Can someone explain to me why you would ever dual wield two melee weapons?

You can't block, so you take more damage, and thus get staggered all the time and therefore wont be attacking more than you would with a one hander and shield.

You can't block, so you can't stagger the enemy, and thus the enemy will block more, and thus take less damage and stagger you more, meaning you don't actually get more attacks off than with a one hander alone.

If you aren't using dual wielding sinply as a secondary backup to a ranged ability, and you want to be melee oriented, you will have no crowd controling effects such as knockdowns or staggering from shield bashing, blocking, ect, and thus you will take more damage and likely get hit more and thus do less damage because you are staggering.

You take more damage, so you have to dump points in heavy armor, but you don't want heavy armor because you are obviously making an "agile" character if you are dual wielding, and thus you dump your points into health.

Why would anyone dual wield again?








I realize that people may be concerned about how this would function from a player-interface standpoint. What controls would you use to block when dual wielding if you already use RT and LT to control your hands?

There is already a system in place to support this. When dual wielding spells, if you pull the RT and LT simultaneously, it creates a more powerful spell. Why not expand this specific control to include parrying when using certain setups? This could work when following the following ruleset.


When Pulling both triggers at the exact same time and using one of the below weapon combinations, your character will do a parry. A parry will deflect less damage than blocking with a shield, and cannot deflect ranged attacks or spells, only melee attacks. Enemies will not stagger when their attacks are parried, but the damage of the attack will be reduced. A parry must be timed right to deflect damage. You cannot parry if you are only using daggers and have no one handed or two handed weapon equipped.
1h Weapon + 1h Weapon
1h Weapon + Staff
1h Weapon + Spell
1h Weapon
2h Weapon

More power and speed with duel wielding, There has to be a downside.
Don't like it, Don't duel wield.

Blocking with two weapons makes sense in terms of reality, but not in terms of game balance.

I think it's too late. Just a little.

No... it doesn't make sense in reality. What makes sense in reality is parrying and moving out of the way with two weapons, which is a mechanic that Skyrim should have.

haha on a serious not eyou could use movement to give the edge you need

I think they game should have parrying. If you swing at them as they swing at you, your swords clash and nobody takes dmg or is pushed back anything. Essentially defeating both attacks. The fight then resumes. That would make for interesting duel weilding fighting beyond just 'slash slash slash, wait for enemy to stop blocking, slash slash slash slash' like most combat was in Oblivion.

Um, it definitely makes sense in reality. However, it wouldn't make sense in a video game. More offense, less defense. That makes sense in a video game. Again, we still haven't seen the perk tree for the one-handed skill and chances are it will probably have a parry or dodge move.

Can you please link me the information you have that shows that I will have a power and speed increase when dual wielding? As far as I have seen, I will receive no such benefits. I may be able to attack slightly faster as I will not need to wait for my attack animation in one hand to stop before attacking again, but otherwise, I see no SPECIFIC benefits to having two one handed weapons as opposed to simply using a sword and shield.

Why would I want to attack approximately 50% faster and also be forced to dump loads of points into stamina increases and health as well as heavy armor (because attacking faster means faster drains on stamina and not being able to block means you are taking craploads more damage so you need more health and a heavier armor which will slow you down, which may be contrary to the playstyle you want), when I can use a shield and attack 50% slower but also have the ability to charge, bash, stunning, disarming and knocking enemies down, as well as more points for other specialties AND much more damage mitigation.

This is my suggestion.
Don't like it, Don't post.

The ability to parry when dual wielding makes sense from both a realism perspective and a gameplay perspective, and if it were added right this very moment in the way I describe, it would have NO effect on whatever you plan to do in Skyrim whatsoever.

Again, obviously shields would be the most effective for mitigating damage, and obviously shields would be a better choice for defense as you can charge, knock down enemies, and deflect lots of damage. Parrying would OBVIOUSLY not be on the level of a shield block, it would require more accurate timing, deflect far less damage, and wouldn't deflect spells or arrows. But having NO defensive manuevers when dual wielding or wielding a sword in one hand and spell in the other makes no sense. In terms of balance, it appears obvious to me that the most powerful and effective setups will be: Two hander. Dual Wielding Spells. Archery. Everything else is already disadvantaged due to forcing players to split their "experience" between two specializations just to maintain offensive power, and those combinations that allow you with no defensive ability whatsoever (dual wielding weapons, wielding two spells) are further disadvantaged because they must then specialize in one or even two more specializations to gain passive defense.

