Driving home the various memes along the lines of
“Mighty dragon-slayer, could you save us from…”
“No time! These butterflies won’t catch themselves!”
So yeah, alchemy is clearly the more profitable skill, especially when combined with resetting the vendor.
I’m all equipped with a soul trap weapon and a black soul gem and currently wandering the wilderness looking for a humanoid whose soul I can trap to cure my vampirism.
After that I’m thinking maybe get a house so I can have some storage. These dragon scales and bones are heavy as hell to lug around with me everywhere.
If you’ve joined the Companions, you can use one of the chests in their guildhall as a storage space. I’m not sure to what degree your being a vampire will interact with their storyline in which you discover the leaders of the guild are all werewolves after they turn you into one though, so may want to deal with that problem before progressing too far down their plotline.
I have joined the companions, actually. Did the first two quests for them, both of which were fetch quests. I got infected shortly after. All cured now though, woohoo! Just now, as a matter of fact. Pretty stoked.
At this point, being cured of vampirism and having a reliable source of income as needed thanks to alchemy, I feel like the (game) world is my oyster.
My main take-away in my last playthrough was that enchanting was awesome powerful, but a pain to level up.
Seriously, though, by the end I had some amazing swords and axes that were easy to refill with power and did a ton of damage. Game-breaking, almost.
Bought the first house, got all the upgrades for it, and even crafted and upgraded a complete set of elven gear.
At this point both alchemy and enchantment are in the high 40s as my two highest skills, with single-handed fighting next in the low 40s. And then light armor and blocking are both in the low 30s.
I’m worried that my combat power may be lagging behind a bit, so I’m just going to finish up by adding a fire damage effect to my elven mace using a grand soul gem. I was going to make two to have a handy refill ready, but I need to start cracking skulls quickly before my fighting skills atrophy completely.
Actually, maybe I should save up a couple extra grand and go train 5 levels of a combat skill somewhere. Yeah, I think that’s the smart play.
I’m way into it at this point. This game is exactly what the doctor ordered.
-looks at own near 1k hours of play and prays for soul of the fallen EllisDee-
But absolutely, it is always a great way to get away from ‘this’ world. And while the rewards for many of the non-daedric quests are underwhelming, many of them have amazing (and oft creepy) story bits.
Okay so I got COVID and didn’t play for a week, but got back to it yesterday.
I left off having trained up single weapon fighting (to the Whiterun trainer’s max of 50) so I could go handle some combat. So last night I headed out and started wandering around looking for someone to fight.
Being character level 21 I decided it was finally time to deal with the giant and mammoths camp right outside Whiterun. Both the single giant and any one mammoth continued to be way beyond my melee ability. Each hit with my Elvin Mace did maybe 3 to 5% damage of their bar. Each time they hit me in my elven armor and shield takes out around half of my hit points. It’s wildly unbalanced. Shield blocking doesn’t seem to do much of anything to mitigate the damage.
Pulling out my elven bow and Elvin arrows let me easily kill them all, kiting while never in danger. Note that my archery skill was in low twenties when I did that, though I gained three archery levels in the process. That again seems wildly unbalanced.
So shaking my head and just chalking that up to be a giants thing, I continued on until I found one of those ruins with criminals in it. So I started fighting them, but again, I only barely chip away at their hit point bar well they devastate mine with every connection, blocking or not. Apparently it’s not just a giants thing, it’s an everything.
I’m starting to lose interest. Honestly I’m kind of thinking I should just actually play DDO instead of trying to find a similar experience. Because Skyrim combat is certainly not it. It would probably be fun if you want to use a bow, or my next planned life as a spellcaster, but as far as I can tell, for basic melee playstyle, Skyrim sucks ass.
Oh boo, I played DDO with a mouse and keyboard, which I’m no longer willing to do. I tell you, it sucks to suck in Skyrim.
I was even all excited about downloading the free Evil Dead game, but after installation I got the impression it was online only. I want a single player game.
So, here’s the thing. You’re out-leveling your gear.
This happens to a lot of us who are playing the game the first time, and leveling a wide range of skills. Your level goes up fast, which in most areas increases the level of your opponents. But your gear is still only second tier (plate or elven in your case). By 21, you’re nearly 50% of the way through the default expected level range of 50. So everything has scaled up, and you’re still wearing weaksauce from the POV of the game. I’d expect to be using Dwemer/Dwarven or Glass Armor or better by that point.
Which is hard to do if you don’t focus. Which, well, you would in future playthroughs, but not normally when just learning. Point blank - skill helps, but it’s your perks and GEAR that determine the majority of your physical damage done and damage taken. Bows normally have an advantage are lower levels because they have weapon + arrow damage, and exactly as you pointed out, you can kite easily so it’s much safer.
Again, you would need to have higher level gear, and you’d absolutely want it all enhanced, not just out of box as it were. So ideally both enchanted AND improved at a workbench, but if you’re getting pounded, at least enhanced to up it’s dps.
