PC Getting killed before I can aim even one blow...

[theoduck]

It seems like by the time I actually get a blow aimed, provided the target doesn't move, I've been hit, like 10 times.

Melee = death for me most times. I got the ranged thing working, though... if I'm sneaking and undetected. That's about the only way I ever kill anything.

Wishing this worked more like Dragon Age. where you click one someone to attack them...

Any tips?

 

[DdraigGwyn]

What difficulty level are you on?

 

[theoduck]

adept

 

[Ghost town]

what kind of armor is you character wearing?

 

[DdraigGwyn]

You might drop down to Novice until you get comfortable with the system, then work your way back up. The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you are facing the opponent and are close enough for the weapon to hit them.

 

[Rayven]

It seems like by the time I actually get a blow aimed, provided the target doesn't move, I've been hit, like 10 times.

Melee = death for me most times. I got the ranged thing working, though... if I'm sneaking and undetected. That's about the only way I ever kill anything.

Wishing this worked more like Dragon Age. where you click one someone to attack them...

Any tips?

Are you playing on console or PC? If you're on PC, a little fiddling with the mouse sensitivity settings can go a long way toward successful aiming so you're not flinging the camera wildly across the screen with a twitch of your wrist.

 

[TreFacTor]

It seems like by the time I actually get a blow aimed, provided the target doesn't move, I've been hit, like 10 times.

Melee = death for me most times. I got the ranged thing working, though... if I'm sneaking and undetected. That's about the only way I ever kill anything.

Wishing this worked more like Dragon Age. where you click one someone to attack them...

Any tips?

Try adjusting the look sensitivity in the gameplay setting

Try using a weapon that doesn't require two hands ("Swords swing faster than axes and axes swing faster than maces" but it fails to mention that two handed weapons and power attacks are slowers.)

Your stamina could be down... you could have been stunned....

I had to get acustomed real quick to the camera and stamina in this game because on the apprentice level I was getting killed almost instantly. What I learned:

-Sneak until you can't or no longer need to.
-Take a companion early and keep them with you
-give your companion better armor, spells and weapons
-No stamina in a fight = death
-use your potions wisely and use your magic for in combination with fighting and healing.

After a while you will start to really feel like a DragonBorn as the fights will become easier as you level up and learn what weapon, armor, and magic combos you like best.

 

[Dagmar]

Early in the game making and using certain cooked foods can save your life when taken during combat. The ingredients for Apple Cabbage Stew and Cabbage Potato Soup are pretty easy to come by early in the game and the former will restore 15 points of Stamina and 10 points of Health while the latter will restore 10 points to each. Because the game freezes when you open your inventory window, you can literally bring yourself from the brink of death to decent health and stamina in an instant by eating a half dozen or so of them.

Since this is your first time with this kind of freestyle combat play I recommend you go with a classic sword and shield with heavy armor build. Use the shield to block attacks by holding down your right mouse button. It wont block all of the damage from the attack but it will block some and, as your block skill increases, it will block more of the damage. If you keep your shield up to block as your opponent moves into range and then shield bash him by pressing the left mouse button with the right mouse button still held down you'll interrupt his attack leaving him open to your immediate follow up sword attack.

With this kind of build and style I generally recommend you fight in third person view because it gives you a better sense of distance for melee combat. Also when outdoors, if you pan out all the way in third party view it keeps you more aware of enemies approaching or circling towards your back. Players who lack experience with first person view melee combat often lack a sense of depth perception to know when an enemy enters into their swing range from first person view resulting in them only attacking when they're about to be hit themselves. All things being equal until you get an edge in toe to toe combat by leveling, upgrading gear and taking combat perks, that kind of approach towards melee combat will inevitably lead to death.

 

[DdraigGwyn]

Early in the game making and using certain cooked foods can save your life when taken during combat. The ingredients for Apple Cabbage Stew and Cabbage Potato Soup are pretty easy to come by early in the game and the former will restore 15 points of Stamina and 10 points of Health while the latter will restore 10 points to each. Because the game freezes when you open your inventory window, you can literally bring yourself from the brink of death to decent health and stamina in an instant by eating a half dozen or so

Dagmar! How come I never knew this? I have never bothered with food at all, now I find it's can help in combat? Extra points to you on this one.

I guess I need to read the rules more carefully.

 

[theoduck]

Yeah. It doesn't seem to matter how high or low I set look sensitivity; there is always a BIG (100-200 millisecond) delay from the time I move the mouse to the time the crosshairs move.

I let the game choose my graphics settings based on what it deduced my capabilities to be. I don't have a lot of experience with games -- I've only played Dragon Age: Origins before. THAT game had no problems with delay time between moving the mouse and having the movement executed onscreen. If I can't fix this in Skyrim's settings, this might turn out to be a deal-breaker.

 

[Dagmar]

Also while not exactly a combat strategy, there's no shame in adhering to the idiom "discretion is the better part of valor" and running away. If you press the Alt key while running you'll sprint (it drains stamina so you can't do it indefinitely). Enemies don't seem capable of sprinting and this will put considerable distance between you and normal sized biped opponents (as opposed to four legged critters who tend to run faster than you unless you're sprinting). Add lateral movement by tapping the A and D keys when running to avoid getting hit by enemies with ranged attacks.

Screaming "FOR THE LOVE OF TALOS, SAVE ME!" for added dramatic effect can help too. Well, maybe not but it may amuse your family or neighbors.

 

[Dagmar]

Yeah. It doesn't seem to matter how high or low I set look sensitivity; there is always a BIG (100-200 millisecond) delay from the time I move the mouse to the time the crosshairs move.

