You are finding the game too difficult. So, lower the difficulty. I'm a ranged wood elf and have no problems.

Oh... wow.

I feel for Beth right now, really. People complained about the entire game world leveling with them (Oblivion) so they fixed that problem and made the world more dynamic (FO 3 and Skyrim). Now, people complain when there are enemies they cannot face until they gain better equipment, abilities, etc. (sigh)

And... the post about Alchemy being useless...

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't think about the fact that as a ranged, you also need to have things for close-combat. No one can be strictly ranged, because life doesn't work like that. People also seem to have a problem knowing where to put their skill points. I recommend picking choice ones (two to three ones that are key to your class) and then building around it after. I've only seen this complaint from people who are Archers, and it seems to me that either you need to start working on some melee or take more advantage of your environment and the scripting of the dragons.


As another note: I see a lot of people complaining about the difficulty system, but I've never had a problem with it. I play most (if not all) of my games on easy difficulty, because I don't have as much fun otherwise, and I also don't have to time to die multiple times or spend a long time fighting.

No, you shouldn't. But I guess you're not living up to your own expectations in this case.

I played a stealth/archer character up to level 36 or so and rerolled because the game was too easy with that spec. When you're a sniper, every problem looks like a pincushion, in a manner of speaking.

There were very, very few enemies I couldn't take out with a single shot from stealth. That Foresworn Briarheart took two shots. Admittedly, that dude is powerful as all hell and killed me with two spells when I ran into him the first time, so I don't blame you for finding him difficult. Everything else you describe isn't an experience I've had, though.

No offense, but it sounds like more of a tactics issue than anything. You have to keep moving. Put cover between you and the Dragon. Hell, if you have no melee skill then run towards some animals and get the dragon distracted. And stamina is only taken by sprints and power attacks so you use them wisely. Also, you do realize the first Shout you get, even without being upgraded, stops the Dragon in its tracks for a second allowing you to pop some shots off. Also, anyone can enchant. Throw a helpful enchantment on your bow. Maybe just some elemental damage. You're just going to replace it fairly quickly anyway so don't fret too much this early over how you enchant your bow. Same goes for any weapon this early in the game actually. You could also use a companion to distract the dragon while you plug away at it. A horse even works. When it goes to breath use the Whirlwind sprint shout to go perpendicular to the direction of the cone of breath then plug it with arrows.

Honestly, there's way more ideas you could use (conjuration is one) you're just not being creative enough. I have an Archer/Dual Wielding Dagger Stealth build and it works great: move, hide, shout, a couple arrows, move again. If it lands: cover, whirlwind shout to it's side, melee till it takes off. Throw any healing and buffs in there at your leisure. And that's just fighting alone. If the dragon gets distracted (which is almost every time) then an archer can kill it easily without getting near it.

Sorry OP, i hate to burst your bubble but Archery isnt there for nuking people it's designed to work with the sneak mechanic and for people who use the terrain to your advantage. Dragons are easy to kill just line of sight it until it lands or hovers when either of those happens shoot it and use cover between shots. Problem solved.

Well I've put 21 hours into the game myself, reached level 15 and have found myself hopelessly outclassed against Dragons, Spriggans, Wisps, Trolls, and etc. I've also seen almost no armor or weaponry more advanced than iron/leather: not for sale or by drop. The few bits of Elven armor I got from a very specific place, and the Orcish Sword I found appared to be very much hand placed. In all, my equipment is way below par and I think its very likely my perks were misallocated. I may also be suffering penalties from chosing the stealth over combat allignment up front. I'm fearful I may have to restart given the possibilty of a broken character -and- some kind of glitchyness with the leveled loot tables. Still, I wanted to mention this here before I do anything too drastic.