Plus (last point), light armor and heavy armor are both capable of reaching the defense cap, but you need next to last tier or better and/or very high blacksmithing to get there with light, while it’s pretty easy to do by midpoint in heavy. So unless you need the lighter armor for sneaking, aesthetics, or the like, heavy is the default choice for earlier playthroughs.
See I would have never guessed that. I’m level 21 of what, 80+? Seems weird that I should already almost be maxed out with armor if I’m only a quarter of the way through leveling.
But okay, I can work with that. And no, I’m not compounding with enchantments and potions. I was actually testing out my shiny new unmodified elven gear as a baseline, but apparently the baseline is crap.
I supposed I could gain the smithing levels to craft scaled armor, but then I’ll also need to train up light armor and blocking while I’m at it, and at that point I might be in the 30s. So would I need glass armor by then? Should I just skip scaled? But then I’ll need more smithing levels for glass, etc…
I’d kind of rather quest instead of sitting in the apothecary respawning the ingredients list, but I suppose I could do that to improve my gear. The problem for me is I just did that; I had been running with a full set of leather gear. Made enough money at the apothecary to craft the elven gear, and here I am.
I guess I shouldn’t have leveled alchemy and stuck with the leather gear. Seems weird to me that making the elven gear leveled me from the leather gear being good (which it seemed to be) to the elven gear being crap. But, I mean, in fairness my alchemy is like 40-something now.
EDIT: Here are my skills:
52 One Handed (6 perk points)
51 Alchemy (2 pp)
49 Enchanting (1 pp)
41 Speech (0 pp)
40 Smithing (2 pp)
35 Block (4 pp)
34 Light Armor (3 pp)
32 Sneak (1 pp)
30 Restoration (0 pp)
29 Archery (0 pp)
Hmmm. I guess that speech skill snuck up on me. I guess I need to train up more combat, but geez. The game feels more like a vendor mini-game than an epic questing kind of thing.
Yes, yes. certainly enchant (after improving) everything. My shield has a blocking enchantment, my boots have a lifting enchantment or a stamina boost or something, my gauntlets have an archery enchantment, my armor improves my health,etc. And your weapons, too.
It takes a real high smithing skill to improve enchanted stuff, that’s why I say improve first, then enchant.
So how’s the dragon menace? How’s the shouting? Are you doing any of the main storyline? Do you have the Dawnguard DLC? I’m a fan of that one. One of the coolest, imo, shouts is gotten through Dawnguard.
I had a couple dragon encounters between levels 7 and 14, but Lydia and I were alone in the wilderness and just got splatted like a bug. Eventually, around the same time, a dragon attacked that very first tiny village while I was doing business so the whole city came together to take it down. I do have one shout that I have used in a “let’s check it out” sense, but never in combat.
As for questing, again, I had been right about the correct level for enemy strength with my leather gear. I upgraded it to Elvin to make me stronger, and then tried a quest and got my ass kicked. Reloaded 20 to 30 times trying to figure out how to carefully get through the encounter, but no joy. Then I got COVID and didn’t touch the computer for a week, and when I went back I had that pathetic giant encounter and embarrassing bandit encounter. (Those two encounters were from just wandering around, not following a quest line.)
For DLC I have the special edition, which as I understand it comes with Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn.
EDIT: My current save is right at that bandit encounter, just outside in sneak mode.
Giants are really tough enemies, especially in close proximity. If you’re looking for an occasional upper hand in combat, shouts can really be your friend.
@bobot’s got the right of it. Right now, when fighting dragons and giants, you’re going to want/need spike damage / defense. So poison your weapons (alchemy ftw again), perhaps use alteration magic for bonus armor right before starting, and the like. Long lasting potions with regen, bonus health, and the like will also make a big difference.
But when you’re getting murdered by bandits, that’s where your gear is falling down. To expand on the prior post, the game caps most enemies and allies at 50. That was what I was expressing as the default ‘max’ level. Sure, you can go higher than that, but you won’t find most of your enemies and allies doing so.
Leather armor is, to be clear, the lowest tier. You’ve upgraded one level of roughly five. And the unenhanced stuff is … unimpressive. The default option for a multi-run player (this is where having played before really helps) is to use enchanting to enchant + blacksmithing (or alchemy for that crafting) gear, which you wear when enhancing the freshly crafted item (ideally while using a + blacksmithing potions to squeeze even more out), then put an enchant on.
Put it this way. Lets say you use 4 bars of material to craft a default item with a defense of 10. But by using a single bar to enhance it, you can (depending on lots of other variables) up that defense to 20. Much better investment than crafting a second piece of gear for another 4 bars, and since enhancing an item also levels the skill, better skill improvement to material loss!