A 0.1-0.2 second delay is normal for the Skyrim engine. It's not enough of a delay to impact on your ability to fight in Skyrim (we're talking less time than it takes one to hit stop and start on a stopwatch).

 

[Necromis]

Dagmar I have actually had some warriors attacking run after me, keeping up with my sprinting. At least for a short amount of time

 

[Dagmar]

Dagmar I have actually had some warriors attacking run after me, keeping up with my sprinting. At least for a short amount of time

You need to cut down on the sweet rolls (or use the Steed Stone).

In all seriousness though I forgot there's a penalty on movement speed with heavy armor. I didn't realize it was that bad though.

 

[Necromis]

actually I was in robes and he was swinging a two handed sword, it was one of the thugs.

he didn't pass me but was keeping up, for about 100 in game feet

 

[Dagmar]

Okay I take it back then. You do need to cut down on the sweet rolls. My mage is a Breton which makes her relatively small in stature to beastly male Nord bandits but I have no problem outrunning them on sprint. Do you still have your weapon drawn (or your spells at ready)?

 

[Skullrattla]

HEAR HERE!

If you keep your shield up to block as your opponent moves into range and then shield bash him by pressing the left mouse button with the right mouse button still held down you'll interrupt his attack leaving him open to your immediate follow up sword attack.

Dagmar is probably the top player here!

After nearly 400 hours of play and a lot of grief in the early levels, I 've come to the conclusion that the above is the #1 technique for succesful melee in Skyrim. The technique works on the deadliest enemies, including Dragons and especially Dragon priests who may be extremely hard to kill any other way.

Another tip is KEEP MOVING. My problems were largely to do with a warrior atittude I had from FPS games and ofighting games where holding your ground and spamming the attack buttons real hard usually does the trick. They have made sure this doesn’t work in Skyrim, you have to keep moving to avoid getting hit, move backwards especially. This is easier for me in 3rd person view so i can see more of what's around me.

SLIGHT SPOILER : I'd recommend settng the Difficulty to the easiest setting and heading for Karthwasten (near the west end of the map) then look around north of there for Kesh, a Khaijiit cooking among some standing stones up on a hill, who will give you a mission that will lead you to Bthardamz , and you'll get an awesome shield at the end of that quest, really worth the trouble.

 

[Skullrattla]

MOUSE & CAMERA FIXES On the PC:


GET A GAMING MOUSE. A cheap option that works ok is the Sharkoon Fireglider (black version)

Open WINDOWS Mouse control panel and DISABLE "enhanced pointer precision", then set pointer speed to midway, or one notch up from midway.

Then open Skyrimprefs.ini and set the following lines:

[Interface]

fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000


[Controls]

bMouseAcceleration=0
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0160

Then open Skyrim.ini and set the following :

[General]
fdefaultWorldFOV=95
fDefault1stPersonFOV=95

for wide angle view, suitable for widescreen monitors. The game's default is 65 which is for consoles runing on TVs


[Controls]
fMouseHeadingXScale=0.0200
fMouseHeadingYScale=0.15


The lines in blue are crucial. The lines in green are my preferred mouse settings, which you can experiment with. My in-game mouselook sensitivity is set to low, reflected by fMouseHeadingSensitivity. I use the already mentioned gaming mouse which has a higher sensitivity than normal mice.

For combat try the following camera settings:
In 3rd person view when you draw weapons or spells it will position the crosshairs slightly to the side and place the camera behind you and slightly above you, and will make the transition from 1st to 3rd person POV almost instant.

[Camera]
fOverShoulderCombatAddY=0.0000
fOverShoulderCombatAddX=0.0000
fOverShoulderCombatPosZ=5.0000
fOverShoulderCombatPosY=5.0000
fOverShoulderCombatPosX=20.0000
fOverShoulderPosY=5.0000
fOverShoulderPosX=5.0000
fOverShoulderPosZ=10.0000
fOverShoulderHorseAddY=13.0000
fOverShoulderHorsePosZ=0.0000
fOverShoulderHorsePosX=0.0000
fMouseWheelZoomSpeed=120.0000
f1st3rdSwitchDelay=0.9500
fChaseCameraSpeed=8.000

 

[Jersey Dagmar]

HEAR HERE!



Dagmar is probably the top player here!

After nearly 400 hours of play and a lot of grief in the early levels, I 've come to the conclusion that the above is the #1 technique for succesful melee in Skyrim. The technique works on the deadliest enemies, including Dragons and especially Dragon priests who may be extremely hard to kill any other way.

Another tip is KEEP MOVING. My problems were largely to do with a warrior atittude I had from FPS games and ofighting games where holding your ground and spamming the attack buttons real hard usually does the trick. They have made sure this doesn’t work in Skyrim, you have to keep moving to avoid getting hit, move backwards especially. This is easier for me in 3rd person view so i can see more of what's around me.

SLIGHT SPOILER : I'd recommend settng the Difficulty to the easiest setting and heading for Karthwasten (near the west end of the map) then look around north of there for Kesh, a Khaijiit cooking among some standing stones up on a hill, who will give you a mission that will lead you to Bthardamz , and you'll get an awesome shield at the end of that quest, really worth the trouble.

Yes, Spellbreaker is an amazing shield. Always being on the move is another great tip. Running like a bitch has saved my ass a few times. And even if you aren't going for being a Mage, having the Healing spell is handy. It's the only spell I use, even on my warriors, just in case of an emergency.

 

[theoduck]

Thanks for the .ini suggestions. I have managed to hack my way through my third dragon, but I still pretty much avoid melee.

Skullrattla: Are you talking about the .ini files in Documents->My Games->Skyrim? Assuming you are, the Skyrim.ini in that location doesn't even have a [controls] or [camera] section.