Best Mods For Improving Combat In Skyrim

A big part of what makes Skyrim such a beloved video game is the vast swath of mods available. Fans have created mods that cater to each and every gameplay element, becoming so crucial to enjoying the game that most people consider these mods to be essential to the Skyrim experience.

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Perhaps the greatest example of “mod mandating” can be found in Skyrim’s combat system, which in terms of mechanics, feels rather lacking in the vanilla version for modern standards. With a little help from the following mods, however, you can revamp enemies and battles to feel fun and challenging.

10

Wildcat: A Complete Combat Overhaul

Wildcat is one of the best combat overhaul mods to date, reworking everything from enemy AI, damage, and block timing, to faster-paced combat, injuries, staggers, stamina costs, and more. If anything isn’t to your liking, Wildcat also has an expansive list of in-game settings you can tweak.

This mod makes every encounter gripping, dangerous, and challenging; you’ll have to prepare, plan, and react accordingly. Yes, these rules even include those of you running a Khajit stealth archer build for the 15th time, or archmages spamming Destruction spells.

9

Spellsiphon: A Sensible Rework On Spell Mechanics

While Skyrim provides a plentiful array of spells to use, there is a fatal, immersion-breaking flaw in the vanilla experience: flicking through menus mid-combat to switch to a different spell. Not only does Spellsiphon fix this issue with a streamlined, reworked system, it also:

• Creates weapon and spell synergies, with a focus on combos and chains.
• Focuses on mechanics that serve a variety of functions, rather than an expansive list of spells with specific use cases.
• Adds skill-based magicka regeneration; magicka regenerates faster if you perform combos or synergies.
• Reworks bound weapons to make them more viable in the late game.

8

Archery Gameplay Overhaul

Being a stealth archer is one of the most common combat styles in Skyrim due to the winning combo of simplicity and effectiveness. After a few dozen hours, however, players will often get bored with the rather basic archery.

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This is where the Archery Gameplay Overhaul mod comes into the picture. It adds a bunch of tweaks to improve archery in the game, such as enchanted arrows, better animations, bleeding effects, and a whole host of other impressive changes.

7

Ultimate Combat

Per the lore, Skyrim hosts many of the most ferocious foes in all of Tamriel. Per the gameplay, maybe not so much. The enemy AI is predictable, to put it lightly, and not exactly innovative. This can get grating after a while, especially when players start overpowering their opponents with a mix of high levels and good gear.

Ultimate Combat aims to improve the battles of Skyrim by making them more realistic and challenging. Enemies have better AI, there are more Power Attacks to use in the game, and a poise system is also integrated into the mix. Stagger resistance, timed blocks, locational damage boosts — Ultimate Combat rewards us for thinking rather than mindlessly slashing.

6

The Ultimate Dodge Mod Reanimated

The aim of this mod is fairly self-explanatory. It adds a way to dodge in Skyrim so that combat feels more fluid and responsive. If you’re intimately familiar with Skyrim’s vanilla combat, this is a welcome change.

The original Ultimate Dodge mod is decent enough as it, but the revamped animations brought about by Reanimated makes it even better. Try it out in conjunction with Ultimate Combat, and you’ll make Skryim’s combat feel, at the very least, fresh and novel, and at best, reignite your spark for another full playthrough.

5

Animated Armoury

The weapons of Skyrim might be quite numerous, but they do get rather boring to use after a point. After all, the vast majority of these weapons have the same moveset, so it’s only their stats and aesthetics that govern whether the player would use them further down the line.

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Animated Armoury takes care of this issue by integrating new weapons into the world of Skyrim that have unique movesets of their own. It brings about a change to the gameplay that isn’t palpable at first glance, but makes a world of difference further down the line when it comes to improving the feel of combat in the game.

4

Skyrim Unleveled

For the most part, the areas where players can roam about in Skyrim are leveled along with the player to scale difficulty. However, players who want their playthrough of Skyrim to be a touch more… we’ll say sadistic, should download the Skyrim Unleveled mod.

It turns Skyrim into an unpredictable mess, with areas in the world being at different levels. This can make the early game extremely challenging as players struggle to deal with enemies that might be way beyond their current level. It can also turn unexpected sections into cakewalks.

3

Blade and Blunt

Another combat project that changes player style and enemy AI, Blade and Blunt is easily one of the most underrated mods on this list. It brings forth a plethora of tweaks to the combat system that makes for a highly engaging experience.

The biggest change brought about with this mod is to the stamina system. Everything from attacking to blocking has a more noticeable impact on stamina, making for a tense experience as players manage their stamina with each and every swing of a weapon.

2

Akaviri Martial Art

Sometimes, a combat mod doesn’t need to be a well-balanced and convoluted affair. Sometimes, it should just allow the player to look extremely cool as they slice and dice their way through enemies.

The Akaviri Martial Art mod aims to bring forth this aesthetic and enjoyable change. Players who use a one-handed weapon will find their character slashing and cutting enemies in a satisfying style, which is lovely to behold and frequently deadly.

1

Combat Gameplay Overhaul

A mod so good that most people consider it to be integral to any playthrough of Skyrim, the Combat Gameplay Overhaul mod is the most popular combat mod for Skyrim by a country mile. True to its name, this mod tweaks the combat of Skyrim heavily without being too overbearing with its changes.

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The end result is a fresh and enjoyable combat system that most people would absolutely adore in Skyrim. The amount of love put into this mod is clear for everyone to see and makes battles in the game incredibly engaging.

Released

November 11, 2011

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol

Developer(s)

Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher(s)

Bethesda Softworks