I play on Master after I hit about 25 + levels once the game starts to get too easy. I start on Expert. I agree with the OP completely. It is so uncreative and I hate that the game forces me, the player, to balance my gameplay in that order I don't break the game. They should've really put some limitations on crafting skills. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Oblivion's enemy level scaling now. The game was a challenge from start to finish. I wish they just put more enemies for higher difficulty levels if nothing.

I am hoping that once CK gets out we will get some great overhauling mods like it was with Oblivion (Obscuro's for example).

You are defensive when it comes to what you write, but when it's about the OP, you're very imaginative. In case you didn't read properly, the whole topic isn't about Master being too difficult for the OP because he's bad at Skyrim, but about the difficulty raising just a few numbers and not the game in general.

I've been playing the game on master difficulty for a while now, because I enjoy a challenge, and I think it's much easier to judge the balance of a game when you pit various play styles against the toughest possible scenario, as opposed to an easy one. (For example, lots of people maintain that shields are useless and melee is easy because they play on easy difficulties, where your armor easily does all the work, or that destruction magic is overpowered, because on easy difficulties it burns through any number of foes with ease)

The issue I see with Master difficulty is that the way the difficulty is raised in the game is in the absolute lamest, most unimaginative, and cheesy way possible. All the game does is simply increase the damage and hitpoints of enemies, in many cases to an absurd degree.

This leads to two things happening:

1. Enemies can shrug off blows like they are nothing, you can smack them with a power attack from a great hammer and they just don't really care all that much, it takes a couple millimeters off their life bar, but they keep right on rolling. That completely screws up the game however, because it destroys the way a lot of mechanics work. For example, shield bashing someone to open them for a flurry of attacks - useful if the enemies is gravely wounded as a result, pretty much pointless if they still have a mountain of HP left, but it still costs a good chunk of your stamina. Using Fus Ro Dah on an enemy is even significantly cheapened by their inflated hitpoints, because while lying on the floor helpless for a few seconds might be a big deal in regular difficulty, on master difficulty the enemies will simply get back up and keep fighting, since they can take a couple dozen wacks from a decent weapon.

2. Enemies do insane ammounts of damage. This is also gamebreaking in a lot of ways. For example, the first "miniboss" you will encounter in Skyrim on a usual play-through is the big spider in bleak falls barrow. It has a poison attack. Poison attacks ignore armor and blocking. On regular difficulty this spider is a pretty mean foe, no doubt, but on master difficulty it's one bite and you're dead. The only way to survive its poison attack is to instantly pause the game and throw half a dozen health potions in your mouth. The same is true for dragon breath, enemy mages, and high end enemy fighters as well. They end up doing so much damage that your defenses become meaningless.


The result of those changes are that certain play styles become infinitely more potent than others. Stealth becomes incredibly powerful, since the enemies are no better at detecting you. Conjuration becomes an easy way to avoid taking blows, and of course all the various cheese and exploits with alchemy, smithing and enchanting can easily turn master difficulty back into a cakewalk.


I think it's a shame that the difficulty setting in Skyrim are so uninspired. Sure, they make for much harder fights, trying to play through master difficulty as an unsubtle fighter without ludicrously enchanted gear is damn near impossible, since every other enemy takes a minute long beating to kill and can do more damage to you through your shield than you can do to them with a well placed hit. Ultimately the difficulty setting utterly fails at making things more difficult in all areas though. The vendors have the same prices, locks are equally easy to open, enemies are still unable to detect a semi competent stealther.

I really hope Bethesda will take a look at the difficulty setting and reevaluate how they work. Master Difficulty should be more than just making fights absurdly hard for characters that aren't made of cheese and lols, it should make the whole game harder. Bribes should be steeper, vendors prices harsher, locks harder to pick, enemies harder to trick. Playing through master difficulty should mean that skills are more meaningful as a whole, not that everything is skewed towards characters with high DPS and avoidance. If you want to be rich on Master difficulty you should have to invest in some merchant perks or lockpick skills for example. Every individual aspect of the game that is confronted by a skill should be harder to some degree, not one singular aspect that is best confronted by only a hand full of skills harder by an insane amount.

Perhaps we can get the moders on creating a "Genuine Challenge Mode" and not just an "Inflated Enemy Numbes Mode".

I was really surprised when I went up one level.

I expected a lot more enemies, especially in dungeons, which is the main reason I increased my level because I love dungeon crawling.

Yet, it seemed like the same number, except they had more hit points - which made the fights longer - and they hit for more damage.

I'd much rather see an increase in opponents and a moderate increase in hit points/damage.

Not if Bethesda made the combat actually good like Dark Messiah was. That game puts Skyrim to shame.

No matter what beth do, no one is happy. Hate to sound like a loyal really devoted really devoted fan, but it's true.

Pay attention, where did I say anything about sneaking and archery? Nowhere thats where, I stated my character was a thief, I didnt say my charactetr sneaks around 24/7 shooting everything and never getting attacked. Though yes I can do that, However my character DOES NOT. My character engages in direct combat as I said above.

The OP is just pissed that his character is crap because he didnt perk the skills properly and has crap gear.


@Above - That spider was easy, all you have to do is sidestep and retreat to the anti-room when its getting dangerous for health.

Yea, NPC mages don't suffer the indignity of damage not scaling on spells.

I wasn't writing about how the problem with master difficulty is that its too hard, what I was writing about was that master difficulty takes one singular aspect of the game and boosts it to absurd levels, which completely skews the entire game towards a few viable builds. Most of the game doesn't get harder at all, it's still just as easy to amass a fortune, it's still just as easy to open any lock, it's still just as easy to hide in plain sight.

The increase in difficulty is simply achieved in the wrong way. Someone said they would have preferred more enemies rather than enemies that are unrealistically strong, and that's something I can agree on. That would have made more sense.

I love how people come on here and blast the OP while completely ignoring the actual point of his topic.

You can play on Master difficulty and not die? +1 interwebz 4 u. We don't care in this thread, because thats not what it's about.

Everyone is so aggressive on this forum. Sometimes I think it`s a bad sign when a game makes people like this.