So me and my online buddies were talking about our characters the other night and I asked them what kind of character do they play as? Some said they play as thieves or assassins mainly because they really like the Sneak kill Cam, the fact that their are 2 stealth guilds which leaves plenty to do, and because you can come up with fun build combos as a sneaky character so I have to wonder...is playing a Stealthy character truly the most dominant playstyle amongst the Elder scrolls populace today?

I don't think anyone can give a definite answer to that question.

I suspect that simple melee combat is the most played. It seems the easiest play style.

Sneaking is fun. The Thief series of games were some of my favorite games. I played a rogue in WoW for years. But in Skyrim (and Morrowind and Oblivion) I didn't do a lot of sneaking. I don't know why. I feel sneaking a little too easy (overpowered) in Elder Scroll games. When you have low sneak skills, the mobs will always see or hear you, no matter what you do. Then when you level up sneaking, or get some strong enchant on your boots, suddenly you can sneak by everyone and everything.
Also, sneaking works less good when you have to attack multiple targets. Also, sneaking with a companion feels awkward.

I never play a magic character in RPGs or MMORPGs. So I can't tell you much about it. But the magic style still seems to have a lot of followers.

If we had to guess which style is most populair, I would guess an archer. With or without stealth. I've seen so many videos on YouTube where people exclusively use their bows. I have 2 friends who play(ed) Skyrim, and they prefer bows too.

Most of my friends play stealthy characters as well. I have one, but I rarely play it as I don't have the patience to utilise stealth to it's fullest. Even in Deus Ex: HR, I shot my way through the majority of the game.

Stealth is OP in this game. It was fine in morrowind and oblvion because it was only good at high levels. In skyrim im 50 sneak with my warrior and I wasnt Even aiming for that just sneaked around corners before going into to meele battles. At sneak lvl 50 if i take 1 perk in sneak i can sneak infront of npcs in full daylight.

I don't think so. People usually started with a Nord warrior and for many it was their only character. As for guilds, don't forget both sides of the Civil War and all the bounty quests: there's plenty to do.

Every time I see a poll on any RPG forum, warriors are prevalent. Judging by http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1379686-ultimate-skyrim-poll/page__fromsearch__1 poll, however, mixed builds are the most common, but they still involve combat. As you might notice, pure stealth got the least votes. The Dark Brotherhood turned out to be the most popular guild, though... We are probably talking about players who sneak around in dungeons, use bow's sneak multiplier, but switch to melee when the enemy closes in.

Stealth in Skyrim is just too powerful to ignore it. Even if you're a warrior, it's just common sense to start a batlle with several carefully placed arrows. Killcams don't hurt either - I bet a lot of players decided to play an assassin just because of them. And let's admit it, the Dark Brotherhood is the best written guild in the game, with the Thieves Guild running a close second; the Companions don't even compare.

I agree especially with how dumb people are at trying to search for you after you sneak attack someone ya know? Clearly the bethesda stealth team hasn't played Splinter Cell. My assassin is so highly-leveled in his Sneak right now I can pretty much Sneak and kill anyone I please lol I'm the Grim reaper baby!!

And yes Archery is becoming very popular from what I hear and now that Crossbows are returning its going to be quite a sight to behold!

Then you have a bugged save file.

I certainly think it's the more popular since there's two factions for stealth really, as opposed to one each for melee and magic. Plus the fact that stealth gets very strong early on, where magic and melee are slow to start.

no by far the warrior/ slash everyone into pieces type of leeroy jenkins hero is the most overused playstyle
the mainstream people who bought skyrim and really never digged down to the game options and mechanics never really cared about choosing to be either a thief and specially a mage.
all they go for is the typical defaultish nord warrior that looks like rolof's brother and they just straight up use any strong weapons they can find and the best armor possible.
thief should be the most common type of style for the skyrim experts, we the nerds.
idk if u call urself a nerd but if you are then you probably rarely used a nord for that matter.

I rarely use a nord so I guess that makes me a nerd. Hoorah!

I thought thief was for the tactical types and mages for the nerds.

Mage is stupidly difficult early on, on the higher difficulty. Then our Destruction damage doesn't scale so we're FORCED to rely on Conjuration/Illusion just to do a bit of bleedin' damage.

hence why i never been too fond for magic in skyrim but that doesnt mean im gonna chop heads off everywhere
"ohh look i dont even care about this game let me just hit u with my daedric mace to the face and....ohhhh dead"
that's not my playstyle..i saw ssohpkc a famous youtuber who uploads all sorts of gaming playthroughs and he did a 200 plus episode run of skyrim and he's the perfect example of what im talking about..
a person who doesnt give a crap about the game, just plays for the heck of it. that's called mainstream ignorance.

It's not mainstream ignorance to want to play a warrior.

Not me !
A honorable Orc Heavy Archer , A young Dunmer Ranger and a Breton Battlemage who seeks his magic powers.

I know what you mean, guvnor!

I tried about 20 different playstyles before I settled on this. All of them to around level 20 too! Eventually, illusion just felt... comfortable. Avoiding battle all together would be my forte' if I were thrown into Tamriel right this moment.

I think my personal favourite youtube skyrim dude was 'Felix the Peaceful Monk', guy had literally zero kills and had logged a crazy amount of hours.


I think he's more pointing out those people that hammer through all the quest lines without really reading any of the text nor understanding what the heck's going on. Map marker followers!

Seriously?! Wow Felix...

Yeah, I can understand that.

exactly what i said
people who only speed through the texts and dont even bother about the game storyline they only wanna hammer people on the head and be done with it.

I think it's funny when anyone says sneaking is OP. So is smithing/enchanting and stunlocking with magic. It's easy to make a great character.

That said, my favorite class is stealth, but my guy does a little more than that. I've also done over 100 hours on a mage character and 30 something on a warrior.

Maybe you should make a poll?

Sneaking is O.P. But if you are a melee user, mainly that is, if you increase your smithing and upgrade your weaponry even in the Master difficulty they won't stand a chance. Although sneaking is easier >_>

Yes.

Stealth builds can usually experience more content than other builds.

E.g. Able to listen your enemies chatting before they see you, slightly more places to explore, more likely to get the chance to use environmental weapons(like traps) against enemies.

I always play a Khajiit Rogue in my Elder Scrolls games, but I decided to make a Dark Elf Necrocaster. Man... It's so damn hard. You have to find your robes because you can't enchant anything decent early on, your spells are constantly being switched out to exploit weaknesses or else they don't do anything for damage. You're always hiding and waiting on magicka, your minions always die etc etc. But it's fun, almost as fun as playing a stealth type.

I completely agree! I suppose with greater challenge comes greater rewards. So when you finally get those archmage robes and/or enchanted stuff, you're like... YESSSSSS!

i played stealth for awhile. it was fun but it got boring and was insanely OP due to stupid NPC AI