Ok, at first, I thought this was pretty easy on MASTER, but : V - Skyrim

» Tue May 15, 2012 9:37 pm

You should be aware, if your going to use smithing and enchanting to its fullest, it will completely break the game, and its far quicker to just toggle god mode through the console. I did not realize how broken it was when i figured it out early on, but after being able to one shot everything in the game at level 33 i restored an old save and put limits on what i enchant, and how i smith items to still allow combat to be a challange.

Does that hold true if you don't exploit potions? I'd like to stick with smithing and enchanting, but I have no interest in using potions to arbitrarily boost it. Will the game still be too easy?

» Tue May 15, 2012 10:46 pm

Ok, I killed the Troll. I used Bow boosting potions and I believe the effect was cumulative, because I started doing good damage, and found a spot to stand and fire at the daft beast. Thankfully the AI was a bit daft, because he just stood and kept roaring, letting me shoot him in the face, haha.

» Tue May 15, 2012 1:05 pm

Frost Trolls are really hard to beat if you just want to hack and slay them. You will need to fight them with strategy and have a good plan before approaching them.

» Wed May 16, 2012 5:16 am

your guy all playing at Master ?

» Tue May 15, 2012 5:45 pm

Well I am quite sure that some enemies like dragons or frost trolls will always be on your level.. and since you didnt train any combat skills.. well. ouch^^

» Tue May 15, 2012 8:09 pm

A frost troll is a tough kill. The hardest ive encountered so far was an elder dragon.

» Tue May 15, 2012 3:23 pm

Still, imagine if those smithing levels (and perks) were instead combat levels (and perks). Now are you starting to see? Huge power difference.

Higher heavy armor skill = higher armor rating. higher one/two-handed skill = higher damage.

Then why are people claiming high Destruction is weak?

» Wed May 16, 2012 5:21 am

No, not Frost Trolls. Hardest enemy I've faced is definitely Draugr Deathlords.

I'm pretty sure Draugr Scourge Lords are harder, but it is pretty close.

Elder Dragons create a really epic fight, but I don't think they are that hard unless they get a crit in, then they kill me when at 60% health.

» Tue May 15, 2012 8:13 pm

Then why are people claiming high Destruction is weak?

lt is all relative

There are mechanisms in place to make melee characters what I would say is excessively powerful and there are not for a straight destruction mage. So, destruction is considered weak compared to melee combat as a result. I am quite happy with my destruction/conjuration/heavy armor build where I have worn robes for the last 20 levels

» Wed May 16, 2012 3:34 am

Does that hold true if you don't exploit potions? I'd like to stick with smithing and enchanting, but I have no interest in using potions to arbitrarily boost it. Will the game still be too easy?

If you dont exploit the game mechanic by enchanting armor with +smithing and using a +smithing potion you will find that neither smithing or enchanting or smithing+enchanting is overpowered. They seem to be perfectly balanced in that respect. A five point investment in Smithing gets you maybe 100% more damage or 100% more armor which is the same you would get from a 5 point investment in one handed.
Same can be said for enchanting, you invest 8 points and you get a fair return.
Just dont exploit the game and you can use these perks no problem.

» Wed May 16, 2012 4:07 am

Your combat skills are a bit lacking, but I think you will be okay. Frost trolls are pretty much the hardest creatures in the game.

Dragon Priests and the highest level Draugr (I think Draugr Overlord?) are on par, or even harder.

» Tue May 15, 2012 4:04 pm

If you dont exploit the game mechanic by enchanting armor with +smithing and using a +smithing potion you will find that neither smithing or enchanting or smithing+enchanting is overpowered. They seem to be perfectly balanced in that respect. A five point investment in Smithing gets you maybe 100% more damage or 100% more armor which is the same you would get from a 5 point investment in one handed.
Same can be said for enchanting, you invest 8 points and you get a fair return.
Just dont exploit the game and you can use these perks no problem.

