Regarding the combat, I found it to be much more organic than any other game I've ever played. I found that the best way to survive was to actually block, not hit the attack button as fast as I could like in Oblivion. It was great for immersion, since the combat really reminded me of the time I'd spent learning historical fencing and aikiken.
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Fortunately, a Monk 1/Warblade 19 uses Iron Heart Surge to end the Monk character class, and the day is saved.
Regarding the combat, I found it to be much more organic than any other game I've ever played. I found that the best way to survive was to actually block, not hit the attack button as fast as I could like in Oblivion. It was great for immersion, since the combat really reminded me of the time I'd spent learning historical fencing and aikiken.
It's not as organic as, say, Mount&Blade, but it's passable I guess.
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Depends on the weapon/armor style. I use block when I'm playing a heavy armor shield character. My Dual wielders are all about attacking as fast as possible. On the other hand, my light armor swash buckler types will duck in, attack, and then duck back out before the big two handed weapon swings.
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Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
I generally prefer Stealth characters by far - with the Assassin armour that doubles the power of sneak attacks, plus the requisite perks, it's just insane. The ability to one-hit-kill a dragon is a thought that's kept me warm at night, though admittedly there's only a few areas (really only word walls) where you can actually sneak up on them to do it.
However, just for the fun of it, I decided to set myself a challenge. Orc, two-handed blunt specialty, heavy armour... and Master difficulty. To me it's the least intuitive and creative style of play, just waging headfirst into a battle and swinging until the enemy goes down. But I figured, I'd give it a crack.
Holy crap did I underestimate this.
At around level 12, I could get into a solo battle against a medium (think horse-sized) Frostbite Spider in the wilderness, and without the use of Berserker Rage I'd pretty much be doomed. Now I'm up to level 25, and I can hold my own pretty well, but still it's insane. Bandits with bows are legitimately terrifying, and any Frost Mage I go up against cripples me instead of being a minor irritation. A frost mage with backup means I'm basically screwed.
And please understand, this is all said with the highest possible level of approval. To have hard difficulty actually be hard is fantastic. Using terrain to shield myself, or to funnel enemies into facing me one at a time in group battles, having a Follower who legitimately saves my green butt a dozen times over... it's brilliant.
The Stealth-Melee style of play is still my favourite, I love the planning that's involved in entering any dungeon and sticking to the shadows, and the Distraction Shout is just hilarious fun. But I love Skyrim for doing what Oblivion couldn't quite manage, making the different styles of play truly unique!
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
My biggest complaint about Oblivion's scaling monster is at low levels Dremora are the biggest threat, and goblins are only kinda dangerous. That works pretty well, all is good.
The higher the level the more absolutely dangerous those goblins got, and the bigger the joke that the Dremora are.
My first character are always stealth mages in these kind of games. Its pretty fun, although even with deadly dragon mod the dragons are pretty easy. Cave bears have caused me a lot more trouble at my current level of 29.
Next run will be a sterotypical paladin type with Sword and Board, not sure how I will get dragons down without spell or bow but I may have to bow to the bow to get the job done.
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If you're worried about getting dragons down, and you don't want to put points into Archery or Destruction, you've got three main options.
One:
Get a Follower with ranged attack, to snipe the dragon. Use Unrelenting Force when the dragon hovers in front of your Follower to snipe them, disrupting the blast of dragon breath that's about to follow. Then wade in and start hacking then the dragon lands.
Two:
Don't start the main quest until you're confident you can take on a dragon by waiting for it to land and then attacking it. You'll want a few levels first, obviously!
Three:
Do the main questline and advance it until you've learned Dragonrend. It's a big investment, obviously, but it means you won't have to be scared of the bastards. And honestly, it's the most entertaining, gameplay-wise... playing Skyrim and not killing dragons is like eating a taco with no salsa. There's just this awful feeling that something's missing the entire time.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
However, just for the fun of it, I decided to set myself a challenge. Orc, two-handed blunt specialty, heavy armour... and Master difficulty. To me it's the least intuitive and creative style of play, just waging headfirst into a battle and swinging until the enemy goes down. But I figured, I'd give it a crack.
Holy crap did I underestimate this.
Now that's odd, because Rallicus on the previous page states he's done something similar to this and found it was a cakewalk.
I'm wondering if he only did certain quests or otherwise optimised his gameplay as with his self imposed limitations, I can think of several enemies that would fry him very quickly (Otar the dragon priest for starters - the only boss that killed me multiple times, or any high level mage with slowing frost).
However, just for the fun of it, I decided to set myself a challenge. Orc, two-handed blunt specialty, heavy armour... and Master difficulty. To me it's the least intuitive and creative style of play, just waging headfirst into a battle and swinging until the enemy goes down. But I figured, I'd give it a crack.
