it′s the only think that i rarelly use

Of course it is, and from the looks of some videos it looks like parrying is a very possible feature in the game.

Dual weilding does have the advantage of having enchancements on 2 wepaons rather than just the one. This can lead to highly agressive and offensive play. Every type of combat has a benefit and disadvantage. I think this is duel weilding combat's advantage.

This. You people need to just accept the fact you can't block. Stop looking for mods, or saying "ESVI will change it". It's called balance foo! Just posting a possible way you might be able to avoid many slashes, and you guys are hatin'. Getting flamed over here --> :flamethrower: