Skyrim

[OmarBradley]

I think a few people here have played, I'm on my first play through. About 35ish hours in, 24% achievements received, if that's any indicator of progress. About half way through the main quest line, just got back from breaking into the Thalmor Embassy (which I had already been to for releasing the Gray-Mane prisoner),

Anyway I was wondering what character builds you guys used/if there are any quest you highly recommend doing. I'm going to do a lot, and I'll probably try to put around 80+ hours into the game, but I'm sure I'll miss things.

I've got a level 26 Redguard male, two-handed/heavy armor mostly, getting into archery/sneak lately too. Don't use much magic other than shouts. Probably going to join the Stromcloaks on this play through, and build a thief/assassin for the Empire on my next play through. I've maintained a pretty honorable, tolerant character, will probably get more devious with an assassin build. My character is super powerful, most non-armored/light armored foes are taken care of with 1-2 swings of my Superior Skyforge Greatsword, a power attack is almost always a guarantee kill, and I've got the decapitation perk. Recently been using an Ebony Warhammer that I Superior'd, good bit of fun. Dragons quiver in my presence, as do giants, and cupcakes; haven't fought a mammoth lately.

I've been to Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, and recently Windhelm. I've done a lot of exploring on foot/horse (though my horses seem to always disappear); so much so that I'm accepting quests to find that I've already completed them by clearing the caves/keeps. Overall, the game has some physics issues, and not all of the animations are perfect; I think some of the quests get repetitive...especially the bounties that only give you 100 gold. And the main questline seems too short to me, even if there's hundreds of hours of side stuff. Regardless of all of that though, it's a great game and I'm having a good time with it. I've never played any TES before, I will certainly be going back to play Oblivion and Morrowind (or Skywind) when I'm done with Skyrim.

[Jakey Styley]

I couldn't finish it for some reason. I don't know if it was the game's fault or just me not being as much into gaming anymore. At some point I just lost immersion.

[OmarBradley]

I couldn't finish it for some reason. I don't know if it was the game's fault or just me not being as much into gaming anymore. At some point I just lost immersion.

That hasn't happened to me, but to be honest, I don't think it's unimaginable. I hope it doesn't happen, as I'm having a lot of fun, but I wouldn't blame anyone who said what you're saying.

[moreblack]

I've used a sneak archer light armor type fighter, dual weild swords for close range. Fun but once your archery gets high enough everything dies too fast and it's not that fun. Also had a heavy armored sword and shield type with a bit of magic, that one's a bit more fun. Both times I upped enchanting and smithing to the 100s to get better gear.

You'd probably have fun with Oblivion, even if the graphics are way out of date now, and the combat and leveling system aren't as good.

[Crazyman]

I played when it first came out, got ridiculously strong, then lost interest pretty quickly. Never finished it.

Now Morrowind on the other hand...I can play that today for hours and hours on end. Maybe my favorite game ever released. (For PC, anyway)

[Haters Gonna Hate]

I always thought about buying it. But never pulled the trigger.

[OmarBradley]

I always thought about buying it. But never pulled the trigger.

I bought it for $20 on Steam about a month ago. I'm sure there are specials every now and then where it's even less.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

I always thought about buying it. But never pulled the trigger.

I bought it for $20 on Steam about a month ago. I'm sure there are specials every now and then where it's even less.

On Amazon it's like 30 bucks with all the DLC on it. I probably will get it sooner then later.

[Forsaken]

It's fun, but of course i'm an Elder Scrolls lover. Morrowind is my personal favorite of all time. Haven't played Skyrim in awhile now.

Witch Hunter. Your friendly neighborhood wizard who hunts down rogue wizards and witches.

Basically it's an old class from the previous TES games, but in Skyrim tailored to my liking. Main weapon is a bow, and since I use bound ones, I can switch between longbows and shortbows as needed (although it is quite a pain in assigning perks). My next staple skill is Conjuration. You'd need meat shields of course, and they don't get any better than Frosties or Dremora (although the latter are quite difficult to summon except if you have the Rose). Then I have Restoration, Alteration and Destruction. I also have Enchanting and Light Weaponry/One Hand, but I don't prioritize assigning perks to them in the early goings. Restoration is probably my third most used skill. Healing and Spell Wards come useful when wizards get close. It gets difficult to draw bows on them at times. Alteration serves as my primary defensive skill, and Destruction spells are mostly limited to Lightning and Fire spells. Damage to health and magicka. Frost spells aren't getting too much use with me since I have meat shields.

I also used to not take any companions, but I figure what the hell, especially with my mod build making me 1-4 shots from death in most cases.

[bran]

i usually go axe and shield. as for quests the sam guvenne one i think the quest is called a night to remember or something like that. it is pretty much a tamriel version of the hangover.

the one where the kid is trying to summon the dark brotherhood was another good one.

[OmarBradley]

It's fun, but of course i'm an Elder Scrolls lover. Morrowind is my personal favorite of all time. Haven't played Skyrim in awhile now.

