Hi all.

I'm about to start a new game of Skyrim (haven't played for aages!) and I wanted a challenge and some new experiences..

So I've installed skyrim redone, duel, frostfall, and a few other interesting looking mods.

From looking at a lot of youtube videos and reading comments about combat mods such as duel, deadly combat etc.. it looks like blocking and shield is VERY important.

Is this true? Do I really need to consider taking a shield everywhere or can I do fine rping a 1h, 2h, bow, mage etc?

Also with all the stagger and damage flying around in these mods, heavy armor looks way better than light. Have I missed something there?

Any hints and tips will be useful. I don't need to know what's overpowered... that defeats the point of these mods and starting a fresh game. But if you could help me avoid making a gimped character that'd be great.

I've played hundreds of hours and several games with SkyRe and I have never yet used a shield. In fact, I have never used a shield in any Elder Scrolls game. So no, using a shield is not a must.

Thanks for the reply

Were those with combat mods as well?

Well, I think of SkyRe as a combat mod itself. I've never used a different combat mod at the same time as SkyRe.

But I have used mods that added enemies or changed enemy AI. Mods like Deadly Dragons, Deadly Monsters, Organized Bandits, High Level Enemies and Skyrim Immersive Creatures. I also play on Adept. I like to use mods to adjust the difficulty of my game, not the difficulty slider.

Anyway, I think you can play just about any character type with Skyrim Redone. Some may be easier than others, but I have never yet played a character that I felt was unworkable with SkyRe.

I've noticed my stamina bar disappears completely after like... 2 blocks, or 1 block and a power attack. Then I'm a sitting duck.

Is stamina the most important stat when using these combat mods?

I would say so, yes. One of the most important changes made by almost all combat mods is to make Stamina important.

It has been my experience that most combat mods tend to make Stamina the only Attribute that is worth leveling. One learns to "play the system" by throwing all points into Stamina. This, to me, is almost as primitive a system as vanilla Skyrim.

SkyRe is a bit more sophisticated. SkyRe takes Health as well as Stamina in account when computing things like armor and damage ratings (which is one of the reasons I like it). I believe (it's been a while since I read the .pdf) that the ratio is about 2-1 Stamina to Health. So, while Stamina is very important, it also pays to put some points into Health when playing SkyRe.