Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Announced for release on 11/11/11.

eh, what really do you need money for in this game? maybe training and a house and an occasional spell. aside from that seems useless.
 
eh, what really do you need money for in this game? maybe training and a house and an occasional spell. aside from that seems useless.

Smithing materials and soul gems for grinding out those to max level. Otherwise it takes a very long time. Since I hit 100 in smithing my purse has gone from a constant ~5000 and shot up to over 80,000 and counting.
 
When training costs 4k per point and you're Lvl 61 (so you're likely to train every level since levels are so long), you need money.
 
When training costs 4k per point and you're Lvl 61 (so you're likely to train every level since levels are so long), you need money.

I have found that training most skills isn't really necessary. The only one that has been a complete bitch to level is restoration. Slowest. Increases. Ever.
 
I also have a 50/50 chance of coming out of an Enchanting table with my view stuck in first-person, fixed on the table, requiring a reload of a save.

Try switching to third person view before enchanting.

In first person view, the delay occurs when you scroll down the list of possible enchantments, then scroll back up to the top. As soon as the top enchantment displays (Fear?) the view autoswitches to third person, and once you quit enchanting you're stuck for a few seconds.
 
I finally completed the Thieves Guild plotline last night. While kind of fun, it's quite the pain with all of those randomized numbers/bedlam/pickpocketing missions.
While the final reward items are nice, I still think the Dark Brotherhood stuff is better and more practical for Rogue type characters. Mixing and matching that stuff isn't too bad, though.

For people struggling to level-up (I am now that I'm level 43) - the "Muffle" spell combined with the Rogue's Guardian stone pretty much grants you an Illusion level-up every 10 seconds. It's a lifesaver now that my primary abilities are so high.
 
You could always make them "essential" if you don't want to worry about them dying.

I've been considering letting Lydia go since she's often more of a nuisance than anything. But she does carry a lot of shit...hmm.

I thought about making the dog essential, but really...the dog does minimal damage and would likely just get in the way. Lydia just wasn't cutting it at level 34 (I obtained her as a follower at, like, level 4 or something), so at level 35 I decided to finally move on with Brelyna's short quest (the dark elf chick from College of Winterhold) and marry her so I could use her skills as a follower. I am SO not disappointed so far. She's strong enough to hold her own against tough enemies and constantly conjures up different atronachs which is insanely useful. (yes I'm aware I can disable-enable Lydia to make her skills more close to my current level...but read about it after ditching her). Maybe I can reset Lydia and have her follow me as well?

The rest of this post is in response to...I don't know lol. Someone posted a little ways back about destruction magic becoming useless at level 34 or so, I wanted to address it.


Destruction magic becoming less useful at higher levels is both true and false. It depends on how you want to play. The key is to decide what you want to be - and work on THAT from start to finish. Your character will only seem limited or like it's not as good as you thought it would be if you try to be too many things. If you have awkwardly leveled your character and tried to focus on increasing a little of every skill then by level 35 your character will suck because it won't actually be great at anything - only decent at a few things. It will only be able to utilize light armor slightly above average. Same with heavy armor. Same with swords. Same with magic.

By level 35 you'll realize that it's not worth it to use powerful spells because you've already been playing for so many hours yet your level 35 character can only cast a decent spell three times before his magicka is gone. So then you switch to your greatsword...but unfortunately your level 35 character only has enough skill and stamina to make but a few decent strikes before becoming fatigued. Might have been cool back at level 15. Luckily he has enough stamina to carry many heavy weapons, but they're weighty and seem ineffectively slow. You switch to a lighter one-handed sword which seems to strike fast, but you got it way early on and were too cool to keep leveling up the one-handed skill and wanted to skip the shield and move right on to a two-handed jumbo sword instead. Damn...you're at level 35 fighting enemies with the sword you got at level 4. "Fuck..." you think to yourself. Well, at least your heavy armor is keeping you alive, but you're still just too slow and can't escape before the armor fails and you die.

:(

:p

But seriously, the key is finding out early on what you want to be and be dedicated to that from then all the way through to the end. I built up my magicka and health from the get-go often skipping on stamina and at level 35 with a maxed destruction and high enchantment skill I was able to cast powerful spells with one hand and by the time I'd be in melee range of an enemy, the fire-enchanted sword in my other hand finished the job. I built my character to have enough magicka and health to be able to skip out on a shield and opt for a light sword and ability to make good use of powerful magic at the same time. Low stamina isn't a concern, because with good light armor and light armor skills as well as weight-capacity and damage resistance enchantments and a health level I worked on as much as my magicka, I can either move fast enough to avoid power strikes altogether or take a lot of torture before my health runs out. I'm at level 37 now. Though my most powerful spell isn't getting any more powerful itself - the fact that I worked on magicka since the start and keep doing so essentially allows the same spell to keep getting more 'powerful' and useful with each time I increase my magicka level. It's never gotten stagnant, because I've never lacked the appropriate amount of magicka.