Witch Hunter. Your friendly neighborhood wizard who hunts down rogue wizards and witches.

Basically it's an old class from the previous TES games, but in Skyrim tailored to my liking. Main weapon is a bow, and since I use bound ones, I can switch between longbows and shortbows as needed (although it is quite a pain in assigning perks). My next staple skill is Conjuration. You'd need meat shields of course, and they don't get any better than Frosties or Dremora (although the latter are quite difficult to summon except if you have the Rose). Then I have Restoration, Alteration and Destruction. I also have Enchanting and Light Weaponry/One Hand, but I don't prioritize assigning perks to them in the early goings. Restoration is probably my third most used skill. Healing and Spell Wards come useful when wizards get close. It gets difficult to draw bows on them at times. Alteration serves as my primary defensive skill, and Destruction spells are mostly limited to Lightning and Fire spells. Damage to health and magicka. Frost spells aren't getting too much use with me since I have meat shields.

I also used to not take any companions, but I figure what the hell, especially with my mod build making me 1-4 shots from death in most cases.

I understood about half of that. Haven't really touched magic. The one thing I can't figure out though, is where to get "Enchantments" for weapons, I have the other two components, but I seem to be missing "Enchantments." I'm sure it's absurdly basic and I just didn't pay attention.

i usually go axe and shield. as for quests the sam guvenne one i think the quest is called a night to remember or something like that. it is pretty much a tamriel version of the hangover.

the one where the kid is trying to summon the dark brotherhood was another good one.

I don't think I've done A Night to Remember, I just started the quest where the kid in Windhelm wants you to kill his orphanage teacher or something like that, I think that's the one you're talking about.

[bran]

It's fun, but of course i'm an Elder Scrolls lover. Morrowind is my personal favorite of all time. Haven't played Skyrim in awhile now.

Witch Hunter. Your friendly neighborhood wizard who hunts down rogue wizards and witches.

Basically it's an old class from the previous TES games, but in Skyrim tailored to my liking. Main weapon is a bow, and since I use bound ones, I can switch between longbows and shortbows as needed (although it is quite a pain in assigning perks). My next staple skill is Conjuration. You'd need meat shields of course, and they don't get any better than Frosties or Dremora (although the latter are quite difficult to summon except if you have the Rose). Then I have Restoration, Alteration and Destruction. I also have Enchanting and Light Weaponry/One Hand, but I don't prioritize assigning perks to them in the early goings. Restoration is probably my third most used skill. Healing and Spell Wards come useful when wizards get close. It gets difficult to draw bows on them at times. Alteration serves as my primary defensive skill, and Destruction spells are mostly limited to Lightning and Fire spells. Damage to health and magicka. Frost spells aren't getting too much use with me since I have meat shields.

I also used to not take any companions, but I figure what the hell, especially with my mod build making me 1-4 shots from death in most cases.

I understood about half of that. Haven't really touched magic. The one thing I can't figure out though, is where to get "Enchantments" for weapons, I have the other two components, but I seem to be missing "Enchantments." I'm sure it's absurdly basic and I just didn't pay attention.

i usually go axe and shield. as for quests the sam guvenne one i think the quest is called a night to remember or something like that. it is pretty much a tamriel version of the hangover.

the one where the kid is trying to summon the dark brotherhood was another good one.

I don't think I've done A Night to Remember, I just started the quest where the kid in Windhelm wants you to kill his orphanage teacher or something like that, I think that's the one you're talking about.

a night to remember starts in pretty much any bar after you reach a certain level( i think it is either 10 or 15) i found him in whiterun and he will challenge you to a drinking contest.

yeah thats the one, that was kind of disturbing but was a good quest. another good one is an unmarked quest in the midden underneath the mages college in winterhold. there is no markers or anything(which is awesome, i love unmarked quests) and can be easy to miss.

[Chewbacca]

Two hand sword (Bloodskaal sword is my favorite sword cuz it shoots laserz) Nord Crusader for me since arena (I used a full blown warrior back then and a custom class on Daggerfall). I gotta reinstall some mods to look at my save file and see how it looks.

[bran]

Two hand sword (Bloodskaal sword is my favorite sword cuz it shoots laserz) Nord Crusader for me since arena (I used a full blown warrior back then and a custom class on Daggerfall). I gotta reinstall some mods to look at my save file and see how it looks.

daggerfall

[Forsaken]

Two hand sword (Bloodskaal sword is my favorite sword cuz it shoots laserz) Nord Crusader for me since arena (I used a full blown warrior back then and a custom class on Daggerfall). I gotta reinstall some mods to look at my save file and see how it looks.

daggerfall

My 2nd fav only to Morrowind because it made the jump to next gen graphics and a real overhaul to gameplay.

[Chewbacca]

Oh, Yeah. That's where it's at. Playing it at the fastest configuration is a must for me as it makes drop rate way higher.

