The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

[MeanMF]

I'm playing through as a high-elf mage. I'm currently focusing on destruction & alteration (for oak/stone/ironflesh) with a little restoration thrown in for wards when I get into mage battles. Conjuration is definitely fun too and I'll probably start working on that once my destruction level gets high enough.

I don't wear any armor at all and I've been putting most of my points into magicka which means that if something manages to hit me when I'm not ready for it, I tend to die pretty quickly. I have a backup dagger but I don't think I've ever used it - if I get to the point where I need it, I'm pretty much dead already.

[WytchDokta]

Conjuration is great fun with the Raise Zombie spell, especially when completely looting the corpse before raising it - the corpse will attempt to punch everything to death. I was thnking of going down the same path with a High Elf, I just don't like that all mage skills, most notably Alchemy, take much longer to level up compared to Warrior or Thief skills - atleast from my experince across multiple builds. Going as a mage will take some getting used to for me as I have an affinity for the Thief stealth builds, even going as far as planning to do the missions at night with my Thief builds because darkness is good, despite all the negativity it gets. I also like to go Beowulf sometimes with a Warrior build, where I can focus on being a tank and powerhouse rather than doing all that fancy sneaky stuff.

With all your points on Magicka, you better watch out for Deathlords and Dragon Priests (Krosis is particularly nasty, his fireball staff is hella powerful). Of course, you could always spam Fireball on them, but that doesn't help you when the Deathlord is using an Ebony bow. Also, one of the Dragon Priests (the one you'll encounter at Skuldafn when going after Alduin) has some crazy lightning staff that will easily drain your magicka down to nothing. Remember, you will also not have access to any hirelings or followers while at Skuldafn. Wasn't so bad with my Khajiit, I tore the Dragon Priest apart with the sheer speed of dual dagger (Glass and Elven, both Epic level) attacks. Sure, they're the weakest weapons, but you can land many more blows in the same time it takes to land a single blow with a two-handed weapon. My Orc would probably kill him in like 2 hits from a two-handed weapon with Berserker Rage active. If I went for High Elf over Breton, I would spend level points on health and magicka and ignore stamina. I'd also use ranged Destruction attacks like Ice Spike and Fireball in place of a bow.

Discovered a glitch in Lost Knife Hideout that causes a couple of Bandits to dance some Jumpstyle, because they can't figure out how to get down to that location to get me. Instead, they just frantically jump around that area trying, but failing, to jump over the rocks and off the edge to reach me. One of them eventually managed to. Splat! Was funny as hell. Next time I'm recording that ######. AI pathfinding errors for great justice!

Edited December 28, 2011 by WytchDokta

[RileyFletcher_01]

Now I see how you have 6090 posts.....too much playing Skyrim.

[NightCrawler]

No such thing as playing too much Skyrim....

[WytchDokta]

While I agree, I also question that - I was out night driving the other day, passing through some areas without street lights and I could see a low intensity glow above the roads. So, either I had developed the low light vision of a Khajiit or it was something to do with a reflection from the full moon.

I still can't understand a single word you say.....

Exactly - I don't need to speak a foreign language in the UK for people to mistake me for a foreigner who speaks little English.

[WytchDokta]

Okay, so I opted for a Breton build instead of a High Elf build, mainly due to the Bretons' innate resistance to magic. Their special ability grants a further +50% resistance to magic, and one of the Alteration perks increases resistance to magic, so go figure what I'm going to do. There is no boost to Destruction for Bretons but they receive the highest boost to Conjuration. No Destruction boost is not a big deal as Conjuration is about distracting enemies, and this is the primary skill I'll be focusing on. Just been testing it out and it's really fun and effective. Just got the Raise Zombie spell, and this can be used on any corpse, whether or not you killed person/creature you choose to raise. It's funny, you can use Raise Zombie to grind your One-Handed skill too - like me in Bleak Falls barrow, in the first room where there's loads of dead Skeevers and Bandits.... Conjure Familiar. Resurrect Skeever, kill Skeever with melee attack. Resurrect Bandit, kill Bandit with melee attack. Conjure Familiar. Resurrect Skeever, kill Skeever with melee attack..... and so on. You follow?

EDIT: update on the Conjuration front, for those wondering:

- Bound weapons count towards the respective weapon type skill; attacks from Bound Swords will boost the One-Handed skill, attacks from Bound Battleaxes will boost the Two-Handed skill, etc. This also means any perks spent on One-/Two-Handed skills will have the same effect on the respective bound weapons, however, all bound weapons can go one better as a Conjuration perk boosts the damage dealt by conjured weapons. All bound weapons will also boost the Conjuration skill when cast.