In the future I'll probably have to go combat-exclusive when it comes to skill development, at least at the start. It would seem going for a mix is a recipie for a disaster. I've been leveling one-handed and light armor along side alchemy, sneak, smithing and other traits. I DO tear through certain low level enemies, but most quests I can't complete and I end up running away more often than fighting now. I can't hope to do any damage to dragons it seems, and I get roasted alive in a matter of moments. I don't know the "right" way to do things, but clearly I've missed the boat. I do appreciate the argument that an alchemist shouldn't do as well in a fight as an experienced woodsman, but somehow I doubt Bethesda has allowed for a non-combat means of victory in Skyrim. Hell I just want to be competitive, and it's not always possible to just "run away" from some mobs either. Man I miss divine intervention now more than ever.

They did it exactly right with FO3, with the possible exception that at later levels you actually become too powerful due to the perks. Unfortunately, Skyrim is a step backwards.

Part of the problem, I think, is that we got spoiled a bit with FO3. You could craft stuff in that game, but it had nothing to do with your leveling. You could craft to your heart's content and it wouldn't compete with your combat skills. Now in Skyrim, you have almost the exact same crafting opportunities -- in fact the mechanics of crafting, with workbenches and laboratories, are pretty much identical to those of FO3 -- but every time you do it, some of your leveling XP goes to that skill. So in effect every time you craft, you make yourself weaker in combat.

Oblivion's leveling system was bad, but if you knew how it worked you could get around the problems. If you wanted to do alchemy and blacksmithing, you could just make those minor skills, and voila, advancing those two skills counted toward your attribute bonuses but not toward your leveling. There is no way to do that in Skyrim, because every skill you use counts toward your leveling.

im guessing dragons are designed to make you use a bit of every technique (magic melee archery) When doing this I've found that dragons are more doable though still posess a challenge

Just LOL. Archery is for the first tiem in TES history.. POWERFUL. The easiest way to fight dragons is in fact with a bow

I am a sneaky archer. I'm level 16. I fight dragons like this:

1. Go into sneak mode and get a 3x damage while the dragon is in the sky
2. Draw the dragon near any NPC's if possible and they will help me fight (or use my horse to take the damage)
3. I have the zooming perk and the time slow perk
4. I use a dragon shout to stop the attack - the dragon will stop if I use the Fo du rah shout (or whatever) and then I pummel it with arrows
5. I make sure I fully pull back the arrow with the bow before releasing it
6. I NEVER use the healing SPELL. I use potions. This gives you the chance to heal without continuing to be attacked

That's what I do and I kick ass so far!

Strategy does come into play as well. That being said, I am not running into any problems as an archer on expert difficulty, nor do I find the enemy NPC's to be any more or less powerful then myself. If I can one or two hit kill things, it only makes sense that whatever I am fighting would be able to do so as well. It's my job to kill them before they can kill me, and the trick is figuring out how to do that and then getting it done.

Yes, evidently the strategy is to know the leveling system is broken and not pretend this is anything more than a combat game.

Strange that on one hand you say the combat is broken, and then on the other you say this is nothing but a combat game. Maybe this just isn't the game for you. It is impossible for one game to make all gamers happy. Gaming is a hobby, it's supposed to be fun/relaxing. As for me I am enjoying Skyrim a great deal. It is far from perfect, (I have offered a few suggestions on how it can be made even better) but I don't need it to be. This is the most fun I have had with a game in a very long while.

I dodge their breath just fine fighting around building when possible. I have successfully popped out (with arrow drawn) quickly fired a shot to duck back behind a wall (object) and miss the breath at me entirely (when it lands in a street and not on top of a building) Even if it lands on top of a building there are still ways to fight them without taking too much damage. I had the fun of taking on 2 dragons at once around the town near the wizard college at level 14 That was a fun fight hehehe One of them used fire and the other used ice. For my weapon I used an imperial bow with ancient nord arrows. Took a bit to kill each while trying to keep track of both dragons breath attacks.

