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Skyrim, or, How I Ruined My LifeFollow

#252 Nov 15 2011 at 11:37 AM Rating: Good
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There are a ton of side quests in town Maz. Just talk to people. They don't have glowing ! above their heads but conversation leads to quests.

Also you can just wander around in this type of game and find all kinds of cool dungeons and whatnot. I usually explore some, hit a random dungeon. Then pick up one of the quest threads I am working on. I'm trying not to plow through the main quest to fast so I usally only pick it back up after doing a few side quests and space it out.
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#253 Nov 15 2011 at 11:42 AM Rating: Good
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Mazra wrote:
When I had to fight those spiders in the beginning, before I found out you could zoom out to third person view, and even better, shoot stuff dead before it comes near, I looked away and spammed those mouse buttons until the guy I was following (Ralof? Rolaf?) told me to move on.

Another thing is, I'm having a hard time figuring out what quests to do when. I seem to be skipping stuff, or doing it wrong, because I'm not high enough level to be taking on dragons and giants and stuff, but the quests lead me to them.

For instance, the first dragon you kill, to unlock your Shouts, took forever and a few deaths because of my low level and lack of spells and perks. I got the distinct feeling that I had skipped something somewhere, but the game is so nonlinear that I have no idea where to go.


What level were you? I was 7, and had only spent 1 perk point. That dragon doesn't have much health at all, but it's breath attack still hurts. If you turtle it, the guards will eventually shoot it down. When that happened, I continued to needle it with arrows (which you can do from the safety of the tower).

I ended up killing it with my sword, just because I was hoping for a special animation (but no luck).

Until you get some fire resist gear, though, (or <insert other resist>), it might be tough to go toe-to-toe with a dragon without using range. It's really hard to avoid their breath without cover.
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#254 Nov 15 2011 at 11:45 AM Rating: Good
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Oh, and the quests I had done at that point were the barrow (to get the claw, before being sent there on the mission). And, um... oh, I beat up the bard in Whiterun's pub.

Remember that you get levels from skillups, though. Selling stuff, crafting weapons/armor (or improving them), or mixing potions will all get you skill ups.

Really, level doesn't mean much in Skyrim. I mean, each level is only 10 points to a stat and a perk point (and people are often going to end up sitting on those while they wait for skillups).
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#255 Nov 15 2011 at 12:02 PM Rating: Good
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Centipedes and those priests are a major PITA. As mentioned, the centipedes hit hard, fast, and poison. The priests just run away and move fast- so annoying.

Dragons will land if you can get out in the open, but they tend to be attracted to people and cities making it difficult to attract. Dragons will never actually land in the city, only on rooftops or outside of it. The college being the exception- a dragon will land in the courtyard. After dealing enough damage, a dragon will be "grounded" and land in a predetermined location.

I found critical hits are ridiculous, so I went with sword/shield combo. Going to put all my points into Bladesman and the damage+% perks. Shield eats up too much stamina to even consider power attacks. I was surprised to find SnB fighting to actually be interesting- bash, slash, slash, slash, anticipate, bash, slash, slash, etc.

As far as where to go- this is a Bethesda game, there is no right or wrong. I've started completing quests further along in the story than I really am. Typically, if you're having a tough time, try to upgrade your gear or find a different style. If you're having trouble, try posting your build/gear. If this is your first Elder Scrolls game, it can be overwhelming and veterans might have some good advice.
#256 Nov 15 2011 at 12:02 PM Rating: Good
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idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
That brings me to my next question--what weapon type are people using?

I'm doing one-handed, but can't decide. On the one hand, armor ignore on maces sounds great. But I think I want to use swords, just because I like them more aesthetically. But the whole crit thing is kinda meh to me.


Bow and daggers. I actually just switched from swords to daggers last night and I find that I like them better. With the faster swing with dual wield I feel that I just put out way more damage swinging way faster. Plus it helps that I finally got the eleven smithing perk and my eleven daggers do 19 damage a swing. Now I just need to enchant them and i'll tear through everything.

