Skyrim - my story of woe :p

[tyler_jrb]

I always used light armour all enhanced. Usually was the dragonbone armour, enhanced with 100 smithing and the potion that lets you enhance stuff by like 30% for 2 minutes or something. I used a sword called the chilrend aswell .

If needed I just switched to healing spell mid fight and that could usually heal you pretty easily.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Just out of interest, anyone ever done a successful archery non-sneak character?

I've tried a couple of times with grand designs of being legolas, but unlike even single handed no shield with light armour i just can't get it to be strong enough to be playable.

Hmm, half the fun is being able to take out a camp full of bandit without them even locating you and its certainly a boon to a low level char.

I guess it depends on how much damage you can soak up and how much damage your bow can do because once they're on top of you your bow is nothing more than pointy stick with a bit of string attached, and not a very sharp one at that. Keeping your distance is everything and finishing them off before they get close.

I mean its certainly doable on the char I have now but a low level one, maybe not so much. And you really have to duck and weave standing on the spot or even running in a straight line means you're an easy target to opposing mages or archers. I love it when they stand still to aim, I think "gotcha! because with the Power Shot stagger and Bullseye paralyze perks they're not likely to make it back on their feet again before they're finished off.

edit: and Legolas almost always one-shotted his enemies as I recall so he's probably not exactly a low level character either! No need to feel too bad early on in which case.

 

[kration]

This thread is making me want to play Skyrim again!

I've now got it on Steam with the hi-res texture pack so may start a character from scratch. My previous char was an archer thief build to fill the 'Thief' gap in my life.

I've not played Skyrim for a couple of years (!) so wondering what to try. Something spellcasterish does sound interesting, but very complicated....

 

[Psymonkee]

Illusion all the way!

Just make sure you have a non magic backup or a super crapload of enchanted gear for magicka regen. Also sneak pretty much all the time!

 

[matt_fsr]

Which is a dual-wielding 1H/light armour build (with smithing and enchanting for uber-powerful light armour). I did say you need armour if you were going the melee route, and that build does nothing to dispute that fact.

Still looking for synergy between mage skills and non-mage skills. Still not finding it.

Genuinely not wanting to be antagonistic here, but perhaps it doesn't exist?

The game designers had plenty to do with making locations, story, textures, dialogue, interfaces etc... and yeah, some of them are a bit pants in places, but they know mods are a thing, and so they obviously haven't polished *all* the potential gameplay type characters which you can build with such a free-reign that the game gives you.

There's other RPG's where you can only take 1 of 7 pre-defined character types, so perhaps they just couldn't get the "pure mage" type character style to be properly balanced?

 

[kration]

Illusion all the way!

Just make sure you have a non magic backup or a super crapload of enchanted gear for magicka regen. Also sneak pretty much all the time!

Sounds good, but went in with an eyefinity setup and the menus were all cocked up. So abandoned it after about 5 minutes...

 

[TheSwede]

Sounds good, but went in with an eyefinity setup and the menus were all cocked up. So abandoned it after about 5 minutes...

If you want Skyrim to work with eyefinity, check out the guide lines over here to get it all working properly with menus and all.
http://www.wsgf.org/dr/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/en

 

[Psymonkee]

Just out of interest, anyone ever done a successful archery non-sneak character?

I've tried a couple of times with grand designs of being legolas, but unlike even single handed no shield with light armour i just can't get it to be strong enough to be playable.

Started this build tonight and picked Imperial for Voice of the Emperor (if things get tough) and going all in on:

Archery
One Handed (backup attack plan!)
Alchemy (Poison arrows! )
Conjuration (Bound Bow with Mystic Binding?!)
Smithing

Looking forward to it already

 

[ttaskmaster]

Just out of interest, anyone ever done a successful archery non-sneak character?

I just created and played the character like a normal medieval archer - Bow for distance shots, switch to melee weapon when you really have to. From there, just work on your aim, learn the limitations of your bow/arrows and build your skills.

It was certainly fun to play, but I still preferred a sword-based slugger character overall.

