I’m playing a warrior in Skyrim, and am wondering if there are any tactics for fighting casters (e.g. the Azura’s Star quest). I keep getting zapped from far away, before I can even reach them.
[ul]
[li]I haven’t leveled my block skill much, does it help against magic? Should I get a shield to resist each type of magic?[/li][li]Resist magic gear?[/li][li]So far I’ve been using lots of potions, which doesn’t seem very efficient (I think I may spend more on potions than the quest reward)[/li][li]Another way might be magicka-sapping poisoned arrows?[/li][/ul]
Apologies if this should be in the Skyrim thread, this seemed a bit too specific for that thread.
I used resist fire/cold gear + potions against dragons, since they use either fire or cold. Against casters its hard to know in advance what they will use, though if they kill you once you’ll know what to wear for round two. Most casters have so low hp I just one-shotted them from stealth. Of course, that doesn’t work for the bigger bosses.
One thing that helps in general if you are feeling too frail in combat is the Lord stone. If it is only magic you are worried about, the Atronach stone might help though I’ve never tried that one.
ETA – there’s also a quest reward passive buff from The Book of Love quest that gives +15% magic resistance.
Hmm the odd thing is, I don’t have much trouble with dragons. I’ve taken one down with at the most 2 NPCs helping me (at level <30), which is a bit disappointing considering the whole game’s story is based on Oh No The Dragons Are Back Somebody Save Us and it turns out they’re almost pushovers. You’d expect them to be something like Deathwing.
One-shotting won’t work against Azura and his posse, since you have to teleport into the stone to fight them.
There’s a Block perk that lets you block a percentage of elemental damage, yes. There’s also a nice shield from a Daedric quest, Spellbreaker that acts as an anti-magic ward.
Try using attacks or shield bashes that stagger them.
FUS RO DAH them and whack them while they’re down.
Sneak attack them with a bow and dodge around a corner or behind something, and bash them when they come after you. Especially useful with Ice users who can slow you to a crawl.
Use a summoning item to call up something fairly strong to take the initial attacks for you, and run up and start smashing them while they are distracted. The Sanguine Rose is good for that.
A have the Deadly Dragons mod which buffs them up some.
When in doubt, go get a couple levels doing something else and then come back once you’ve got the block magic ability. Also, letting Lydia run in and take a hit for the team may take some of the heat off of you. She will also use and equip staves (even dual-wielding them, although she won’t dual-wield swords & such…), so two of the above-mentioned Staves of Lightning on her whilst you do other stuff might be good. You also might need a LOT of lightning resistance, though.
Sword and board works well against casters; be relentless with the shield bashes. If you have a good enchanting skill (it’s pretty easy to level), you can put two separate resist magic buffs on the same shield; very handy while closing to melee.
I generally never plays a fighter, and a spellcaster is no match for my usal sneak/archery character because he’s dead before he notices me.
However, I happen to be playing one currently (I also happen to have just begun Azura star quest a couple hours ago. The end of it has been one of the most difficult in previous games IME), and I had troubles with spell casters too until I began to add destruction magic to my competences making myself essentially a battlemage.
My proposed solution, lacking unique items or competences : fight fire with fire. Keep a couple of staves (firebolt, lightning, etc…lightning being the mose useful because it reduces their spell points, and ice the most useless) and use them when facing powerful spellcasters. Make sure you also have healing potions, because they can deal a lot of damages with a single spell. Drink them as needed, preferably before they seem needed, in fact. In the end, those spell casters don’t have many HP, and they should die before you.
Resistance potions, rings, etc… don’t hurt, but in my experience they don’t help much, either.
If you know it, the shout “etheral form” is very helpful to close on spell casters. And once they’re in weapon range against a fighter, they’re dead.
I have to admit, though, that I always laugh when I see that I’ve been killed by a caster who just shoved an icicle the size of a baseball bat through my head. “Yep,” I think. “That ought do it…”
The Time-slowy word was a major part of my melee dudes arsenal . At Level three you can cover the distance easily with none of the crudeness of sprint.
Two of the three locations are quest-locked, so if you never did those specific quests you won’t see those words. One is a faction quest and the other is a “class” quest, so again if you avoided joining a faction and didn’t play through that particular “class” ( that is, weren’t interested in that group ), you’ll miss them.
You could also get the Wabbajack and see how those mages like it. Look for a confused guy near the Bard’s College in Solitude. The quest for the Wabbajack is easy and the weapon itself is insanely powerful. If it doesn’t kill your mages on contact it will probably turn them into chickens or sweet rolls.
Alternately, find a high level (close to your own level, since that’s what determines the level of the enemies when you enter a dungeon) fury spell or scroll to use on them and make them fight each other.
You can’t bring a follower with you but you can probably still conjure up an atronach or a familiar. Gives them something else to shoot at although I have had mages turn my summoned creatures against me so try this as a desperation move only.
One thing that irritates me is that I can’t delete quests I’m not interested in from the list. And even when you actively try to avoid receiving new quests, you still end up getting new ones on a regular basis.
I’ve my share of issues (like hoarding, although it seems I’m making progress and can sometimes manage to leave a place without carrying out everything that isn’t pinned to the ground) but not following every single proposed quest isn’t one of them.
If you really follow every single hook, you probably reach level 50 before having even fought your first dragon.
