I have clocked in 70 hours into a Master Difficulty, minimal fast travel, roleplaying playthrough. I am using a Dark Elf Nightblade type class. I have been having loads of fun with this type of playthrough. I really enjoy playing Skyrim this way... or at least I enjoyED playing Skyrim this way.

Up until level thirty I had to use a wide assortment of spells and potions to complete a dungeon or even a single battle. I had to frenzy targets to attack one another and raise zombies of fallen enemies to fight while I stuck back shooting with arrows. Whenever I got in close quarters battle I cast a stoneflesh and hack and weave with my dagger. I only used potions for healing. I had to be tactical for every battle if I wanted to survive.

At around level forty no new enemy types appeared so I just continued getting stronger and battles became less epic and tactical and more hacky hacky slashy slashy. I could plow through enemy groups with barley using any resources or tactics so the fun of playing that character died down. I plan on finishing the character but now I don't care as much for the missions or exploring as much as I did. Until level 40 master is great fun, but I want Master to be a challenge all the way through not just for the first half.

More enemy variety in existing groups (bandits, vampires, falmer, draugr) or some new enemy groups entirely that are harder to fight (not just more health but how they fight [spells, weapons, items, etc]) could make Master a continuous, fun, and tactical challange. I am hoping DLC will create some new fun situations. Anyone else have an opinion on Master Diffiuclty?

Skyrim combat svcks right now :/ minimal ways to design your character compared to earlier installments plus a broken enemy scaling system.

edit: The actual mechanics arent that bad, broken scaling and design though. *attempt to avoid flameing due to misunderstaning...lol*

Been a lot of threads about this, at least one other on the first page of this forum if you look. A lot of people feel the same way, including me. Many players will just suggest you gimp your character to increase the challenge, and that does work, of course. But I'm hoping Beth will take note of all the comments about the lack of difficulty and lack of challenge on master difficulty, and eventually make needed changes to at least make the game harder on Master, as it should be.

Although Master difficulty gets easier as you get stronger (as it should) I find that there are still very challenging battles strewn around (ie Ancient dragons, Master Vampires etc.) and IMO that makes them even more epic.

I dually agree it should get easier as it goes on. But too easy too soon is my issue. And yes Ancient Dragons are still pretty epic.

I must agree, it does get rather easy once you Smith up, enchant, and Alchemize your character to the point where their dagger can do over three hundred damage.... Honestly, all that's needed is a patch that makes or preferably gives you the option to allow enemies scale up with you.

I don't even do the smithing and alchemy exploits. I only have Epic level glass weapons that do 60 damage and make health potions that heal 65 points.

I dislike the idea of difficulty period. In todays standards. Even dark souls didnt peak my interest, almost every enemy could be beat the same way, no matter the build. I want difficult enemies as in smarts. Shadow of the collossus. Meh, i forget its subtitle, but the first prince of persia with those shell graphics, the one with one on one fights? it ALMOST got it right, but once again the enemies got either to far between or so similar it didnt matter, but having smart enemies would be amazing. Problem with the genre though, sandbox games are rather easy. Atleast all the ones i've played.

I disagree with that assumption- the 'as it should' part. The highest difficulty in a game should not 'get easier as you get stronger'. Au contraire, it should continue to ramp up the enemy's difficulty all the way through, so that even on lvl 81 of Master difficulty, with your character decked out in everything it's possible to get, and with maxed perks and everything, you should still get a decent challenge from every random bandit you meet, and a true life and death epic fight from all of the boss level monsters. That is a real 'master difficulty', done right. You don't 'beat' a master difficulty by getting stronger than everything in it at some midway point... no, you *survive* it every step of the way through, all the way through. That is how it's done. If the hardest difficulty in a game starts to get easy at any point, then it was fail-balanced. Games should have easy mode, normal/intermediate mode, tough mode, and OMG THIS IS FREAKIN HARD! mode. Assuming any proper attempt at balancing was done, that is.