My first playthru:

And this is my current character:

I love how you can buy such amazing advantages at the cost of some pretty useless ones like Forbidden weapon dagger or forbidden material: silver or even weakness to poison.

DosBox. Gotta love it.

[bran]

yeah good ole dosbox

i remember having just tons and tons of homemade drawn maps of dungeons on graph paper i took from my school. the game was so much fun and very challenging.

[WFA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0RMtG8RXfY

[Bumble's Bridge Pickup]

I always preferred Oblivion:

[The Sandman]

I've been playing it a lot more recently since getting the two DLCs - which are surprisingly fun.

I was a generic Nord, and overtime basically buffed everything. One of those things. I perhaps regret not specialising, but means that I can dink most things relatively quickly, without it being either too hard or too easy. Enjoying the quests for sure, and I was definitely loving it far too much at one point - now it's great to have that revival of interest and keep pushing away with more quests that aren't just repeated after completing the main story line.

[OmarBradley]

Just finished the A Night To Remember quest, interesting, too bad I never use staves or that reward would have been great. I just did the quest with that Daedra's annoying dog too. And killed the leader of the Dark Brotherhood. So much to do, so many factions. Just brought Esbern to Riverwood, next stop: Sky Haven Hall, but I think I'll do more side stuff first.

[bran]

Just finished the A Night To Remember quest, interesting, too bad I never use staves or that reward would have been great. I just did the quest with that Daedra's annoying dog too. And killed the leader of the Dark Brotherhood. So much to do, so many factions. Just brought Esbern to Riverwood, next stop: Sky Haven Hall, but I think I'll do more side stuff first.

i never use staves but it is still a good thing to set into favorites, especially if you need a bad ass tank for a quick second.

[AtariLegend]

Skyrim is way too short as far as the main story goes, Oblivion wasn't stellar either however it did have a better pay off with the final boss. Skyrim's side content i.e College of Winterhold (Mages Guild), Thieves Guild, Companions (Fighters Guild) are all ridiculously short. Honestly in Morrowind you'd do as many quests as their are in those storylines in just 1 city to advance rank a bit.

Other main issue is that if you even dare maxing out Destruction for example you're basically going to be 2 or 3 shotting everything in sight including the final boss. That's not really fun.

You want money? Level alchemy or blacksmithing sell stuff to vendors where you bought the mats, never run out of gold.

There's alot of caves ect that you can explore like in the earlier games. However the difference is in Skyrim if you decide to do optional quests later you'll be virtually revisiting the same locations with adds respawned.

Yet another issue is artificial choice, for example during a Daderic mission you're given a non abandonable quest to lead a follower to a shrine and sacrifice them. There is literally no way to say no or alternative routes to complete the quest. Another basic example is the quest where the kid asks you to kill his nursery school teacher despite the fact that they may or may not both be evil. If this was Morrowind you'd have like multiple ways to finish those kind of quests. You wouldn't just get a NPC tells you what to do and you do it regardless.

Anyway Skyrim looks pretty and it's very streamlined compared to even Oblivion, it's not a bad game. It's just the Dragon Age Origins vs. Dragon Age 2 argument.

For me; Morrowind>Oblivion>Skyrim.

Of course Morrowind especially in a non heavily patched form is heavily bugged has dated graphics and a terrible combat system. It's still a proper Hardcore gaming experiencing.

Anyone play TES: Online? Can you give any details on how it plays vs. Skyrim outside the MMO elements of course?

[Bumble's Bridge Pickup]

Yet another issue is artificial choice, for example during a Daderic mission you're given a non abandonable quest to lead a follower to a shrine and sacrifice them. There is literally no way to say no or alternative routes to complete the quest. Another basic example is the quest where the kid asks you to kill his nursery school teacher despite the fact that they may or may not both be evil. If this was Morrowind you'd have like multiple ways to finish those kind of quests. You wouldn't just get a NPC tells you what to do and you do it regardless.

This is so true, though Morrowind quests do not often have more than 1 outcome either. For example, I was so disappointed when one of the Dagoth's gave me a letter from Ur, where it was hinted that I should maybe join him... and then I still couldn't. However, you can always dump the quest item into a lake or kill the quest giver, which is pretty liberating, and something Skyrim should have too.

Out of Bethesda games, I think Fallout 3 was the best in this regard. There's usually 2 to 4 fundamentally different choices to pick from.

[Estranged Coma]

Almost done with The Dark Brotherhood quest line. It might be my fav so far. Got some cool looking gear for my sneak/conjuring archer and a nice follower because I let Cicero live. Also the Blade of Woe is pretty sweet. And having the dawn star sanctuary is a plus. I upgraded and got a torture chamber. Got my conjuring up to 50 for my bound bow in like 10 minutes by casting on them and got my one handed up by just hacking away at them on legendary and then healing them up lol. Kinda cheating but watever. Also you get a great looking horse in Shadowweve.

So right now I'm a lvl 19 vampire sneak conjuring archer and I use the bound bow and duel daggers close range. It's pretty fun