Look, I realize you're having fun trolling with all the "maybe you should take up another hobby / maybe you're just too slow" crap, but I'll answer you seriously anyway. I never said the combat is broken, but that the leveling system is broken if you level anything other than combat skills. It's annoying that you can play the game and try to avail yourself of the options it presents wrt crafting and alchemy, and find yourself getting screwed over for it. There's nothing "immersive" about that, unless you believe it's realistic for monsters to get tougher because you get better at haggling or picking locks. That's not realistic, it's just dumb and broken.

Which is your opinion.

I have had no issues with it whatsoever. My main character is sneak, lockpick, speech, destruction, restoration, 1 hand weapon, archery and smithing/enchanting and a little bit in alchemy. I can take out dragons and boss monsters from dungeons and just generally having fun. Yes sometimes I have to replay certain 'bosses' a few times, but I find that fun. Sometimes I even get surprised and get my bum handed to me by some random monster. I reload go back and kill it and move on my way.

I rather enjoy the leveling system myself. It does exactly what I want it to do.

Building a combat character wouldn't be as bad if combat itself wasn't so two dimensional. It's the same three moves over and over, that's all. Perks just make doing this easier, harder or smoother. Shield bash, respond. That's it. Fire arrow, hope it its. Zoom aim to slow target as required. Seriously, that's all they could come up with? Doesn't matter how many cool weapons there are, it's the same thing regardless.

Then explain how it isn't. Comiting perks to it means i don't spend perks on combat which is far more important. This means that what I can craft is less useful.

But that isn't the real issue. The problem is that the recipes are laid out poorly and require far too many ingredients. There are simply too many things to collect spread too far (and sometimes too rare) across a large gameworld. That might sound like fun, but it isn't compared to enchanting. I can't know what I can craft unless i memorise the recipe because what I can craft is only recorded if i currently have the ingredients. That is i can't craft a health potion unless i have the ingredients because I won't know what the ingredients are unless I as a playe rhave kept copiouis notes. That's something the game should be doing. it should tell me, in the description for the herb, what it can build and where it came from - and without having to use a lab.
In other words: it's a case of too much hassle for too little reward. The same with NV crafting. It becomes ineffectual and is quickly abandoned in favour of just selling ingredients and spending loot to get the potions directly.
It's not about better equpment, buit about being able to build a sensible rounded character that's fun to play. Archery makes that very difficult because of the skill requirements for the perks and that it's a pure combat skill in a real time game. It just doesn't work.

Yes you will have to level two attack skills as an archer. That's fine, in theory. But in practise, in the game, it just means you level twice as slowly. There's the problem. Archery should have been handled better, perhaps blending with the sneak tree and moving the non-combat aspect from that into pickpocket.
The game isn't per se difficult, it's the mobs that scale that are the problem. Noone is complaining about the regular mobs, just the ones among them that happen to scale. That is why I say I shouldn't have to lower the difficulty.

Welcome to the the internet

I am a level 10 thief / mage. I mainly use archery at long range, and spells & one handed weapons for short range. So far it seems archery is a lot more powerful than it was in vanilla Oblivion. I have only found one fight I had to run away from so far. There have been a couple of fights where I got killed 5+ times, so I had to rethink my tactics, and manged to win in the end.

One of the most rewarding things in Morrowind was finding yourself out matched by an enemy, and returning later with better stats & equipment to get some revenge. Oblivions level scalling ruined that for me. I am already plotting my revenge!!

A. I am not trolling

B. I never said you were too slow or suggested you should take up a new hobby, stop misquoting. In doing so it is you who is the one who is trolling.

I have used all of the skills in the game and am enjoying crafting quite a bit, yet still combat is balanced for me. I am not sure why you are having such a difficult time with it. Ok, tell me this, what is it you want the developers to do? Do you plan on continuing the game in hope of a fix, or is this a game breaker for you? I guess I am just confused when people who say the game is "dumb and broken" are still playing it, yet want other people to agree with them the the game is terrible.

