Sword & Board

[Dagmar]

I don't think anyone's mentioned this on this thread but Vegetable Soup is a great food item for a sword and board character as it regens 1 stamina per sec (along with 1 health)...

Unfortunately the health regeneration effect for all stews and soups is bugged. It doesn't work. The stamina regeneration not only works though, it also stacks, so for each additional serving you take you get another point of regeneration per second. Venison stew has the same effect. If you decide to binge on the soups and stews that give the effect you can regenerate a ridiculous amount of stamina per second.

Beef stew is twice as powerful but one of the ingredients, raw beef, is harder to get than the ingredients for vegetable soup. It also doesn't have the health regeneration effect but unless and until Bethesda gets around to fixing the effect it doesn't matter anyway unless you have the PC version of Skyrim. It's relatively easy to fix the health regeneration bug with the Creation Kit, and when fixed that effect also stacks so you can get Shadowmere-like health regeneration if you binge on the soup or stew.

 

[Ariadne33]

I didn't know about the health thing... good to know! Thanks!

 

[kyleekay]

Finally had the chance tonight to play this character. She's a level 5 Nord currently. I dropped the light Armor idea and went with heavy. Dropped perks into Smithing, One Handed, Block and Heavy Armor so far.

 

[Adam Belmont]

Finally had the chance tonight to play this character. She's a level 5 Nord currently. I dropped the light Armor idea and went with heavy. Dropped perks into Smithing, One Handed, Block and Heavy Armor so far.

Very nice and don't forget to train a little bit of archery too. You'll need it for hunting. That build is the base for a warrior, it's practically the same build I use. Since you're using heavy armor AND block don't forget to put on Stamina to be able to bash. Just like Ariadne said, the Vegetable soup is essential to recover stamina enough to do power atacks and bashing. Good luck! Post a picture when you have the chance...

 

[BoundByTheWolfBlood]

As an expert in Sword and Shield I say Heavy armor is the way to go my Nord is a walking tank and has never been killed by any normal enemy just the EB warrior. In the subject of perks QUICK REFLEXES is important and I'd invest in Heavy armor instead since it helps keep you alive. Improved armor and weapons can be a life saver also. This is all from my experience and in now way is assume to fit your play style. Bottom line for any guidey type thing I write HAVE FUN if you want to ignore my suggestions because they aren't to your liking DO IT! All I want is to offer my own experiences to add the repertoire of knowledge you have from the higher posts.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Heavy Armor is probably overkill with Block if you have any skill with shield fighting at all. As Adam pointed out, Stamina is extremely important, and Light Armor supports it better. I've used no armor, except the shield, and done just fine (With Destruction, instead of a Sword, even.)

Also, Quick Reflexes is a crutch for Players who don't have quick enough reflexes. Just to proc it in the first place, you have to be blocking when they Power Attack. So, either you stand there turtled up, and hope they give you an opportunity, or as soon as they start the slow Power Attack animation, you block, and you could just as well have bashed them without it. I know, it slows time so you can get more hits in, and that's powerful, but it slows down the entire combat, and can get stuck like that. If the idea is to finish them quickly, then why are you retarding yourself by holding block, allowing the enemy to set the pace of the fight, and warping reality around you to put up a decent offensce? if you're such a good shield fighter, then why do you need heavy Armor, or Armor at all when a shield gives so much protection on it's own?

 

[Adam Belmont]

Heavy Armor is probably overkill with Block if you have any skill with shield fighting at all. As Adam pointed out, Stamina is extremely important, and Light Armor supports it better. I've used no armor, except the shield, and done just fine (With Destruction, instead of a Sword, even.)

