Progress reports.

I'm level 27 at this point. I have a few levels I could rank up but I choose not to in order to avoid some of the scaling enemies.

My current problem is that, on most encounters, I'm not prepared to deal with the enemy. If it's a mage, they one shot me with lightning attacks, or my armor / health is too weak to sustain damage from a heavy melee character.

I'm constantly dying and having to reload in order to devise a strategy to get by a single character (ascendant necromancer, for instance). That gets kind of old and frustrating.

I guess I need to dump more ranks into health rather than magika or stamina.

1) I don't think that enemies scale.

2) You need to enchant some weapons/armor/sweet accessories.

3) You need to change clothes for different battles. Fighting a mage? Put on your resistance stuff? Poked a giant in the foot with your sword? Put on some heavy armor...or at least some kind of armor other than your archmage robes.

Gotta bring the right tools to the fight.

I do switch it up, but I guess that's my frustration too. Battles aren't just difficult and I end up losing, they're not even a contest when I'm not sporting all the right gear, all the right buffs, drinking all the right potions with the right blessings and stones...

It's just a bother to have to spend that much time trying to defeat one of three one-shot-killer enemies in a single dungeon.

Perhaps I'm overstating how often it happens, but it seems to be happening a lot. I've enchanted a good bit of stuff, but haven't gotten far with enchanting armor and what not. Just rocking my thieves guild gear.

BTW...enemies scale within a range. Some dungeons are locked in at lvl 10-20, so if you enter them at lvl 15, most enemies will be between levels 12-17. If you enter at 25, all enemies will be at or near level 20, etc. Random encounters are based on your level, as are the bosses within dungeons and what not.

You gotta "exploit" things like enchanting and smithing etc. Buy like 20 iron inglots and leather strips...make 20 iron daggers and get that number. Enchant them all with lesser soul gems and repeat.

If you are sporting the theives guild armor then you likley got a sneak charactor. Go for the perk that give you 15x dagger damage perk. Wear the dark brotherhood gloves that doubles that and bang you have 30x damage.

You can improve that thieves guild armor if you get the smithing perk that lets you improve enchanted pieces? IMO you should look at the leveling and plan your character a bit.

If that doesnt work...put the game down, walk away and come to terms with the fact that the game wins..and you lose

haha. I don't want that! I can't remember there being a game I couldn't beat with enough time and determination.

You're right about the perks though. I haven't been using them as I wanted to wait until my level was up and I could plan out my character more and reach certain perks within a tree. I guess it's time to spend.

you're at level 27 and havent been using your perk points?

Thats clearly your issue. The game is scaling thinking you are. Honestly without your perks your playing pretty close to being as crappy as it was when you first started.

If I were you I would save now, build a player you think you want and use it for a while...if you want to change reload and changing it.

Stick to a few skills only. If it was me I would work on maxing smithing, enchanting. Magic is for teh gehy. Pick either archery or one/two handed. IMO you can probably get away with a major killer like two handed and a back up like archery. or visa versa.

Enchanting maxed and two handed work well cuz with the "2 enchainments per weapon perk" you can dish out a total of 4 maxed enchantments. Also only use grand should gems to enchant, all the others use for either building the skill or recharging weapons.

Well, I've dumped a good bit into magicka, with stamina next, and finally health (another issue). I haven't been using all of my perks, I probably have 10 to be spent. I can still focus on smithing and enchanting, and I realized long ago those were important. Magicka is helpful though with healing and conjuration, sneaking, etc. I do use destruction spells quite a bit, but prefer melee combat whenever possible.

I just enchanted a few good glass axes (two and single handed, stamina absorb), so I'm hoping my melee ability is increased. I will add some perks to those along with my enchanting (which I plan to max out) and see what I can do.

well if you have already dumped a bunch into magica maybe you should build a mage. Smithing and enchanting wouldn't be worth while to invest in really if you go the magic route.

You are at a fork. Stop the magic investing and focus on swords, archery, enchanting, smithing, sneak etc

or go all out and make gayest mage you can can.

At some point, magic stops being as effective as It should be. At a very high level I was using my HP stealing Vampire Daedric Sword and another Daedric sword that gave a ton of fire damage.

The problem is, the higher level spells take way too much magicka to cast and most are AoE instead of missile based. I mainly used the Adept level Destruction spells since they had a good trade off between damage and magicka cost. Obviously it's helpful to wear clothing that reduces the cost of spell casting and increases your magicka pool.

I do agree with HK, I'd start dumping some points into one handed and archery. I don't think you need to invest anything at all in Smithing. You'll find all the armor you need without having to make it...except for the dragon armor...which i always found to be too cumbersome anyway (though there are perks that reduce or negate entirely that penalty).

In the end....do whatever you want, but spend your perks. The only time you should save up if you're trying to get a skill that costs 2 perk points instead of one.

but with smithing you can "better" anything you find or make. Im talking you can more then double the effectiveness of of smithing if you enchant fortify smithing rings etc and drink a fortify smithing potion prior. My bow does like 435 damage right now not including the fire or shock damage that do 41 each.

That's flippin' awesome.

its true..although no matter how much I brag to my GF about it i just dont get the proper respect.

That also takes into account my ring, helmet, necklace, and bracers that each add a 43% archery bonus. (only able to get if your smithing is maxed and you drink an enchanters elixer)

hahaha. I respect you Knutz...

wait...

Get a room you two.

Has anyone maxed out conjuration? In Oblivion that's the route I went and it was awesome. I was summoning high level creatures to take the brunt of battle for me while I snuck up behind them and stabbed them in the kidneys.

I started to go that route. I was never able to summon the best creatures in Oblivion, but like Toad stated, I started to see less and less benefit as I dumped stats into magic. I hope to get there eventually though, but it's not my main focus right now.

I leveled up to 29 and spent 10 perks. I'm much better off now.

Level 13 b!tches!!

I think I'm almost done with the Mage's college quest line. I finished up the night by taking a side trip though. I want to go find that standing stone that gives you +100 carry weight capacity and makes equipped armor weigh nothing. I'm going all out with heavy armor so I'm constantly at my weight capacity in dungeons.

ahh... the steed stone. i think it's in the northeast corner of the map. on top of a hill overlooking the ocean.

Mark Sporto wrote:

ahh... the steed stone. i think it's in the northeast corner of the map. on top of a hill overlooking the ocean.

Yeah... this is one I will be looking for on a map as opposed to pure exploration. I ended the night right near it, I just ran out of time. I also got eaten by some giant snow leopards.

Level 20 Bitches!

Destruction=58
Archery=32
One Handed=20 ??? not sure


Anyway, stilll liking this game. After not playing this game for about 2 months, I forget where I left a chest full of stuff in some village. That blows

After defeating Ancano, I'm now the Archmage of the College of Winterhold. These Archmage robes are boss.

How many shoes are in your closet in the tower suite at the College?

Too many to count. Bummed they didn't have Nikes in Skyrim though.

Up to level 43. I started playing in January and my goal is to finish by the end of the year.

I'm only level 18. Over 40 hours of playing time in about a month. I'm addicted.