Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Orchomene]

Sure, I didn't want to imply I wasn't satisfied with the game. 40 cents of euro an hour of playing is pretty cheap those days.

[Hurlshort]

120 hours in just over a week? Wow.

[Gorgon]

I've got 117 and I fell asleep with the game running. I'll have reached my Skyrim limit by the time any DLCs show up though. Not a critism of the game, there is just too much to do, and you don't feel like being lv 1 again having to re aquire all you skills.

[Orchomene]

120 hours in just over a week? Wow.

 

Well, a bit less and I was on vacation. Nonetheless, I agree it was pretty intensive. (None of my friends were in vacation).

[WDeranged]

And here was me thinking my 87 hours was hardcore

 

The endgame is miles away yet though, I haven't even completed a guild questline, I enjoy taking my time with games like this.

[Syraxis]

My total playtime for skyrim so far is 33.6 hours, and I'm only level 12 and haven't done the Jurgen windcaller quest yet.

[Tigranes]

About 40-50 hours. I was really disappointed with Oblivion by this point, Skyrim is still pretty fun. I love the return of Dwemer ruins in some areas that really replicate the one step = you die feel you had in MW's ruins, at least on Master difficulty (though I don't know how this fits in lore-wise). I see some level scaling going on with bandit chiefs with glass daggers, etc, but it seems to be a bit more tailored than Oblivion so that at least they're not running around in full Ebony plate or something stupid.

 

I've finished several guilds now and I thought the Mages' was humdrum, just forgettable - Thieves' was quite good though with a cool finale though it really needed more Garrett-ish thievery stuff in the middle as opposed to the stupid dungeoneering (are they even thinking about this? "Hey guys, 95% of our game is fighting in dungeons, so we should put some of that in our THIEVES GUILD questline too!"), Companions was OK. Currently doing Dark Brotherhood and Stormcloaks, which seem interesting thus far.

[HoonDing]

83 hours, according to Steam.

 

I've done the Companions, and it was okay. I wish Bethesda would go back to Daggerfall system for guilds, i.e. just doing quests until you reach the master rank, but I guess these days they insist on inserting some story into it. The whole "enter Guild and something awesome happens" is getting old. Still, at least it's short and way better than Oblivion's Fighter's Guild and you can still do quests afterwards.

[Spider]

I must say I've enjoyed Skyrim a fair bit so far. I'm at level 36 and have about a million open quests (if you count the misc ones). The game does suffer from one problem though (which has been tru for all ES games I have played, which is this and Morrowind). I have now capped Archery (and will cap Smithing soon), meaning that my main avenue of gaining levels has stopped. So in order to keep gaining levels I have to go from my preferred playstyle (ie most fun) to one that is less so. And I will be severly gimped. For now I'm switching to sword and shield, and pull up my bow when there are tougher fights. It works, but I just wish I could keep using the bow while still gaining levels.

 

I guess I could find a trainer for a skill I have barely used, and spend gold to level up that way (at least to a degree), but that's even worse.

 

Just wanted to get that out of my system.

[Gorgon]

Spells man, learn some spells, they are fun to use. Bows are best for bushwhacking, backstab is hard but rewarding to pull off. Just hacking at things with swords, not as much fun I think.

[Cantousent]

Geez, I've played like four hours so far. lol Well... I knew that would be the case when I bought it, but it's been a fun four hours. I'm only level, seven?, I think.

 

I can see where that would be a problem, Spider, the whole not gaining levels. It makes it harder since I don't think you have athletics in this one which means you don't get that. Still, if you take up enchanting and potions, those can still augment your favored fighting style rather than replacing it. I mean, doesn't always fit a base warrior type philosophy, but putting cool enhantments on your weapons and armor and being able to pop potions doesn't hurt. Also, you could take up restoration magic, which could really come in handy in a pinch if you don't use your mana for anything else.

[HoonDing]

Illusion & conjuration level up very quickly and are both very useful. Enchanting goes hand in hand with smithing, and goes up fast as well.

