Personally I have settled on Marksman, Stealth, Conjuration, Illusion, with Alchemy/Enchanting.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/#85982

I have enough in stealth to get the bonus for backstab and the silent forward roll, which allows me to sneak by just about anything, even if I do pop into the light from time to time. But if I just stand there hiding in plain sight I’ll still be detected. Seems perfect.

Archery I feel is definitely the way to go for stealth. I use dual-enchants to beef up my gear mostly with sneak and illusion related skills, maybe a boost to archery damage (though so far no.) I use Bound Bow exclusively so I don’t have to carry armor, and it takes three or four hits to kill most things. Giants and powerful undead can take ten or more, unless I use the beefy Alchemy to power that down (you CAN poison bound bow!)

I’ve spec’d into dual atronachs in Conjuration also, which serves as a great distraction. I usually only need to throw one Ice Atronach down from the shadows to get everything distracted and pick them off one by one. This lets me run around and reposition myself which keeps things interesting. Lets me pause and take in the scenery more! Sometimes I try and sneak in for a backstab if I think the atronachs will live long enough. They’re also great absorbing magic (they light up like a kaleidoscope when hit with lightning attacks!)

Illusion I use mostly when I feel like showing mercy. If I am attacked by a random polar bear or white saber cat for example, I just Pacify and poof, harmless teddy bear and cute kitty kitty! Plus it is always fun to Frenzy, and have a bandit camp all kill each other. I don’t use fear as much, unless I am trying to isolate one specific guy, in which case you frenzy, then fear just the one, and go handle him yourself!

This style gives me much more control over the outcome of fights, as well as who lives and who dies. I just feel more powerful this way, and more magical even than when I went full destruction.

That's funny. I started the game one shotting everything on master. So if someone can start one shotting everything at level 1 on master, you might as well just stick to your 2H characters, as the actual sneak skill is just icing on the cake. It really has nothing to do with one shotting anything.


Every melee combat style will eventually become what you described, especially if one just focuses on doing one thing. The challenge in the stealth fighter is in the execution.(cwutididthar)

OT

You were fighting at a distance with no kill cam. Now you're in enemies faces with a kill cam. Winning!

What's with all the hostility?

People ask questions like this to illicit other players giving their own experiences in similar situations. Nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, I have found that in Skyrim at least, I'm really enjoying a variety of different play styles. It's really hard to choose any particular class style as the one I like "best". For example, for the past couple of weeks, I've been playing a stealth-assasin. I was having tons of fun with it. Last night, I just got a wild hair, and decided to jump back on my mage for the evening, and had a blast! (literally- I blasted the crap out of some stuff )

I've also very much enjoyed playing in-your-face warriors types, and probably will again. For me, it seems like I get into a mood to play a certain style of character for a while, then my mood shifts to another. I've played 4 characters to over level 40, and none of them are really that similar to each other (ok, two are mages, but one concentrates on conjuration, while the other mostly blows stuff up).

Sorry dude, but you did not one shot everything at level 1 on master. That's not possible. Maybe at level 70 when you have used the various loops and exploits to smith your magic deadric weapons into the stratosphere, but not level 1.

I am sort of in the same situation as you OP, but sort of different also. Redundant stupid comment I just made but we'll move on. I can't decide between dualing 1h's or a BA 2h axe. Both are Orcs by the way, one named Moth of the Pale, and the other Pale.. lol. Anyway, the dualing aspect is fun and all, but every time there is a kill cam, I'm envisioning the 2h axe. I like the melee ability of dualing, but I much prefer the "sense of greater power" my character has with that huge 2h axe. I just can't decide on which I prefer more.

Someone told me that the death scenes with the 2h's were much better than dualing, when he saw his 2h sword character cut the head off a dragon in a death scene. I was taken back, but I've never actually seen it myself, so I do not really believe him. To me, there is something about that 2h axe that drives me to play that character more. I don't even care about blocking, don't even use it with the 2h character.

Anyway, I think that you've over played the archer stealth based character, and have found that you really like cleaving/smashing face with the 2h's. Play what you feel is awesome until it's no longer got that awesome feel to it, then move on to something that gives you the awesome feeling back. That's how I play my games, once the awesome is gone, shelve it for awhile and come back later. If there's still no awesome feeling, trade that puppy in cuz it's time to move on.

I think it relates to overall flow and gamespeed.

Stealthers take twice as long to clear a dungeon because it requires moving slowly and being quiet and careful.


A Warrior-type just walks as loud and proud as fast as they damn well please and if you get in their way they smash you to bits. It's faster-paced, more in-your-face and can be more fun.

Because eventually you may get bored with a certain style of play

Everything I attacked was one shotted. Granted I wasn't level 1 for very long, but that's not my point. My point is, especially for backstabbing, you are supposed to get one hit kills as a stealth fighter. And you can start doing this at level 1 on any difficulty if you know what to do, where to go. I can't really argue this point with you, load up your game and try it yourself. I will give you one tip though, you can pickpocket a very powerful dagger, very early in the game. Hope that helps. Enjoy.