Of course I'm not gonna act like my character is god and just struts through Skyrim laughing at all the haters and then killing them in one blow. Obviously there are sacrifices that have to be made in order to build a powerful character, and the sacrifices specific to your type of character ensures a decent balance across the board and as such a decent challenge.

Unless you try to level up everything thinking you can make a god-type character. In which case you'll hate whatever type of character you just failed at trying to be and should stick to god mode or start over completely :p
 
I'm getting skyrim for xmas, whats a good class to start off with to not get owned like fun and basic not too complex?

stealth/rogue?.. Straight Mage? melee/warrior?
 
I'm getting skyrim for xmas, whats a good class to start off with to not get owned like fun and basic not too complex?

stealth/rogue?.. Straight Mage? melee/warrior?

Good stealth can save your ass and buy you time like nothing else. Whatever you pick, do not neglect it.

IMO, I prefer the ranged combat to weaken or kills foes in the distance and sneak critical attacks for 3X damage is hard to beat. I still am not a big fan of the melee combat in this game so I try to avoid it as much as I can.

Magic can be nice, too. Dual wielding destruct spells can do a lot of damage.
 
I've been more than happy with a Rogue stealth/archer build...and that's normally not really my playstyle either.
Stealth in Skyrim isn't overly picky, bows are extremely powerful and accurate, and sneak attack bowshots with some damage multipliers are devastating.
Plus, even in melee, you can time bowshots to interrupt people attacking you. If you shoot someone with an arrow right as they're swinging at you, they'll stumble backward and their attack won't come out.
 
I'm getting skyrim for xmas, whats a good class to start off with to not get owned like fun and basic not too complex?

stealth/rogue?.. Straight Mage? melee/warrior?

Any fairly focused build should work fine. Just make sure you don't over-level your non-combat skills too much and you'll be A-ok.
 
I have found that training most skills isn't really necessary. The only one that has been a complete bitch to level is restoration. Slowest. Increases. Ever.

I really wanted to get Incinerate, since I'm 61 and all the enemies I fight require some badass spellcasting to beat down.
 
The rest of this post is in response to...I don't know lol. Someone posted a little ways back about destruction magic becoming useless at level 34 or so, I wanted to address it.


snip

I'm beginning to see people's argument. I bumped up the difficulty (to Master) last night, ran through the 1,000 step pilgrimage to the Greybeards' castle, got the location of a new Shout, conquered the dungeon, walked up to a trio of Thalmar and drew aggro, killed them... So far so good. Level 37, Destro at 97, or maybe 98 now.

Then I ran across an Elder dragon. Good fight, took more reloads than I care to admit and I *love* the fact that I actually need to respect dragons now. However, I can see that fight being tedious as hell at level 50, since my DPS will *never* go up but enemies will get 13 levels of HP added. (OTOH, once Destruction, Sneak and Enchantment are at 100 there's no real need to level anything else.)

Instead of subjecting myself to that pain, I'll turn the difficulty down if I really need to. For now the fights are fun, but Master Destruction spells do need to be made more useful. I'd like to see new runes, AOE and pinpoint spells.
 
Try switching to third person view before enchanting.

In first person view, the delay occurs when you scroll down the list of possible enchantments, then scroll back up to the top. As soon as the top enchantment displays (Fear?) the view autoswitches to third person, and once you quit enchanting you're stuck for a few seconds.

It messes up regardless of the view I enter in. It also causes my view to zoom in and out as I scroll up and down the list of ingredients/potions. Just does what it wants, basically.
 
I killed a dragon last night using Incinerate, no big deal. Pop a Fortify Destruction potion, Fortify Magicka (I always run out), and make him my bitch. Again, I'm Level 62. With the Fortify Destruction potion, it will stagger the dragon on every hit, so I only get hit once or twice. I guess if you have only 100 HP you might be in trouble.
 
I have to agree with the person a few posts above- specializing is what really makes your character strong. I'm still on my first playthrough- doing a Thief/Archer build. SInce I knew I wanted archery to be my main line of attack, I focused on it and assigned perks accordingly I'm lvl 45 and only have an Archery of 91, but I can 1-shot almost everything in the game due to backstab, and everything else falls very quickly after that.

And to be honest, I don't know if I'll take the paralysis perk for 100 archery- the bow I crafted has the paralysis spell on it, so it's good enough already.
 
I'm getting skyrim for xmas, whats a good class to start off with to not get owned like fun and basic not too complex?

stealth/rogue?.. Straight Mage? melee/warrior?