Holy crap did I underestimate this.
At around level 12, I could get into a solo battle against a medium (think horse-sized) Frostbite Spider in the wilderness, and without the use of Berserker Rage I'd pretty much be doomed. Now I'm up to level 25, and I can hold my own pretty well, but still it's insane. Bandits with bows are legitimately terrifying, and any Frost Mage I go up against cripples me instead of being a minor irritation. A frost mage with backup means I'm basically screwed.
And please understand, this is all said with the highest possible level of approval. To have hard difficulty actually be hard is fantastic. Using terrain to shield myself, or to funnel enemies into facing me one at a time in group battles, having a Follower who legitimately saves my green butt a dozen times over... it's brilliant.
The Stealth-Melee style of play is still my favourite, I love the planning that's involved in entering any dungeon and sticking to the shadows, and the Distraction Shout is just hilarious fun. But I love Skyrim for doing what Oblivion couldn't quite manage, making the different styles of play truly unique!
I did a similar thing, wherein I played a Nord with a greatsword, no armor, no potions, no magic, no shouts, no looting, though in normal difficulty. Archers were a real threat until you reached them, and then you cleaved them in two. It was pretty entertaining, when the lethality expanded to both sides.
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Smithing is quite the game changer. I played two seperate And board types. One male Orc Mace and Board. He wasn't too proud to use a bow when he had the chance.
The other was a female Nord Sword and Board. She eschewed all weapons besides the sword. Instead her damage dealer against out of reach dragons was Fire or Ice Breath, depending on the dragon she was facing.
I think once my latest mage is finished, I'll run through with an archer. That's always interesting.
Right now I'm trying my version of a "barbarian" build. I'm using light armor, Two-handed weapons, Archery, the light armor branch of Smithing, and just a few things into the first Stealth ability (the one that makes you harder to detect).
Basically, I'm using ambush tactics. Strike first, and strike as hard as possible.
In my last playthrough, I used a legionnaire build: Heavy Armor, one-handed weapon and shield. I bulldozed pretty much everything in my way, especially once I got that Block perk that allows your shield to block magic.
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Fortunately, a Monk 1/Warblade 19 uses Iron Heart Surge to end the Monk character class, and the day is saved.
Actually I have been getting good gear. The skills I've been putting points into are Heavy Armour, Two-Handed (blunt focus), Block (only the basic block boost so far, since I don't use a shield) and Smithing. And Smithing is my highest skill, so I've got the best gear that it's possible for me to have at this point in the game.
It surprises me that Rallicus says he found it to be so incredibly easy. I'm willing to accept that he's simply better at this game than me - I don't claim to be an expert by anyone's standard! - but it's not like this is my first playthrough. I upgraded to Master difficulty because I found the other modes to be too easy to bother with at all any more. And at the end of the day, the simple fact is that if I enter a straight fight with, say, a Bandit Chief at most levels, and go toe-to-toe with the whackin' and smackin' and trying to kill each other, I lose. I have to get very creative using terrain, shouts, or a buttload of potions to kill him.
Perhaps Rallicus uses mods that I don't that make gameplay work better for him, or perhaps as I say, he's simply much better at Skyrim than I am. Whatever the reason, I'm finding it much more difficult than he apparently did.
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Or you maxed smithing while everything else is at a lower-ish level so your skills don't match up with enemy levels. Its one of the ways I make the game harder, grind a skill I'll never use in a fight. Illusion, lock picking, speech, alteration, all those you don't use makes the game a tad more difficult.
True, but smithing does give a very specific advantage to the combat ability and makes you a hell of a lot stronger in a fight. And while it's my highest skill, it's only got about 10 levels on my Two-Handed skill, so whatever difference it makes should be pretty negligible.
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Sword and Ward works... But it's a bit weird. You end up using light armor tactics, because Wards don't help much against physical damage, so you can't block effectively, and arrows are totally unaffected, which is the primary reason I use shields at all.
It takes a lot of prior planning to win any fight not against a wizard.
I actually tried a sword and ward, but with one little difference - the sword was a Summoned one (I figured go with the "magic weapons" theme). I could tear through other mages without much fuss, but I did find it hard to deal with other enemies at first. Then I realised that my summoned sword had boosted Conjuration nice and high.
So, yeah, fighting a Cave Bear with a summoned sword and a ward? Difficult.
Fighting a Cave Bear with a summoned sword, ward, and Storm Atronach? Not so much. :P
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The best thing about bound weapons is that by summoning Atronachs and then killing them, you grind Conjuration while you grind Conjuration.
