I've invested well over 300 hours of gameplay time into Skyrim without spoiling my experince via guides or forums. I have made 4 significant characters all with a set purpose. I play all characters on master difficulty without fast travel. Thus far, i have only completed the following questlines: theives guild, companions, civil war and dark brotherhood.

As of right now, I am playing a Khajit. He's a level 12 with 8 perk points in One-handed, 3 perks points in enchanting. All attribute points are invested into stamina. He's clocked in 17:20:30. However, in reality i've been playing him for a month now and the real time i've played with him is around 60-80 hours. The reason being is I only use the games natural auto-saves as check points. Thus, a simple trip from A-B can take several hours because of unlucky situations. Dragon fights can last any where between 3-10 hours. A whole day can be spent trying to discover a source of power only to find out i'm too weak to beat the main boss. Simple bounty quest seems like epic battles meant for end game raids. If i see a mob walking around i avoid the conflict because i usually on have a 30% chance of survial. Meeting a saber tooth cat usually equals instant death if it gets the jump on me. Normal bosses one hit kill me is the norm. I have a dog as a meat sheild and a follower as an tank so i can sneak up behind the enemy the tank is involved with and dish out massive DPS.

However, the point in saying all that was to give context for the point of the thread. Playing like this makes using Shouts a key to survial. In my past play throughs it seemed to be used as a cool feature rather then a life line between living and dieing. Right now i only have three shouts: become ethereal, unrelenting force and whirlwind sprint. Only the unrelenting force is maxed out. I use each regliously. And i'm always counting the seconds before i can use my next one.

This character main objective is to beat the main quest. However, since i've jumped straight into the main quest with him, i'm at a place where i can't pass unless i get stronger. Leveling up is slow since i only make do things i need to do, thus i'm not grinding out eazy functions to level grind. Not only does playing like this feel more MMO like, but really opened my eyes as to the feeling of power i get from learning shouts. Moreover, fighting the same dragon for 10 hours really opens your eyes as to the AI it has. I can't believe it when i've been fighting a dragon for so long that each fight is different. That it acts in ways that makes you believe it is being controlled by a human. This is so much more epic than running around OP and then just getting the immpression the dragon is no better than any other trash mob you can find about.

Thus, have you found a stratigic way to use Shouts as a key to your very survial rather than it being used as a cool off feature. If so i'd like to hear your story.

Cheers.

Honestly, I forget to use them most of the time. I have used whirlwind sprint the most, just to get through swinging blade traps or gates that close quickly. I am at level 81 and have 500+ hours on this one character.

shouts really dont fit in with my kind of character (silent when at all possible, lethal when unnoticed)

Mostly they're a support thing, since I only play on Adept. Occasionally I may decide to use an offensive one if the enemy is too tough or in a good position for some lulz (such as that bandit who sits on a fallen tree over the waterfall near Ivarstead).

In my opinion, the cooldown times stop them from playing a bigger roll. They're either so weak at low level that they don't do anything, or take so long to cooldown that I can only do one a battle.

i couldnt play like that cause using one charactor spoiles the game for me. I have to come up with different play styles and use them for a set purpose. Every fight i get in with my khajit can get so hectic at times you get the sense your playing in a multiplayer team death match. Although all the enemies are the same each fight plays out different each time. Thus, playing one cave for 10 hours is not a waste of my time cause all the fights were epic. You have a different objective that can be equally fun and thats getting up to a massive one level character, I'll do that when i fell like there's nothing left to discover in the game.

I use the shouts to make my spell sword more unpredictable in battle and also to shield myself from damage, Become Ethereal is by far my favorite shout so far.

i agree with the position that the Shouts are more of a support thing. However, i found out a way to make it a key part of gameplay and thats why i made up the topic. I think if people tried this they'd be amazed at how fun the core gameplay really is and how shouts can be a descive tool in that regard

Damn, how much time do you have on your hands. A dragon battle lasting 3- 10 hours? I can't even play a video game for more than 5 at the most.

Hardly use them.

I am retired, so I have all the time in the world. I live for TES games. I played Oblivion for 5 years (with a lot of different characters) while waiting for Skyrim to come out. This is the best entertainment ever for me.