People have given good advice in this thread, but there are certain players/posters who just don't want to listen/agree with it or even try any of the suggestions, which is their right, but then I wonder what it is they want from this forum?

There are very popular games that I have played in the past where I just did not get all of the hype. For whatever reason I didn't enjoy them like everyone else seemed to. I didn't try to make a point of "converting" others to see the game my way. I just stopped playing the games and played something else.

The biggest problem with posters that simply want everyone to hate the game is that is causes confusion on the message boards. There are players that have genuine difficulties or suggestions and are seeking related advice and discussion. These posts get buried under the the " I hate this game and SO SHOULD You!!1!!" types of posts. Or worse they get accused of being that type of poster when they were genuinely seeking player advice for a game they were otherwise enjoying.

Agree

The game is just too difficult and incomprehensible.. I don′t want to be wandering off on a huge open space with tons of possibilities. I want a single road game with only one way out and multiples help tips on screen. I don′t want to fight a non scripted Dragon that appears randomly everywhere. I wanna fight limited′s dragon with the best combant system nowadays, wich is : the dragon appears and then, in a cinematic mode, I press a button multiples times and its dead...yeee... that would be cooollll

Likewise, people have expressed legitimate complaints about an expensive and long-anticipated game that is not living up to their expectations, but there are certain posters who just don't want to listen and insist that those complaining either don't have the requisite type of reflexes to play the game properly, or that they should simply stop playing the game and go find something else to do.

It's perfectly natural and logical for people who are frustrated with some aspect of the game to come to these message boards and start a thread about them, to see whether there are others who feel the same way, to see if there are solutions or workarounds, etc. It is not helpful to tell these people that the problems are all their fault, nor does doing so make you look smart or clever. If you don't agree with the concerns being expressed, it is sufficient to say so, or better yet to simply not participate in the discussion, since it obviously does not pertain to you.

I've been playing a character with a substantial archery bend. Alchemy has played a big part of that character. It does take time and it's very difficult to gather ingredients if you consistently fast travel. But I'm constantly picking up the few common ingredients that I use for the potions and poison that I use with my archery. I don't want to spoil things, so I'll speak with some generality. Here's a list of the alchemy effects that I use and in parentheses the number of ingredients that I've commonly found in the wild or in caves have that effect:

Restore Stamina (2 and rising due to leveled creatures)
Restore Health (5 and rising)
Regenerate Stamina (2)
Regenerate Health (2)
Slow (2)
Paralysis (2)
Fortify Sneak (1)
Fortify Archery
Invisibility
Frenzy
Fear

I generally don't feel the need to use fortify sneak, fortify archery, invisibility, frenzy, or fear that often, so the lack of common ingredients matches my need for them. At this point, I'm still collecting every ingredient that I can get my hands on when I'm exploring. When I get back home from going out on a couple quests, I test any ingredient that I haven't yet tested. Then start with the ingredient that I have the most of and match it with every ingredient that I haven't tested it with. Pairings that have been tested and failed are a different color than those that are successful or yet untested. Anytime, I'm in a new place, I'll swing by the local alchemist and buy and cheap ingredients that I either know I need (I have a list of about 15-20) or don't know enough about yet.

Also, if you are having more trouble dealing with magic users than non-magic users, it may be helpful to find and activate the atronach stone. I recently switched over from the thief because I had gotten my alchemy, light armor, speech, lockpicking, and sneak to functional levels (I'm around level 20). I've read that its effect also works on dragons, but I can't confirm that because I haven't fought one since my switch. Also, I've started finding scrolls of mass paralysis in random loot. Those come in particularly helpful when I have to deal with one of those big groups. I'm not sure at what level they become findable/buyable.

There are a lot of options out there to make archery a viable play. Some of which you can see in the other comments. It does seem like a build that requires a bit of planning and a little creativity with shouts, alchemy, stealth, and tactics to succeed, but it's a build that I've enjoyed so far.