I need to find a new bow though. I'm still rocking this depleted elven bow.

EDIT: Dig, I've seen the special animation when killing a dragon with a sword. It's pretty cool jumping on their heads and then viciously stabbing them in the skull.

Edited, Nov 15th 2011 12:04pm by ArexLovesPie
#257 Nov 15 2011 at 12:03 PM Rating: Good
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Perhaps I've been unfortunate with my encounters out in the world then. I think I was level 5 or 6 when I took on the first dragon. Climbed the tower and started throwing arrows into empty space for a good five minutes before the dragon, swooping down over the tower, turned on a plate and roasted me to a crisp.

The Barrow quest was also pretty tough, probably because I only had my basic channeled spells. Stuff just wouldn't die no matter what I used and combined. Eventually I switched to a one-handed melee weapon and spam-clicked my way through with a healing spell on my left hand.

I noticed spells don't scale with level either, so I'm assuming gear plays a big role in boosting abilities and such.

Minor hand to eye coordination issue as well. Right mouse button = left hand and left mouse button = right hand. It's driving me crazy when I try to assign stuff to hands.

Oh, by the way, is there any point in using your left melee weapon ever? From what I've tried you can't use both weapons simultaneously like you can with spells (love hurling my icy chunks of win everywhere). Is the left weapon just there for the power swing?
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#258 Nov 15 2011 at 12:13 PM Rating: Good
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Quote:
I noticed spells don't scale with level either, so I'm assuming gear plays a big role in boosting abilities and such.


Gear, to some extent. But I think it's largely through perks. I could be wrong, though.

And I haven't DWed, so I can't answer your other question.
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#259 Nov 15 2011 at 12:15 PM Rating: Excellent
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xypin wrote:

Dragons will land if you can get out in the open, but they tend to be attracted to people and cities making it difficult to attract. Dragons will never actually land in the city, only on rooftops or outside of it. The college being the exception- a dragon will land in the courtyard. After dealing enough damage, a dragon will be "grounded" and land in a predetermined location.


Are you sure? I had one land on the ground right outside the jarl's house in Falkreath. Surprised the heck out of me; and it wasn't until it ended that all the guards showed up. Gee, thanks guys.

Quote:
I found critical hits are ridiculous, so I went with sword/shield combo. Going to put all my points into Bladesman and the damage+% perks. Shield eats up too much stamina to even consider power attacks. I was surprised to find SnB fighting to actually be interesting- bash, slash, slash, slash, anticipate, bash, slash, slash, etc.

I've found it to be surprisingly lackluster. I have the dash-crit perk, and it usually only knocks off around 1/4 of a decent enemy's health. However, killing enemies with awesome animations when they have like half-health is pretty neat. I guess that would be a crit, actually... maybe it's just the dash-crit that isn't that amazing?
#260 Nov 15 2011 at 12:16 PM Rating: Good
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I tried dual wielding with my first time through the tutorial (I mean, ****! They pretty much give you three swords. Where's my Santoryu?!) and got really annoyed at having to hit the triggers in sequence to be a dervish I expect from using two weapons.
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#261 Nov 15 2011 at 12:18 PM Rating: Good
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idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
I'm guessing from your posts that you are playing a Pure Mage, Drown?


That I am. Though recently I've been starting to work more on Archery and Sneak, going for a more magey-assassin type monstrosity.

The spell system in Skyrim is so much better than Oblivion. I still find myself playing keepaway with the enemies a lot of times, since I take hits like wet tissue paper, but I am very much a glass cannon, able to deal out three doublecasted Fireballs in quick succession. The only things that really live through that are bosses, and for them I'd likely be using other strategies based on the boss in question.
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#262 Nov 15 2011 at 12:21 PM Rating: Excellent
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I love the SnB fatalities. Sometimes when I just gut stabbed a bandit and he/she is slumped over my shoulder with my sheild behind their back I imagine myself saying:

"Shhhhhh, shhhhhhh, that's it, there you go... shhhhh"

Oh and the one where you bash them with the sheild then spin 180 backstrike makes me praise Crom.
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An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

~ Matsuo Basho
#263 Nov 15 2011 at 12:22 PM Rating: Good
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Your "level" only determines 3 things- your hp/mp/stamina, the number of perks you have, and the strength of enemies.