Also, Quick Reflexes is a crutch for Players who don't have quick enough reflexes. Just to proc it in the first place, you have to be blocking when they Power Attack. So, either you stand there turtled up, and hope they give you an opportunity, or as soon as they start the slow Power Attack animation, you block, and you could just as well have bashed them without it. I know, it slows time so you can get more hits in, and that's powerful, but it slows down the entire combat, and can get stuck like that. If the idea is to finish them quickly, then why are you retarding yourself by holding block, allowing the enemy to set the pace of the fight, and warping reality around you to put up a decent offense. if you're such a good shield fighter, then why do you need heavy Armor, or Armor at all when a shield gives so much protection on it's own?

I see your point with the shield, but besides the aesthetics I believe it's important to have an armor cap to survive an atack of archers for example; when I'm fighting 2 or more enemies, sometimes there's an archer behind me shooting, without an armor I would get easily killed. And there's the enchant issue. With my warrior I don't mess with enchanting, but I wear enchanted pieces of armor I find around. I think it's important to have some enchantments when you're fighting a mage for example. But that's my playstyle, there are a lot of other ways to play this awesome game.

 

[Psiberzerker]

I see your point with the shield, but besides the aesthetics I believe it's important to have an armor cap to survive an atack of archers for example; when I'm fighting 2 or more enemies, sometimes there's an archer behind me shooting, without an armor I would get easily killed. And there's the enchant issue. With my warrior I don't mess with enchanting, but I wear enchanted pieces of armor I find around. I think it's important to have some enchantments when you're fighting a mage for example. But that's my playstyle, there are a lot of other ways to play this awesome game.

I kill Archers, and Mages first. If you dive right into the melee, because it's fun to slug it out, then I can see how you'd have that problem, and having Capped Armor+shield might be necessary. That's fine, just not how I play. I like to run around, and strategically decide who dies first so I don't find myself in the situation where I've got everyone pounding/shooting me at once. Even if I'm playing a Warrior, even if I'm limiting myself to just S&B without magic, and steath, I don't just stand, and slug.

That's what the turtle tank is for. If you're going to do that, then it's extremely nice to have a follower/summons as designated damage dealers, since that leaves you to concentrate on your role of Tanking. Or, you can Smith up to the point that you Can play the designated damage dealer with one hand, and still stop dealing damage to block. I'd rather get a follower (Like any of the housecarls, or those like them, the most common NPCs' template.) and/or summon to Tank, so I can take the Damage dealer role.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Why did even go off on that "How I play" tangent? I completely missed the point I was going to make. You can cap Light armor. Once you get to that level, the only difference between L/H is the perks. With H, you have less chance of stagger, with L, you have Wind Walker. For Sword&Board, Stamina is more important than Stagger chance if you're going to be slowing time, and being the one to Stagger the enemy. Ignore all that other stuff, except the part about killing Mages, and Archers before wading into the melee. That solves your problem with a quickness.

 

[Skulli]

Why did even go off on that "How I play" tangent? I completely missed the point I was going to make. You can cap Light armor. Once you get to that level, the only difference between L/H is the perks. With H, you have less chance of stagger, with L, you have Wind Walker. For Sword&Board, Stamina is more important than Stagger chance if you're going to be slowing time, and being the one to Stagger the enemy. Ignore all that other stuff, except the part about killing Mages, and Archers before wading into the melee. That solves your problem with a quickness.

Well said.

After two years, this info should be canon by now to anyone who considers their "build," but sadly not.

Armor Cap is and always will be 567 = 80% damage mitigation, 80% is cap, so armor level 1000 is still 80%.

Fully perked, with smithing, Light Armor can reach the 700''s, again, all redundant. Play the armor you think looks best and perk accordingly.

Windwalker > less Stagger. YOU should be doing all the staggering.

 

[kyleekay]

Thanks for the continued tips, all. Psi (Psiberzerker) I mainly went with Heavy Armor instead of LA for Aesthetics. Since my original goal was to make an old-school type Soldier, I figured Heavy went better with that idea. I plan on doing 2:1 of Stamina to Health... possibly 3:1. You have to remember I'm not used to this play style at all, and if I do not give myself as much protection as possible... it would be a VERY frustrating play-through.