Watch the demo vids. Play ANY first person game where you dual wield. Fact of the matter is, in a game where you can pause and select weapons/spells on the fly, simply having one in each hand isn't going to net you a big enough offensive bonus (aside from dual wielding spells where you can overcharge them) to warrant the loss of defense. It doesn't work like that. If you couldn't just bust out a different weapon in the middle of a fight I might see your point.

But right now, I do not see dual wielding being more powerful than a sword and shield, especially with abilities like shield bash.

In reality you wouldn't dual wield. That's just hollywood-style combat meant to look fancy.

What part of "game comes out in a month" do you not understand?
Bethesda isn't going to go:

Oh my god! Some guy on the forums suggested blocking for dual-wielding! Quick, call Todd Howard and have him cease the final bug-testing! We have to put this new feature in and beta test it! If we don't we might just lose some appreciation from a fan!


Seriously though, too late to add features, and I agree with Crescent. There always needs to be a downside.

I think you've contradicted yourself, there.

This has been discussed to death but yes I agree, Dual wielding is not a viable option without the ability to block/parry. Luckily, we have mods.

Blocking is not generally something you do with a weapon. Parrying is.

I think this is mostly my mindset regarding the issue. I imagine having a duel wielding character still stonewalling an opponent rather than using more movement/avoidance based tactics turning into a power issue.

On another note, greetings. Long time browser, first time poster. I suppose I could have gone with a grander entrance.

there are a couple of downsides with dual weilding with or without parry. less armor rating than sword/shield, and you are a pin cushion if anyone wants to shoot arrows at you.

Reading comprehension is your friend bro. The "makes sense in a video game" clearly refers to the more offense, less defense.

Have a http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq328/PaulSouthron/Fishy%20Sticks/Vulcan_statue_Birmingham_AL_2008_sn.jpg

Yes, I will likely see if the game runs well on my brothers computer, as we have similar rigs, before buying it. I would never buy a TES game on anything other than the computer because it just isn't the same without modding, the mods for TES games are of such high quality. But if it wont run well, then I am not sure what I will do because buying it on a console would just feel like a horrible waste of money to me knowing that the PC version has mod support. I'll probably just walk across the hall and play it in someone's room that has it while they are in class.

Regardless, I am free to speak my mind. And my mind is telling me that I see no significant offensive advantage to wielding a sword in one hand and a spell in the other, so why should I be defensively penalized.

This.


.... Aaaaaaaand, this.

It wouldn't be fair to block with 2 weapons cause your getting twice the damage. If you want more defense then use a shield and heavy armor.

What do you mean by "kiting"?

Can you please show me what perk gives me more damage when I dual wield? Could I not simply get the same effect by bashing the crap out of people with a shield and chopping them up with my main hand while they are knocked down, taking no damage, as opposed to dual wielding swords and getting knocked on my ass constantly and having to kite enemies and dealing almost no extra damage because I have not seen ONE leaked perk that specifically increases dual wielding damage? You will probably get more damage off with a 1h and shield because you can stagger and knock down enemies, allowing you to freely attack them, whereas with two swords you can do nothing of the sort so its not like you will actually be doing any more damage.

Dual wielding does more damage if you stand next to the enemy frantically pressing both triggers. That much is obvious. When exactly, is that going to be possible, when you are getting staggered by enemies blocking your attacks and wolves biting your ankles from all directions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiting_(video_gaming) will help.

Basically, keep your opponent at range.

Regardless of balance, they should just implement blocking for it anyway, because I guarantee that the majority of the people on here will just download a mod that allows too do it. Why? Because it's fun!

I'm usually for things being balanced, but you got to draw the line somewhere and this is the rare exception where fun trumps balance.