Many people are bashing Skyrims combat system. I can understand that. When I first started slashing, I was reminded of minecraft.
But as my character grows, and I level up, it actually becomes mroe and more awesome. The fights get a lot mor tactical when you encounter stronger enemies, and more importantly, when you invest your perks into combat skills. I′m a blocking combat-assassin Nord in light armor with one-handed weapons.
AKA the most demanding character for a good combat system. And I have to say that me fighting on level 20 is a whole new experience compared to me fighting at level 10. This comes mostly from the one-handed and blocking perks.
Now that I can behead people and ge those blocking slo-mos, there are almost no mindless-mashing-and-slashing-straight-forward fights, but engaging battles, mostly even with bigger enemies (aka dragons). The block-sow-mo perk is one of the greatest things I′ve ever seen in an elder scrolls game, and maybe it should′ve been implemented by default. I′m pretty sure less people would have complained, if it was. I can understand that msot people don′t want to invest into "Style"-perks, but it just makes the fights so much better! And there IS a practical use to it. Instead of only blocking you can now manually prepare your counter-attack while blocking just as in real life. I also invested into one-handed "style". Now I′m running around decapitating bandits and seriously... that′s always a shock when ti happens, because I totally forget about that ability always when I am in a fight! All these things combined with the finishers make the combat awesome. The Assassination-finishers are awesome as well, and they never get old!
I had a fantastic battle with a daugr ,yesterday or so, I think, sadly I didn′t record it. It went like this:
-Hit
-Block
-Stab
-Blade on blade blocking
-hit with shield
-stab
-slash
-blocking slow-mo
-diving under the blade and stabbing
-swing gets blocked
-swords are jammed
-mighty shield attack
-getting the blade free and attacking
-ending with a stab finisher

And this all happened within a few seconds!
It was actually the best video game sword fight I′ve ever had and I′d never thought this would be possible in Skyrim when I started playing the game.

Tl;dr: Combat doesn′t svck when you invest into combat skills; finishers are awesome!

Clunky and unresponsive.

Oblivion's combat was better, and Oblivion was a poor game.

3/10

Get out, I started a serious thread for people to chat about their combat experiences.
If you want to troll, go here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/

I felt it was nothing to clap or complain over. I enjoy it and on a level past any balancing issues it's done well enough for a TES game.

Notice this is my opinion. Not sure if your's was supposed to be a statement or opinion.

Edit:

OP: I enjoy the combat but I also do not expect the fluidity of moves to a level of god of war x,y,a,b chaining on bosses. I just would like to see some sort of thing which involves a more epic kind of engagement at points. The KD animations are nice but after seeing them over and over they lose their shine, just like anything else though. I think in some instances making say a Daedric Greatsword be able to cleave into/through a leather shield or iron sword would make things more interesting if durability somewhat came into play.

Please disregard the troll, you can tell by his signature and by taking a quick look at his profile.

I dual-wield a weapon and a spell, so I can't block. All I can do is hack at enemies until they die.

But it does sound nice, OP.

I agree with the OP.
Skyrim's combat is FAR better than Oblivion or Morrowind (the only two other TES games I've played).
Fights are more intense, and the amount of strategy and different approaches for each scenario are fun to mess around with too.

I agree with the OP, the style perks make fights better, but they should be there from the start....I liked Fallout3's VATS setup...wish I could have that in Skyrim, maybe fueled by Stamina...

Troll Alert

Yeah, dual wielding is kinda clunky, there need to be more moves, also more hard attacks instead of just a horizontal swing. I guess this is where mods will come to play.
I stay away from DW most of the time, I always was a SnS-guy and Skyrim gives me the nicest and best blocking experience so far.
Two-Handed is kinda slow and less strategical, but you get some awesome finishers.
I guess there will be something like deadly reflex for dual wielders and two-handed characters soon enough as the creation kit arises.

Tactical fights? :< i want tactical fights too... but here i am with heavy armor, a warhammer, some magic resist and a crapload of custom health pots...

The fighting system is meh...Seen way better in other games. Could be worse tho, doesn't really get in the way of playing the game.

I'm a dual-wielder and I think combat is great. Especially when the swords collide or when enemies block your attacks. It feels engaging and real. What OP has described sounds awesome though, I think I may try and get that blocking perk. My one-handed is high-lvl.

I love the combat system, once you get used to it ..awesome. I agree with the OP.

This feels identical to Oblivion for me. Have you guys who say it's leagues better played Oblivion recently?

I actually really enjoy the combat system. It seems more fluid than Oblivion and it is genuinely very fun. Besides the animation bugs with kill animations it's all good under the hood. I just wish there was a way to block with dual wield.

Uh... what? Are we the people who have been saying it's leagues better than Oblivion's combat? Your sentence made little to no sense.

Today I had to face a tough bounty on a bandit quest. I snuck in with my bosmer companion and I cast frenzy on the mark, since he was the toughest guy in the room, he proceeded to make short work of all the other bad guys while my bosmer put arrows into his kidneys and eyeballs. If you experiment with the spells and different tactics, the outcome can really surprise you sometimes. :wink_smile:

I find it irritating that people seem to the God of War is some kind of high standard to hold games to.

I used to play Oblivion like you, until I took an arrow to the knee.

I find it irritating that you seem to think I expect it to be God of War.

God of War is the example for fluid combat when it comes to boss melee combat imo. I do not want to hit A,B,Y,X to kill bosses. This is not a bruiser. Is it perfect? No. Do I want to see GoW in Skyrim? No. Can fluidity in general be added to future combat in TES series? Yes.

Sorry I picked an example off of the top of my head you did not like.

I actually played it until Skyrim release, and I think its nowhere near comparable. For me, Oblivions combat system is to Skyrims what Morrowinds was to Oblivions. Of course without deadly reflex. Do you use hat mod by any chance? But we don′t want to compare modded oblivion with unmodded Skyrim here... We′ll get the mods for it soon enough and I′m certain they will be awesome!

I agree with the OP
the slow mo block, shield bash and everything makes the fighting more enganging
ofcourse it's no god of war or anything ([censored] comparison, really)
but still

does seem to apply to 1handed+shield mostly though
2 handers have the block and bash as well but I don't know if they can get the slow mo perk or if that only works with a shield (never tried)

i guffawed at this, then went and installed oblivion again and tried it out.

your flat out wrong, or you smoke good dope sir.

skyrims is better, however...skyrims is still bottom of the barrel combat.

there is little to any depth perception with your swings in first person, everything is floaty and unprecise. the decap perk is nice, but not in terms of gameplay, its just flashy. really with a shield and one hander i just fus shout for a stagger, hit twice...block...power bash with shield...hit 3x, power bash with shield, hit 3x, power bash wit shield...hit 3x..out of stamina...wack em...fus shout again

at least thats all combat is for me.

bethesda sorely needs to hire new people to do combat, the current developers dont know much it seems!

I was recently in a fight with a mage who conjured a flame and an ice atronach. It was a very tactical fight. I died many times, unitl I started timing my blocks, conterattacks, and dodging with the ice atronach, while keeping him in between me and the flame one shooting fireballs. I was using him as a shield. Terrain is also very important.

Position and dodging are very important. If you actually watch your opponent, you can dodge away and circle strafe when he attacks. It gets interesting when there are also two ranged opponents throwing stuff at you.

Its not perfect, but I like it.

I play in 3rd person btw.