I play on Adept, which is higher than I normally bother to play on. It's not terribly difficult, but the main quest's offer a challenge from time to time and I like that. I use my shouts quite often, Ive played 2 characters, my first I had about 14 of them unlocked, I used 7 or 8 of them alot. They are huge life lines, and I use them to set up most of my attacks. Marked for Death would help you immensely for your style of play.

Is this a typo? Did you really mean 3-10 hours as opposed to minutes? If it's not a typo, I'm not sure I can get my head around how that's even possible.

As per your larger point. I'm still in my first playthru (not counting a couple of planned, temporary starts when the game first came out) and RP-wise don't use shouts recklessly or needlessly as advised by the greybeard. As a player, that means I'm still just sampling. I like your idea for a future character, though, that maybe won't use any magic but instead rely on shouts as equally as any other combat skills.

I find that shouts are a fun thing to use, but often not particularly usefull. At high levels, fire and frost shouts don't do a whole lot of damage to higher level enemies, but fire shout is always usefull for setting off the oil traps. the force shout is really fun and very usefull outside (especially in the reach... dear god all those poor forsworn at the bottom of those canyons...) and storm call is freakin awesome as long as your by yourself, have a lot of enemies, and don't feel like using any other shouts for awhile. i'm constantly using aura whisper though, and ice form is usefull if you want to disable somone to fight someone else. marked for death i use frequently, particularly on dragons/bosses not only for practical purposes but rping purposes as well, i'm calling them out telling them their time is up.

Welp, I guess they don't. All my characters (save for 1) I like to consider as "not Dragonborn"

With my first character I found that by the time I had the shouts I didn't actually need them. So, except when I made a special effort to remember them , they never got used - except when demanded by the story-line (e.g. Fire Breath on the friendly dragon).

My new character was created with the specific intention of using Shouts as a primary weapon and now I have finished the Companions Questline I shall start the main quest and get up to see the Greybeards. However, as I am already at level 16 with two-handed skill at level 56, I suspect that once again my combat ability will improve faster than I can find the shouts and they will again prove redundant.

Aura Whisper for a silent/stealth character is an almost necessity, it costs no magic and detects live and dead foes. It functionally becomes a radar who's range and duration can be improved.

There are shouts for every playstyle, and the fact that they are instant and work as a sort of third 'hand' make them invaluable.

I laugh at people that think otherwise.

Does it upset you when people don't use shouts?

I like using Marked For Death against Elder and Ancient dragons, and also when faced with multiple opponents. If I can line them up right, it's a big help in softening up large groups. Sometimes I use Fire Breath as a finishing blow against tougher enemies. Sometimes it's just fun to FUS RO DAH something off of a mountain. Shouts don't factor into every battle, but they help every so often.

Are you shouting at me?

Rhetorically?

Not me, I'm a pacifist. Especially when it comes to the Thu'um.


*goes back to hacking up and slaughtering Treva's Watch*

Sometimes

Once there were three guards coming towards me in the Civil War questline and I FUS RO DAH'd them to death. I don't know how that happened but it looked amazing.

I have a number of shouts, though I only use unrelenting force, as it's a handy long ranged stagger, useful when trying to close in for the kill against mages.

The others seem situational at best, like ones that do fire or ice damage, or ones that weaken enemy defense. My warrior doesn't need a lot of help in combat, and with most of the shouts, they just seem unnecesary.

I keep coming across word walls, but the shout that I found first is the one that I've stuck with, and the rest feel like a waste of a slot in the favorites menu.

I keep forgetting about them, and when I do use it, it's a panic button (feeling crowded and can't back away).

*cough*

They make Shouts for that... pacifism that is.

If a person can't appreciate the utility of Shouts in Skyrim, its likely that they just don't appreciate Skyrim.

Situational or not, all skills are situational... hell this post is situational.

Sorry but I'm playing a Dark Brotherhood Assassin, I'm not going to be known as 'Dragonborn' and go around shouting. It's a lame way to limit most role-player's imaginations. That being said, I have a ton of fun using shouts on my Nord Dragonborn...