If you don't utilize them there shouldn't be any "challenge" problems If your playing on master lol

I certainly can't avoid challenge even at level 81 when fighting against multiple draugr deathlords. The problem is that dungeon that are cleared reset at the level you've entered first and not the level you enter now. So it's either too easy or it's challenging.

im level 40 make potions up to 77 i believe, i am wearing dragon legendary armor i was doing a quest today north of windhelm and got 2 shot by a mage lol

I'm still tearing away at them though.

That ice storm spell is always my bane. I keep on thinking that the super imposing armor I wear will protect me from anything, not realizing that magic ignores armor lol.

lol....i just thought about how much more destro would be gimped if that were the case....

Yeah, some of those random mages you run across out there are really stronger than anything else in the game- way stronger than dragons. But once you see what they're casting, you can put on the appropriate magic resist gear, and go teach them a good squishie lesson.

It amazed me that there were no high end monsters. It's a serious deficiency I think.

I also agree with this. I do want a constant challenge. By "gets easier as I go" I mean I can see my character improve in combat situations gradually not destory everything in my line of sight.

I thought the enemies advanced as you did? Example: Draugr. In the beginning they were ALL draugr, then a few with some restless, then wrights, then deathlords and so forth. not exactly sure on the order on Draugr but I know I rarely fight plain jane draugr anymore. Since my current character is level 61, they tend to be Wrights and Deathlords.

Bandit Chiefs get stronger too, because I can get destroyed if I'm careless. The regular bandits aren't too much but in large groups it requires more skill.

Then there are the mages versions, vampires and loads of dragons who advance. So I really don't see what you're talking about. just level up a bit more and it should return to epic battles.

Ancient Dragons destroy me if I'm out in the open alone. Always an epic fight with them.

Exactly, it's just that some people "fortify" themselves up to Zues mode and expect to come out scathed and covered with blood after a fight with a mudcrab.

Welcome to the Elder Scrolls. Morrowind was incredibly easy in this manner too, yet people still look at that game through rose-tinted glasses. The only TES game which you couldn't abuse as much was Oblivion, but then people complained that the level-scaling made it too difficult...

I agree with you OP. I am playing my second character on Master difficulty and i can already feel myself getting to powerful at level 32. I am playing an archer this time, using a hunting bow, and trying to not use cheap perks like stagger and others.

The main complaint that people have and that I agree with is that on MASTER difficulty, i shouldn't be carefully planning not to upgrade bow damage yet or not to spend a perk over there, or feeling I might as well level all the useless things like speech and lock-pick so i don't get to omnipotent, as well as carefully avoiding enchanted items.

That's pretty ridiculous and its not flaming or anything its a real complaint. I hate that i have to play SKYRIM with a fking hunting bow. I want to be powerful, to upgrade the perks I earned, to look cool in my awesome armor, and to use the best equipment. But everyone's answer to a legitimate complaint is, " don't cheat dude" "dont use alchemy or enchanting or any armor"

soooo am i supposed to play SKYRIM (a game i have been waiting for since oblivion) with no armor, no potions, and using iron arrows? why cant we just admit that it is not a well balanced game and Bethesda needs to make dragons and other enemies much stronger, especially on MASTER difficulty?

Level 40 means that you're among the most powerful beings in Skyrim...Dragon Priests are lvl 50, just for example.
Level 81 means that you're practically a demi-god...why should a random bandit pose a threat?

If anything I think that the problems are:
1) leveling up is too fast, expecially if you use the Warrior/Mage/Thief stone blessing
2) enemies stop leveling at lvl 50 and by lvl 40 you've met all of them

What's the point of leveling then?

I don't really see how this is any different than previous Elder Scrolls games. Even the point at which it becomes "Too easy" is the same-ish. (Level 40 is like Level 20 in the other games)


Other than that, I totally agree though. I play as a Nightblade too, but I don't use any archery. I cast and slit throats, and fence if I get caught in daylight (Longsword + Parrying).

I hope new DLC/Expansions have enemies geared for characters 50+...

I still hold out hope that one day, they'll give Dragons the option to use non-breath Dragon Shouts as well. How awesome would an Elder Dragon using Marked for Death be?