Skyrim... The land that loses its bite upon higher levels. The land that isn't quite as fatal as it was from the start.

My character is Jaldian. A level 53 nord classic warrior. Nothing complicated, just a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. He walks around in full daedric that is upgraded to legendary with smithing boosters to upgrade the armor and weapons higher. I avoid enchantments when I hear about other people complaining about this game being too easy. Jaldian journeys with his companion, Aela. She travels in full forsworn armor (excluding the bird-on-her-head forsworn headdress). She is an archer, using the nightingale bow and does enough damage with iron arrows (yet still she kill steals )

I play on the master difficulty and the only challenges I ever cross are those damndable mages and ancient dragons. I'm thinking of downgrading my equipment. The point of this post is to ask if anyone else is reaching the times of Skyrim where you look back on the "glory days of mortality."

So are you holding back? Do you use basic or downgraded equipment because of the issue of overpoweredness? Have you come to the boundary before and are looking to turn back?

not that much

although I AM starting to play the game in the 5-35 level margin

I'm only level 22 (been playing since launch, but I take my time - no rush) & I honestly believe that I'm the only person that does NOT abuse smithing or enchanting.

i do what i feel is right

therefore i dont overpower my character (mage)

dont wear armour
dont use potions (got nothing to do with mage - i just dont like the concept)
dont use weapons unless all mana is depleted
and so on so on...

so ye tho my character is still in mid 20s i dont plan on making it too easy for myself

i find the only way to enjoy this game is too gimp yourself as much as possible - the game really has no sense of danger

The whole pointbf the game s I want to become thanes and guild masters and hopefully rule skyrim. I want people basically not to mess with me

Aela in Forsworn armour, wonder why?

On topic, I am level 47 on Expert level and I still use my Skyforge swordI(epic) and Steel Plate armour(the level after superior), the moment I get deadric stuff I crank it up to Master, but i'm holding that off until the 60's or 70's. I want to feel as if I deserved it.

I have a rule that each character can only utilise alchemy, enchanting or smithing (and I tend to steer clear of enchanting) so they aren't expert at everything and haven't yet taken a character past level 35-ish. Consequently, they tend not to be too uber.

I much prefer the earlier levels when you're weak, new skills and equipment mean something and you need more money. And the world feels a bit more natural, not a nightmarish playground for high tier enemies who should have rendered Nord civilsation impossible. I wish it was more of a struggle for survival as I much prefer 'one man/woman struggling to survive in a harsh world' than 'unstoppable killing machine annihilates everything with their enchanted legendary sword of killing things by looking at them'. It's a shame I could only get into the first s.t.a.l.k.e.r really.

I so want a hardcoe mode. Without the abundant food. I think I might go back to my Fallout rule whereby my character can only eat outside of combat - it's not very immersive to be busily consuming apple cabbage stew while a dragon breathes fire on you.

Yes I'm in the exact same boat. Nord Warrior, full upgraded Daedric, 1 hit kills on anything but bosses, 3 hit kills on dragons. I pretty much feel like a god right now.

I've been planning on downgrading for a while now. I'm thinking about using only "realistic" stuff, which means switching my daedric armour for iron/steel armour and my daedric greatsword for skyforge steel greatsword. Debating whether I should upgrade any of it too, but I think I'd take too much of a hit if I don't.

I might even switch to hide armour just for a laugh, Conan the Barbarian style...

I haven't felt the need to downgrade equipment. My fighter wears Dwarven and my thief wears Glass but the former is way above the armor cap and the other is at the cap when he brings out his shield. My mage doesn't wear armor but that's because she is more powerful that way. My fighter uses a Dwarven warhammer (unenchanted) for the looks, but the damage at level 40 is 410, so that is not exactly underpowered. They are still all fun due to the differing playstyles.

Where I am thinking about it is elemental resistance. It gets too high such that dragon breath doesn't do anything. I will probably do something about that...

Edit: However I never use followers.

Here's a tip

I don't hold back. If I can RP my character in a way that he or she will use every single skill out there, then I'm fine with that. In fact feeling like a god makes levelling before that seem worthwhile. It annoys me when I can still fight guys almost as powerful as me when I should by all rights be a creature of legend.

I agree. even on master you squash everything.... but you know what your problem is there?
It begins with D
.....
Having the best gear, spoils it...afterall as the game lore goes... the best armour is the best in tamriel and perhaps the best through the 3 ages... so wearing it and not being "A BOSS" is going to be silly theoretically. But yes I really would suggest dropping a few armour classes if you want difficulty back

I prefer "some good old fashioned steel plate - now there's some fine armour" (thank you town guards for noticing)

Second to that, when you make a new guy, don't aim for smithing and all the (legendary + smith boost gear + potions) and you may find level 40-60 as hard as 1-20 on hard mode, if not harder.