I'm a melee/archer/warrior and I've had lots of fun with it so far. Only thing I regret is leveling my blacksmith so fast because I've had daedric armor since level 20ish and I'm level 35 now. So I'm kinda sick of the daedric armor, but it's the best armor out there.
 
While specializing is key, you can still be a bit of a jack of all trades with success. Even using the sneak/archery build, I still have 1-handed at 80+ just because some missions I just feel like going in swinging. Smithing is easy to raise, and pretty strong. Disenchanting garbage items raises that skill. Muffle is a good spell and raises Illusion super fast. Your armor goes up just by getting hit.
I imagine I’ll have roughly ½ the stats in the game in the 80’s by the time I stop bothering to level.
Just make sure you have at least one solid means of attack as high as you reasonably can and you'll be okay.
The real key is not to spend the perks on things you don’t need. I’ve all but abandoned the perks for magic because I don’t mess with it. Picking locks, pickpocketing, and selling stuff is easy enough without taking any perks to help out.
IMO, the best perks are for your primary weapon (any, although melee weapons do needlessly force you to specialize), smithing, and armor.
 
I took the pickpocketing perks because I can take the clothes of women in town and they don't even notice. Also have the nude female mod. Don't judge me :D

It's hilarious as hell to see tons of naked women walking around towns and they don't even realize they're naked. Even without the mod, they'd be in their skivvies, and still completely oblivious. AI regarding clothing falls in line to their awareness of buckets on their heads.
 
eh, what really do you need money for in this game? maybe training and a house and an occasional spell. aside from that seems useless.

really? I was just telling my buddy the other night how much i enjoy the money in this game because there are unlimited things to blow it on. Do you never buy items? or Soul Gems?

Training is the obvious money-dump though.
 
If you shoot someone with an arrow right as they're swinging at you, they'll stumble backward and their attack won't come out.

Is this true every time? or are you referring to the perk which gives 50% chance to stagger an opponent?

You can also punch them with your bow, which sometimes works.

I'd like to see new runes, AOE and pinpoint spells.

Speaking of runes, why the fuck don't they ever go above 50 damage? They give you all these spells, then as you level, they phase them out?

Oh right, it must be because xbox users aren't suppoed to use more than 4 spells at a time :rolleyes:
 
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Is this true every time? or are you referring to the perk which gives 50% chance to stagger an opponent?

It's actually not a perk, although you probably need the perk that slows time down to use it well. It works on anything short of a giant/dragon/etc. It even works pretty well with bears and saber toothed cats.
Just pull the bow back and go into aim/slowdown mode. As soon as something starts to come forward with a swing - release. It's not 100%, but it's close. It decimates human opponents and the like. They take an arrow to the face and their attack gets interrupted.
 
^^ I will definitely try this out when i get home!! i tried to go one-handed duel-wield and light armor along with my marksmanship, but on master i just get one-shot anyway.
 
Speaking of runes, why the fuck don't they ever go above 50 damage? They give you all these spells, then as you level, they phase them out?

Oh right, it must be because xbox users aren't suppoed to use more than 4 spells at a time :rolleyes:

Yeah, even if the 50% damage perk applies it's still only 75 damage, and runes can be (or should be) very useful for stealthy types. I'm not sure how much HP enemies have, but something like a 200-300 damage rune would still be useful in dungeons.

Stealthy types in general could use a trap making ability using runes or potions with tripwires and bear traps. And a darkness AOE spell.
 
Yeah, even if the 50% damage perk applies it's still only 75 damage, and runes can be (or should be) very useful for stealthy types. I'm not sure how much HP enemies have, but something like a 200-300 damage rune would still be useful in dungeons.

Stealthy types in general could use a trap making ability using runes or potions with tripwires and bear traps. And a darkness AOE spell.

There is a mod that lets you use upto 4 runes. How about stacking them?
 
Speaking of runes...how do you "disarm" them? I can easily take a hit from one now but I tried firing counter-magic at it and arrows but neither of them will actually trigger the trap.

Also, I've been using Destruction magic a bit along with my sword...kinda fun, although with the higher level Fireball spell (Incinerate?) I get one shot before I have to wait for magicka regen (I have almost 400 magicka using some enchantments). Makes me wonder how one would be an effective mage in this game, as they simply don't seem to do enough damage. Maybe it's more that the melee balance is so broken that at this point it seems like magic is super weak, but in reality I can kill just about any enemy in 4-5 hits so that is just overly strong...
 
You can disarm runes with magic. Maybe it is because of the element (same or counter?) I used and it worked. But I've only tried it once. Possibly also using Telekinesis or summoning something over it as well.

To use spells you need to mp cost reduce them. The mp cost of spells goes down as your skill level raises and with perks. It also goes down with some active effects and items. Most people are however just enchanting 100% mp cost reduction items, so the spells have no mp cost to them. Personally I've avoided doing this (or enchanting anything at all really) since it makes the game more fun to me to have to manage spell usage and wait for regen in battle.

