Skyrim - my story of woe :p

Caporegime
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When does enchanting get powerful, btw? I'm at 50/100 skill, and the stuff I can make is absolute tosh. Like +5 to a skill, or +15% resistance, with a Grand Soul Gem.
 
Soldato
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A little while longer sadly, make sure you're taking all the available perks though!

Remember though it's the size of the soul that matters rather than the gem. You can have a petty soul (fox/wolf) inside a grand soul gem! :(

Grab the Star of Azura quest (Azuras Shrine) and make sure you choose the black version - human souls are delicious :D
 
Caporegime
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Very annoying. The Wiki is full of completely wrong information. Apparently the wardrobes in the room you are assigned in the Winterhold College are safe to store things in. The wiki even says "all wardrobes" are safe and do not respawn.

So I put all my gear in there. And of course the wiki is wrong, the room completely respawns, and all my gear is gone.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Containers#Safe_Containers

^^Complete garbage info.
 
Soldato
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Very annoying. The Wiki is full of completely wrong information. Apparently the wardrobes in the room you are assigned in the Winterhold College are safe to store things in. The wiki even says "all wardrobes" are safe and do not respawn.

So I put all my gear in there. And of course the wiki is wrong, the room completely respawns, and all my gear is gone.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Containers#Safe_Containers

^^Complete garbage info.

Really? Are you using any mods?

I never stored anything in there to be honest so don't know.
 
Soldato
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I only ever store things in my houses. Can't be trusting things that might reset :p

Also even if you do lose stuff you can just create it/loot it again - moar killing :D

Bound Bow is epic btw - I was level 17 and taking down giants in 6 arrows - pew pew pew :D
 
Caporegime
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I would really like to finish this game. But man, the difficulty spikes are /insane/.

Travelling on foot for about 30 mins, exploring and generally avoiding fights (calm is great). Then an "Ancient Vampire" jumps at me. Casting non-stop ice spells with one hand and life drain with the other, whilst walking backwards out of melee range so I can't get a hit in.

Immune to my spells (illusion). Immune to Turn Undead ("too powerful for this spell"). Can't be poisoned (undead).

I knew straight away I was dead, and using health pots was just delaying the inevitable. I couldn't run because the ice spells freeze me. I couldn't hurt the vampire with anything in my arsenal. There was nothing to do but die after running out of potions, and lose 30 mins of play time.

So I restart, walk for 5 mins and get attacked by two snow bears. Normally I just calm them and move on. "Too powerful for this spell." But wait, I've got the perks! Nope, too powerful, sorry. Try to run. Snow bears run faster than /sprinting speed/. And kill in two hits. And there are two of them. Dead again.

It does seem that about level 20 I just hit a brick wall in this game.

Maybe it's because I do too much alchemy/smithing/whatever, and the game expects you not to do that until much later? It seems that I'd be better off just focusing 100% on combat skills until level 50, and do the crafting after that.
 
Man of Honour
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Are you making good use of bonuses from apparel? the game kind of doesn't present it very well but it makes a huge difference.
 
Caporegime
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I've mostly just got unenchanted stuff as that's all that the game has given me, so far. The stuff with minor enchantments has been disenchanted :p He's only L24, and the game doesn't really drop magic stuff in abundance at that level.

The silly thing is that after re-loading, the Ancient Vampire was replaced (near the same spot) with a Fledgling Vampire, who got torn to pieces by a passing wolf. The Ancient otoh is an unstoppable killing machine at my level, immune to everything and anything. Couldn't even get a hit in. Skyrim is just very random and very spiky.
 
Man of Honour
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My character was only L17 and had loads of apparel with decent bonuses and that really makes a difference - though the game really obfuscates it which annoys the **** out of me - really sloppy development.

With the stuff I had it boosted Magika by 50%, Magika regeneration by 200%, spells cost 50% less to cast and also had a fairly decent boost to health amount and fire resistance all from apparel before any other stats and someone who'd invested a bit more time into the game (I played it pretty casual) could probably do a bit better than that.
 
Caporegime
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My character was only L17 and had loads of apparel with decent bonuses and that really makes a difference - though the game really obfuscates it which annoys the **** out of me - really sloppy development.