 

I've been leveling only magic skills and maxed them all out (save restoration) after reading the Oghma Infimium. Now I'm dabbling in smithing & enchanting to give my companions the best armour.

[Tigranes]

I feel like there's really only one fun character you can play in Oblivion and Skyrim, and that's sneak+bow+either illusion or conjuration. Possibly mix it up with alteration and destruction. Alchemy, enchanting & smithing is great fun but doesn't actually effect what you're doing in combat where you spend 80% of the gametime; straight up melee seems pretty boring because the fighting mechanism remains far inferior to Witcher or Gothic. It was a bit better in Morrowind because there were a lot more crazy things you could do with spells.

 

I do plan to try a straight up fighter type, but not sure if it'll be fun.

[LadyCrimson]

@Spider - agree with Cant...try leveling up non-combat/augmentation skills/magic for level ups. It is frustrating to feel "forced" to level up things you're not interested in/not using, in order to level up the character, tho.

[HoonDing]

Alchemy, enchanting & smithing is great fun but doesn't actually effect what you're doing in combat where you spend 80% of the gametime

Huh? You can use these skills to let ANY armour or weapon reach the cap.

[Tigranes]

As in, how many different fun ways of fighting are there in Oblivion or Skyrim? ANd that's important to replayability because you spend most of your time fighting.

[Spider]

I am smithing and enchanting. I craft all my own gear, including enchanting it, so while enchanting helps a bit it won't be enough, especially not when smithing caps. I also level some in stealth and lockpicking, but it's still much much slower than combat skills. I also do random potions, but I find that so tedious (and since I'm not good enough at alchemy, everything I make is worse than what I find so that makes it worse).

 

As for going with magic instead of swords, I actually tried that at first. Do you know how many firebolts it takes to kill a random mob when you're level 33+? Especially without relevant perks? A lot more than 100 or so magicka will allow, that's for sure (I actually have it up to 180 or so now, but I'm still not killing anything beyond low powered mobs).

 

I've also used restoration some, but mana is again an issue.

 

Anyway, thank you all for the advice.

 

Another question, has anyone had success with the throw voide shout? For me it's utterly useless. I want to be able to use it when stealthed to make all mobs run towards a certain direction, but anytime I've tried that I just get revealed and they all come charging at me instead.

[Orchomene]

I am smithing and enchanting. I craft all my own gear, including enchanting it, so while enchanting helps a bit it won't be enough, especially not when smithing caps. I also level some in stealth and lockpicking, but it's still much much slower than combat skills. I also do random potions, but I find that so tedious (and since I'm not good enough at alchemy, everything I make is worse than what I find so that makes it worse).

 

Smithing is not caped : using enchanted rings/amulets and potions can enhance effectiveness of smithing greatly. You can easily doubled the effectiveness.

For alchemy, if you want to increase your level you need to brew potions that have a high cost, like skill enhancement and invisibility. For invisibility, I used a lot of vampire dust and nirnroots.

In the end, I don't find alchemy very useful for magic/health stamina potions. More for skill and invisibility potions, with some circumstantial ones like water breathing (but rarely useful, I agree).

 

As for going with magic instead of swords, I actually tried that at first. Do you know how many firebolts it takes to kill a random mob when you're level 33+? Especially without relevant perks? A lot more than 100 or so magicka will allow, that's for sure (I actually have it up to 180 or so now, but I'm still not killing anything beyond low powered mobs).

 

I'm also not a fan of destruction spells. I used a bit of restoration, but as you say, it costs a lot when you don't have perks and equipment specialized in magic use.

 

Another question, has anyone had success with the throw voide shout? For me it's utterly useless. I want to be able to use it when stealthed to make all mobs run towards a certain direction, but anytime I've tried that I just get revealed and they all come charging at me instead.

 

I have the same lack of success with this shout. All in all, I don't find a lot of shouts useful. The whirlwind sprint and slow time, a bit of dragonrend in the end of the main quest. By the way, using shouts in cities attracts the attention of 'friends' that give you locations of wall of words. Pretty useful.