The strength of your blade, fire spell, arrows, etc.- that's all based on your skills. For magic, a higher destructive skill (even without perks) will reduce the mp cost. If I craft an iron dagger, the base damage will be much higher if I had lv100 one handed skill compared to lv0.

In this aspect, it's not recommended to be very diverse, at least not at first. If you only slightly raise a bunch of skills, your level will increase, making enemies stronger, but your attacks will still be relatively weak. Also, the bonuses you choose with each level can make things easier/tougher.

Other recommendations: if you're getting one-shotted, might need to raise your health, stronger gear (melee), or protective spells (mage). Turning down the difficulty is an option- since this is such an open game, this does not mean the game is too hard, just that it was not designed for your playstyle.

Edited, Nov 15th 2011 12:24pm by xypin
#264 Nov 15 2011 at 12:25 PM Rating: Good
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I think as tempting as it is to want to be a heavy armor mage dual weild ninja preist in this game you will have more success if you specialize and synergize a bit.
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An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

~ Matsuo Basho
#265 Nov 15 2011 at 12:28 PM Rating: Good
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LockeColeMA wrote:
Quote:
I found critical hits are ridiculous, so I went with sword/shield combo. Going to put all my points into Bladesman and the damage+% perks. Shield eats up too much stamina to even consider power attacks. I was surprised to find SnB fighting to actually be interesting- bash, slash, slash, slash, anticipate, bash, slash, slash, etc.
I've found it to be surprisingly lackluster. I have the dash-crit perk, and it usually only knocks off around 1/4 of a decent enemy's health. However, killing enemies with awesome animations when they have like half-health is pretty neat. I guess that would be a crit, actually... maybe it's just the dash-crit that isn't that amazing?
Every time I knock off a huge chunk of hp, it ended up being a critical hit. I assumed the death animations were considered critical hits and those have taken off an incredible amount of hp.

I don't use power attacks, so can't really comment on the use of those.

Edited, Nov 15th 2011 12:28pm by xypin
#266 Nov 15 2011 at 12:29 PM Rating: Good
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Thanks, xypin, that explains a lot. If enemies scale with your level and you scale with your skill-ups, it means I'm in a world of hurt now since the first thing I did was try out everything. Smiley: lol

Might just restart now that I know I'll be going the magic route.

Although... reading about those SnB fatalities... Smiley: sly
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#267 Nov 15 2011 at 12:45 PM Rating: Good
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I typically find SnB to be the easiest build for a starting player and in Skyrim, the combat is not boring either.

Noticed this earlier today, a good list of Tips and Tricks. There are a lot of tips, but if you're weak to tricks, I don't recommend the link.

Some interesting ones
Quote:
  • You can pickpocket the gold back after you spent it on training
  • Your companion can carry an unlimited number and weight of stuff, but only if you tell them to pick them up in command mode.
  • You can equip a pickaxe and "hit" the ore vein to start mining, likewise you can dualweild them to mine faster
  • If you want to keep sprinting don't let your stamina run out fully as it takes a few seconds to starts regenerating
Now I want to try dual-wield pick axes...

Edited, Nov 15th 2011 12:47pm by xypin
#268 Nov 15 2011 at 12:48 PM Rating: Good
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Yeah Maz, I played the crap out of Oblivion so I kind of already had a feel for how Bethesda does things in this series. So I had my SnB guy all planned out in my mind.

The best thing about these games is they are very replayable. So I plan to create a mage character and then a thief character next and play through their related guilds after my first play through.
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An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

~ Matsuo Basho
#269 Nov 15 2011 at 12:55 PM Rating: Decent
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There's no level scaling like Oblivion. Bethesda stated numerous time that Skyrim is not like Oblivion but more like Fallout 3. There is some level scaling but not across the board.
Some encounter are designed to be challenging no matter your level but you can out-level most of the mobs at some point.

