The OFFICIAL Anandtech Forums TeS V: Skyrim Thread

[Markbnj]

The only follower that I have used is Lydia, but I imagine that the dude you get in Dawnstar is a pretty good mage--but his quest is quite lengthy.

I didn't think it was all that long, but I guess it is one of the more involved side quests. Reminded me of the trip to Sheogorath's dream world.

 

[Powermoloch]

With 80 alch, 100 enchanting and smithing. Master difficulty becomes lol !

 

[coldmeat]

I got married to Aela and forgot to tell her to go my house. Now I can't find her anywhere... jorrvaskr or breezehome. Where the fuck is she? I still have the stealing plans quest from her so I'm gonna try completing that and see if she pops up.

I posted about this problem earlier. I found her by going to the church in Riften and waiting inside. She was there and started a convo about the marriage right after.

 

[silvan4now]

is there some way to make your horse not attack every god damned dragon he encounters ? except leaving him in a city.....

 

[dajeepster]

Had anybody used a titty mod yet?
Ideally one that does NOT modify the original models? Just replaces textures?

+1

 

[Martimus]

I was thinking of making a 1h+shield warrior (my only character is low level thief/assassin) to try out and heard that a 70/30 split (health/Stamina) is good enough. Do I really need to put a much higher ratio of stamina into a build like that?

Also is a Nord a good enough race to go 1h+shield or would I better off going with an Orc? I hear Orcs make the best warriors but I don't like the looks of them much.

Once you get your armor high enough, health just doesn't matter much anymore. I pretty much do 100% stamina increases now, since my armor is maxed out. Mages still give me a hard time though, since I don't have any magic resistance. I haven't been killed by any of them, but they do do damage to my health.

 

[Markbnj]

is there some way to make your horse not attack every god damned dragon he encounters ? except leaving him in a city.....

I never used a horse in Oblivion, and haven't used one in Skyrim, for the same reason. More trouble than they're worth. I've seen all the horses in an Imperial field camp rush out to attack a dragon, so I think it's built into the ai for them.

 

[ControlD]

Nice, thanks! So more stamina than health then?

Maybe a little more stamina than health, but you don't need to sweat it too much. My 1H+Shield character is level 42 right now and I pretty much went 1:1 in stamina and health (with a few levels of magic for restoration casting) and I don't find myself getting into stamina related trouble unless I am fighting large groups of enemies. There are so many potions laying around in this game that stamina will never be much of an issue anyhow.

One of the coolest things about this game that I keep realizing over and over again is how many ways there are to counteract weaknesses in your character. To combat stamina deficiencies I have used enchanting (armor with increased stamina refresh rates) as well as perks (restoration casting that also replenishes stamina at the same time). I think it must be hard to really have a worthless build in this game.

 

[zinfamous]

Maybe a little more stamina than health, but you don't need to sweat it too much. My 1H+Shield character is level 42 right now and I pretty much went 1:1 in stamina and health (with a few levels of magic for restoration casting) and I don't find myself getting into stamina related trouble unless I am fighting large groups of enemies. There are so many potions laying around in this game that stamina will never be much of an issue anyhow.

One of the coolest things about this game that I keep realizing over and over again is how many ways there are to counteract weaknesses in your character. To combat stamina deficiencies I have used enchanting (armor with increased stamina refresh rates) as well as perks (restoration casting that also replenishes stamina at the same time). I think it must be hard to really have a worthless build in this game.

very true. When I suddenly started running into serious trouble with certain high-level enemies, I remembered that I have ~1 gazillion potions in my inventory that I have never used (again--thanks for the shitty interface that completely breaks the use of potions, Bethesda).

I'm still waiting to get my enchant leveled up before I start making my own usable enchants, but I'm guessing it will mostly be stamina and magic resistance based

 

[zinfamous]

I didn't think it was all that long, but I guess it is one of the more involved side quests. Reminded me of the trip to Sheogorath's dream world.

Yeah, it probably isn't. Just that

Spoiler

during the dream part, I had to keep running around in circles b/c it took me forever to notice that chain at the end of the sequence that I needed to pull to release the Miasma. Then, in the real world, I ended up doubling back alone and cleared out the restless mages and orcs, without the follower dude. When I got to the end, he magically appeared behind that door, let himself in, then had to slowly retrace his path back to the original magic gate before we could head back to the end.

so I had to double back about 50 times, haha.