With the stuff I had it boosted Magika by 50%, Magika regeneration by 200%, spells cost 50% less to cast and also had a fairly decent boost to health amount and fire resistance all from apparel before any other stats and someone who'd invested a bit more time into the game (I played it pretty casual) could probably do a bit better than that.

Really? That's insane. I've got nothing like that. Nothing like that has dropped in dungeons or been available to buy. Out of curiosity where did you get that all from? At level 17...!

My original char from years ago didn't even have that at level 46!
 
Soldato
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Holy hell - the Ancient Vampires are level 38 - no wonder you fell so quickly :(

Pro-tip: SPAM F5 :D

Most of the problems you appear to be running into is bad luck mixed with what I feel is some awful game design choices by Bethesda - absolutely no effort to give you any sort of level gates to areas or warnings of tougher enemies. Would make sense if it spawned enemies +/- 5 levels of you perhaps but it just seems like a crapshoot at times!

Given the presence of vampires I'm guessing you have Dawnguard installed? :)
 
Caporegime
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Just base game and Hearthfire. No mods.

e: Just about every night I bump into a vampire in a random encounter outdoors. They aren't rare by any stretch :p
 
Soldato
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I never really ran into Vampires until much later into the game. I'd suggest you need to do some of the quests and get a higher level rather than just doing your crafting and wandering.

Warrior is a very easy class to play as is Mage (though a bit squishy). I've yet to really play bow though I use one on the warrior.




M.
 
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I think destruction is seriously underpowered compared to melee. Best bet for this game really is put some time into dual wield, blacksmithing and enchantment. Get some ice or fire enchantments on some legendary deadric swords, along with the slow time shout and you break the game.

I sank several hundreds of hours into my main character and pretty much did everything
you can do in the game and this I found was most effective. The master spells are ok but by the time you cast them you are dead! Haha
 
Caporegime
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I'm wondering at this point if the level scaling for random encounters is bugged. I keep getting random encounters (all over the world) that are much, much higher level than my char.

Latest dick move by the game: I'm near Markarth, and the game spawns a party of Thalmor to attack me. I've not bothered them before. But hey, they're hostile for whatever reason.

So I do my usual calm/frenzy tactic, but all I get is "too powerful for this spell".

Seriously, if anyone wants to play with Illusion, get very, very used to reading "too powerful for this spell". Like, all the time :/

So I check the wiki, and to cast Storm Atronach they must have been min 8 levels higher than me.

Now that in itself is not a problem. For melee builds, you'd still smack them around like it was nothing. But spellcasters have strict level caps on their spells. You can dual cast, but the mana cost is so prohibitive you run out of mana in two spells (literally!)

Why Beth put level caps in place for spellcasters (specifically for Illusion) I just don't understand. If you're going to have random encounters where mobs are much, much higher level, but you're going to let melee be fine with that, why gimp magic/Illusion so that none of your spells work?

Grrr. Why do I keep playing this? It just makes me mad!
 
Soldato
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Very annoying. The Wiki is full of completely wrong information. Apparently the wardrobes in the room you are assigned in the Winterhold College are safe to store things in. The wiki even says "all wardrobes" are safe and do not respawn.

So I put all my gear in there. And of course the wiki is wrong, the room completely respawns, and all my gear is gone.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Containers#Safe_Containers

^^Complete garbage info.

Hmm... its actually talking about safe locations and then talking about storage containers rather than stating that all containers are safe... There is a list of supposed safe locations here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Category:Skyrim-Places-Safe. Not tried most of them myself though. The only confirmed safe storage are Player Homes and I've seen it in the CK so I'd save up some cash and pick up Breezehome if you havn't already.

Travelling on foot for about 30 mins, exploring and generally avoiding fights (calm is great). Then an "Ancient Vampire" jumps at me. Casting non-stop ice spells with one hand and life drain with the other, whilst walking backwards out of melee range so I can't get a hit in.

Immune to my spells (illusion). Immune to Turn Undead ("too powerful for this spell"). Can't be poisoned (undead).

I knew straight away I was dead, and using health pots was just delaying the inevitable. I couldn't run because the ice spells freeze me. I couldn't hurt the vampire with anything in my arsenal. There was nothing to do but die after running out of potions, and lose 30 mins of play time.

