What is the point of levels and perks if combat has remained unchanged from level 1?

What is the point of dumping points into Health if I can die from a 1 hit kill?

I can mostly kill everything with ease, especially with a follower. Yet I still get 1 hit killed every now and then out of the blue. What's the point of this? What good is Legendary Armor and 360 Health if some scrub mob can 1 shot me?

How is this rewarding if 90% of the time I just mow stuff down mindlessly button mashing?

I submit to you that melee combat and level scaling needs a major balance fix.

Let's look at it this way:

Where is the challenge if only the Player gets stronger?

What are you getting 1 hit by? I know there's a bug that causes executions on the player to fire, even though you would have easily survived the blow.


Otherwise, I don't know what you're talking about, At level 40, there's nothing that can one-shot my low-armor character (Around 400HP). Some powerful spells do come close though, even with a bit of Magic Resistance.

it was also posted that there is a bug or, at least, a high % chance to get 1-hit by briars.

i haven't gotten 1-hit by anything since level 30+. it might have even been the high 20's (powergamed hybrid)

If you're talking scaling, the challenge would be set level ranges for certain areas. Higher level stuff would exist in remote caves. Low level stuff near roads etc..

The problem is there is no challenge currently. You can mow through everything easily at level, except when you randomly get 1 hit killed by a spawned 2 handed weapon user. Or if the camera goes wonky and you can spammed by Ice Spikes from a caster.

Combat feels almost identical at level 50 as it did at level 1. Block spells/heavy attacks. Swing for the fences. Cast spells if you feel like it. Chug potions when in trouble. I guess there are some high level perks for weapon skills, but do you even notice?

The only one I consistently remember is sneak/stealth 6xdmg kill. But at level 1 I didn't need 6x dmg so the gameplay was almost identical.

I guess I'm more akin to as my character levels up, I would get more complex abilities or advanced spells etc... I've been conjuring a flame antioch since level 5 and self healing. I guess I have more shouts to use now, but most fights are over after 1 shout and still waiting on refresh.

Maybe I picked the wrong perks? I have a bunch in 1 handed and shield. Shield blocks magic now, that's nice. But NPC magic is so overpowered that it was a must have.

Two enemies in mind, draugr deathlords ebony archers and forsworn dual wielding briarhearts.

Draugr deathlords archers can hit for 300 damage on master when you have maximum physical resistance (667 armor rating), so they are always a threat.

Briarhearts dual power attack will deal a [censored] load of damage, probably dealing around 400 with the triple spin, possibly more.

I don't know how your playing or what choices you are making to improve yourself.... But something seems wrong. Doesn't work that way for me. Armor improvements, magic resistance, weapon enchants. Varied weapons & armor depending where you are going or what you intend to encounter etc. some encounters need some strategy, but one hit kills at level 50 no way. I am at 51 adjusting as I go. Multiple mages at this level or 2 ancient dragons can be a problem but that is why they give you the ability to enchant or buy magic resistance items. Bandit leaders etc in big groups should not be to much of a problem with at least decent armor & some strategy.
Good luck, maybe regroup or rethink your choices.
Master difficulty???

What level are you, what's your armor and resistance ratings, which enemies do you usually die to?

My lvl 72 powertrip character can still die to two things on master: Draugr deathlords with ebony bows & arrows, and a certain dualwielding Briarheart.

350+ HPs. I hit kill almost always comes from 2handed weapon NPCs if I can remember correctly. I have very high armor, health, perks etc.. Ancient Dragons are annoying but I rarely ever die from them.

Frost trolls can barely scratch me. My last 1 shot kill was to a 2handed Vampire that was high level. I obviously had to reload a save, and this time I 2-3 shotted all the vamps.

So yeah, it's not really a challenge issue, it's a balance problem (bug?)

Actually, this is one area where Oblivion & Morrowind hold the crown, because the more you get hit, the worse condition your armour gets and the less protection it offers, meaning you need to repair it.

I've never felt like my armour offers me huge protection in Skyrim. It's more of a 'percentage buffer' between attack made and damage taken, rather than something which actually protects you for a while, but slowly gets weaker.

That must be it, if stuff is doing 400 dmg in 1 hit, nothing I can do about that. I don't die as much to dual wielders tho since I always remember to block those annoying Briars

In general it's just an odd thing to level up a character to the end game, and die in 1 shot to non-boss mobs. It doesn't feel right.

that's a great way of describing not having degradation and it is dead-on accurate.

it's just a bonus and not actually armor as it should be. it highlights the faulty skyrim system.

though, of course, many will side-step the issue and just call it my opinion.

I've been shot by a Deathlord Archer on Master with only around 300 Armor and it only did around 240 damage.