It's kinda hard to find definite info on the question but level scaling à la Oblivion is not part of Skyrim.
#270 Nov 15 2011 at 12:57 PM Rating: Good
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Likewise, I'll probably do either a SnB build or a Greatsword build. Haven't really seen many people with a greatsword running around, and something about swinging around a magic sword as big as I am appeals to me.

feelz wrote:
It's kinda hard to find definite info on the question but level scaling à la Oblivion is not part of Skyrim.


Which is a good thing.

Edited, Nov 15th 2011 1:58pm by IDrownFish
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#271 Nov 15 2011 at 12:59 PM Rating: Good
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idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
That brings me to my next question--what weapon type are people using?

I'm doing one-handed, but can't decide. On the one hand, armor ignore on maces sounds great. But I think I want to use swords, just because I like them more aesthetically. But the whole crit thing is kinda meh to me.
The critical bonus on swords is nice if you do some sneaking but not enough to justify the sneak attack dagger perk. I personally like axes for the bleed damage.

Just got some heavy gloves that boost 1h damage by 25% which is awesome.
#272 Nov 15 2011 at 1:00 PM Rating: Good
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Xypin wrote:
Noticed this earlier today, a good list of Tips and Tricks. There are a lot of tips, but if you're weak to tricks, I don't recommend the link.


Quote:
By wearing Amulet of Mara (which you can buy in Riften for 200g) you have an option to marry people, marriage provides all sorts of benefits for you. For more info on marriage and list of spouses SEE HERE


OMG you can marry Aela the huntress! Wait I dunno if that would be such a good idea after all... she is hot though. I wonder how she would feel about Lydia hanging out in my bedroom all the time.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Marriage

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An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

~ Matsuo Basho
#273 Nov 15 2011 at 1:02 PM Rating: Good
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IDrownFish wrote:
idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
I'm guessing from your posts that you are playing a Pure Mage, Drown?


That I am. Though recently I've been starting to work more on Archery and Sneak, going for a more magey-assassin type monstrosity.

The spell system in Skyrim is so much better than Oblivion. I still find myself playing keepaway with the enemies a lot of times, since I take hits like wet tissue paper, but I am very much a glass cannon, able to deal out three doublecasted Fireballs in quick succession. The only things that really live through that are bosses, and for them I'd likely be using other strategies based on the boss in question.


Once you have Ebony Flesh, the ability to combine Alteration spells, and Mage Armor capped, you'll be able to have 300 armor while wearing clothes. Pretty damn impressive, actually. There's the negative that you'll need to keep up with it, which leaves you susceptible to traps and ambushes, but it goes a long way to mitigate the "glass" part.
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#274 Nov 15 2011 at 1:03 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
Which is a good thing.


That it's not scaling like Oblivion or that we can't find definite info on how the scaling is handled?
#275 Nov 15 2011 at 1:03 PM Rating: Good
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xypin wrote:
Your "level" only determines 3 things- your hp/mp/stamina, the number of perks you have, and the strength of enemies.

The strength of your blade, fire spell, arrows, etc.- that's all based on your skills. For magic, a higher destructive skill (even without perks) will reduce the mp cost. If I craft an iron dagger, the base damage will be much higher if I had lv100 one handed skill compared to lv0.

In this aspect, it's not recommended to be very diverse, at least not at first. If you only slightly raise a bunch of skills, your level will increase, making enemies stronger, but your attacks will still be relatively weak. Also, the bonuses you choose with each level can make things easier/tougher.

That's what I was thinking. My level 4 or 5ish sneaky archer had a much harder time killing stuff and surviving than my level 2 caster. Pretty much all I did was cast destruction spells so his spells were pretty decent despite very low health but my "sneaker" touched on 5 or 6 different things and was pretty weak because of it.
#276 Nov 15 2011 at 1:04 PM Rating: Good
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You want some of the diversity eventually though. All of the thief skills short of pickpocketing have been incredibly useful to me to *get* to some of the quests.

Level ups are also pretty useful as an emergency heal/refill.
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