Also, it is one of those quests that started while I was trying to turn in a pile of others, just trying to clear out my log so I could move on. I was like, sure, I'll walk with you up th--Aw Fuck man, No! :|

 

[VulgarDisplay]

very true. When I suddenly started running into serious trouble with certain high-level enemies, I remembered that I have ~1 gazillion potions in my inventory that I have never used (again--thanks for the shitty interface that completely breaks the use of potions, Bethesda).

I'm still waiting to get my enchant leveled up before I start making my own usable enchants, but I'm guessing it will mostly be stamina and magic resistance based

Last I knew magic resistances are broken in the game and have not been fixed yet. That's the reason why certain enemies will just decimate you even when you have great armor and magic resistances.

 

[ControlD]

Last I knew magic resistances are broken in the game and have not been fixed yet. That's the reason why certain enemies will just decimate you even when you have great armor and magic resistances.

That must explain how I got one shotted by a mage last night despite having full (and enchanted) dragon plate armor. That was an eye opener for sure.

In regards to an earlier post about waiting to enchant armor, there are so many raw materials available that you might as well just make a set now and then make another set later when you get better enchantment abilities. I generally take my current set of armor and give it to my follower (Lydia, another heavy armor user) when I make a better set. I have made four(!) sets of dragon plate armor already. The old set from my follower gets sold for a tidy profit.

 

[Markbnj]

Also, it is one of those quests that started while I was trying to turn in a pile of others, just trying to clear out my log so I could move on. I was like, sure, I'll walk with you up th--Aw Fuck man, No!

Ha, yeah, the same happened to me. I had just finished a long trek from Solitude to Dawnstar, on my way to visit Winterhold for the first time. I cleared out Highgate Ruins, most of the Dwemer fortress at Mizinchleft (or however it's spelled... one of the coolest places I've been so far), and then staggered in to Dawnstar to sell and find a place to sleep. Entered the tavern and spoke to the cowled figure by the bar. Sleep would have to wait .

 

[zinfamous]

Last I knew magic resistances are broken in the game and have not been fixed yet. That's the reason why certain enemies will just decimate you even when you have great armor and magic resistances.

I don't think that's true, at least not any more, and certainly not for the resist damage perk for shield. In my case, any way.

I noticed a clear difference from battling mages without the perk and soon after choosing it. --I happened to be in a mage-happy area and my ability to suddenly just shield up on them and march straight into their frost and lightening blasts with very little damage was quite startling.

I'm not quite sure if resistances stack, though. Say, you have 40% resistance for fire on boots and 60% resist fire on your shield, if both are calculated. I actually have that going on right now, but I have no idea if one of them is actually active.

 

[slpnshot]

Even more annoying is you cant make your own spells and theres no way to combine multiple spells into one with your choice of power or duration.

I previously made spells with a full set of daedric armor to keep my mage comfortable while fighting and unencumbered while travelling. Also combined helpful effects for myself and allies, and combined weakness to fire with fire magic.
All that stuff is gone. So it summoning any creature in the game you want (Oblivions construction set allowed it).

Also, since I cant hard myself without falling, its difficult to bump my restoration skill. In Morrowind I made a spell that let me do fire damage and healing, on myself. In Oblivion I made an area effect spell to do the same thing and just cast it on a tree or rock. Improved both skills at the same time. Good stuff.

None of that any more. Now I gotta jump off cliffs, hope I dont die, and heal myself. Run back up (which usually takes a while) and do it all over again. I have an Expert heal spell but I dont get skill points from it unless I'm really hurting, which means long falls, which means lots of quick saving and loading if I dont measure them correctly.

There's a spell in the alteration tree 'Equilibrium' that converts your health to mana. If you combine it with Healing, you can level your Restoration even though you can't level Alteration for some reason...

Be warned though, Equilibrium burns your health faster than you can heal so if you do go below 0 by Equilibrium you WILL die. I'm guessing they did it so that you couldn't autolock cast your restoration to max.