Awesome, thanks. yeah, I only took steel and arcane smithing, and enchanting i took 3 ranks of enchanter and insightful. I don't want to waste perks on any of the crafting armor skills because I enjoy finding stuff in the wild (and also want more perks to spend elsewhere). I'm debating taking corpus enchanter/dual enchants, but I want artifacts to be useful so I'm not sure. I did kill a giant in melee last night at level 21, without dodging his blows (blocked them and healed). It was fun but I still felt dirty, might increase the difficulty.

» Tue May 15, 2012 7:00 pm

Ok, at first, even on MASTER difficulty, I was under the impression this game would be quite easy to beat. Everything from bandits to wolves etc seemed easy to kill with a few sword strokes, despite doing some decent damage in return, however. Anyway, I spent quite some time chopping wood and buying every iron ignot the guy in Riverwood was selling. After a bit of time and fighting everything in the surrounding areas, without deviating too far, I levelled my smithing up massively, which in return levelled me up too. Now, at level 19, I figured it was time to get on with the game and venture much further. Having killed some bandits near the mountains just up from Riverwood back when I was around level 10, I was popping upto the mountains again, now at level 19, and I stumble upon a Frost Troll. Ok, pulls out my Exquisite AXE and approaches him, after using all my magic first in a fire attack on him. I start laying into him and I notice his health has barely moved even 1/20th and he whacks me on the head, killing me instantly. Tell me, have I screwed myself starting the game at this level, because I imagine there are things much stronger than this! I'm now very scared!

What would happen if one started from the max character level before venturing, levelling using smithing and spells etc. It would be crazy!

Except for the dragons you fight, it's a lot more about which areas you are visiting than your character level.

Each area has some range, like level 1 - 5, 5 -10, 40-50, etc., and when you enter, the area gets locked to whatever level you are, or the lowest or highest end of that range (if the PC is lower or higher level). The areas closest to Riverwood and Whiterun are mostly lower level, and most of the higher level areas are high up in the mountains or remote locations.

I'm at level 33 on master now and I find some areas that are much lower level and other areas that are still higher level.

As for the dragons, they are treated like an area unto themselves, so they will scale a bit more to match your level.

» Tue May 15, 2012 10:28 pm

I ran into a frost troll at lvl 10, and I had exclusively used 2 handed weapons and had about 45 at the time. I got schooled hard by that troll and had to flee after consuming most of my healing potions. Like others say, get a companion and focus on combat with some lower level opponents until you get decent battle stats. Then it's payback time!

» Wed May 16, 2012 12:45 am

Frost Trolls have not been to difficult. However, a flipping snow bear snuck up on me and waxed me. Ugh.

I am terrified of Spriggans. I won't even fight them.

» Tue May 15, 2012 8:30 pm

Ok, at first, even on MASTER difficulty, I was under the impression this game would be quite easy to beat. Everything from bandits to wolves etc seemed easy to kill with a few sword strokes, despite doing some decent damage in return, however. Anyway, I spent quite some time chopping wood and buying every iron ignot the guy in Riverwood was selling. After a bit of time and fighting everything in the surrounding areas, without deviating too far, I levelled my smithing up massively, which in return levelled me up too. Now, at level 19, I figured it was time to get on with the game and venture much further. Having killed some bandits near the mountains just up from Riverwood back when I was around level 10, I was popping upto the mountains again, now at level 19, and I stumble upon a Frost Troll. Ok, pulls out my Exquisite AXE and approaches him, after using all my magic first in a fire attack on him. I start laying into him and I notice his health has barely moved even 1/20th and he whacks me on the head, killing me instantly. Tell me, have I screwed myself starting the game at this level, because I imagine there are things much stronger than this! I'm now very scared!

What would happen if one started from the max character level before venturing, levelling using smithing and spells etc. It would be crazy!

Welcome to level scaling mate.

Or welcome to non-combat skills leveling you and not giving you some advatange - aka not worth leveling them.

(except if you like to power level them to 100 right away and craft ebony items and then power leveling enchanting and combining the stacking bonuses and becoming god which leads some people to say "WOW blacksmith is OP omg!")

