I just recently fought a random mage that attacked me in the wilds, i had some decent equipment and had already fully unlocked the 'Fus Ro Dah' shout.

She was no match against me, but i thought it would be fun to shout her ass of a cliff!

I led her to a nearby cliff and waited until she stood right next to the edge, but just before i could say 'Dah' i saw her cast a stupid ward.

So, for some reason the Dovahkiin isn't able to blow a damn witch of a cliff? The lore tells us that 3 of the 4 greybeards do not speak to us because their voice would be "too powerful for untrained ears."

I can't use my ancient power of the Thu'um to blow some random npc of a cliff just because she is casting some novice spell?

So stupid, guess i'll just cut her head of then..

Shouts are considered projectiles and blocking projectiles is what ward spells do...

My mystic archer simply loves it when an enemy mage brings up a ward. Wards make fabulous targets to aim for in a dark dungeon and do little to stop her arrows.

I guess the good news about wards being effective vs shouts is that ward users can block dragon or draugr shouts as well as those of the Dragonborn.

So true. Not sure why enemy mages put up (and leave up) wards while you're aiming a bow at them (even if they don't "know" it). It's a good way to force them to drain their magicka, and, as you said, good for picking out targets in the dark or at a distance.

Not really, if you speak with Farengar, he explains that shouts are an ancient form of magic.

It's kind of funny to go through all the trouble of using wards (getting the spells isn't hard, but having sufficient magicka, casting the spell in a timely manner etc.) when magic resistence is really all you need. I guess you could create a build without magic resistence so you'd be forced to get good with wards but that doesn't sound very fun.

I personally run a mod that makes Wards cost about 1-2 mana per second or so, ie VERY little cost to cast. Downside is you are limited in movement and iirc casting back with them up(hard to see enemies too). But it does make fighting against a ward very difficult for a mage...and actually makes them useful. This does go away when you have gear for elemental resistance and magic resistance but until then in lower levels Wards are a viable part of your use..... sadly I never get much use out of mine, cause I always am too busy casting offensive and destroying everything, but when I do use them they are effective.

Ward Absorb perk sounds like it might be useful, if it works properly. I've never taken it so I dunno. I agree though, learning how to use them properly does sound like a pain.

I made an Expert Level Ward that seems to be the sweet spot. Very few spells can get through, and my character at the time (paladin/undead hunter) was able to keep this ward up for a while.

Ward Absorb is good in theory, except that it doesn't refill enough magicka to make it worth it. Also, when used against stream/concentrated spells, it only absorbs the first part of the burst instead of the constant stream of magicka.

I have never been able to use wards effectively. They always seem to break or I run out of magicka at the most inopportune times...is there a particular trick or build to using them?

That won't help against draugr and dragon shouts that disarm you, knock you off, or encase you in ice, it will only reduce the damage. + even with the lowered damage, it's still damage and you often get staggereed from a shout as well. So wards definitely have their advantages. This all falls into the water when Spellbreaker enters the competition, though.

Funny, I just acquired that about half an hour ago...

Honestly, how often are you getting hit with shouts that you need a ward in the first place? I can understand on master/legendary difficulty, but any other, just a large about of health and armor reduction and getting knocked down/encased in ice is the most problematic thing you have to deal with. Plus using bound weapons and magic removes the disarm problem.

What if you're role playing a character who generally doesn't use magic? What if your magicka is still at 100, how you gonna cast bound weapon spells? The shouts that bother me the most, and the ones I get hit with most often, are disarm... and then I stand there with no weapon, and the floor or something has swallowed the weapon I was using, and without a reload its gone forever. I had a terrific ebony sword that absorbed 15 points of health blown off a high ledge once. I never did find it.... and It's even worse when you play DiD.

Did not bring in RP, did I? That is up to you. Was only pointing out the benefit of bound weapons. Plus, would you use wards if you were doing a no magic playthrough?

i felt like the ward shouldve been more of a timed automatic defense. Its a ward because it doesnt require constant attention from the caster. What you actually cast is a big clear magic shield. The cloak spells were more like wards than the ward spells.