Dont you know why? Cause no one bests an orc.

I've gotten rather bored from my stealth playthrough as I've only played one character. I'm thinking of a duel wielding axe Orc? Doesn't wear a chest plate but wears all other heavy armor. I'll stick with orcish armors and weapons. Maybe throw in some illusion?

I agree with the "in-your-face warrior can be fun" part of what are saying here, but for me at least, being sneaky lost its luster, not because it required moving slowly and being quiet. That's what sneaking is all about and it is fun if you are into that style of gameplay. It can get really intense trying to slowly sneak up to someone for the kill when you know that one false move will alert him and his friends, and you could be toast.

However, when your sneak gets high enough (and you take the perks) you no longer have to move slow or worry about being quiet to get your backstabbing bonus. At that point it became much less fun to sneak and I started playing my sneak character more like your stand up in-your-face warrior.

My second and third sneak character are not putting any points into the sneak tree just to keep things interesting.

Stealth and archery is too easy imo, very little risk even on the hardest difficulties. Stealth and daggers is awesome though, try that, mostly 1 shotting enemies but the fun is all about getting to them in the first place, watching patrols and learning movements etc., just don't make your stealth so powerful you can stand in front of them and not be seen. 2h has a lot of risk especially on master setting, if you miss a swing say goodbye to 70% of your HP, it brings a lot more thrill and excitement and feels more rewarding when you play a fight perfectly so that's probably the reason.

OP. I would say variety is the spice of life. I have 3 play through going on and I can see what you are syaing. I have warrior skull bashing type as my main and when I get bored I hop over to my stealth/archer and the game is fun again. I ho p back an forth and each time I do it breathes new fun into the game and I see how really awsome each build can be.

I like the stealth way with one dagger and just sneak up on people and slit their throats.

Great post! I am about to retire my sneak character, after 55 levels the fun has worn off, and go for a two-handed, heavy-armoured hooligan and every time I go into a dungeon I'll be saying to myself, "Y'all know what this is!" before getting stuck in.

Ha! How has no one commented on how fantastic this quote is? Love.

I just started a 2H Nord tank chick. I waffled a little at first... until I was able to wipe the floor with a bunch of bandits. I think the bandit chief had little milk drinker tears when she asked for quarter. Where is she from? It's a whole different playstyle from my sneaky illusionist. It wasn't that my sneaky character wasn't fun as hell, but it's apples and oranges. And seriously, The_Jackal summed it up all perfect like...

EDIT: Holy crap! I just made curate! Only took 8 years. I'm old....

See: Facebook

I don't know, maybe you just prefer hitting people on the heads with big swords?

When I got bored with my overpowered stealthy archer, I enrolled her in Mages College and opened a whole new chapter in her life. Now I very seldom use bow. When she's done with magic, she'll return to Companions and go all warrior.

I have two characters. One is a Redguard assassin, archer who is untouchable. My second is my dual axe wielding Orc war lord. Ebony Mail, kicking ass. I love it!

I have two sneaky archers who I have basically retired, and am currently playing a 2H+Destruction+Restoration berzerker-type on Master who I'm having an absolute blast with. Bonus points for some hilarious combinations of kill-move and opponent attack positions, like one with an Ice Wolf where I basically ended up impaling him and then spiking him like a football. I found myself wishing I'd been recording the fight when that happened, as there is no way I'll ever be able to deliberately duplicate it.

I usually prefer stealth to tanking when the option is available, however it's a bit too effective when properly done and by the time I'd retired those characters I had gotten a bit bored with how stupidly easy it was to clear dungeons by one-shotting everything in sight from 100 feet away (and I do mean everything). A 2H melee character is a massive contrast to this, especially on Master, since you have to get up close and personal and that puts you in reach of the other guy's 2H weapon, which hurts like hell when he hits you with it.

I know this character, too, will eventually reach the point where he's stomping pretty much anything that gets in his way, however it won't be as soon as with the sneaky archers. I plan to play another one of those at some point with a more RP-based build and gear, as the first two were basically exploratory, so I probably won't get bored with it the way I did the first two, but combat will not be as exciting as with my 2H guys (I'll be making more of these, too, with different weapon/armor types and materials according to their RPs).

Hahaha... this actually made me laugh out loud

Thank you

I'm enjoying my 2H orc also much more than my main char (Nord femi-god) right now. I think Skyrim offers a better meele experience than Oblivion or other RPGs. In OB my meelees were always more like professional potion managers than warriors, but Skyrim's perks offer much more passive support for my char and I can focus on bashing skulls in.

I originally told myself that I would stick with ranged characters in Skyrim, due to my Melee characters in Oblivion being an exercise in frustration and tedium as I slowly whittled down high-level opponents, however after reading some accounts of 2H fighters here I decided to try one after all. That turned out to be a good idea, since I actually feel powerful while playing him as I rarely get into a whittle-fest unless I'm fighting something way out of my weight class.