WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!

Ok, I used the Oghma Infinium glitch to get to level 81 easily. Yeah, sure, that's my fault for cheating, but come on, what's the alternative? The only way to get all 80 skill points is to get 100 in every skill, even skills which you don't even normally use, so the Oghma Infinium glitch is the only realistic way to reach end-game.

However, the Oghma Infinium glitch is the only glitch that I realize I have to use. Without any other glitches, my end-game character can still swat away dragons like flies. Here's my build:

I'm a Nord. I specialize in dual-wielding. I use light armor instead of heavy armor, because without block, I'm restricted to dodging as my primary method of defense, so light armor keeps me nimble.

For weapons, I dual-weild two ebony maces (they're the same stats as daedric maces, but weigh less, and maces deal the most damage of all one-handed weapons), and have a full set of dragonscale armor, excluding the shield.

I have all perks in alchemy, except the fire frost and shock perks, all perks in smithing except daedric, and all perks in enchanting, except fire frost and shock. Using a custom-made fortify smithing potion, I was able to temper my dragonscale armor to give me 675 armor rating. Who needs shields?! I've arlready maxed out my armor rating so that the game will ignore the rest!

Using a similar custom-made fortify smithing potion, I was able to improve my two daedric maces so that they each deal 92 damage. I have all three bone-breaker perks, so 75% of armor is ignored. Most end-game bandits go down in one shot.

But, I haven't even begun to talk about my enchantments. Using a custom fortify enchanting potion (which I made while wearing four whole pieces of fortify alchemy enchantments, which I like to call my "Alchemy Uniform"), I made some pretty good fortify enchanting potions. Combinging that with the five "enchanter" perks and the insightful enchanter perk, that enables me to buff up my to 3.65x the base magnitude.

This enables me to get 90% resist magic from just two pieces of apparel (using both the regular and "Shield of Solitude" resist magic enchantments), and four "fortify one-handed" enchantments, giving me a 188% increase in damage-dealing. This brings my two ebony maces' damage output up to a whopping 529 damage per strike!

So, my ring and necklace both go towards my magic resistance, while all four pieces of my armor each have a fority one-handed enchantment on them. Each piece of armor has a second enchantment. My helmet has fortify health. My armor has fortify stamina. My guantlets have fortify health regen, and my boots have fortify stamina regen. Not that I really need them; they're just there because I have nothing better to put there.

And when I say I don't need them, I mean it. My protection is capped at 85% resist magic and 80% non-magic damage reduction. I can withstand just about anything for long enough that it will take me to swing my 529-damage maces at whatever had the balls to mess with me. I can even stand right in the middle of a dragon's breath like it's a shower (yeah, did I mention that, at end-game, I have 500 health and 500 stamina? Forty of my level-ups went to health and forty of them went to stamina. Do the math, that gives me 500 each at the end). Maybe I should switch the enchantments to fortify carry weight; I do tend to get over-encumbered from time to time. I'll have to think about that one.

My maces are also enchanted out the ass. One mace has soul trap and absorb health. The other has absorb magicka (for those pesky casters) and paralyze. Yup, who needs armor; they can't do anything anyway! With the Black Star, my weapons are always charged.

My follower of choice? Iona, Housecarl of Riften, who is also my wife. She was level 50 when I got her, so it's the best follower in the game. I've got her chalk full of similar gear to me. I give her legendary dragonplate armor (no fortify smithing buffs; it's pointless, since dragonPLATE armor can easily be buffed up to the 567 damage), a legendary ebony mace and legendary ebony bow. She can carry any arrows I loot. Her weapons aren't enchanted (because NPCs don't know how to use soul gems to recharge, and even if they did, I don't feel like keeping her loaded with soul gems), but she has enchanted armor. She has seven slots for enchantments, instead of six, since she uses a shield. Her enchantments are thus:

1. Fortify one-handed, Fortify health
2. Fortify one-handed, fortify heavy armor (she doesn't have skill perks, so she needs a slight heavy armor buff; maybe I should consider giving her an improvement with fortified smithing)
3. Fortify marksman, fortify health regen
4. fortify marksman, fortify stamina
5. Fortify heavy armor, fortify stamina regen
6. Resist magic, resist magic
7. Resist magic, resist magic.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I was smart and made sure not to put a fortify marksman enchantment on her shield. I know that would be pointless.

So with this get-up, even ancient dragons are only a minor inconvenience. Of course, I keep at Honeyside my Alchemy Outfit, just for my trips to the alchemy station, and when I go out into the market, I have a Trader's Outfit, four pieces of clothes with fortify barter and fortify speechcraft dual-enchantments, so I always get the most bang for my buck. I keep four fortify smithing enchantments on standby, in case I ever want to go back to the forge, but so far, I haven't needed them. I guess if I want to switch to fortify carry weight, I'll need more dragonscale armor. I keep some fortify unarmed gloves on standby, in case I ever want to go brawling.

Now, here's where I'm disappointed: I was able to obtain ALL of this, with the only glitch used being the Oghma Infinium glitch, less than two weeks after I bought the game. Gee, didn't Bethesda expect people to be addicted to this game and play it all through the night? They made end-game WAY too easy to achieve!

All it takes is one exploit to break your game.

You lost me right there ...

