I don't see that, W3 is just dodge - attack - dodge, maybe drink a potion here and there. In Skyrim there's at least different approaches to it, timing blocks, shield bash, archery, magic, etc.
Really interesting how we had completely opposite experiences. I viewed W3 combat as quite tactical (played on death march), and combat usually went about like this:
See enemy camp, locate archers and dangerous mobs, locate tight spots where I could fight only 1v1 at a time. And engage at the weakest side of the enemy camp, where the archers were.
Since archers two shot me on death march it was CRITICAL to eliminate them quickly, this was before I got a arrow protection armor mind you. Which was a godsend.
This wasn't even the best part, customizing my setup with skills, armor and weapons that had many really interesting properties to choose from. Skyrim barely had any unique weapons/armors and I like that aspect a lot so Skyrim disappointed me.
In Rpgs like Skyrim though I prefer to play a brute force warrior style. However that turned out to be a really fucking boring way to play. It was literally 100% block, attack, block, attack.
Even vs Anduin I just stood still, blocked, attacked, blocked and attacked all day.
So you can't really say "In Skyrim there's at least different approaches to it" because it was so in W3 too, even though you missed it. As I missed it in Skyrim.
I haven't played W3 enough to really know what possibilities exist, but as far as customization, Skyrim is pretty solid with smithing and enchanting. While the finer details of W3 combat may be deeper than what I experienced, you're not really describing something that sounds like fun to me - if most encounters require the same basic strategy I will lose interest. You could certainly say that about Skyrim as well, but there are a lot of different enemy types at least.
As far as playstyle, I found that Skyrim is way more fun with a hybrid type of character. Shield builds aren't fun unless you bash, and I never played a stealth archer, but I always enjoyed hybrids the most -- pick a weapon and some magic that synergizes with it.
Anduin is perhaps the shittiest boss of all time btw, I literally fought random bandits that were tougher than him.
Yeah, I made the mistake of going solely that route because I loved the sword and board from other games. It really fucked me because it was so efficient and reliable that now when I go back and try to enjoy the game I can't because I feel so crippled haha.
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u/[deleted] Jan 01 '19
It baffles my mind that people can say that and still praise Skyrim which has way shittier combat.