Cant you increase skill a with a shield enough to block arrows, melee, AND magic? So thered be a way to have a ward. A more effective one at that.

Wards are okay and all, but the best defense is a good offense.

No, you didn't, but I was just illustrating why one might be able to cast lesser ward, yet not be able to conjure something like a bound bow... My current character HAS Bound Bow, is at level 26 and still can't cast it because she has only 120 magicka. She casts Muffle, Healing, and sometimes summons a draugr that takes I think 89 magicka to summon. she also has invisibility, but it takes about 270 magicka to cast that as well, so she won't be using it any time soon.

Here's the thing about Bound weapons though.. they only last until you sheathe them, right? So lets say you use all of your magicka to get a Bound bow, and twenty seconds later you've been hit for a massive amount of damage. You have a choice. You can try to cast healing, except that you probably still only have a small amount of magicka unless you're a mage (and if you ARE a mage, you probably can't use even Bound weapons all that well, can you?). and if you do your Bound Bow goes away. or you can open your inventory to get a healing potion if you happen to have any, but you can't cast spells offensive, or defensive and keep the bow too.

On top of that, if you use horses, you can't use a bound weapon while mounted. In fact, it's a pain for mages because they can't use bound weapons while mounted, or cast spells, or use a staff, so unless you carry normal weapons you're defenseless. Of course you can't cast a ward while mounted either, but no matter how you look at it, bound weapons are like teats on a boar when you're mounted. Since you have to carry normal weapons anyway if you play mounted, why bother with Bound weapons?

being disarmed by a shot pr powerful melee attack might be enough cause to cast a bound weapon spell. esp if the enemy are bearing down on you and you have no arrows/magicka. i will usually clear a dungeon/cave/building, round up the loot, take what i can. drop everything i have. go back to the location with just clothes and a bound weapon spell readied, and gather the rest of my loot. There are plenty of practical uses for thw bound weapons.

Mages seem the only people who can make full use of it. If you are a warrior, you should have high health and a capped armor rating. That makes all physical damage (which like 99% of the draugr use) very weak. If you are an assassin, you should be stealthy enough to not get caught in the first place.

Plus, I do not think that you can have a horse in a draugr ruin.

Yes, that was my experience as well. The description sounded promising but the actual gameplay didn't pan out. I think I dropped that perk as soon as I acquired the option to redistribute perks through the Dragonborn DLC.

Yes! That's the way to go. I'm only on Xbox so it's not an option for me, but if I ever make it to the PC, I'd seriously experiment with wards again based on the mod you describe. They really should be dirt cheap for mages. That would, in my opinion, add a great deal of credence to mages walking around with a small melee weapon. They wouldn't be able to overcome another mage with pure magic because of their wards so they have to resort to grappling and slashing with daggers.

Mages may be the only ones that can make FULL use of it, because others have more limited magicka. That doesn't mean that lesser ward can't be useful for the rest of us. My current character can't hold the ward up for long, but she's good to go for three or four second bursts, I used it that way to kill volkun last night... but then I got Spellbreaker a little later on, so it's kind of moot anyway. The fact remains though that lesser ward IS useful for non-mage characters who want to reduce the effects of shouts and spells.

Would a fighter use it? I dunno, I think it would depend on the player. Would I use it (and oakflesh) for a thief or assassin on occasion? Damn right I would, and I do. As for your smug statement regarding being stealthy enough, well I guess you never had a thief character detected while sneaking. That would make you one in a million.

Finally, about that thing about no horses in draugr ruins... Are you a betting sort? http://youtu.be/8jo8zNDXi30 is for you, cuz a picture is worth a thousand words.

I have, but mostly from the early levels. but honestly, if you play right, nothing should be a challenge, even the overlords and deathlords that give people so much trouble.

Maybe not in YOUR game, but in mine I have Deadly Dragons and Deadly Monsters, and I guarantee you that while nothing is a "sponge" for blows, the damage they do can one-hit you at level thirty when you have 300 health or more... You either have to never get hit, or somehow negate enough of the damage to survive long enough to run for your life.... and that's where things like having armor, and oakflesh, and a ward all working at once might be necessity.