Tony_M
2682
Thats hardcore Brian. I would have just used the console to give myself unlimited carry weight.
Reducing spell cost is better.
Mirriam
2684
When I restart again this might be the route to go for me as well. Alteration spells don’t give as much protection as armor, especially upgraded armor, and tends to run out at the most awkward of times. Casting armor spells every two minutes gets pretty stale as well after 50 hours.
The magic resistance from the Alteration tree is very nice, but can also be achieved with enchantments (and I’d advice to level enchanting on a Mage for double enchanting spell cost reductions), quest rewards and standing stones.
If you go Heavy armor there is a standing stone that makes armor weightless and gives extra stamina and carry capacity, which is great for a starting battlemage. Later on you can perk for the armor to be weightless.
Overall going robes/alteration is great from a roleplaying point of view, but I think Heavy Armor/Smithing/Enchanting (even without powerlevelling and abusing crafting loops) might be a stronger option.
This, to me, is one of the best reasons to own a horse in the game. On the other hand, my horse has a tendency to run like heck (and smartly so) after getting torched by dragon breath and hunting for him can be a pain in the neck (I often give up and just fasttravel to the nearest location so he’ll appear at my side).
Also, Skyrim is awesome. On the other hand, the combat in Skyrim is absolutely shit. It isn’t fun. I feel like I’m in a tank with a sword. I find myself playing in 3rd person view a lot (seems superior to me for everything except for archery and looting stuff) and I really wish they had a bit more agile combat system. I wouldnt mind if Elder Scrolls 6 was the exact same game, just with a decent combat system.
FWIW, sneak kills are quite fun and highly recommended if you can manage them. It doesn’t help the rest of the combat system, but it certainly breaks up the monotony. I also spend almost the entire game in 3rd person.
I’m playing a High-elf pure mage. I don’t find it that hard. I’m level 26 now. My magic is at 375, health is 230, stam is 100. (with current gear on)
I’m specializing in destruction (77 now) in fire, shock, dual-casting & restoration. Favorite spell is firebolt. Fireball, though great damage, is a magic drainer. I only cast it at a great distances. I use shout a lot. I even have an item that reduces the timer on shout.
So far, most dragons are fire breathers, so I have a couple fire resist items as well as potions. I can literally stand toe-to-toe with them.
I don’t find playing a mage hard, but you do have to use your Favorites a LOT to dig into your bag of tools for different spells, potions, and sometimes gear.
Intersting is the regen rate. My regen is only at 215%. Has any notice that when you’re not actually fighting something, your regen is super quick, but in a middle of a battle, magic regen is super slow? It doesn’t seem to matter if you’re in combat mode or not, but whether your are actually fighting or not.
People also might want to consider saving a character for the eventual DLC.
I hope to god they’ve finally learned their lesson. I believe that after you wrap up the main quest you just get kicked back out into the world, unlike the Fallouts, where they had to patch that basic component of ongoing DLC functionality in at a later date.
I think one option for DLC would be pre-rolled high level characters, with some associated quests.
Imagine a Mage pack, which is a character with all the magic skills levelled up, which would let those of us who didn’t see the higher reaches of the magic skill tree spend a little time with it, without having to put in the previous 50 hours.
Likewise a 2H character, or a sneak or whatever. Some people would use existing characters. Others would try the pre-rolled.
You could actually have quests that make sense for someone who runs a mages’ college or assassins’ guild, say, but I think that’s probably wishful thinking :)
ElGuapo
2690
Ok, this is super later to the party, but let’s talk combat.
------------(slight spoilers if you haven’t fought much in this game)-------
What do you guys do? Because I just got my ass handed to me about 4 times by an Ice Troll and it was a helluva fight. I’m Level 10, I think. I’m mostly two-handed weapons, but I use some of the starting spells (mostly Flames) for backpedalling ranged combat.
Fight against say, a group of bandits is easy. I catch them on fire with Flames and then switch to my two-handed weapon when they close the distance. From there, it’s trying to time their swings/attacks so I am backing up right as they are about to attack. I then counter with my own attack. Of course, most bandits just go down with one power attack. With the troll, I had to flame the hell out of him while backpedalling, then turn tail and sprint to a ledge so I could heal and/or regenerate magic. The thing could kill me in two hits so it was a long, epic fight. I think I used all of my healing potions, most of my magicka potions, and even a few buff like two-handed and Oakflesh.