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Frankly, a Wizard can suck even more than a Fighter could ever dream of sucking. A Fighter can stab himself to death, but only a Wizard could Plane Shift to some horrible far realm to be tortured for an eternity of insanity.
What alignment would Malacath lands in?
- Lawful Evil- his laws are harsh and god of orcs.
- Lawful Neutral- at least
Spoiler
He cursed an orc village because the chief of the village was a coward. However, he is kinda coward by sending you to fight the giant and plan to kill you afterwards.
But on the plus side of Malacath, One of the mission in Oblivion involves rescuing ogre slaves from a Dunmer noble (Typical Slave owners).
On Sheogorath,
Chaotic Neutral- He is kinda crazy and insane but he helped the Dunmers and the ghost of nut case half elf emperor (I called him Half Elf Caligula).
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Rest in Peace:
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Miko Miyazaki, Thanh, Durkon- Order of the Stick
Krunch- Looking For Group
Bill- Left 4 Dead
Soap Mactavish- Modern Warfare 3
Sandman- Modern Warfare 3
Ghost and Roach- Modern Warfare 2
Gabe- Dead Space 2
Dom- Gears of War 3
Carmine Brothers- Gears of War series
Uriel Septim VII- Elderscrolls Oblivion
Commander Shepherd- Mass Effect 3
Ned Stark- Song of Ice and Fire
Apple Jack's parents
On Sheogorath,
Chaotic Neutral- He is kinda crazy and insane but he helped the Dunmers and the ghost of nut case half elf emperor (I called him Half Elf Caligula).
When did this assistance of the Dunmer happen? I'm only familiar with his quest in Oblivion and the events of Shivering Isles, with regards to Sheogorath. (and with his quest in Skyrim, but that's besides the point).
However, given the events of both of those, plus his daedric quest in Skyrim, I'm tempted to call him Chaotic Evil before Shivering Isles, and Chaotic Neutral afterward (and possibly during, depending on your interpretation of the quests he gives you before the final act).
EDIT: Oh, and Malacath sounds Lawful Evil to me.
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In my posts, smilies generally correspond to my expression at the time. As an example, means "huh?" and "Hmm..". Also, "Landis" is fine.
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Sheogorath before Shivering Isles is conflicted, with one Chaotic Neutral and one Lawful Neutral side, both fighting for control. Afterwards it's easier to class him as CN because he's freed of the LN influence.
Malacath I'd stick into NE rather than LE, or CN. The only code he follows is his own code, and he adheres to it regardless of outside influences. So he's neutral because he's not doing things Chaotically, but he's not obeying your Laws either.
As for evil, certainly. He's after power, for himself, for his worshippers, and he's not afraid to use any means at his disposal to get it. If it costs him a few followers to get it, so what, there are always more. After all, he has reserves.
What alignment would Malacath lands in?
- Lawful Evil- his laws are harsh and god of orcs.
- Lawful Neutral- at least
Spoiler
He cursed an orc village because the chief of the village was a coward. However, he is kinda coward by sending you to fight the giant and plan to kill you afterwards.
But on the plus side of Malacath, One of the mission in Oblivion involves rescuing ogre slaves from a Dunmer noble (Typical Slave owners).
I'd have to say lawful evil covers Malacath. Dude seems to be all about his code and honor...Orcish, skull-shattering honor.
He's about as dickish as any of the daedra, too. Fail him, and he'll ruin you and anyone around you until it's fixed. Impress him, and he'll shower you with gifts and power... and then you'll likely die in his service. But, hey, at least that way he won't screw over everyone you know and torture your soul for all eternity.
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"How're we doing?"
"The dwarf's on fire."
"So as bad as usual, huh?"
Game Informer's coverage of The Elder Scrolls Online continues with a nearly seventeen-minute video interview with creative director Paul Sage and lead content designer Rich Lambert about the approach the team is taking to the game's quest system, how they're integrating storyline "graduation moments", their plans for implementing choice and consequence, the "alternate gameplay" we'll get to experience after joining guilds, and more.
Just decided to start a "pure" thief. Got an Argonian, made her as short as possible, coloured her lavender (because why not). She gets zero points in combat, defence, magic, any of that. Her skill points are being given up between Sneak, Speech, Lockpicking and Pickpocket and those are the only perks she's getting at all.
She's turning out to be considerably better in a fight than my two-hander Orc was. :D
Seriously, the perks at level 100 Sneak and level 100 Pickpocketing combine so well! Duck down mid-fight and pick their pocket while obscured by shadow, and suddenly they're naked and unarmed. And my total lack of combat perks is no longer an issue!
If there is something in this game more hilariously entertaining than being an Offensive Pickpocket I've yet to encounter it.
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...but of course that's just my opinion.
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means "huh?" and "Hmm..". Also, "Landis" is fine.