Also, guys, this character won't be around long enough to use the Armor Cap. I will only be doing the Civil War quest line and then I'll likely just run around Solitude for a while.

Adam Belmont, I'll be investing a few perks into Archery as well. I just haven't leveled enough to do that yet.

 

[Adam Belmont]

Well said.

After two years, this info should be canon by now to anyone who considers their "build," but sadly not.

Armor Cap is and always will be 567 = 80% damage mitigation, 80% is cap, so armor level 1000 is still 80%.

Fully perked, with smithing, Light Armor can reach the 700''s, again, all redundant. Play the armor you think looks best and perk accordingly.

Windwalker > less Stagger. YOU should be doing all the staggering.

I agree that if you use light armor you'll reach the cap the same as heavy, but just like I said, I prefer the heavy armor for the looks, as I use the ebony mail (its the closest armor to the Oblivion Chainmail) and the other reason is purely to play a classical warrior type. It's not about game mechanics and what is racionaly better, is just to have that RPG feeling to play a stereotyped class that I miss sometimes in Skyrim.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Armor Cap is and always will be 567 = 80% damage mitigation, 80% is cap, so armor level 1000 is still 80%.

This number gets quoted a lot, but there is the hidden 25 points for each armor piece you're wearing. It's 567 for head, chest, arms, and legs, but if you're going helmetless, or wearing robes instead of a curiass, you actually need 592 (Showing in your Apparel Menu) to reach the Armor Cap. The shield doesn't add this 25 point bonus (As far as I've been able to actually see in playtesting, because it's hidden) but adds it's AR to the body, making it that much easier. Also, Blocked Damage is counted before AR, but caps at 50% with Shield Wall(5), so your armor actually takes 80% of the remaining half (If you block the strike, or arrow.) down to 10% of the original damage. Of course, all of this is Physical Damage, you have to reduce Magical Damage separately with Resistances...

 

[Skulli]

...and the Elemental protection from your Block perk, left side of tree at 50, I believe?

I also try late in game, to take 5 perk in Alteration for 30% magic resistance.

 

[Dagmar]

....Blocked Damage is counted before AR, but caps at 50% with Shield Wall(5)...

The hard cap for blocked damage is 85%. The maximum aggregate physical damage resistance from blocking and armor rating is 97% (0.85 + (0.15 x 0.8)).

...and the Elemental protection from your Block perk, left side of tree at 60, I believe?...

It's available when your Block skill reaches 50.

 

[Mighty Pecan Pie]

I also have a question about the sword and board.

I play a lvl 53 1h (dual wield) and archer, I would like to swap one sword for a shield. does block train very well. or isn't it worth the trouble? I play with light armour. maybe I should train heavy armour for it?

 

[Dagmar]

I also have a question about the sword and board.

I play a lvl 53 1h (dual wield) and archer, I would like to swap one sword for a shield. does block train very well. or isn't it worth the trouble? I play with light armour. maybe I should train heavy armour for it?

Block leveling scales based on the amount of damage blocked so the harder you're hit the more Block xp you get for each Block. I use light armor for almost all my builds including my Nord sword and shield warrior. It's totally doable and the Wind Walker perk is helpful since you use Stamina for blocking.

 

[Skulli]

Am I correct that in a light armor build, a heavy shield won't dick over any perks, only the weight is a disadvantage?

 

[Psiberzerker]

The hard cap for blocked damage is 85%. The maximum aggregate physical damage resistance from blocking and armor rating is 97% (0.85 + (0.15 x 0.8)).
It's available when your Block skill reaches 50.

Could you run down the factors that bring it up to the Block cap for me? You seem to know more about it.

Am I correct that in a light armor build, a heavy shield won't dick over any perks, only the weight is a disadvantage?

Yes, Wind Walker, Unhindered, and so forth just count the Helmet, Gloves, Body, and Boots for "All Light Armor."

 

[Skulli]

WOOT! That means Spellbreaker and Ancient Falmer armor are a go now!