4141

There is no level cap! There is however a “perk cap”. If you were to max 100 in every skill, you’d have 80 perk points. And i guess in practice, you won’t be able to level once you have 100 points in every skill. So, something around 80 is the hard cap in practice.

4142

From what i understand that’s correct. Problem with being a dedicated archer is that it’s hard to keep shooting when enemies close quickly to melee range.

4143

Also, what about that Candlelight spell? That thing is NEVER going to get any use during combat.

I’m assuming Invisibility must get level points by using it during successful sneak attempts? What about Detect Life? Clairvoyance?

Hell, this tidbit of info raises more questions in my mind.

4144

And that’s why I went with the PC version. If I run into something the game does that I don’t like I’m only a console command away from righting the universe.

4145

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Leveling - most of these questions are answered.

4146

Well, what i meant to emphasis was that spamming low level skellies or summons doesn’t level the skill, only when those summons are in combat. This also works with Destruction (no holding down the attack button and spamming fire spells all day long). Restoration, otoh, the guide wasn’t clear on; i assume it’s when you’re healing damage though.

4147

OK, great to know, thanks. If you have a moment, how does leveling a skill contribute to your overall level up progress? It seems like leveling up low-skill skills pushes the level up bar higher – is that correct? Does leveling the same skill multiple times per level up diminish its contribution? Thanks.

Oh, thanks for the leveling wiki link. Reading it now!

4148

Yeah, the guide said level 80 as well.

The problem I’m having with the games skill system (just about the only problem, I’m really digging it right now) is with a 72 in Destruction and two perks invested in making Lightning spells do +50% damage… my damage is VERY low with magic compared to my one-handed weapons.

To be fair - it’s very likely because I’ve enchanted my weapons to have +28% lightning damage (which DID get a bump thanks to my Destruction perks!), and I have 3 pieces of gear that I enchanted that give me +25% One Handed Weapon damage.

However, thanks to all that and a skill of 75 with one-handed my Glass War Axe (thanks to a 62 in smithing) deals a base of 64 or so damage, +28%. Recharging is NOt a problem thanks to having no fewer than 3 ways to easily recharge/obtain gems.

There is no comparable way to make Magic do more damage - the best you can do is make it CHEAPER. I don’t like that. I wish there was a like way to bump up destrucitn damage. Because right now I can spam about 10 Chain Lightnings and it’s satisfying and deals solid damage, but where 4-5 chain lightnings can kill a Cave Bear, I can charge attack (double crit damage) the bear and drop it with a single swing.

Let alone last level up I picked up Dual Savagery so those two glass axes? +50% power attack damage. It’s crazy.

Anyone else finding destruction a bit on the weak side?

4149

Do you Dual-Charge your lightning?

4150

Thanks.

Disenchanting gives slightly more skill than enchanting.

Now, that’s interesting.

4151

The wiki says that as long as a healing spell is restoring something (health or stamina) it counts toward leveling.

4152

That would be consistent with Oblivion. I remember at least one afternoon spent throwing myself off of the tallest things I could find so that I would have something to heal with my Restoration spells.

4153

And here’s a cool number to know:

4154

Yea, it’s apparent you really need to drill down and focus on the long term with your character and not waste points. 81 might be the “total cap” but you’re unlikely to get much beyond 40 skill points during the course of a regular game unless you’re spending tons of time leveling all your skills. Remember that’s 81 points leveling lockpicking, speechcraft, illusion, ect. I bought the guide just so i could get an overview of the whole picture and it’s clear you need a “plan” or archetype on how you want your character to be built.

4155

Yeah, it’s not as impressive as I feel like it should be. I can hit someone with it and then there life bar moves maybe a third, for example, and here they come. It’s definately a great way to whittle down foes as they close the distance, but only weaker enmies (drauger, skeletons) get one shot even by a 50 damage chain lightning. Some later game foes I’m up against now the life bar barely moves.

Thunderbolt (Expert) does 90 damage (base 60) but it takes 189 magicka right now (once I get the expert perk it will still be almost 100 and I have almost 400 magicka, so I can only cast it even then 4 times).

You can’t really enchant robes, and even wearing a crazy awesome mask and the arch mages robes (which again only bump magicka/regeneration) I can’t kill tougher enemies (or even really harm them greatly) before they close (and then one shot me as I’m wearing robes and have almost no armor).

I like what Destruction is doing for me as a way to whittle or do ranged damage, but it’s nowhere NEAR as powerful as my one-handed weapn at the same skill level.

Is anyone in the low 30’s or higher focused only on pure mage/destruction that can tell me what I’m missing?

4156

[quote=“MattKeil,post:4109,topic:62488”]

Leaving aside that this is the nittiest nit imaginable to nitpick…[/quote]Keep your pants on. We were discussing the idea of being in a world where you feel like a participant instead of the center of the universe. It was related to an RPS article. This is a high level game design direction, not a nitpick. The Dishonored developers wanted to specifically emphasize it for their game so the player feels like the world is more real.

I think that’s really neat in general and I’m excited to see it more in the future. I’m not too concerned about it in Skyrim, and if we hadn’t been discussing that concept I might not have mentioned it.

…I have never encountered this. Even when killed and forced to reload some ways back, I have always run into the same enemies and the same characters in roughly the same places. Outside of a couple dragon attacks that never reoccurred (and the majority of them have), what you’re talking about has not happened to me once in 90 hours of play and a whole lotta death reloads.
Huh, that’s weird. It happened to me twice in a few hours before I made that post. In addition to the mage, there was also a killer bear that turned into a pushover frostbite spider after I reloaded. Not sure what to tell you. On the humans, maybe they were fighting and one killed the other before I arrived?

4157

I took down my first bear this morning and it wasn’t as horrible as people have been saying. Maybe my guy is stronger than I think he is…

4158

Would it be spoilery to make a list of things that have totally kicked my ass so far in this game? I didn’t find the one bear I fought to be all that bad, but I have run into some stuff that absolutely pasted me…

4159

Holy shit, there is sprinting? I’ve been playing this for 4 days and only just now figured this out? That’s a failure in the tutorial SOMEWHERE. I thought there was just walking and running.

4160

Yeah, and the sprinting pretty much negates the need for a horse to be honest. You can drop into combat quickly without a 5 second process of getting off the horse and getting your weapon out.