And again, while you CAN get light armor to the level cap, it’s a lot easier to do with heavy. That’s what I was talking about needing near final tier armor for. If you’re using light armor in a playthrough, especially if you aren’t min-maxing as described, you should be always planning on taking out multiple enemies via stealth or archery - if you’re in melee (which happens a lot in big bandit camps and the like) you are going to have it rough.
So with your current skills, you probably want to consider quest chains that give you enhanced sneaking and/or archery gear, so that you can stick to shadows, and pick off your enemies, waiting for them to drop their caution and repeat. You’ll definitely need to sink more perks into sneak as well, and look for sneak enchanted items from vendors / enchant them yourself.
You’re doing fine for a first playthrough, but you’re very much at the step of jack of all trades, master of none. Which is EXACTLY what happened to me in my first playthrough to be clear. In terms of short term fixes though, back to the start of my post, use that powerful alchemy to craft a ton of buffing potions and poisons, and use them freely!
I believe I did upgrade my crafted gear at the smithy, but possibly not yet. That’s the first step, right? Or should I have first made a potion that improved the smithy upgrade? If so, should I go figure out how to make that potion and redo my elven gear from scratch? That would be a bummer but not a deal-breaker. (I might just try and go for the next tier of armor, where I would get my choice between light and heavy. Maybe heavy makes more sense.)
Also, where do I get the good enchantments? I have to find them? I’m high enough level I can just respawn a vendor (they offer some magical items), but that’s just adding to the hours of “vendor minigame” tedium.
If your gear isn’t enchanted, you can always upgrade it later as your skill improves. So lets say you upgraded it once, and then you’ve raised BS another 10 points, still only one bar of material to improve again! Once enchanted though, you need the moderately high perk to enhance enchanted gear.
So if it isn’t enhanced at all, enhance away. I’d do that first before grinding to the next level of gear based on your current worries about tedium. And again, it’s normally far less materials to upgrade than replace.
As for enchants, you can go for a two-fer. Use the UESP to find quests that have rewards with the enchants you want, do the quest, and disenchant the reward to have it available in the future.
As to the potions, if you’re a little thief/pack rat like me, you probably have a few sitting around that you picked up some place, unless you sold them for $$$. + BS potions can often be found at crafters, apothecaries and vendors and the like. Unless it affects your self-imposed Role Play restrictions.
BS = Smithing?
Looking now, I did improve them to Superior. Can I overwrite that improvement, or is that locked in now? I googled confirmation that a potion can be made to buff that smithy improvement, as well as enchantments. I’ll see if I can make the potion and then try to re-improve them. If not, I may as well make the next set since the perk for it says “and can improve them twice as much.” That requires 50 smithing, where I’m currently 40.
Okay, first I’m gonna go mess up my levels further by gaining more stealth and archery clearing out this bandit camp.
Okay I think I figured it out. The boss dude is difficult to fight. I thought they were all like that, but turns out the regular dudes are weaksauce.
I found a little spot I could sneak to, and then everyone would run right past me down the stairs to attack Lydia, leaving one archer behind. I crushed the archer in two swings, dropped down and took the second one out while the boss guy was beating Lydia to a pulp. Then just me vs him it was a good, fun fight. That’s what I was missing: intelligent tactics.
I was wondering how much patience I would have to make more money but it turns out I have around 4K gold onhand, so I’m not poor. I also figured out my carrying capacity issue, which is that I apparently had 100+ lbs of ingredients and like 80 lbs of misc. Storing all that junk at Breezehome is so nice.
So now I’m feeling like my gear wasn’t half bad for that fight. The other times I tried, the boss engaged me immediately, so it seemed like they were all that strong. But it was just him; the rest were the power level I was expecting after just upgrading my gear.
I’m a little late to the party, but might as well contribute some suggestions based on my playstyle:
- Stealth Archer is generally where I end up, like so many other players, for obvious reasons: The devastating first shot is often the deciding factor in most battles.
- I try very hard, though, to adhere to other styles: One handed + shield, and even two-handed. The early game for a two-hander is quite difficult, because going toe-to-toe with all foes means you take a lot of damage, and hence you need very good armor and lots of health potions. Later on, as you toughen up, this is less of an issue.
- Similarly, mages focusing on destruction magic are a bit weak initially, then way OP later on.
- As for enchanting, the only one that really matters to me is the “life steal” (whatever it’s called) that you can get by analyzing / destroying the Blade of Woe, which you get by destroying the Dark Brotherhood. It turns every weapon you use it on, into a means of stealing HP from enemies. They die extra fast while you heal. Kind of makes you invincible, TBH.
- I tried survival mode for a while, but it just slowed things down and made gameplay annoying enough for me to just stop. I think you can just turn survival mode on/off at will, so it’s something you can try if you’re yearning for more…I dunno, depth?
- Horses are kind of no fun unless you use a mod such as Convenient Horses, then they’re awesome. It’s a mod I’m keeping.