Should that be the way it is at level 10? I’m wearing a full steel set, and don’t use bows much (I was heavy into bows in Oblivion so I’m trying to go Spellswordy in Skyrim). Should I go with sword and board more? Do you guys ever use spell and board? That’s kind of an interesting combo but it doesn’t seem to do as much damage. Dual wielding looked cool, but the lack of block made me absorb a ton of damage.
I use potions for that situation. Lots and lots and lots of potions.
That’s probably not the best way to do it.
What kind of character are you playing - when you say “combat,” what exactly are you referring to? Melee, I assume, but with what weapons? I only ask because I agree that combat sucks, especially early on, but I found it got better for my 2H-wielding warrior when I unlocked several new moves in the Two-Handed and Block trees. Better standing power attacks, decapitations, charging power attacks, and power bashing during blocks all helped make melee combat feel a little more diverse and not just HULK SMASH all the time.
When you say “higher levels,” what range do you mean? Over 30? Over 50? I’m just curious, my assassin character is a stealthy archer and she’s still pretty effective with bows at level 35, but I’m wondering if that effectiveness is going to decline soon…? (FWIW, I have the Sneak tree maxed and 100 in the skill, and the Archery tree almost maxed with about 85 in that skill; using the Nightengale Bow and Elven Arrows.)
It may be that you hit 10 and enemies leveled up (they do so on the 10s, IIRC) so you’re at the low point of your strength compared to enemies in in this level range. It also depends on how you got to level 10 - if you had several level ups that resulted from grinding Smithing, for instance, your combat skills will lag behind your character level.
That said, my breakthrough with 2H combat came when I finally got the timing down for blocking and bashing while blocking. Staggering your enemies by blocking their attacks - and then following up with an attack of your own - is pretty important. Bashing (hitting attack while blocking) can interrupt their attacks altogether and prevent you from getting hit. (Keep in mind that bashing uses stamina, though.) As I mentioned above, it’ll become more interesting and more effective when you get some more points into the Block and Two-Handed trees.
With the Ice Troll, did you have a companion with you to help? Have you learned any armor buff spells? Are you using Shouts or your racial ability? (I only ask b/c early on I was having trouble too, and I realized it was often due to me forgetting to use my ‘extra’ abilities.)
Though you can be a jack of all trades, master of none, Skyrim really rewards specialities.
I find that flames is very ineffective against higher level mobs. Firebolt is the way to go. Thing is, then you’re really wanting to up your mana, mana regen, and reduce spell cost.
I originally started with a board-and-spell character, but found that the best defense with a wizzie is a strong offense. Dual-casting is wonderful.
Unrelenting Force shout is a mages friend. Their recovery time is so slow, you can really nail them without any backlash. You do end up backpeddling a bit, but I also know frost trolls swing is slow. You can run past them without them hitting you, then turn and blast them again. This is good when fighting them in close quarters.
I haven’t played a fighter, but heard that powerful swings can one-hit most mobs once you get up there.
DeepT
2695
Get your enchanting up. The only long term viable way to play a destruction based mage is to get your mana cost down to zero or near zero. Fireball is a fun spell, especially when you can spam it indefinitely.
With my mage I have destro and Illusion (frenzy and invisibility) for free. Both are useful and a lot of fun.
Enchanting is up. :) My specs are destruction, restoration, and enchanting.
Anyone else having trouble with Geirmund’s Hall? And by trouble, I mean the game CTD’s whenever I try to enter it? No problem anywhere else in Skyrim - just that one place. Originally ran into it when I was doing the Companions stuff (quite late in the game), but even after all that’s over (had to use console to get past that part - I’d already cleared out the area but had to go back in for something or other), I still can’t go back in there anymore.
Not that I need to - again, I cleared it out early - but while going through trying to visit every icon on the map, thought I’d try it again for S&Gs, and still - CTD.
Hansey
2698
I hadn’t considered DLC, but I was planning to wait for lots of fun and interesting mods to be available before making another character. DLC is another interesting point.
I’ve finished the main quest with my first character, now a level 44 or so archer thief. I did all the faction questlines (though I was sort of forced to finish the mage college questline against my will, since an event locked me out of talking to an NPC there for the main quest until I completed the mages quests), but I haven’t done the Dark Brotherhood (which you’d think I would have done as a thief!), and I’ve done the “civil war” questline, but need to do it again and side with the other side.
I plan to make a mage, but will hold off until there’s a bunch of new content (whether it be official DLC or community mods) to do so.
jeffd
2699
Ice trolls are nasty. Come back later, or bring help.
Ice trolls are nasty unless you have the time dilation block perk, in which case they’re a joke.