Also the Magic vs. Combat balance, the main problem is that stacking combat bonuses is overpowered. If you do not stack (since there is less stacking available to magic), then you will find the trees more comparable. If you want to power game, than yes combat with stacking is the way to go. But since this is a single player game, you can choose the way you want to play.
 
I haven't dabbled with magic at all for my curent character, Enchanting excepted. I'm having a lot of fun and have good momentum toward finishing the main quest, but I really do want to build a mage and start having fun with magic.

I've been thinking of doing a Breton mage- do they still have the 2nd highest amount of magika? I know Altmer are first, but they have all of the negatives to elements.
 
I'm a melee/archer/warrior and I've had lots of fun with it so far. Only thing I regret is leveling my blacksmith so fast because I've had daedric armor since level 20ish and I'm level 35 now. So I'm kinda sick of the daedric armor, but it's the best armor out there.

You could just use Dragonplate...the difference in armor rating is negligible if you have a high Smithing since you can improve them to be within 5 armor or so of Daedric.

Personally I never look at my character in third person anyway unless I'm on a horse, so the look of the armor doesn't really matter to me. :p
 
I do agree that the key is focusing on at least one style of fighting. I always pick two styles and in Skyrim since magic is so cool I'm using sword and shield + destruction magic with heavy armor and restoration. I've had a few hard fights with ice trolls and what not but I've actually been able to kill them with the help of poisons and potions since they have so much hp.

I think the quest quality in general is improved over previous games and I'm finding a lot of cool stuff just by exploring. I also think the game has some bugs still but nothing greater then Oblivion or Morrowind had on launch, that is for sure.
 
I'm at the point where in combat I never use potions...never necessary. The only time I would need one is if I wanted to use magic since my magicka regen is not that great.
 
if you can get enchanting to 100 then magicka becomes irrelevant. you can enchant fortify magic to 25% and x4 items the spell cost becomes 0. Not only that, but you can do it for two schools of magic. So yesterday I did it for both destruction and restoration. Hold a shield in one hand and use the other for the level 3 wall of xxx spell (have yet to get the level 5). If I had to replay the game I would focus on the leveling of enchantment.

as for money, again, to buy stuff you only need a few thousand gold. If you enchant and make potions then what you do is clean the vendors out of what you want (all ingredients for alchemy, soul gems for magic) and then get your money back by selling potions or enchantments (mages will buy robes and jewelry, smiths will buy weapons). So clean out their stuffs and then their money.

And some people will complain that grinding to level up is not "real". Well bullshit on that, if you are making dozens of potions or enchantments at the end, how can you ever level the skill up without grinding? The game requires you to use combat skills. For alchemy, the speed at which mana and health recover makes it obsolete. I barely use any alchemy potions.
 
if you can get enchanting to 100 then magicka becomes irrelevant. you can enchant fortify magic to 25% and x4 items the spell cost becomes 0. Not only that, but you can do it for two schools of magic. So yesterday I did it for both destruction and restoration. Hold a shield in one hand and use the other for the level 3 wall of xxx spell (have yet to get the level 5). If I had to replay the game I would focus on the leveling of enchantment.

as for money, again, to buy stuff you only need a few thousand gold. If you enchant and make potions then what you do is clean the vendors out of what you want (all ingredients for alchemy, soul gems for magic) and then get your money back by selling potions or enchantments (mages will buy robes and jewelry, smiths will buy weapons). So clean out their stuffs and then their money.

And some people will complain that grinding to level up is not "real". Well bullshit on that, if you are making dozens of potions or enchantments at the end, how can you ever level the skill up without grinding? The game requires you to use combat skills. For alchemy, the speed at which mana and health recover makes it obsolete. I barely use any alchemy potions.

I don't know about not real, but it sure doesn't sound like fun. What's the enjoyment of blatantly gaming the game so you have unlimited magic? Isn't the fun in the challenge?
 
For me, the fun is in exploration of the world and doing quests, not so much how challenging it is (although that can sometimes be fun, too).

Just depends on how you want to play. I do agree that combat becomes a little boring when you max out Enchanting and Smithing.
 
I almost never use potions...not because I'm too powerful, but just because it's rarely necessary.
Generally I will just take off running and use Fast Healing 2-3 times in a row to bring my health back.
I'd say that in most instances when I die, it isn't accumulated damage anyway. It tends to be due to some kind of crazy situation where the enemy "rolled a 20" and hits me for some kind of mega-damage insta-kill where I had more than 60% of my health.
I'm not cheating or using any kind of exploits - just a fair amount of sneaking, arrows to the face, and knowing when to take off running.
 
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