Modders have put an awful lot of effort into making sure Skyrim has continually evolved and expanded in the years since it was first released into the world.
Many have focused on changing the game by adding everything from interesting quests, subtle immersive details, and even new alchemy recipes to it, with a few even going as re-creating dungeons from other Elder Scrolls games or serving giant sweetrolls to the province’s populace.
If you’re looking for something to improve your combat experience as you fight your way across Tamriel and aren’t a huge fan of the God of War series, a new mod might be worth adding to your load order.
Feel like your weapon-obsessed warrior is struggling to protect themselves from the blows of Skyrim’s toughest foes?
The mod in question is called ‘Dual Wield Parrying SKSE’, and is the work of prolific modder Borgut1337. Some of their previous work has helped optimise the scripts used by popular mods like EnaiSiaion’s ‘Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim’ and allowed Serana to transform into her vampire lord form.
This time, they’ve decided to release a fresh version of their OG Skyrim mod ‘Dual Wield Parrying’, which features completely rewritten code in order to try and make the actions it brings to the game more responsive.
Activated by pressing the V key while your character is holding one-handed weapons in both of their claws, a combat setup which usually comes with the caveat of compromising your defensive capabilities, the mod’s parries and blocks should help level the playing field if you end up battling any enemies you can’t beat by rapidly rushing in and deploying dual flurries.
They’ll also likely be handy for spellswords, who might rely on a one-handed weapon and one-handed spell or staff combo as their default loadout, with well-timed blocks providing relief to those who haven’t yet acquired the beefy armour or alteration magic required to protect their character from harm.
Whatever your playstyle, you also shouldn’t have to worry as much about encountering the pesky “double attack bug”, which Borgut1337 identifies as having long been a problem for mods based around helping dual wielders to block and can mess up how the game registers bash damage.
While the likely root cause of this issue, which Borgut1337 reckons to be linked to reloading save files can’t currently be rectified, this mod is designed to detect when the bug is occurring and attempt to work around it.
It also requires the Skyrim Script Extender, meh321’s ‘Address Library for SKSE Plugins’ and the Dawnguard DLC to work as intended, so make sure you’ve grabbed all of those.
Regardless of whether your Dragonborn is now blocking more regularly than the average controversial Twitter personality, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the interesting world of Skyrim modding.
You can also check out our mods of the month for January 2023 or our new series where we delve into the rich history of The Elder Scrolls 5’s setting: