» Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:36 pm This is true, and it gets old, fast, when you have to feed a 2H-wielding boss about 15 Familiars before he finally dies because each of his Power attacks one-shots the damn thing. At the same time, though, all having 5-6 additional crappy summons would do is give you a different creature to spam, since it would still die horribly.
This is something I feel some of those advocating for increased summons variety are either ignoring or overlooking, as the vast majority of the plethora of available creatures were never used. In some cases they just flat-out svcked, while in others they were essentially redundant, but the end result was that the same handful of stupidly OP summons were always picked, as they were the only ones worth bothering with. That being the case, it begs the question of whether or not anything was actually lost as a result of the reduction in available types, since the ones still remaining are some of those that were always picked.
This is something I feel some of those advocating for increased summons variety are either ignoring or overlooking, as the vast majority of the plethora of available creatures were never used. In some cases they just flat-out svcked, while in others they were essentially redundant, but the end result was that the same handful of stupidly OP summons were always picked, as they were the only ones worth bothering with. That being the case, it begs the question of whether or not anything was actually lost as a result of the reduction in available types, since the ones still remaining are some of those that were always picked.
Well, I never really played a pure conjurer in Oblivion. My Oblivion mages focused more on either Destruction or Illusion, and only resorted to Conjuration when they were severley outnumbered. Even so, I cast a pretty big variety of summons in Oblivion, compared to what is available in Skyrim.
My favorite Oblivion summon, even at Conjuration 100, is the Clannfear (cause they are so fast and aggressive), and there is nothing remotely similar in Skyrim. But I don't only cast Summon Clannfear. In situations where I do not need its speed and aggressiveness, I cast a wide variety of other summons. Leaving out the various skelitons and zombies (since those were arguably eliminated because you can raise bodies in the Necromancy branch of the Conjuration tree in Skyrim), I make frequent use in Oblivion of Scamps, Fire Atronach, Flame Atronach, Daedroth, Faded Wraith, Gloom Wraith, Lich, Spider Daedra, Storm Atronach, Dremora Lord, and Xivaldi.
I disagree with the statement that the vast majority of the available creatures in Oblivion are never used. I use the majority of the creatures available in Oblivion. I don't always summon the most powerful summon. It is more fun to mix it up and try different things in different situations. Just because some people might always opt for the most powerful summon, is not a reason to eliminate all the other interesting and unique summons.
It is supposed to be a game where you can "do what you want" and eliminating options dilutes that experience, even for those who will always only cast the most powerful summon. In Oblivion that was their choice, in Skyrim they don't really have a choice because there is no longer a meaningful number of summons available.