I also think that using shout in wilderness attracts the attention of dragons. But it may be some coincidence only.

 

All in all, there is not a lot of incentives to level up more when you have all your 'useful' skills at top. You only gain a bit of health/stamina/magicka and the quality of the loot increases also a bit.

But, if you want to still level up, stealth and the complementary armor skills are your friends.

Stealth will change a bit your playstyle if you don't use it always. But the armor skill won't change many things. To level up without too much pain at the begining, you can use mudcrabs and brawl fights.

 

@Tigranes : I never used archery, I used mostly stealth and melee : Ebony mail and Mehrunes razor are a good combination for assassins. Even without a lot of skill perks, if you use some stealth equipment, you are almost invisible to enemies if you take care of avoiding light. If there is some light, you can use an invisibility potion (or power if you've got the Thieves guild quest power).

 

From all the guilds quest lines, I found the dark brotherhood one the most interesting. Maybe because it suited well with my character. The stormcloaks one is very boring when you are at the point of conquering. The main quest is not at the level of the Morrowind one (to my taste), too predictable

 

I liked and disliked at the same time the dungeons. Each dungeon has some uniqueness (more or less, some are very close to each other, but there is a sufficient number of 'templates' to avoid repetition feelings), which is good. But they are too linear. When you understand how each dungeon is linear, you don't even think about which way to take or hat you may have missed, you just go on from beginning to end and thus lose all feeling of being a bit lost.

[Spider]

Smithing is not caped : using enchanted rings/amulets and potions can enhance effectiveness of smithing greatly. You can easily doubled the effectiveness.

 

You can smith higher quality items than legendary? Since that is what I am doing right now. Even so, capped in that regard just meant skill @ 100.

 

All in all, there is not a lot of incentives to level up more when you have all your 'useful' skills at top. You only gain a bit of health/stamina/magicka and the quality of the loot increases also a bit.

But, if you want to still level up, stealth and the complementary armor skills are your friends.

Stealth will change a bit your playstyle if you don't use it always. But the armor skill won't change many things. To level up without too much pain at the begining, you can use mudcrabs and brawl fights.

 

Well, there are still plenty of perks I'd like to get. So that's a reason to keep leveling up. Switching to one handed + shield has decent results for me at the moment, so there's that. I mostly just find it annoying that I need to switch to another playstyle to keep getting perks at a somewhat reasonable rate.

[WDeranged]

So...erm, I found out you can ride butterflies today

 

It happened by accident but if you're careful you can step on one when it's on the ground and wait a few seconds for lift off.

[Maria Caliban]

piano and violin medley.

[Orchomene]

Smithing is not caped : using enchanted rings/amulets and potions can enhance effectiveness of smithing greatly. You can easily doubled the effectiveness.

 

You can smith higher quality items than legendary? Since that is what I am doing right now. Even so, capped in that regard just meant skill @ 100.

 

It's still called legendary but the bonus goes on without limit (well, at least as far as I have seen, that is, with around 150% efficiency bonus above a smithing skill at 100).

It's difficiult to give numbers since the melee skills give also bonuses, but in the end, I had a 176 damage daedric sword.

[Tale]

There's just too much. I've already capped Enchanting, Smithing, Conjuring, and Destruction. So I'm running around beating people up with swords now. But I haven't done Thieves, Dark Brotherhood, or finished the main quest.

[Cantousent]

At least I don't have to worry about level caps for a while. I think I screwed up my build, but I'm not sure. I have things spread out between destruction as my main and restoration as my off. I seem to do thing well enough right now, but we'll see how that progresses. I haven't had a chance to play today, but I might go take another look.

 

I actually like the music, MaC. I think my favorite game music was in Might and Magic VI, especially... riverside? I can't remember the zone, but it's beautiful.

[entrerix]

my first character did the companions questline, my second did the main questline, my current one is doing both the assassins guild and the thieves guild.

 

my fourth character will do the civil war storyline, and my fifth will tackle the mages guild.

 

big game.