I often forget to use shouts. I think this is because I played the game up to level 10 before bothering to start the Dragon MQ and I`d got quite used to doing everything wth my sword.

Even now I`ll wipe out a bandit cave in a hard fight, just surviving and then it`ll dawn on me I could`ve saved myself a lot of hassle if I`d used my shout!

I use Become Ethereal shout a lot but thats about it, I used to use a wider variety like Unrelenting Force, Fire Breath, Ice Form, etc but ultimately the Become Ethereal shout does everything I need and more so I pretty much swear by it exclusively.

Good point. I need to clarify. I don't mean that the entire fight with a dragon will last 3-10 hours.

What i meant is that it will take me that long to actually beat him because of how many times i die inbetween. Thus, in 3-10 hours i may have died 180-600 times trying to beat the dam thing. The first dragon i fought during the main quest i was merely a level 2 or 3 and it took me 2 days to kill it. Another example, i just exited a cave from doing a bounty, and this one dam dragon took me about 3 hours to finally kill. The problem with this dragon was he was freaking flying every where. He would fly across the map to attack some mud crabs, then fly 3 miles a way to punk some mammoths, then 4 miles away to punk a giant, then fly 7 miles away to munch on a saber tooth cat. Ture story.

Thing about this dragon was he never got too involved with any one thing so it was always a hit and run. THere was two times when he was so near death i thought he'd be killed with one arrow shot and then he chomps on me up or did some gook move with his frost attack. Needless to say, this type of combat involvement would drive most people crazy. However, i love it. I have no reason to rush through the game anymore. Playing as an assassin is redundent as hell but it was fun seeing how i did it for 120 hours. Playing as a battle hardened two handed orc is like playing Call of Duty death matches when you are attacking strongholds and are playing by a few rules.

Bottomline, playing with my khajit the way i have been has made it where i will always be able to dish out some hardcoe DPS but i will never be at a point were i'm not weak, thus i'll always be vunerable. And while fighting diffferent types of boss and creatures i'll always have to find a way to over come my weakness, so i have a chance of being creative in a hetic battles context. For me thats great. For someone else it may not be so great cause we all come to this game with different wants and desires. All i can say is for you hardcoe gamers out there looking for skyrim to be deep and involving every step of the way, you got to try this.

Well, you ma'am, or sir, are the persons i'm trying to reach in this thread becasue i was just like you

I never used shouts during the first 250 hours of game time. But now my player is good only at one thing, and that's DPSing. All perk points are going to be used/saved for one-handed/enchanment skill trees. Thus, making me a damage dealer, with no real defense. Since i'm only putting attributes into stamina and no perks into light or heavy armor. Furthermore, my Khajit will not partake into blacksmithing as i fear i'll be putting out too much DPS.

My khajit will become a master of arms if you will. I will have enchanted weapons almost for every occasion i can fathom. However, because he can be killed so easily he must relie on many variables for surivial. For example, my khajit wont last a cold day in hell without a tank (follower) and a meat sheild (dog). He get's one shoted all the time. And he MUST rely on shouts to turn the tide of battle. Which as a matter of fact makes him perfect to just focus on the main questline. And motivates me even more to go out and explore to discover "places of power" or spots with writting on the wall. All in all it makes combat and the art of exploration and customazation that much more REWARDING.

Be warned however, if you crash course all the questlines, look up every spot of interest on the wiki, then you never have a chance of being suprised or awe struck. Then the only thing you can do is wait for DLC to make the game good again. I mean look at me. I have 4 characters in with over 300 hours of gameplay, and i haven't even completed the main questline or the mages guild. I don't expect everyone to be as hardcoe as i am, but if people would take things down a couple notches and take notice, you can get way more than yuo bargined for in this game.

However, speed gamers will hate this game becasue they don't have the pateince for it. And i don't blame them. If i had money, and gamed like i used to i'd moved on by now. However, being poor, being a gamer, and having skyrim is a blessing in disguished.

and you can quote me on this:

It's not until Skyrim is all you have, then you realize Skyrim is all you need.