 

[m1ldslide1]

yeah, but mages are pussies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhBiNx749Zw

Though, I do see this as an awesome and valid reason to be a pussy caster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0cyWTihEC8

Wow... Funniest skyrim vids EVER. He may have convinced me to try unarmed - I thought it was a useless build until now.

 

[Concillian]

If you jump in a forge (other than the Skyforge) it will burn you.

You have to keep jumping to get repeated fire damage to yourself.

For some really strange reason, this burning of yourself will level your destruction skill. I guess because you're inflicting fire damage to someone (yourself) Then you can heal back the damage and level restoration.
It doesn't do a ton of damage, so it does take some time. Falling may work better if you're a Breton.
I haven't tried increasing difficulty. It may damage you quicker if you increase difficulty. Anyway this is a good way to get a few easy destro skillups for a low level mage.

Or you can find some enemy who doesn't do massive damage (wolf, bandit, etc...) and let him beat on you while healing back the damage. Use your 'freeze them solid' shout or even just Fus for buying time to regenerate magicka. In that case you get light or heavy armor points plus restoration. Or you can block damage and get block skill increases while getting restoration. If you have lots of -% restoration magicka gear you may be able to block with wards and get some double quick restoration skill leveling. I don't actually know if wards level restoration though. I would assume so, but don't know.

Another way I've found to damage yourself is to purposefully stay under water too long.

 

[dennilfloss]

Don't you love it when you go out in the hills far from the roads to find and enter a cave that, at first glance looks small and mundane, then at the very end of the room you find a small passage, which leads to withered journal, and quickly you find yourself in awe like you've entered The Great Machine in Forbidden Planet and are retracing the last steps of unfortunate pilgrims?

And am I the only one who gets queasy when I collect a few hundred chaurus eggs? Those egg sacs are revolting and I keep expecting one to open and reveal a face hugger. D:

 

[dennilfloss]

Did I understand well that Skyrim is coming to Android tablets? That would bring even more followers to the Bethesda cult. ^_^

 

[dennilfloss]

anyone know who the best mage companion/follower is?

I like Aranea (the Azura priestest). Gonna trade her for Illia soon as she's been my follower for 20 levels and might need a rest. Plus it's gonna be nice to have my mage follower start at level 40+ like me. Otherwise, both are similar. They like destruction and conjuration, don't talk too much and sneak pretty well.

 

[Slew Foot]

LOL, my Level 35 Destructo/Conjourer is destroying everything in his path. Summon Arniel Gane/ Summon Dremora Lord/ Fire off a bunch of 0 cost fireballs/incinerates, Unrelenting force if anyone gets near = winning!!

Might have to up the difficulty level, just started the main quest.

 

[Specop 007]

A few questions, they may have been covered but I dont want to read 110 pages!


1) How important is enchanting and blacksmithing in regards to spending skill points? I'm working on a straight mage right now so not sure how important it is to be able to craft weapons and armors

2) Can anyone recommend some type of save game manager? Having all the save games in one big "Load" menu kind of sucks.

 

[Markbnj]

Wow... Funniest skyrim vids EVER. He may have convinced me to try unarmed - I thought it was a useless build until now.

Haha, awesome.

 

[Martimus]

A few questions, they may have been covered but I dont want to read 110 pages!


1) How important is enchanting and blacksmithing in regards to spending skill points? I'm working on a straight mage right now so not sure how important it is to be able to craft weapons and armors

2) Can anyone recommend some type of save game manager? Having all the save games in one big "Load" menu kind of sucks.

Enchanting, alchemy, and smithing are probably the three most important trees in the game.

 

[Skott]

I been reading this entire thread (up to page 43 so far) to learn some things and I was wondering about what happens if I join The Companions (I think thats their name) and then later on I want to join one of the two factions or the DB? I read that someone skipped the Companions group and later went back in his level 20s to join and they wouldn't let him. I havent yet seen a answer so I was curious if there is a way to join these groups as you please or is there a certain best method to trying each of them out? Like in some particular order or by level maybe? Can you just join and quit and join another group easily or what? Sorry about the long winded question but hoping someone can speak in more detail about these various groups and factions you can join.