 

[DampCat]

Started this build tonight and picked Imperial for Voice of the Emperor (if things get tough) and going all in on:

Archery
One Handed (backup attack plan!)
Alchemy (Poison arrows! )
Conjuration (Bound Bow with Mystic Binding?!)
Smithing

Looking forward to it already

Stealth/Archery is totally broken. The bonus damage from shadows is just nuts. I Archery/Dagger rogue style build and it got silly towards the end.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[BombayMix]

I started a new game the other day. Must say even at lvl 2 I didn't like pure desturction. Still seemed weak, lots of running an kiting, no real protection from damage. Having to constantly go into menus to switch spells not good. Gets old fast.

Already thinking of switching to one handed, with some magic in the off hand. (Probably conjuring/restoration) You really need something once the magic runs out, and it does fast. Probably give up the mage robes and switch to light armour too. The mage protection spells are very good. How are meant to have the mana for them plus switch to the spell in battle just seems a nightmare. Better to have armour all the time it seems.

 

[weeble]

....Anywayyyyy, I love playing sneaky sneaky. If you've got 60+ perks in Illusion, have you got the silent cast yet? My current guy is sneaky illusionist, I rarely use my dagger, I use calm and fury hand in hand to force everyone to fight each other as I sit in the shadows. The winner is ultimately calmed, as he casually talks to me whilst I line up to slit his throat.

This sounds a fun build - got a lvl26 sneaky thief majored in archery and sneak only. Wondering how easy it'll be to add illusion (currently 17) or if even remotely possible...

 

[adolf hamster]

I just created and played the character like a normal medieval archer - Bow for distance shots, switch to melee weapon when you really have to. From there, just work on your aim, learn the limitations of your bow/arrows and build your skills.

It was certainly fun to play, but I still preferred a sword-based slugger character overall.

I've tried a couple of times, but i always fall to sneak/archery or one handed.

Started this build tonight and picked Imperial for Voice of the Emperor (if things get tough) and going all in on:

Archery
One Handed (backup attack plan!)
Alchemy (Poison arrows! )
Conjuration (Bound Bow with Mystic Binding?!)
Smithing

Looking forward to it already

Sounds interesting, although to my recollection the bound weapons weren't that good?

Take it you're running smithing legit? I did a couple of times then just resigned to cheating it as there's only so many times you can bankrupt yourself making 2000 iron daggers before it ceases to be fun, but smithing is so useful a skill to have i spec every character with it from the start.

If you want Skyrim to work with eyefinity, check out the guide lines over here to get it all working properly with menus and all.
http://www.wsgf.org/dr/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/en

Flawless widescreen ftw, i think there's also things in the .ini that are to do with it, tried to ressurrect skyrim recently and i had to delete the ini because something didn't like me moving to single screen.

 

[Psymonkee]

I started a new game the other day. Must say even at lvl 2 I didn't like pure desturction. Still seemed weak, lots of running an kiting, no real protection from damage. Having to constantly go into menus to switch spells not good. Gets old fast.

Already thinking of switching to one handed, with some magic in the off hand. (Probably conjuring/restoration) You really need something once the magic runs out, and it does fast. Probably give up the mage robes and switch to light armour too. The mage protection spells are very good. How are meant to have the mana for them plus switch to the spell in battle just seems a nightmare. Better to have armour all the time it seems.

You really need to bind weapons/spells to keys, sadly it isn't made obvious

In the menu favourite a weapon/spell (usually 'F' while highlighted)
Close the menu
Press 'Q' to access your now favourite items (pauses gameplay)
Highlight a spell/weapon with the mouse and press a number 1 - 8 over the WASD keys
Press 'Q' to close the quick menu
Select weapon/spell by pressing the number and switch in realtime!

Sounds interesting, although to my recollection the bound weapons weren't that good?

Take it you're running smithing legit? I did a couple of times then just resigned to cheating it as there's only so many times you can bankrupt yourself making 2000 iron daggers before it ceases to be fun, but smithing is so useful a skill to have i spec every character with it from the start.

