Draw back to dual wielding

[henderse]

In Oblivion you could carry a shield and sword and still cast without having to pause to change weapons. As a "Battle Mage" this was especially important to me. It seems that I am going to have to pause the game every time I need to conjure or heal or anything magical. At least you don't have to equip dragon shouts. I suppose I will learn to live with it. That is the only drawback I can find in this the most awesome game ever made. I know it is, and it's not even out yet.

[Shroudedasylum]

I am sure it will be modded in there to allow the main hand to cast a spell while using a weapon. Just only "pure" magic can do the power up. Maybe limit the shield hand to have a healing spell and the sword arm can cast dmg?

[Vagrant0]

Was probably done to have a greater divide between melee play and magic play. Morrowind required you to have your weapons sheathed and your hands out for casting. Oblivion changed this, but was often overpowered, with magic being cast just between swings or as a substitute for marksman.

 

Like this, there's more balance between play styles and things go back to their roots a bit more.

 

The drawback is mostly in weapon swapping. Two 1 hand weapons would probably still be weaker than a 2 hand weapon of the same tier.

[Tuco404]

The big question is how long it takes to swap weapons/magics.

[TypicalRandom]

H.O.T.K.E.Y :thumbsup: Edited November 2, 2011 by TypicalRandom

[Jupitus]

In Oblivion you could carry a shield and sword and still cast without having to pause to change weapons. As a "Battle Mage" this was especially important to me. It seems that I am going to have to pause the game every time I need to conjure or heal or anything magical

I was just grumbling about that yesterday, then again I was never very good with the shield anyways. :rolleyes:

[stormguy85]

I'm curious if there will be any Shield spells that require channeling and give you the equivalent of a "Magic Block".

[Tweetybird]

I never actually seem to use my shield so I'm not all that concerned about this.

[stars2heaven]

Im glad this drawback exists. It's a good thing for the reasons Vagrant0 posted and it creates a lot more variety with play styles. With it the way it is there are 7 different play styles available (2hand, dual wield weapons, dual wield magic, magic + weapon, magic + shield, shield + weapon, and hand to hand) If you add dual wield to Oblivion but keep oblivions system there are only 4 play style choices. (2handers, dual wield weapons, weapon + shield, and hand to hand)

 

I prefer the extra variety. If you generally keep to one or 2 styles then the way you play that character is going to be very different from another character of a different style, and that adds to the replay value as well as the fun factor.

[justwannaddl]

Thanks for pointing out the change. I knew you had to equip spells now but I didn't know it would occupy the weapon/shield slots. It is a bit of a nerf but I can see why it was done. Still, I was looking forward to seeing dual casting a spell with a sword in each hand. Hope the modders can come up with a solution.