Ive done this, and it works wonders... plus I feel like a hero again and I justify it by thinking of the "Live action trailor" if im not mistaken looks like hide armour, a crummy steel/ iron sword with an iron helmet... now top the game and all locations with that outfit on master... and you are a "MASTER"

Beyond that... yes the game mechanics on difficulty certainly feel unbalanced at various levels

Sorry for the total OT, but Call of Pripyat is the best of the entire series IMO. Clear Sky svcked but CoP is even better than the first. Well worth checking out, after you're finished with Skyrim ofcourse

My highest level attained thus far is 48, so I’m not that far behind you. If you feel overpowered, yes, I agree, try using crappy gear. Leave your follower at home, don’t sneak, don’t drink potions etc. I’m not even playing on Master, and it’s plenty challenging to me. I easily get killed with 1 or 2 shots from Marauders. But I’m only wearing Leather Armor (Flawless). Deathlords, mages & Priests are arrow sponges enough for me at Medium difficulty. I don’t feel that having to spam arrow after arrow, or hack after hack while running around trying to avoid getting hit is really all that fun, but that’s personal taste.

As for your question, I play as naturally as I possibly can. I’d have to double check, but I believe the only skill I have at 100 is Archery. After hitting 60, my Smithing & Enchanting all but stops because I only want the Arcane Enchanter perk and I just always seem to stick with the same gear, lol. I don’t even have the enchanting perk that lets you put 2 spells on your gear. I don’t EVER take the Archery perk that slows time, and I’ve pretty much finished taking any of the Sneak perks. So there are a few things I do to limit my godlike status, but those are personal choices based on what feels “natural” to me. (I understand that “natural” is subjective to each player though.)

Since I'm a Mage I only use enchanting. I also use smithing but that is mainly to make some coin off of and upgrade my steel sword. I gimp my character by only having 150 health so it doesn't feel as cheap taking enchanting. With enchanting, I have destruction at -65, and the rest of the schools at -40 so I try to avoid the -100 crap that makes the game so boring.

Nope. My first character, played "how it feels right", not particularly trying to be weak or anything, hit the mid-50's before she felt like things were getting too easy. Since that's beyond the "soft cap" of 50, that seems correct.

Mixed Glass and Elven armor (my enchanting was weak, so I was still using looted Elven bits with good enchantments on it), upgraded to only slightly Legendary (very little in the way of Smithing boosters, after all); Sword & board + Light armor; Sneak, Lockpick, Speech, Resto, Smithing, Alchemy, Archery (typical "ranger" build). First skill to 100 was at level 48. Playing on Adept, had plenty of challenges from level 10 to 50. Didn't feel overpowered at all.



New character is a Nord, heavy armor + twohander. Less skills being used (since no stealth, archery, blocking, etc), so the levels are a bit higher. Still, just in the high teens, Steel-plate level armor (~130 total). Kill things reasonably easily, but they also hurt me back pretty hard. So, not expecting the challenge to go away anytime soon. Adept diff, again.

Not you're not. I haven't used any of those skills yet. Well, I'll admit, I crafted a couple items once (required to have a standalone item from a mod.. it was a piece of cloth, and an equipable map). All soulstones, ingots, etc. go to the shopkeepers.

Oh, and 286 hours, level 37 here. No rush either.

If you're playing as a classic warrior, that limits you to just a few skills. By the time you get to your level, you'd have been able to complete the perk trees in all those skills.

If you have mastered all the skills your character uses, and completed all the perk trees, you are SUPPOSE to own everything.

If you really want to make it more of a challenge, limit yourself. Don't take all the perks that make you do more damage or have a higher armor rating, put all your points into stamina instead of health so you die more easily. It's really that simple.

If I just play the game then I never run into any of the balance issues. While building an uber character is easy, so is building a character that is gimped or inline with the game's difficulty. It is all in the choices made while developing your character.

change my post completely.

too difficult? drop difficulty or get better gear/ level up/ linear perk choices in combat

Too easy? up difficulty, use iron/steel fur/hide, spread your perks

a true dova? - dress like the guy in the "Live Action Trailer"
(Iron helmet, hide armour, iron/steel sword, and it doesn't look like its crafted amazingly either so no smithing!)

if you can master the game like that then id suggest wearing nothing and beating the game/ alduin with an iron dagger and posting a youtube video of how good you are and how big an ego can be chow...

and happy rimming!

I abstain from abusing the Alchemy+Enchanting exploit, and from abusing two Destruction element multipliers in a single enchant (for any of you who don't know, it works like this: )
Simply because when every melee strike (even non-power) hits for 200+ damage, it kinda kills the whole point... (no pun intended)

I am role playing naturally and not spread sheeting or focuing on one skill to get to 100 as fast as possible. I am level 32 and am noticing enemies are getting easier but I still run into someone that can easily kill me if I am not careful.

All four of my characters take enchanting, and two of them also use smithing. I'm at 299 hours this morning.

But for none of them, am I powerleveling any skill. Every so often, I do a little enchanting and smithing and then let it go for 4-5 (real life) days, before doing some more.

I want this game to last a while, and had read about smithing, enchanting, and alchemy early on, so I decided not to power level them.

Part of the fun for me is building up the best gear. And the game difficulty levels aren't ... well ... level. If you change to make the average fight challenging, the bosses will kill you time after time. It's like difficulty levels 2 2 2 2 50. It's misbalanced. So I'd prefer to have a fair fight against the big bosses of the game and the pipsqueaks can just take their chances. More souls for my firey soul trap.

I'm all good here. Level 81. Godmode. 'Tis the only way to not get killed by arrows in one hit.