Sneak is fine, but I question Shadow Warrior's balance. I just like slashing people's throats. Makes it even more fun when it's a person of irrelevance, like a person who lives at a stable.

Ya know if you keep clicking back and forth between sneak mode and standing up with Shadow warrior on then you kind of have like a permanent invisibility because your shadow blinking toward your target and he won't be able to get a straight hit on you.

I play stealth because its more of a chess match in each room,plus its really satisfying to slit the throat of an unsuspecting bandit. It does get way too powerful too fast,but finding ways to survive random encountersis part of the challenge.

This. Maybe it's time for a poll.

sneaking is not better. you either go melee with dagger like: "oh look an enemy", sneak behind, which is not difficult at all in elder scrolls, and kill.

or you play the stealth archer. you clear every dungeon from the beginning without getting seen.

you mentioned stealth to be the real "nerd playstyle", but i would say the pure mage would be this. most difficult playstyle in the game is the pure mage.


edit: there has been a poll already and stealth was far ahead. don't remember the name of it, but is probably named like "your favourite playstyle?" or so. don't know, would have to search for it.

Sneak is basically invisibility at higher levels, that combined with the ridiculous crits and stupid AI makes it a very easy playstyle.

I wouldn't say it's the most dominant because the game can become equally as easy by simply using Smithing and hitting the armor cap and having insane damage on weapons.

Every single one of my friends played Warrior until I told them what kind of stuff you could do as a thief or Mage. One of them still is sticking to warrior, refusing to leave his comfort zone. He has only done the companions questline and has yet to complete the main quest despite having the game since launch. To each their own I suppose. I play thief/Mage, along with one handed swords. Love rogues.

Its combinations that are used the most.
If you think about it many players don't focus on strictly one side, players utilize stealth to make better hits/kills but also use a some other kind of combat to fight with. People who play spell swords use magic and melee. Nightblades use stealth and melee. People like my sister use stealth and magic.

There isn't one set style that people use so you can't really say which is a dominant style.

Its combinations that are used the most.
If you think about it many players don't focus on strictly one side, players utilize stealth to make better hits/kills but also use a some other kind of combat to fight with. People who play spell swords use magic and melee. Nightblades use stealth and melee. People like my sister use stealth and magic.

There isn't one set style that people use so you can't really say which is a dominant style.

Yeah although a great number of my characters are stealth based, the discussion about hack 'n slash and tactical is about approach... if you play a warrior you play power against power... if you play smart then youre alone.

As I mentioned in the other stealth thread..... yeah, I use stealth on many characters, but I wouldn't remotely call it my "playstyle" or say that my characters are Stealth based. I like Stealth not for "sneak up behind and pickpocket/knife". I like stealth for being able to see what's in the next room before I decide whether to Shout, or shoot an arrow, or charge in with sword & shield.

And on my main character, even when I started off a fight with arrows, I still did melee, because archery & sneak weren't very perked out. No one-shot crits, just some starting damage before the enemy got into HtH range.


Stealth isn't the core of my characters, it's just a random useful utility skill (like Lockpicking or Restoration, two other skills that show up on most of them.)

Stealth is for cowards , YES I SAID COWARDS !

My character uses stealth a lot, and as Darkness is at her core this would make a lot of sense. But I'm more of a ranger-mage type of character than a sheer assassin.

I sneak all the time, even when I'm just roaming the lands. It's a habit I guess.

Should have made a poll.

I think I prefer magic and steath the most but I somtimes go back to my fighter once in a while.

Well out of all of my characters I have yet to play a stealthy one. I've done pure mage, light warrior, heavy warrior, archer, etc. No thief or stealthy guy.

i think a pool would be best yea, i personaly adopted stealth after finding the ebony mail and now i feel like i have a unique class, i am a heavy armored assasin that doesnt use daggers, instead i dual weild 2 swords so i have a huge damage output, can very easily hold my own without sneak, can very easily sneak arround and cutscene NPCs, but i keep the chalenges of lacking any way to block (making any combat risky seeing that i play on master) and i dont have an extremely over powered dagger attack that kills anything in one hit. a nice balance between warior and steath is very chalenging and fun, yet not as overpowered as just sneaking, assassinating, sneaking, assassinating, etc.

I also like how the kills as a stealthy guy feel more...personal. Most games today encourage body counts, but I am a man of the personal 1 on 1 kill, the one where that one kill can disrupt a nation, rather than tearing 30 soldiers to ribbons. Not to mention stealthy people get lots of good killcams!

For my part, I don't do a lot of stealth. To me, the game's AI responds more realistically to other approaches and isn't smart enough to handle stealth well.

I dont play a stealthy character. Granted I am level 42 and my sneak is 75, but the way i play leads to improving stealth.

What i do is i sneak around and try and pick off targets till i am discovered, as is the most strategically sound tactic, but if i am discovered, then i go into full blown melee to finish the job. I sneak around dungeons so i don't alert the hoard, so to speak. Being a melee type doesn't mean always rushing in and taking everything on at once. I play smart, not hard.

Well, Skyrim is my first TES game. My first RPG ever, every other game I have is a first person shooter, Battlefield, Crysis, Halo etc. And I chose a Mage because it just looked better than a sword and board (even though I love I good 1v1 with a Bandit chief blocking and avoiding his swings) I like everything about the Mage class, also I liked bows so much I ended swapping my sword for one even though I was a terrible shot I got used to it know I use Archery + Magic. Seeing all the fun stealthy videos on YouTube I got some stealthy gear and had great fun so I created a stealth assassin Khajiit, I'm trying to remember to use Illusion. So I like both, there is just something about firing an arrow into an enemies back then go invisible and hunt down the rest while they walk about confused.

First TES game? I too like mages, but the more I play one in Skyrim makes me yearn to play Oblivion and be a mage there. Having your own custom staff in the Mage's Guild, enchanting altar etc. is just fabulous. Not to mention water walking! You should try it.

Echonite:That sounds like a solid strategy.Nothing svcks more than having an entire base after you!