So we all know that the combat in Skyrim can be klunky, dull, and feel at some moments that there's really nothing to engage you in a fight.

I'll expand on this. If you're a high level character and you decide to go say, back to Bleak Falls Barrow(or maybe you've never been, you unhelpful person) to have some nostalgia being at the first dungeon you went into(unless you're unhelpful). You'll know the bandits aren't going to be a exciting battle.

Yes I understand, you can crank up the game to Legendary difficulty and spend 5 minutes on one guy. This doesn't help with the actual combat, though. You know, the fact that combat in this game is nothing more than pressing one button several times to kill this guy and then power attack that guy to stun him to spam the button five more times.

I feel that something needs to be done to make combat actually fun and not simply just a thing to do to get that sixy armor or that good stat axe. Unfortunately, I don't really have any ideas to how to improve it.

So my question to YOU, yes you, is what do you think about combat in Skyrim, and what do you feel needs to be done to make it enjoyable?

Personally I think the combat is tedious and so childishly easy it is really pathetic. There is no real depth or challenge presented and no need for any tactics at all. Honestly it was a major let down and is little more than a mindless slug-fest at best.

Improvements need to be made in the hit detection in a weapons reach and give the ability to thrust back to the player for crying out loud. But to be honest at this point I have all but given up hope that TES will have a semblance of realistic combat, instead I just bide my time for Kingdom Come Deliverance which I have high hopes for but is far to early to tell its quality.

Needs moar bare-knuckled hairy-chested Austrailian CEOs.

Oh! and unarmed.

There are time that I find it awkward but there are a lot of time I find it fun. But then again I play as a pure mage with no follower. My followers are in conjuration. Plus I like to use illusion on some enemies. My favorite dungeon is one where the dragon priests mask Raghot is. I also roleplay and each enemy is treating differently depending on how and where I meet them. One enemy might get a bound sword in their face where another might get a dual casted fireball.

The combat system could be more than what it is, but as it stands right now and the way I play, I am content.

Exactly. Also, the fact that when dual-wielding the player doesn't have the ability to simply cross the weapons for a block was quite silly. Hit detection would help greatly. Slicing a bandit right across the chest with a sword and it just taking some health and not making the guy wince in pain and grab where the wound is, is simply sad. Being able to dodge to the side and knock weapons out of enemy hands or let the player actually be able to be stunned would help as well.

Like Kratos does.

I've had several mage characters and the only problem I've had with them is that you constantly have to back away while using spells that are ongoing, such as flames, sparks, etc. If there was a way to perhaps dodge the attacker, stick your hand right up to their face and melt it with flames, I'd definitely play as a mage more.

Haha yeah.

Agreed, I would love to be able to sidestep attacks to stay close and be able to retaliate with a quick counter attack. Fallout had hit detection on specific limbs which is sorely lacking in skyrim, slowing an enemy down by slaming him in the leg with an axe or disorienting the enemy with a mace strike to the head or attacking the enemies' sword arm with your own blade causing him to drop his weapon or at least not be able to attack as efficiently. And I will go a step further than crossing blades for a dual block, why not a quick parry and riposte set-up with dual blades. So many possibilities and improvements but ultimately Skyrim's combat is little more than a digital rock-em sock-em robots set with dragons.

Pure Garbage

I find comabt interesting because as a khajiit I try and roleplay randomness.I can sneak around a bandit for an hour or end up charging a Dwarven centurion head first.In one on one combat for a warrior character,yes it can be difficult but it can still be quite boring. Oh,and there needs to be an unarmed skill.I love playing an unarmed khajiit,but as the enemies get tougher,I often find I can't.

You could try using heavy armor gauntlets and the fists of steel perk, with some uber smithing you can do crazy good damage

I personally think Skyrim's combat system gets slightly too much crapping. On the other hand it is a bit dull and wears off quickly unless you slap over tons of mods. I'd say "it's not important, this is an RPG", but sadly there's not much to do but fight in Skyrim, so it is a big deal. :/

While in vanilla it is too limited (and Fists of Steel is a pretty stupidly designed perk), I do think that hand to hand should still be fairly limited. Being able to punch an automaton (or a dragon, or a giant, or basically any, even slightly heavy-armored man) to death would be just stupid. I would love to see some kind of grappling system where you could block by grabbing your opponent's blade, throwing to the ground, disarming an enemy, knocking down and stealing the weapon, locking an enemy into position and punching it in the face etc. In reality there was much more judo and karate in sword fights than actual sword fighting.

