SKYRIM!!

[RayvenQ]

Bought the game 2 weeks ago. Destruction at maximum. If a problem can be set on fire, it isn't a problem for long. If it can't be set on fire, it gets frozen. And then set on fire.

It'd be even more awesome if Destruction was actually scaled with your level, which, it actually isn't.

[Gravekeeper]

Magic's a bit squirrelly and kind of lackluster. The only tree that really feels filled out is Conjuration. Illusion requires way way too many perks for the few spells it has to be effective. Destruction doesn't scale well and doesn't have much variety. Restoration is pointless unless you're purposefully playing a companion support char. You'll find enough potions anyhow and the Resto spell you start with is sufficient for patching up after a fight. Alteration is amazingly pointless.

That said, playing a mage type char is quite interesting, especially on Expert as I am doing atm. Since everything in the game can 1-2 shot me so I have to orchestrate chaos from stealth and hide behind summons -.-

Only problem is Skyrim no like mages. There is literally zero point in playing a traditional mage archtype. Cloth is completely inferior and staves are kinda bleh. So any magic user ends up in light or heavy armour unless you're specifically avoiding it just to be stubborn. They really should have made the casting bonuses *only* appear on and be enchantable on cloth and jewelry. Or at least made spell effectiveness decline based on armour weight.

Same goes for Sneak. Its so easy to negate the armour penalties you may as well sneak in platemail anyhow.

[taurinejunkie]

Thanks for the info GK, I thought my mage's poor performance was largely due to a bad lag issue I get from playing on a laptop that actually doesn't meet the minimum CPU speed requirement. (1.8GHz vs. 2.0, so it's not bad enough to affect traditional close-quarters fighting. For which I actually have a warhammer-wielding beast of a Nord. Due to limited view distance, an archer is not an option, but I do have a Khajiit thief/assassin swimming in gold. Pulling stuff from a magic shop at night is so satisfying, too.

[Gravekeeper]

Thanks for the info GK, I thought my mage's poor performance was largely due to a bad lag issue I get from playing on a laptop that actually doesn't meet the minimum CPU speed requirement.

Conjuration and perhaps Illusion ( for Quiet Casting so you can cast from stealth ) work fine. Felt like Destro tapered off though and its hard to keep Destro sufficiently leveled unless you use it for absolutely everything and don't touch anything else. I found Conjuration much more reliable for dealing damage than Destro though. Unless you focus primarily on Shock spells. Very little is resistant to Shock in Skyrim. 2/3rd's of the game is resistant to Frost though, and 1/3rd to Fire.

That said, I found Destro's Cloak spells to be great supplementary damage for a melee/magic hybrid. Especially if you're working a shield so you can turtle while it wears down opponents.

A pure mage type's problem is 75% of the combat is in close quarters in dungeons. You practically *have* to be a Sneak Mage or a Shield Mage or both.

[taurinejunkie]

Right now I'm mainly working on my thief to get that insane stealth dagger damage bonus, I think it's 15x. With which one can apparently one-shot a dragon.

The cloak thing does give me an idea - I'll try and make a non-attacking toon (sneak when possible, otherwise count on armor + cloak + summons to win the fight for me XD)

[Seraph]

30x if you play it right and get the special dagger. ^^

[taurinejunkie]

Well I do have the Shrouded armor set, a piece of which has the "double sneak attack damage" effect; but I was referring to just the skill perk. In any case, now I understand why one of my friends mentioned his toon could one-shot a dragon.

[Geek King]

I'll mention that a 100 archery, crit possibility, and stealth bow damage increase will one shot a normal dragon, 4-shot a frost dragon, and take down an Elder dragon in under five minutes--most of that the dratted thing flying behind peaks so I can't get a good shot. All with a non-magic Ebony Bow I've upgraded three times and Steel Arrows.

I should really magic up the bow somehow, but why bother?

[Seraph]

Necro bump because at a highly emotional point in the storyline, where I actually got choked up....Skyrim managed to instantly cause me to break out into hysterical laughter.

I present, the Inverse Jedi Funeral.




Also, I still haven't beaten the main storyline. TAKING MAH SWEET TIME. </sashays>

[fireheart]

I present to you all: CABBALANCHE!

[Cat]

bf seems to be enjoying this. I did good for Christmas.

I made my own character, of course one of the cat people. One of the first things I did was kill a chicken in a village.....then I was promptly killed myself.

Why yes, I am a Zelda fan...why do you ask?

[Jay 2K Winger]

I got Skyrim for Christmas as well. It rocks my world.

Thus far my most frustrating series of deaths were when I went up to Shearpoint. I had a bounty mission from Dawnstar to kill a dragon up there, and I'd received a Word of Power retrieval mission from High Hrothgar as well.

Get up to Shearpoint, fighting the dragon up there. I get it down to about a third of its health and it swoops out of the sky and crashes into the mountaintop, leaves a FURROW in the ground, leading up to the Word Wall. I give it a FUS RO DAH to stun it--

--and in so doing wake up Krosis, the Dragon Priest, sleeping there. A combination of fire breath and a fireball to the face kill me.

Go back up, kill the dragon, go to deal with Krosis-- who shrugs off everything I throw at him and kills me. (I'm only level 14, and with virtually no magic to my name, apart from Shouts.)

Decide, fuck it. Go up, kill the dragon (after another embarrassing death when it manages to kill me before I can heal), decide to level up some more before dealing with Krosis.

Meeting Wes Johnson (Lucien Lachance, Sheogorath, and others) and some of the other Bethesda voice actors at MAGFest prompted me to pick up Oblivion and Shivering Isles to play once I'm done with Skyrim.

[Scorpodael]

Gonna need to be careful... Take too long in levelling up, another dragon will be up there waiting for you. A nastier one, since you'll be more powerful.

[Seraph]

yeah, but Krosis doesn't level up too much. I just introduced him to my twin swords, Pain and Suffering. (yes, I was that cheesy.)

Best thing for Dragon Priests is, if you don't take them out straght off, just line of sight them, and hit them in between their spells.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Gonna need to be careful... Take too long in levelling up, another dragon will be up there waiting for you. A nastier one, since you'll be more powerful.

Dragons don't worry me too much. Only dragon that's really given me any trouble (apart from Shearpoint FUCK YOU dragon) was the named one at the end of Act I, at Kynesgrove. And even then, it was one death.