- The Reanimate Corpse spell in effect replaces Raise Zombie. That is, Reanimate Corpse allows players to ressurect all standard enemies (like Raise Zombie) aswell as more powerful ones. Quite how far 'more powerful' goes is unknown to me as of yet, but I'm going to attempt to cast Reanimate Corpse on Trolls and Giants, see what happens.

- Conjured Familiars (wolves) are really weak, but useful for distraction purposes - enemies can even kill the wolf Familiar with the execution moves.

Edited December 28, 2011 by WytchDokta

[RileyFletcher_01]

No such thing as playing too much Skyrim....

Perhaps, but GR must be a different story. As sad as it is, I've tried reaching to tap the V key when I was trying to see something in the dark the other night What? You say I'm addicted? I only played it for eight hours that day.

[WytchDokta]

Initially I was wary of playing as a mage build that doesn't use bows or the Destruction skill, limiting me to melee attacks. However, Conjuration has turned out to be a solid alternative to Destruction, for many reasons - I don't need to carry weapons around because I can conjure them; I don't need a follower for back up because I can spam out Atronachs; I have my Atronachs (or resurrected undead) for drawing the enemies' attention while I close in and finish them off, thus, I also don't need ranged Destruction spells or bows. I can leave out any perks. For Archery and Snaek, and instead spend those points in Restoration and Alteration. Most of my points are on Conjuration, a few on Alteration (for the extra magic resistance, and the Stoneflesh spell) a few on Restoration (for the faster magicka recovery rate and Healing Hands spell), a few on One-Handed and Two-Handed as those perks stack with bound weapons, and of courses a few on Light Amour as I don't care much for the Mage Armour perks, I'd rather have the extra damage resistance from light armour than the faster magicka recovery from mage robes.

Also, Conjuration allows you to theoretically take a follower into a place where they wouldn't normall follow you, like the Thalmor Embassy and Skuldafn. All you need to do is Conjure an Atronach. Can't wait to reach level 100 in Conjuration because then I can have 2 active Atronachs, or 2 active undead, or 1 undead and 1 Atronach at the same time. That will be a right little party.

Alteration is pretty funny too if you cast an Alteration spell on yourself then walk through one of the towns. You get some comments from NPC's then. Do it with an Oakflesh or Stoneflesh spell and you get comments about the spelling looking dangerous or some such ######. Annoyingly, when you do this with a Candlelight spell, passing female NPC's will give you the 'oooh shiney' typical woman reponse.

Now to find out who sells the spellbooks for conjuring Frost and Storm Atronachs, cause you know, them Storm Atronachs got a Benjamin Grimm thing going on. Still, nothing beats my resurrected Skeever killing a Giant Frostbite Spider. Told you Conjuration was fun. Next, I'll see if my resurrected elk can kill a Dragon. Gotta be done.

[RileyFletcher_01]

Next, I'll see if my resurrected elk can kill a Dragon. Gotta be done.

Somehow I can't see this happening.

[WytchDokta]

Well, if a Skeever can kill a Giant Frostbite Spider, as happened in my case....

(Consider that a Giant Frostbite Spider can withstand a multitude of hits from your weapons and a Skeever is like a rat)

I'm under the impression there's a total of around 20 something shouts in game, which would make sense as I haven't found the Leeroy Jenkins, This is Sparta or You Shall Not Pass easter egg shouts yet.

[RileyFletcher_01]

When I said I couldn't see it happening, it's probably because I've never played Skyrim and I'm seeing a zombie elk charging at a fire breathing dragon

[WytchDokta]

Figured I'd quickly start up a High Elf build for comparison purposes to Bretons. I also like making random builds and following Ralof because the intro is hilarious - Alduin the evil dragon shows up an minutes later Ralof states "That thing was a Dragon." I'd never have guessed that if he hadn't have said. For that reason it makes me every time he says that.