I only use a handful but I would like to remember to use them more often. They are usually just not needed.

The main ones I use are Ice Form for freezing a deathlord when I have two or three other enemies to deal with
Fire Shout to finish off an enemy when I have run out of Magicka.
Ethereal for jumping off mountains.
Whirlwind Sprint to access places I cannot jump to or to avoid traps like swinging blades
And of course Dragonrend for grounding lizards.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm still on my first playthru character (not counting a couple of short experimentals initially), around 400 hrs, and I haven't completed any questlines (unless specific daedric quests are considered questlines). I'm lvl 42 but am barely into the main quest (met with the greybeards once but still haven't gotten the horn of ... whatever) and somewhat into the DB but -- no spoilers! -- I don't know how far. I haven't really done that many sidequests either. I'll save other questlines for future characters where they fit their story.

Playing a sneak character has certainly inflated my time as I go slow (but love the suspense) thru the dungeons. Well, not just in the dungeons. I don't normally sneak in the outer world, but I look for alchemical ingredients, don't FT nor run very much, and get easily distracted by the environment (whether random npc encounters, smoke in the distance, artificial-looking shapes in the distance), so it can easily take me a couple of hours to get from Whiterun to Morthal, e.g. I spend a decent amount of time RP'ing with companions and npcs (how much depending upon my mood/imagination at any given time), and if I'm spending time planning alchemy recipes, smithing/enchanting needs, etc., then I let the game run while my PC sits in Breezehome planning along with me.

I have no idea if my playstyle is considered hardcoe. I don't play this way because it's hard, I play this way because I find it fun and challenging.


Well, it's not just if one is poor. I'm relatively poor, but I'd pre-ordered "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" (have played and enjoyed all the other AC installments) along with Skyrim and picked it up a few days after Skyrim's release. It's still sitting in its box, shrink-wrap and all. Come to think about it, I hope it's not defective as I'm probably passed the return date ... oops. I'll get around to it after I *finally* finish this character's story, but I had no idea back in November that come late February I'd be this long into Skyrim with so much left to do and still having so much fun with my first playthru.

I rely on Fus Ro Dah as my main shout. It's mostly a panic button, but it's also a tool for dealing with tougher enemies, where a full shout will disable them long enough for me to wade in and finish them off. The other shouts I use as utility spells, not combat spells, so the frost and fire breath don't get used (or learned) much at all. The lightning storm shout is quite nifty, especially if you know there's a big village or outpost to attack, and you tell your follower to stay behind. That one let's me just hide out and be stealthy, and I let the lightning take care of my problems.

FWIW, in spite of 300+ hours of play on multiple characters, I've not finished the main quest line for any of them, so there are several plot-line shouts (of which I'm fairly certain, without reading spoilers) that I haven't found and tried out.

I may be in the minority here, but I find the Slow Time shout quite useful. I play on master difficulty, so when I encounter let's say, a couple giants whom I know I will have a hard time defeating, I use Slow Time, and am able to get a few power attacks in that time. Even though this shout slows YOU down as well, I still feel it can be an advantage to get in some extra attacks in. So far, Slow Time, Unrelenting Force, Storm Call, and Whirlwind Sprint are my most used/favorite shouts.

I enjoy the variety of the shouts in the game and like to use them frequently to "test them out" and see how better they can be used later on.

Ah- there was the question. I personally don't use shouts except for etheral shout (so that I don't break my little dragonborn's weak ankles) and marked for death (dragon fights)

I'd actually forget I can shout but now and then i'd accidentally press z and i'm like WOW! i forgot I could do that. lately tho i'v been using shouts a lot namely aura whisper and kynes peace.


I might have to try that one

On my stealthy character I use aura whisper and throw voice, and I use them all the time

I usually use Shouts at the very beginning of battle to gain some advantage. My favorites are Slow Time and Unrelenting Force.

Slow Time is great for closing on mages or when you're outnumbered or protecting npcs. It gives you time to close on enemies.