So I restart, walk for 5 mins and get attacked by two snow bears. Normally I just calm them and move on. "Too powerful for this spell." But wait, I've got the perks! Nope, too powerful, sorry. Try to run. Snow bears run faster than /sprinting speed/. And kill in two hits. And there are two of them. Dead again.

It does seem that about level 20 I just hit a brick wall in this game.

Don't go wandering open country alone take a follower and if its a difficult location, several (Delphine and Esbern and handy for clearing out difficult locations, for a while) and if you're a low level char avoid wandering the landscape completely unless absolutely essential, if you have a specific destination in mind take a carriage or if near the docks a boat, thats what they're there for, at least until you've levelled up. You'll notice most folk in Skyrim don't travel and only then in convoys, its safer that way.

Just base game and Hearthfire. No mods.

e: Just about every night I bump into a vampire in a random encounter outdoors. They aren't rare by any stretch :p

Not a good idea to go wandering around outside of cities at night, vampires are tough. They're rarely encountered during daylight hours above ground though and oh, if you ever get Dawnguard DLC you'll want to avoid heading out at night, period. :p

Latest dick move by the game: I'm near Markarth, and the game spawns a party of Thalmor to attack me. I've not bothered them before. But hey, they're hostile for whatever reason

Don't bother them unless you have to, as agents of the High Elven Aldmeri Dominion they have little patience or tolerance for outsiders. If they question if you worship Talos either deny it or don't argue. If you've attacked them previously they will attack on sight but don't attack them before they attack you or you will attract a bounty! If you have a criminal bounty they'll likely attack on sight too like most "moral" types in Skyrim ... and yeah, they're dicks, because just about all folk in american fiction with stereotypical "British" accents are dicks. :rolleyes:

So I check the wiki, and to cast Storm Atronach they must have been min 8 levels higher than me.

Thalmor mages are powerful and one of the few to cast Storm Atronachs, the other I can think of off the top of my head is Esbern but at least he's on your side, mess with the Dominion at your peril...

I think destruction is seriously underpowered compared to melee. Best bet for this game really is put some time into dual wield, blacksmithing and enchantment. Get some ice or fire enchantments on some legendary deadric swords, along with the slow time shout and you break the game.

Hmm, the firebolt 40 damage explosion and ice storm I think it was are pretty powerful, they did as much damage as daedric bow/arrows, in my experience at least. The only trouble with casting is running out of magicka and/or mana but with zero casting armour enchantments/(perks?) it worked pretty well not sure about mana as I only tried it once for fun on my warrior char but otherwise seemed ok, I'll admit I don't have much experience in that direction though. I might go for that as a dedicated battlemage build sometime.
 
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Man of Honour
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Really? That's insane. I've got nothing like that. Nothing like that has dropped in dungeons or been available to buy. Out of curiosity where did you get that all from? At level 17...!

My original char from years ago didn't even have that at level 46!

Will try and figure out what I did - mostly just wandered.

EDIT: Quests completed:

A cornered rat
A chance arrangement
Diplomatic immunity
Innocence lost
The eye of Magnus
The staff of Magnus
Containment
Revealing the unseen
A blade in the dark
Good intentions
Hitting the books
Under Saarthal
First lessons
Silenced tongues
The horse of Jurgen Windcaller
The way of the voice
Dragon rising
Bleak Falls barrow
The golden claw
Before the storm
Unbound

Not sure what else and/or where specific stuff came from.

I smell mods! :D

No mods other than graphics enhancements.
 
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Caporegime
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Well, persevering but I'm finding it tough atm. Everywhere I go at level 30 enemies are 1-hit killing me.

I can't believe this is "Normal" difficulty. The only way to stay alive is not to let anything hit me. Weirdly, this isn't a "no armour" playthrough either. I'm wearing light armour; the best stuff I can find or make. But it can't be doing much, because I can't take a hit at all.

Obviously if I come across a lower level enemy "ie Bandit" that isn't levelled with me, it's the other way round. But against my own level enemies, ie "Bandit Marauder" or "Chief", it's all 1-hit kills against me.

There doesn't seem to be any middle ground in this game. I just have to keep reloading the same ecounter over and over, until I somehow find a way to use the geometry to get the NPCs stuck somewhere. It's a bit crap, tbh, but it's the only way to stay alive.
 
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