Edited December 29, 2011 by WytchDokta

[WytchDokta]

Whoa, crazy ######. First time I had this happen: on a speed run with a High Elf build, I go to Riften to find that Esbern geezer. As normal, I get inside the gate and Maul stops me. I quit out of the conversation because you know, it's called a 'speed run' for a reason. Then next thing I know, Maul and his 'crew' went on the rampage in Riften, smashing up the town guard. Maul and his 'crew' are seemingly tagged as 'essential' NPC's meaning they will never die, they will only ever be incapped at most. So, I was using Healing Hands on them to revive them when they got incapped. After they'd killed the ENTIRE amount town guard, I went to speak to them and got a 'Get out of my face.' You see, this is what I like about Skyrim, it's just like real life - you help some people and they throw it all back in your face.

On a side note, Phinias at the College of Winterhold sells higher level Conjuration spells, got me a Bound Bow and Conjure Frost Atronach spell of him. While Frost Atronachs are considerably stronger than Flame Atronachs, they seem to be limited to melee attacks only, and their sheer size means they can't fit through narrow tunnels in caves. If it's anything to go by, I spawned a Frost Atronach near and area with a Giant and a Mammoth, and I deliberately started a fight with the Giant. My Frost Atronach killed the Mammoth in like three hits, and survived one direct hit from a Giant, before being killed by a second hit. So yeah, they're tanks and powerhouses, not as much as Storm Atronachs I'm guessing though.

[WytchDokta]

I like how some of the Dragonshouts render the greater powers of some of the races redundant - like if you're a Wood Elf, the Animal Allegiance makes their Command Animal power obsolete, seeing that it can be used as many times as you want AND affects ALL animals in a very large area of effect. There's one that makes enemies flee too, a legendary version of the Nord greater power. Likewise, there one that causes enemies to loose the will to fight, a legendary version of the Imperial greater power.

I was reading up on the Dragon Priest masks too. I knew they were obtained by defeating the respective Dragon Priest, and that they could be placed on the Dragon Priest busts in Bromjunaar Sanctuary -only accessible by wearing the Wooden Mask inside the ruined structure where the mask is located (removing the mask will cast you back to the ruined structure). What I didn't know was, all storage chests and urns inside Bromjunaar Sanctuary do not reset meaning that you can use the place as a unique storage place. So I know what I'll be doing with Dragon Bones/Scales from now on.

[WytchDokta]

Wahahaha, I can have my character turn into a Werewolf at will now. Just gotta make sure not to do it when other NPC's are around, or I'll get a bounty of 1000 gold, and everyone will become hostile - except for Wolves other NPC's who can turn into Werewolves.

[Parabellum]

I've received Skyrim as a birthday present. Aaah, Skyrim, sweet Skyrim. Oblivion's ability to keep me mesmerized for hours on end pails in comparison to Skyrim's sweet, snowy call. If it weren't for the random crashes and the game's tendency to simply vanish from time to time, then I may not have come up for air yet. My only complaint thus far (my character is a level 10 Nord fighter) is that the game is horribly unstable. It may run for 15 minutes before seizing up, or it may run for 6 hours. I've had to run in Windowed mode to keep the from locking up my computer completely when it freezes; now, it simply vanishes. The trade-off is that the game's FPS is nearly cut in half. Aah, well, I guess no game can be perfect. This one's as close as I've seen, though.

[Parabellum]

Skyrim's random yet consistent crashing issues seem to have been remedied by playing the game on my Vista 64 install, rather than the XP 32 install. I can only assume that it's an XP issue, since both installs are on the same machine, using the same hardware. It's just too bad that Vista is a bit slower than XP, really.

WytchDokta, where do you find werewolves and vampires? I know about the Brotherhood quest line where you can turn into a werewolf, but I'd rather go find one out in the world. Alduin fell to my swords last night. He wasn't too hard, honestly. (Disclaimer: I was playing on super-duper-easy-noob-mode. But don't tell anyone) Now, it's off to explore the rest of the game. It's sort of sad though, that my character clobbered the hell out of dragon kind, and no one seems to care. People in the streets are like "Hey man, nice beard." Or "You should have played on a higher difficulty, noob." No appreciation at all, I swear.

[WytchDokta]

The Companions Guild, located in Whiterun, will give you the option to be turned into a Werewolf. Some of their members are Werewolves. There are a few ruins etc with Werewolves and Silverhand Vampires/Werewolf hunters. Thieves Guild is a ###### to get into in Skyrim compared to Oblivion, involving a pickpocketing theft in public in daylight.

[Parabellum]

Aha! I knew about the Companions guild and their quest line, but I didn't know about the werewolves in the Silverhand ruins. Vampires, I found. And happily killed. On another note, those lich guys that sometimes spawn after you learn a shout at the dragon walls hurt. A lot.

