Played quite a bit as a mage and an archer but never really done melee before . Currently at level 10 with my warrior . My problem with melee combat at the moment is that it seems the best way to win is just to spam attacks as quick as possible , i've tried blocking there attacks with my shield and then hitting to try and make it a bit more skillfull but this doesnt work well due to being stunned so often when blocking , it just seems spamming quick attacks works better . Other tactic that seems to work is stepping back when they attack and then hitting them a few times and thens tepping back again . Using a shield and blocking just seems crap .

Does blocking with a shield get better later on ? the fact you get staggered every 2-3 blocks just seems to make it useless and not worth using , and i find the stepping back and forward a bit cheesy as the AI just cant seem to cope with this. Any tips on melee combat with a shield ? or is it just not very good compared to spamming or stepping in and out?.

One other thing with melee . When fighting multiple opponents all in a tight group it always seems that i wound one to almost death but then mysteriously my attacks never finish of the wounded one , they then always seem to hit another in the group till there's 4 of them all on tiny bit of health . Just bad luck or bad play by me ? or is there a bit of cheating going on ?

I think you just need to get used to melee fighting. All you described is the same for me as well and even though I′m a Master at block I too get staggered quite often.
Fighting multiple opponents is always difficult and what you are experiencing with not being able to land the final blow on an enemy is due to the fact you accidently hit someone else who gets in the way. It′s easier if you really focus on one in particular and if someone gets in the way try getting by him in order to finish your first guy off.

All this is the reason I always use magic when fighting :tongue:

The best you can do to lesson staggering when blocking is to raise your blocking skill (obvious), but also raise the attribute of agility which helps lesson staggering.

Nothing wrong with stepping back. And then when they over-extend themselves with a missed power attack, dance in there and get a couple of good whacks. A claymore works pretty well in a mob situation, as you can keep them all just out of sword reach. The Journeyman level perk of blade is a whirling attack, which can hit more than one opponent.

With a higher Agility attribute you will be stunned much less often.
That said some enemies just seem to stun you no matter what your agility.
Enemies like rats and clanfear will stun you alot,for these I like to swing while they are leaping,or in mid air,and step back at the same time,Warhammers or Claymores work well for this.

thanks for the input , my agility is low so i'm guessing that dont help . I'll stick with shield but i dont think its as good as it should be , think it could do without the staggers when being hit . Fair enough being staggered when you shield block a big ogre with a huge club but not some scrawny git with a shortsword

For Vanilla Oblivion I always played as a sword dancer meaning I hit them and dodged all attacks whenever possible only blocking as a last resort. Doing that is good enough to beat 99% of enemies in head on Battle except for stupidly powerful ones like Umbra.

Get your agility up and that will minimize stuns A LOT.

Next what you should do when fighting multiple enemies is bottle neck them in a hall so they cant use their superior numbers effectively.

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The whirling attack only hit one enemy unfortunately

I can tag two at a time when using a claymore in a melee situation. Not much of a sword and boarder, at all, so perhaps you only get one shot with that method.

Nope, I never hit more than one enemy with any type of weapon . Just tried it.