Briarheats aren't really "One Shotting" you. They're doing a triple power attack. That's three attacks.

Also, I'm pretty sure Briarhearts and Deathlord Archers that can Unrelenting Force 3 are Boss enemies.


You do know Oblivion and Skyrim use the same Armor system right? Oblivion just has degradation, they actually function exactly the same.

Armor cap of 567 means only 20% damage is delivered. So a hit of 300 damage will only take 60 from your health. That is the way I undwerstand it???

Legendary armor would mean at least 350-400 rating even on leather
50 armor -> 18% reduction -> 82% damage taken
150 armor -> 30% reduction -> 70% damage taken
317 armor -> 50% reduction -> 50% damage taken
442 armor -> 65% reduction -> 35% damage taken
567 armor -> 80% reduction -> 20% damage taken

so a one hit kill on 360 health with only 50% reduction would mean 720 damage (unlikely)
Unless you have no magic resistance still 360 damage from magic is unlikely.
2-3 hits maybe
Choices need to be made for sure. Better armor & protection does not mean you have to also have a weapon to one hit kill others. keeping your weapon tame makes combat more equal.

I get the sneaking suspicion that the kill cam doesn't take armor into consideration when it calculates. So if that power attack is gonna do 300-400 it calculates if you have that health available and not the reduced amount your armor should be helping with.

Yeah you may have been, deathlords can wield many bows and different arrows, the most dangerous combo is ebony now and ebony arrows, these are the strongest type of deathlords (forgetting overlords) and deal the most damage.

I never said they were one shooting you, they are just some dangerous enemies that came to mind. Petty.

Briarhearts never use shouts, all type of deathlords can use unrelenting force. Draugr death overlords (boss version) can also use unrelenting force, but the deathlords ebony archers are arguably more dangerous.

Yes kill cam will take armor ratings into account, but the trigger for a kill cam is if the damage of a power attack kills the enemy, even if you/they used a normal attack. This is what I've gauged from playing and performing many kill cams.

I got a similar sneaking suspicion, although those darn ebony archers have always been dangerous and they don't trigger a kill cam.

I've only encountered Deathlord Archers with Ebony bows and Arrows, I have seen Glass bows and arrows on a friends file though. Not all Deathlords can use Unrelenting force 3 (the one that knocks you down), Many only have Stage 2 Unrelenting force. The Ebony Arrow/Archers that have Stage 3 are perhaps the most dangerous enemy in the game though. Knocking you down, and then pelting you with multiple arrows while you can't even see your HP Bar.

I also never said Briarhearts used shouts, dunno where that came from.

A well documented problem.


It isn't as bad as Oblivion, their names change at least.

I didn't say the use level 3 UF, pretty sure only overlords do, deathlords do not. You don't get archer overlords either, it's only deathlords that get ebony bow+arrow.

They use a variety of bows and arrows, depending on your level. I've seen ancient nord bows, orcish bows, glass bows and ebony bows on deathlords.

Your text was misleading, looked like you wrote that briarhearts use shouts.

If you feel NPC magic is overpowered the best character to make is a Breton and if that's not enough take the Lord Stone on top of it. I've done that on a couple of characters and magic users are no longer an issue. No to mention the Lord Stone helps with physical damage as well. My warrior is a Breton and nothing I've come across came even close to one shotting him.

I'd rather have Skyrim's scaling then no level scaling. The latter makes the game too easy when your strong and the former when done right keeps the game challenging through out the whole experience.

Draugr Deathlord archers definitely do use Unrelenting Force 3. I've had it happen a lot, most notably in Sarthaal. Pain in the ass that place is for anyone over level 30.

The leveling system of Skyrim's enemies is actually functionally identical to Morrowind. The difference is, there's enemy subclasses now. So instead of a tomb full of bonelords at level 7, and now Greater Bonewalkers at 12, Skyrim goes Draugr -> Draugr Wights -> Scourges.

I'm a big advocate of Skyrim's enemy scaling. It's not perfect, but it's a vast improvement (Or at least an example of going back to what worked) over their last Elder Scrolls game.

No, that's letting player reach level 80 and more when the highest enemy is level 48. Obviously, you need a better cap or more enemies, not level scaling.

Ummm... What the hell was supposed to happen here? If you want to become strong, the game has to become easy. There are no other logical possibility.

In an open world game with progression, the hero's journey will start from a weak character to the powerful hero. That's how it is done. I think level scaling belongs in arcade games.

the game should remain challenging at the highest character levels when it has multiple difficulty levels to choose from, including, one called master.

not only does skyrim fail at this, it takes it to the other extreme.