» Tue May 15, 2012 9:28 pm

Just because you see a Frost Troll, doesn't mean you have to fight it.

If you aren't strong enough to kill him, avoid him.

» Tue May 15, 2012 2:34 pm

Expert and adept is super easy and NOT FUN because you dont need kite,jump,run,sprint,use pillars, and make strategy.

IMHO evryone who plays on expert or adept is ruining his own game. Unsless he like storyline more then combat. If you like combat you defintly should play master-only

Im not sure about WARRIOR but Mages and Archers kill frost trolls on hardest difficulty without problems.

I repeat EXPERT and ADEPT is too easy, i recommend evryone play on master

What the point of game if you never die?

» Tue May 15, 2012 4:36 pm

I'm not sure if the people claiming it's easy on Master are lying, or what. FFS I switched to Expert last night to take on Bandit Marauder's, and two arrows from a tower and one hit from a guy on the ground kills me. That's it. Done.

But yet people are telling me "I killed Moroki(sp?) with two power attacks on Master"? What? [censored], I walked up to him and whacked him with my Exquisite Ebony sword repeatedly, and then he two shot killed me.

People are either lying, or game mechanics vary wildly between copies.

» Wed May 16, 2012 5:27 am

...thats because you power leveled mining and leveled yourself up, and enemies, while your combat/defense skills are very low in comparison.

» Wed May 16, 2012 4:29 am

I'm not sure if the people claiming it's easy on Master are lying, or what. FFS I switched to Expert last night to take on Bandit Marauder's, and two arrows from a tower and one hit from a guy on the ground kills me. That's it. Done.

But yet people are telling me "I killed Moroki(sp?) with two power attacks on Master"? What? [censored], I walked up to him and whacked him with my Exquisite Ebony sword repeatedly, and then he two shot killed me.

People are either lying, or game mechanics vary wildly between copies.

Well, what are you using (skills, perks)? I'm now playing on expert as a nord with heavy armour/two handed/smithing/archery fully perked. Archery, smithing, heavy armour is now 40, and two handed about 55. I find the game doable, but very difficult at times.

» Tue May 15, 2012 6:25 pm

Frost troll is one of the ugliest things you can run into, so getting demolished there doesn't really indicate your character can't handle himself at that level.

But you are right that the game does have some pretty drastic difficulty spikes. I've gone from one-shotting things that can't scratch me to being one-shotted myself in the course of the same dungeon run. This game has a weird way of making you feel untouchable then turning around and making you feel like a wimp all in the same 5 minutes.

» Tue May 15, 2012 8:13 pm

...thats because you power leveled mining and leveled yourself up, and enemies, while your combat/defense skills are very low in comparison.

Um, no. My combat skills are pretty high, with a shield that absorbs elemental damage and flawless plate armor, and I was using potions that reduced magic damage on me. My companion did more damage to him with magic than I could, and Moroki's focus always shifted to me. Yet the guy saying he killed him on Master easy, says a Familiar kept him off his back.

» Wed May 16, 2012 1:44 am

Expert and adept is super easy and NOT FUN because you dont need kite,jump,run,sprint,use pillars, and make strategy.

IMHO evryone who plays on expert or adept is ruining his own game. Unsless he like storyline more then combat. If you like combat you defintly should play master-only

Im not sure about WARRIOR but Mages and Archers kill frost trolls on hardest difficulty without problems.

I repeat EXPERT and ADEPT is too easy, i recommend evryone play on master

What the point of game if you never die?

I die on Adept all the time, most of the time before I can respond to my opponent. I've had Snow Leopards kill me in 1 swipe, and I had no idea he was there until it was too late.

Master just increases their HP, it just extends the fights.

I'd rather fights ended quickly, one way or the other.

» Wed May 16, 2012 1:49 am

Frost trolls are bloody mutants ... but so are your companions

He can one shot you, but your companion can take him on. All you need is decent damage.