I have a combined 400+ hours on my two characters (abandoned the first around level 75 at 200 hours). I still don't have any idea what i would consider "end-game".
On my second character, i'm staying at level 1, never level up, no perks, no shouts. It's been over 200 hours and i haven't even unlocked the dragons yet.
I'm completely ignoring the main quest, i don't give a rats ass about Steam achievements and yet, i'm having a blast playing the game almost every day.

As far as i'm concerned, there is NO "end-game" in Skyrim ...

Uhm, congradulations, I guess? If you haven't noticed, it's always been easy to create a God-like character in Elder Scrolls.

My thoughts exactly. And 529 damage per swing isn't even impressive for a melee character.

Ain't that the truth. Oblivion was my first TES. After playing that for a while I had to check out what all this Morrowind fuss was all about. Damn, that game was hard . . . at first. My character moved at a snails pace, was always running out of stamina, his magicka didn't regenerate and he was getting his butt kicked every other battle. So, I dedicated myself to becomming stronger and a mere ten levels later, I had accidently become an ubergod, with just one self made spell (fortify alchemy and intelligence by 100 for 2 seconds) that let me create a bunch of really potent restore magicka, restore stamina and restore health potions. With my new spell, money was no longer an issue because I could generate infinite amounts of cash through alchemy and battles against all but the toughest foes became a cinch by just quaffing a couple of potions. You have to try NOT to become overpowered in TES games. That's the way they have always been.

There is no "end game." You're not supposed to try to "beat the game" or get to the max level or whatever. You're meant to enjoy the game for what it is. It's all about the journey, not the end result. I have yet to get a character past level 30, and I've never finished the main quest, and I'm still enjoying the game just as much as anyone else.

I find the need to constantly gimp myself in Elder Scrolls games. For exampe, have Smithing be 3 times higher than my current level, and adjust it accordingly every 10 levels. Or not using Enchants for non-mage characters. Or not taking certain perks like Savage Strike or the second tier of Dual Savagery, etc. The list goes on.

Therein lies the truth- there is no 'end game' in Skyrim. There is the journey, and whatever you choose to do along the way. Even on Master, it does not take long to gear yourself to where nothing can beat you. And you can get there well before the point you have reached. I got there at level 50 or so, with no exploits at all. And my gear is significantly weaker than what you've made. I was expecting some kind of hard play at the end of the line, something worthy of building yourself up to be the best you can be. There isn't.

There is no end game.

One of my main problems with Skyrim, it's way too easy to get overpowered. Even with Oblivion, you had to try to actually get overpowered, unlike in Skyrim where you can do it with no effort at all.

Hmm... I've never understood peoples rush to become godlike in a game. I prefer the journey rather than the destination but that might just be me.

I'm with you on this one.

The OP is referring to the fact, that due to player crafting, he is able to achieve a state where he is capable of defeating any opponent. Most other games require long hours of item hunting and upgrading before you have access to the infinity +1 weapon.

The OP is playing the game (Skyrim) as if he is playing WOW or Diablo where the item hunt is a huge part of the game and the "end game" is when you have achieved maximum stats.

Rather than telling the OP he is playing Skyrim wrong, I would simply like to remind him that Diablo 3 comes out on 15 May 2012 and I have already pre-ordered. See you at launch!

PS: As a vampire necromage, that would have been 1100+ damage per swing.

What??? I know you can go beyond that damage, but 529 is overkill even on master with a 2 hander. That will kill an ancient dragon (most hp in game) in like 5-6 power attacks.

It certainly is impressive. No challenge whatsoever.

To the people saying TES games we're always exploitable and you need to gimp yourself, This is a GIANT FLAW in the TES series if people keep saying that and accepting it then I dont think bethesda will bother balancing their next game

They do try to balance the game, but it's single-player. So why prioritize balance issues that only exist for players looking to exploit them?

OP: Your whole premise is ridiculous. There is no such thing as "end-game" in the Elder Scrolls, and as you pointed out, the only convenient way to cap your skills is to cheat. That's not a gameplay issue.

And what fun in using those "cheats" and "tricks" in a game like this ?

Even in a "simple game" -like in real life -i prefer to deserve what i achieve,not steal something without effort.

Skyrim -like previous ES - simply didn't have "an end".

You have to decide when it ends.

And with your "choice" you have decided to end it soon.

so you're saying that using cheats made the game too easy, but you had to use that cheat because it would be hard to do the same thing without cheating....

Wat.

What ? never leveled up? x) thats crazy!and amazing,Did the same thing in oblivion since i thought no point of leveling up in that game'+its cool to not care about levels

I've done the Oghma Infinium glitch twice. 1st time I got too overpowered, the 2nd time I was underpowered. I'm definitely debating doing a Level 1 playthrough, would be infinitely more interesting then an Oblivion level 1 playthrough.

Quit thinking that you are supposed to get to level 81 to enjoy the game. I've played through 5 times and the highest I've gotten was 52. There's no reason to artificially raise your level.

summary of the op...

I used a broken part of the coding (we called it a cheat in my day, not a glitch) to obtain the highest level possible and now the game is too easy.

Aside from the fact that tes has never had an endgame the"logic" being used here is nauseating.

Oh, I can understand the need and desire to create a god like character. What I don't understand is why people have the need and desire to complain about it after they do.