Battlemage - Should I use Block?

[Vexedforest]

I'm putting together a battlemage build (One-handed, heavy armour, destruction, restoration and maybe conjuration) and I was wondering what were some people's opinions of block.

 

I've tried a bit of blocking but I'm not too good at timing it. I need some practise.

 

Is it a crucial skill?

Edited April 2, 2013 by Vexedforest

[ShannonRutherford]

For me blocking was always useless never even really bothered with it maybe u can try to block with Spellbreaker or use alteration instead of blocking, also never quite found alteraton useful but with blocking there's one

 

perk that when u block and enemy has power-up attack time slows down.

Edited April 2, 2013 by ShannonRutherford

[BrettM]

My Conjuror uses a one-handed weapon (usually a conjured one) and a summon in the left hand. He gets by fine without blocking. My Destruction mage uses Dual Cast, so he has nothing to block with even if he wanted to. He gets by fine as well.

 

I don't consider blocking a crucial skill for any character that doesn't carry a shield, since most of the perks are designed for shield use. Two-handed blocking can be fairly effective and might be worth perking a little into Block, but it certainly isn't crucial. For anything else it just isn't worth it, IMHO, and certainly not for mages.

[foxhoman]

I have a battleMage who uses blocking, but mainly for the perk tree from 'Staves of Skyrim' 'cause I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere in there you get +25% magicka regen while using a staff, but that's probably about as far as I'm guna go before swapping out for a combat staff.

[Bhanqwa]

Blocking with a onehanded weapon requires the left hand to be empty, it's a hassle to keep opening the quick menu or magic menu and un-equipping your left-hand spell.

Alternatively if you want to replace your left-hand spell with a shield when enemies come in close, that's a simple hotkey click away.

[RatcatcherOfKvatch]

Sadly the hotkeys were not designed for this setup. Spells equip left-to-right, which makes sense if you mix spells with weapons, but it's infuriating if you try to mix shields with spells.

 

If you either use the menus for all your equipping and readying needs or you have the mental stability and inner peace it takes to not go completely batty constantly triple-tapping spell-spell-shield every 10 seconds it's actually a pretty decent early build, especially against arrows.

 

Triple-tapping isn't all that debilitating compared to trying to mix dual-casting with weapons because shields and spells hotkey very quickly whereas weapons have that long drawing-and-readying sequence. But you will go slowly insane.

 

Once you get Impact the delay between blocking with shield and casting becomes a glaring liability. When you can stun and paralyze without breaking the rhythm of your attacks blocking is just too clunky, except in the one rare instance where you have the arrow-blocking perk, a shield, enemies with good cover, and lots of incoming arrows to block.

 

The weakness of mages to archers in good cover can be mitigated with AE attacks without spending any perks on shields.

 

Shields do add to your armor rating, which is nothing to sneeze at. On Master level you really want to get to the cap as soon as you can; a shield especially on the Light Armor track gets you there a lot sooner.

 

Finally there's the consideration that a shield can carry an enchant, but Fortify Health is something I don't like to use on an item that's constantly getting de-equipped. Having an extra slot for MR is very nice if you're not Breton, and the Peryite shield throws a ward into the mix just for fun.

 

But the UI will drive you nuts, and the shield becomes almost obsolete as your skills with both hands improves. (Impact, the always popular Paralysis / Wall of Fire combo, Paralysis / Anything, really ...)

[Vexedforest]

Thanks guys!

 

I won't be using block, then. I really liked all of your responses :smile:

Edited April 3, 2013 by Vexedforest

[Simeonz]

I made a few tweaks, I am a spellshield and I think its good since I use deadly combat, see the first minute of this video

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmMdI8OpC24

 

Mod is called righthandspells but you need to modify it for your spells in the CK

Edited April 3, 2013 by Simeonz

[invertedpanda]

I'm using blocking with Staves of Skyrim on my current build. I've also played with using wards as shields, which actually works out great for paladin/cleric type characters.

[RatcatcherOfKvatch]

Wards only block magic. Despite their shield-like appearance they're completely different.

 

Without perks shields only block physical melee attacks. Only a shield with perks can block arrows and only a shield with perks or the Peryite shield can block both magic and physical attacks. (This implies only a shield with perks can block all 3.)

 

Wards add a little bit of armor and block magic attacks. Arrows, most notably the poisonous kind, will pass right through your ward and stick right into you.

 

That said there's nothing quite like warding away Shouts; even dragon breath is nullified by the lowest-level ward.