Throwing axes and ball and chains are both very viking-like weapons.

A lot of the combat seems to be influenced from Deadly Reflex... which is a good thing, cause that mod rocks!

Especially the bash.

Well, I might start off with a mage now...no, I want to do a warrior...stealth sounds awesome as well

gah! I need gameplay now!!!!

I liked everything in this article, I tend to not be much of a spell caster more brute force. But this is enticing me into trying it much much more then usual, it pains me to play Oblivion knowing every other day im getting info on its superior sequel

Basically for combat they improved combat in the main 3 styles of RPGs... Warrior, Mage and Rouge.. Sounds cool.

For a game that has only been officialy revealed for a little under two months, there sure are a lot of people complaining about the information they're giving us.

Just accept that you won't see hardcoe stuff until later this year.

...hardcoe as in a bunch of screenshots, detailed information etc.,.

Wow, I think Bethesda has finally managed to tempt me into playing as a mage
The bit with daggers sounds fun as well!

Look at it this way. When you use a dagger, you'll do "maximum possible" damage (as far as that weapon is concerned). The stats are just to represent it's uselessness in regular combat.

That said, I was under the impression that there would be multiple perks for each weapon. This leaves me somewhat concerned now that there may only be one.

I mean, sure, you'll be able to only get maximum damage out of one weapon, but the others will still be too useful. Unless said perk comes with a penalty to other types of weapons, too.

"the axe perk punishes enemies with residual bleeding damage after each blow, and the mace perk ignores armor on your enemies to land more powerful strikes."

"Warriors who prefer the sword-and-shield approach can increase their defensive capabilities with shield perks that give them elemental protection from spells."

Neat facts from the article to me. In Morrowind and Oblivion, I was the Barbarian Class who relied on Axe and Mace all while doing so one hand with weapon and other with shield. First time around in Skyrim, I will do a Nord who uses a one hand mace/axe and the other hand holds a shield.

When it comes to RPG's, I'm a Warrior at heart.

After reading through the update i can honestly say combat sounds alot more fun and interesting. I'm glad they improved the magic system dramatically because it was very lackluster in both Morrowind and Oblivion. It's nice to hear they looked at games like Bioshock and saw stuff that they could use to improve their games.

I like the proximity mine idea. I pitched that months ago to the forum.

Itd be cool to block of hallways and doors with bombs

Concerns: They wont be powerful enough- bethesda is notorious for making foes hard to kill
Stupid Ai: i feel like if you set one they may intentionally step on them

Ah, pincushion NPCs. You didn't feel so much like an archer as an acupuncturist.

That is the look of the new trolls

Even if you can't cast spells while using a bow, you can still use the Enchant skill to give your weapon magical effects. I hope you can enchant arrows too.

Also, presumably you could cast buff spells before drawing your weapon and going into combat. I think the magical archer will be just as viable as it was in previous games, if not more so.

Pretty much confirmed what I suspected after reading the GI magazine article. Kinda disappointing that they haven't sorted out the spell system yet, but we'll see...

You should be able to, as technically, you hold a bow in one hand unless you're pulling it back

Is it just me or the stealth system is not explained enough: okay, I understand that if an npc thinks he/she heard something will enter the alert stance and will come to look and I can hide in the dark if I'm fast enough (Thief series like). But what if the npc DID SEE me, but in order to get to me he/she must go upstairs or go round some big object that means he/she lost eye contact of me for a while, will the npc still see me through walls and shadows and teleport right where I am hidden? Simply put, can I re-hide in the dark once I have been spotted?

Daggers...at 10x...are a girl's best friend..please keep them.

My Guess is the main benefit will be that it will be harder to block an attack using dual wielding since the NPC or us will have to make sure to block the right weapon and then prepare for an immediate attack coming from the other hand. Benefit is faster strikes = more dammage and easier to take advantage of knocking your opponent off ballance

I'm pretty sure it's multiple because he used perks (plural) for daggers later on in the article. :shrug:


I too thought of this...


Vikings used to throw spears...two at the same time. It was a tactic used more for frightening then actually doing damage but they still did it.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with the information. Especially the fact that playing as a assassin-esque character will finally be as it should. The new magic system actually has me interested in playing a serious mage character. Something I've never done before. Even archery sounds awesome!

"Depending on your weapon, the enemy, and the fight conditions" That last part has alleviated my fears somewhat. That seems to mean there are multiple finishers not only per weapon and per creature, but multiple ones within that depending on the fight conditions. That is very good.

Did they release a high res version of the screen too like they did in the dragon shouts update?

i'm pretty sure when it says "perk" it means a single perk with multiple ranks. it could mean multiple different perks but it seems odd to differentiate between a steel longsword and a glass longsword.

all of this excites me.

Fixed. :hehe:

Great info and the combat sound's like lot of fun in every way!

Can we have a higher version of that screen with the troll?

I would be ridiculously shocked if you couldn't, seeing as there were instances in Oblivion where you could escape a battle and become hidden again. With all of the major improvements Bethesda has been making, I would find near-impossible for them to leave that out.