I still think this mod is an improvement over the vanilla perk, especially when playing mods that spawn a fair number of archers. I came back to this mod after my lvl 60 character got beset upon by a buttload of bandits, the majority of them being archers. They chewed me up and spit me out in short order. My shield protected me to an extent, but only bought me enough time to try and gulp a potion, but to no avail. I loaded this mod up, ignored Boss's warning about relevancy and went back for more. Although still a challenge, I was able shield charge a few of them without getting severely perforated and balanced the odds. Excellent mod. Makes the perk work as it should (based on the vanilla description, anyway).
You're still going to receive damage no matter what, even if the arrows hit the shield. The in-game description is wrong. Since blocking, along with nearly everything else, is capped at 85% you'll still recieve some damage from an arrow hitting the shield, just like you still receive damage 'through' your shield even when blocking against weapon attacks.
From what I've read and heard there is no way for the game to differentiate from an arrow strike on the shield and a weapon strike on a shield, so you'll get damaged regardless.
Mod is still needed as I just got killed by an arrow that plinked off my shield -- my no-reload (except for bugs/crashes, but I could lose a whole day of play progress) Skyrim character was not pleased. For testing purposes, the archer was a Falmer Skulker and I had 100 total health. So as for being totally invincible versus arrows, that's why you have the shield -- that's why my necromancer picked it up and obtained the perk. They have to flank you to get you, then. There are Skyrim mods that implement flanking maneuvering, so being invincible in one direction versus arrows is not an exploit IMO, but an example of tried-and-true tactics versus a single direction where arrows are coming from. I'm no Duke Patrick with regards to tactics, but I found getting damaged one hundred hitpoints by an arrow that physically bounces off the shield I'm carrying, is somewhat obtuse. On that case, I'd think a shield's ability to stop an arrow head-on, should not be so much based on the shield-bearer's skill, as based on the blacksmith's skill who made the shield and the quality of materials used, as well as the material itself. And if it damages you at all, it should not plink off it. So, thanks for the mod -- endorsed because the "patched" vanilla perk is broken.
The difference between before and now (looking at it in the CK), is that they removed the block skill modifier from the deflect arrows perk, so blocking melee works normally. The player still takes damage from arrows hitting the shield, true, but it is pretty minuscule, (like ten damage or so maximum, usually more like three to five judging from the in game tests I ran). It is true that getting hit outside of the shield's hit-box means taking regular damage, but that's realistic in my opinion. Besides, the perk description only indicates it counts towards arrows hitting the shield. Try using large shields like the heavy Imperial shield or the dwarven one, they tend to do better against arrows than smaller shields.
But keep using this if you want, that's cool too, I wont complain.
@karri0n So after the 1.5 patch was released, I uninstalled this mod to test out the official deflect arrows "fix". As far as I could tell, it doesn't really fix anything. Arrows that hit the shield still do some damage, but the vast majority of the time, arrows are hitting you elsewhere, even if they are being fired from straight in front of you. It's basically luck if an arrow actually hits your shield.
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Download at your own risk, but it's entirely possible that something else (like a gazillion mods) breaks this again for you.
From what I've read and heard there is no way for the game to differentiate from an arrow strike on the shield and a weapon strike on a shield, so you'll get damaged regardless.
So keep the mod up
No longer will cowardly b*tches shoot arrows at me and turn tail when i get near. I'll follow them to Sovngarde!
So as for being totally invincible versus arrows, that's why you have the shield -- that's why my necromancer picked it up and obtained the perk. They have to flank you to get you, then. There are Skyrim mods that implement flanking maneuvering, so being invincible in one direction versus arrows is not an exploit IMO, but an example of tried-and-true tactics versus a single direction where arrows are coming from.
I'm no Duke Patrick with regards to tactics, but I found getting damaged one hundred hitpoints by an arrow that physically bounces off the shield I'm carrying, is somewhat obtuse. On that case, I'd think a shield's ability to stop an arrow head-on, should not be so much based on the shield-bearer's skill, as based on the blacksmith's skill who made the shield and the quality of materials used, as well as the material itself. And if it damages you at all, it should not plink off it.
So, thanks for the mod -- endorsed because the "patched" vanilla perk is broken.
But keep using this if you want, that's cool too, I wont complain.
So after the 1.5 patch was released, I uninstalled this mod to test out the official deflect arrows "fix". As far as I could tell, it doesn't really fix anything. Arrows that hit the shield still do some damage, but the vast majority of the time, arrows are hitting you elsewhere, even if they are being fired from straight in front of you. It's basically luck if an arrow actually hits your shield.
I'm still going to use this mod probably.