[NightCrawler]

In Falkreath there is a guy who wants you to find his dog. Do the dogs quest and get the ring. You're in for a nice suprise Para. No need to join the companions to become a wolfman.

[WytchDokta]

In Falkreath there is a guy who wants you to find his dog. Do the dogs quest and get the ring. You're in for a nice suprise Para. No need to join the companions to become a wolfman.

Yeah, Barbas, the invincible Irish Wolf Hound follower who incessantly barks and whines, even while speaking human.

Liches? You mean Dragon Priests. And yes, they hurt. I did try telling you people.

When you get invited into the Underforge at Whiterun is when you get the option to be Werewolfised. While having some disadvantages (like a health regeneration rate of like 0.000000000000000000000000005 while in Beast Form), the major advantage of it is that you gain a permanent 100% resistance to diseases (probably deliberately intended by the devs so that you can't be a Werewolf and Vampire at the same time), and you don't need to switch to your Werewolf form to have that bonus, it remains with you all the time.

Also, completing the Companions' questline gives access to a number of hirelings, aswell as the ability to forge Draugr weapons and armour (counts as heavy armour) and Skyforge Steel weapons (seem to be equivalent to Elven weapons in terms of damage output, but can be upgraded for cheaper, requiring Steel rather than Moonstone.)

Edited January 12, 2012 by WytchDokta

[WytchDokta]

Nightcrawler, Barbas' quest is a completely different quest, and does not reward you with the Ring of Hircine.

Barbas' quest, "A Daedra's Best Friend," requires you to reunite [barbas] with his master who has forsaken him. Barbas will take you to the shrine of Clavicus Vile.

The quest that rewards the player with the Ring of Hircine OR the Saviour's Hide (depending on the player's actions) is "Ill Met By Moonlight." You'll need to talk to Mathies in Falkreath to get this quest.

Just to clear things up.

BTW, talking to Aela after completing Companions questline (and only if she IS NOT currently a follower), will allow you access to three sidequests (make sure to choose the "I'm looking for work" option) whereby you can obtain three Werewolf Totems of Hircine, each granting a special Werewolf ability whilst you're in Beast Form. Whilst all three can be obtained and placed in the Underforge, they do not stack and thus only one ability can be taken at any one time. You can change this ability later by choosing one of the other Totems in the Underforge. Note that these side quests use the 'Radiant Quest' system and thus can take place in random dungeons etc. In my case, two of the Totems were located in locations that I'd previously explored and cleared out before joining the Companions. I mainly use the Totem of Brotherhood - all shall fall before my two red Wolf familiars.

Also, not sure if it's an oversight by the devs or not, but the Flame Cloak spell DOES NOT ignite oil spills found throughout many locations. All other fire spells, except fire rune can ignite oil spills.

And finally maxed out my Smithing skill to lvl 100. So there. I can haz Dragonscale armoUr and Daedric weapons, all maxed to Legendary level.

Edited January 19, 2012 by WytchDokta

[Parabellum]

Aaah, I was wondering if there were more werewolf totems to be found. My character married Aela after the first one, and thereafter, she didn't give him any more of the totem quests. I'll have to run through on another character.

BTW, the Dark Brotherhood questline has turned out to be one of my favorites. Assassinating an emperor is such a positive experience, hehe. I do wish that killing the emperor had a greater effect on the world though, beyond random people lamenting his death.

[WytchDokta]

Killing one of the Dragon Priests was a piece of cake with my Dark Elf firestarter - didn't even take hardly any damage, just burned him up with Fireball (dual cast), Flame Cloak, Flames and the Fire Breath Dragon Shout (maxed out). He went down in like 10 seconds. Gotta love playing with fire.

I've used the Flames spell so much it now deals 22 damage per second. And apparently high level mages have a 100% resistance to shock attacks, which is new on me, but one high level mage was completely resisting all Chain Lighting attacks I was throwing at him.

[Zeko]

I've used the Flames spell so much it now deals 22 damage per second. And apparently high level mages have a 100% resistance to shock attacks, which is new on me, but one high level mage was completely resisting all Chain Lighting attacks I was throwing at him.

My Flames spell damage level is still at 8. Does it increase with leveling destruction? Or do you need to put perks to destruction?

I recently started to play with stealth approach and daedric bow. Very nice and deadly combo. Now i only need daedric arrows. Anyone knows of any locations where you can get it? Or does it depend on your level?