Whirlwind sprint is useful for reaching remote alcoves with hidden chests in dungeons.

i forget to use them also, honestly if the shouts did not have long cool downs i would use them alot more, but most of the time it makes me sad that the shouts are not spells.

Me too, 500 hours with Skyrim but with about a dozen re-starts as I like to test some new mods with a clean start, or any new thing I decide to make myself (plus I did the Beta with a couple of clean starts)
Oblivion for me was in the thousands of hours as all the mods over the years gradually changed how it looked or played and like you I to experimented with different characters, I'm hoping for at least that
amount with Skyrim as it has the potential to be a 'long distance' game. No 200 hours and thats it for me, although New Vegas only got about that many, but thats adifferent story all together.

Ah sorry Shouts (almost forgot), I really do not make a huge use of them I play like Blade Watcher said, often getting up to level 10/12 before I even think of going to get them to use, to many years of Morrowind and Oblivion using Sword and Bow plus some Magic, so apart from the Quest need for them I reckon i could play the whole game without them. TBH I only do the MQ to bring the Dragons in as they are an integral part of the game and I really do like fighting the Dragons. I view Shouts a bit like Followers, they are there but I often forget to use them, although I do use Followers more than shouts, they make good pack mules. He He

My current character (Khajiit female sneaky/archer type - playing on expert) uses shouts pretty often.
Especially since I dont use followers, up until yesterday that is, ever since i discovered Kharjo (never knew about him )
Im not one to reload if things go the way i planned so Become Ethereal saved my hide a few times and Unrelenting Force creates openings in tight spots i really need.
Whirlwind Sprint to get to places that give me a temporary tactical advantage (from road to rooftop - think dawnstar), Firebreath to set oil ablaze .
She hasnt found any other shouts but aside from the most basic of restoration spells, thats about as magical as she gets.
Even the equipment she wears only has enchantments on a ring (+10 stamina) and necklace (Talos necklace).

I find I need them.

The shouts are now always part of my gameplay after I found the Thuumic mod (voice control for shouts). It makes using the shouts very fun.

The 3 shouts I usually use:
- Whirlwind Sprint - If opponent is an archer to quickly get close to him.
- Marked For Death - Against tough single opponents to lower their defence.
- Unrelenting Force - Usually as a last resort to unbalance enemies or throw them against a wall so I can get some free swings at them. Also good before escaping.

I always forget to use them to be honest, except for dragonrend. My main character hasn't touched the main story past Helgen yet, so it's not even a part of my current game.

3-10 hours?????
How the hell does it take THAT long?
My dragon battles are Lucky to hit 10mins.

The shouts I use most are the ethereal one, unrelenting force (because it's fun more than useful), ice form and dragonrend. Oh, and clear skies too if the weather is annoying.

For combat? I use Unrelenting Force from time to time. I mostly use Clear Skies cause I hate rain, and Become Ethereal for getting around.

I pretty much only use unrelenting force.

I use them quite a bit on most of my characters. I don’t have all of them yet but out of what I have:

Become Ethereal is good for fighting dragons and avoiding their breath attacks, it makes a great panic button and it also can be used to avoid death when jumping off cliffs so its handy for taking shortcuts

Whirlwind sprint is good for getting around the place quickly, getting thru traps, reaching areas you would otherwise be unable to reach and closing in on ranged characters that need to be dealt with quickly such as mages.

I use Aura Whisper and Throw Voice all the time on my stealth character. Makes it easy to keep track of everyone and direct NPCs to where I want them to go.

Marked for Death is good for bosses.

Unrelenting Force will get you some free hits, interrupt what your opponent is doing, help keep melee enemies off you and can occasionally be use to throw people off heights but mostly I just use it for fun.

Very simle with my current playthrough.

Left hand: lightning spell
Right Hand: fire spell
Shout: frost shout (all 3 words)

I have an answer for any opponent i encounter now when it comes to elements.

well i rp a nord who is a pretty much straight up baller, a warrior with a code of honor he lives his life by, he has mastered the Thu'um and he finds out that he is dragonborn.

I think they did the shouts very well. There is something for every play style.