• Boring


• No chance of failure or death


• Simplistic


• Poor balance between player skill and character abilities


• Made even worse by repetitive finisher moves that harm roleplaying by imposing the generic hollywood badass personality on your character, and ruin the sense of immersion for 1st person players by throwing them into 3rd person constantly

Overall, the combat is worse than Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion for those reasons. It would be marginally better than Oblivions if the forced finisher moves weren't there.

Do you have to wear heavy armor for it to be working?Like I could train in heavy armor till I get the perk and then switch back to my light armor gloves,with the pugilist enchantment.

Sadly no, it takes the armor rating of heavy armor gauntlets that you are wearing and makes their armor rating also the damage you inflict with unarmed attacks. So you must be wearing heavy armor gauntletss for the perk to work, that being said I have had an unarmed damage of 230+ before using dragonbone gauntlets.

Looks like Kingdom Come Deliverance will have to satiate my desire for a for a open world rpg with good combat mechanics as I wait for the next TES.

Well.. I never minded the combat to begin with, even in Oblivion. But as time goes on the combat in this game is becoming more and more dull. The Witcher, Mass Effect, and Dragon all have much betters combat systems.

Although nothing beats being in first person, fighting a dragon on Legendary.

First off I think damage needs to be increased overall. Combat should be quick but challenging. Failure to block or dodge should be potentially lethal (depending on how you've built your character).

Light armour and heavy armour needs to be more different than they are. Heavy armour should impair your movement but potentially make you a tank, while light armour should offer only modest protection in favour of increased mobility. I wouldn't mind seeing the return of medium armour too.

The combat animations should also be different on higher skill levels, visual proof that you're starting to master that specific kind of weapon.

We need more combat moves too. Kicks, dodges, different types of attacks (like thrusting with a sword... can you even do that in Skyrim?).

More weapon types would make it a lot more interesting too.

My opinion on killcams is split. They have the potential to be badass, but I don't like that they pull me out of first person if that's what I'm playing. The killcams usually look very clumsy, especially the ranged weapon and magic killcams. If they improve killcams I think I'll like them though.

I sure as hell hope someone at Bethesda noticed that kickstarter. The combat for that game is basically everything I hoped TES would be after Oblivion.

Sadly they seem to be going down the 3rd person cinematic route instead.

It isn't great but at least it has a little more impact behind it than Oblivion did. I do like the kill cams though.

Such is the beauty of subjectivity.

I find it boring to simply hack at the enemy until they drop like a ragdoll. Maybe the finishers should be non-cinematic in order to satisfy all tastes, but they certainly give combat a bit of life.

Yea I agree and I'm probably one of the few who prefer morrowinds (Hit and miss) combat. Really wish they expanded on that as in having the enemy try and avoid the PC's attacks.

Also, This post

Is what I think of skyrim's combat~

I like the combat in Skyrim. It falls prey to the common gaming pitfall of break-your-arm manouveres, and that does break my immersion somewhat as someone who consumes fightin' talk like sausage rolls at a wedding, but, hey, it's entertainment.

I'll also come out in defence of killcams here: I greatly enjoyed them, and I think most other 'casuals' do too. There should be more of them, or failing that at least more technical ones as your character's skill level rises, but they should definitely not be taken away. Made optional, perhaps, but not removed.

Morrowind's Combat was... Dissapointing.

You had to have agility to hit anything... with a boulder... the size of Nirn...

While I don't think I'd go as far as to say that I prefer Morrowind's combat, I don't think it's absolutely horrible. I think the idea was good, and I think it has potential.

I liked that you had different directional attacks (thrust, chop, slash), and that these different attacks had very differing efficiency depending on the weapon you had. The weapon variety was also superb, and your stamina level was actually important.

The main problem with Morrowind was that there was no visual difference between hit/miss attacks. If you could actually see that your attack missed or was dodged, then it would be a lot better.

Morrowind's combat would also have been a lot better if it was more interactive. Manual blocks, dodges, kicks and special moves would have made it more fun.

Edit: Wrote something wrong.