Early levels and pre any serious smithing the bound bow with mystic binding far outstrips even the dwarven bow I've found so far. Fire rate of a long bow with the damage of a daedric bow/daedric arrows? YES PLEASE!

Smithing is something I work throughout the game and usually spend time walking between places transmuting from iron -> gold and then making jewlery before enchanting it. Surprisingly effective now

 

[adolf hamster]

Early levels and pre any serious smithing the bound bow with mystic binding far outstrips even the dwarven bow I've found so far. Fire rate of a long bow with the damage of a daedric bow/daedric arrows? YES PLEASE!

Smithing is something I work throughout the game and usually spend time walking between places transmuting from iron -> gold and then making jewlery before enchanting it. Surprisingly effective now

Sounds like a decent smithing strategy, i've used transmute often when i do my mage characters to level up alteration, go to that place northeast of whiterun with all the iron ore then transmute it all, smelt and insta cash.

Not really a mage character me, i dislike being rendered useless the moment i run out of mana, at least with weapons you can keep on swinging.

One handed no sheild is a fun one to use if you've got dance of death installed

 

[Nedb37]

Just out of interest, anyone ever done a successful archery non-sneak character?

I've tried a couple of times with grand designs of being legolas, but unlike even single handed no shield with light armour i just can't get it to be strong enough to be playable.

Yes, essentially. I've not got as much free time as I had but was at L40+ with exactly this kind of build and it's a lot of fun. Just make sure you invest in smithing and enchanting, as you can grab overpowered bows early on and improve your armour etc... Helps with a melee style companion also, to charge in while you support. The archery perks are pretty daft at higher levels as well, I'm generally killing a giant with 1/2 arrows now, for example.

Love Skyrim, absolutely love it. Never completed it, mind. Too many distractions!

 

[Vern1961]

It's a while since I last played Skyrim but think I've been through it three times and never noticed any real issues with the levelling. I've mostly played as a conventional warrior (!H, 2H, Bow) with some magicka as a backup. There were bottlenecks where I got stuck - a nasty underground level with a particular vicious spell wielding boss and that one where you need to take down three witches (Hagren) in their hilltop camp.

I admit to doing a fair bit of forging in Whiterim but largely so I could get access to better weapons and armour, plus it's a real money maker after dragging dwarven metal back from some dungeon and get plenty of cash for crafting the weapons. I also tried to do all the side quests which give you access to enchanted weapons and break them down to customise my own.

Player "shouts" I found one of the weakest elements of the game, compared to the effect of a Draugr Deathlord using one on you.

I had contemplated doing a primary magicka play through at some point but having read the previous pages think I will stick with my trusty steel.

 

[sniffy]

I had contemplated doing a primary magicka play through at some point but having read the previous pages think I will stick with my trusty steel.

I'm currently playing through as a mage with "tendo's skyrim redone" mod. Although I haven't got the mage to a high level, which is where the problems occur, reading through the mod's readme it does seem he's introduced better scaling. A lot of the skill trees have been totally reworked with new spells and so on which might take your fancy

 

[FoxEye]

Skyrim can be brutal, even on the Normal difficulty.

Was walking along the road just outside a major city. I hear the "zzzap" of lightning, and my guy falls down dead. No idea who did it, or why. I think the game is just telling me to go to bed

NPC mages, btw, are brutal. So sad that the player cannot reach the heights of uber-powerful magic that NPCs have access to.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Skyrim can be brutal, even on the Normal difficulty.

Was walking along the road just outside a major city. I hear the "zzzap" of lightning, and my guy falls down dead. No idea who did it, or why. I think the game is just telling me to go to bed

NPC mages, btw, are brutal. So sad that the player cannot reach the heights of uber-powerful magic that NPCs have access to.

Thats easy, enchant eveything with resist magic and/or resist fire/frost/(lightning, I think.) Put the enchantments on anything that'll carry it, fire/frost resist goes up to 50% per item, resist magic 22% iirc (makes sense since it's cover-all stategy), up to 75% max (+75% of the remaining 15% iirc). You can stand all day under an ancient dragon blasting fire/frost and barely feel it, same with lightning.