Skyrim

[lotus]

I think in general they level with you, though I will say there are some critters that are just unbeatable at first. Sabre cats, hagravens, giants, they are all bad news until you are a bad ass. Now I can defeat them with farts and mean looks.

[miketheknife]

You have no distance attacks at all Mongo?

None whatsoever. And I think it's bullshit of them to force you to play that way. On the plus side I can destroy many humans with one blow of the hammer.

[ptrain86]

You have no distance attacks at all Mongo?

None whatsoever. And I think it's bullshit of them to force you to play that way. On the plus side I can destroy many humans with one blow of the hammer.

Sounds like you are doing fine with your Hulk smash mentality. Besides, being a jack of all trades doesn't guarantee victory anyway. This is the first time I've ever successfully used the bow, so I should be the last one mocking your style. However, the Bow of Souls is magical!

[lotus]

I did that Azura thing reasonably early and have never spent a ton of time developing my archery skill. I seem to recall just going in and doing a lot of button mashing and healing potions. WHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITY until it was dead.

[miketheknife]

I used only a bow and arrow in oblivion and it was awesomely powerful, but I wanted to go a different route this time just for a different experience. I am actually going to start up an archer character and a magic user at some point.

You bring up a good point about the jack-of-all-trades. The reason I never like to play that way is this, flawed as it may be. I feel like if I'm using both swords and bows, then as I level up, my combat skills are not leveling up along with my character because my experience is getting split between the two different styles. So like, instead of being an awesome swordsman, or an awesome archer, you are a mediocre hybrid. You are still leveling your character, and bad guys are leveling as well, but your combat skills aren't leveling with them.

Maybe the game takes this into account and it isn't the case, but if I were to use a bow with this guy, then every kill I got with a bow would feel like lost XP that should be going into my one-handed tree. Actually you can probably set me straight as to whether this is the case since you are playing that way.

[miketheknife]

I did that Azura thing reasonably early and have never spent a ton of time developing my archery skill. I seem to recall just going in and doing a lot of button mashing and healing potions. WHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITYWHAPITY until it was dead.

Yep if I had developed archery skills it would be a different ballgame. But as I"m running along that narrow ramp chasing the guy, Mage T. Lizard is throwing nukes at me and just chopping away at my health. I read there is a way to close the gap to him quickly and stop him before he invokes the magic guys, i may have to try it.

[ptrain86]

The master of none, Alonius the Bonius, does all right. I actually had planned at running a dual wielding Nord, but started to become irritated at the inability to block dual wielding (stupid). You can block with a torch but not a sword? However, it does hold its own. You really just have to try and soften them up from a distance. The strategy works really well against the majority of foes, but the more powerful characters do pose quite an issue. I am usually able to have scrolls and my more powerful potions in check for them though and it turns out alright.

Overall, I play the game like Sugar Ray Leonard I guess. Pop, pop, move, heal, fire, slice, move. I am constantly circling and moving in and out. Is that the same for most of you?

[miketheknife]

No, my guy can't stick and move. I just run at the bad guy and HULK SMASH. It does help now that the follower bug appears to have sorted itself out in my game though.

Ptrain I forgot there was dual wield in this game. It sounds like a great route for me because I never, ever block. Not because I don't want to, I just don't think about it. Can you dual-wield any one handed weapons? I just got a sweet Daedric sword that sets undead on fire.

[ptrain86]

No, my guy can't stick and move. I just run at the bad guy and HULK SMASH. It does help now that the follower bug appears to have sorted itself out in my game though.

Ptrain I forgot there was dual wield in this game. It sounds like a great route for me because I never, ever block. Not because I don't want to, I just don't think about it. Can you dual-wield any one handed weapons? I just got a sweet Daedric sword that sets undead on fire.

Yes, but you become tired faster, but eventually your dual wielding becomes more skilled. I would suggest an off hand weapon that is smaller/lighter because of the stamina factor, but if you have a ton of stam, rock two beasts. I used an axe sword combo for a bit, but really liked having a magically juiced up dagger that had the best enchantments for side effects while I concentrated heavier blows with my dominant hand.

And yeah, if you don't block anyway, its definitely your cup of tea. I still use it roughly a third of the time... its fun, but unless you are a tank, it can't be solely employed or you die quite a bit.

[lotus]

Don't underestimate blocking in this one. I was going to go dual wield or at least 2-handed but after seeing how well the blocking works, I just roll with a big-ass Daedric mace with two enchantments on it.

Whatever combat role you take, MTK, make sure you level up your smithing, enchanting and armor type you use. Those will pay off huge.

[miketheknife]

My armor levels up easily enough, I get hit a lot. But I haven't done anything with smithing or enchanting because I can't seem to find enough materials for either. Any suggestions? I have tried a little mining but it doesn't seem like the mines contain very many materials. Plus I'm not sure how to convert ore into bars--is there a smelter somewhere or something? I usually just sell the ore.

[lotus]

There are smelters at all the major forges, so in most towns you'll find one. And don't worry about mining, just buy the stuff from the blacksmith. Buy a ton of iron ingots and leather and just make a blue ton of iron daggers, or leather bracers and stuff like that. It's cheap and levels up your smithing pretty quickly. Then enchant them all with some little shitty petty soul gem and then sell them. That way you're leveling your smithing, enchanting and speech through the same activity.

The forge next to your house in Whiterun is the easiest for me. I would just buy everything she had and then store what I didn't need at my house.

Also, when you see ebony ingots for sale, buy them.

[miketheknife]

You are answering a lot of questions i had, thanks a bunch. As far as enchanting, I find plenty of soul gems but don't I have to have a weapon that can capture a soul and put it in the gem? I remember that from Oblivion but I haven't even tried it in this game because I haven't yet seen a spell for capture souls, or whatever it's called.

[lotus]

You can actually enchant a weapon with soul trap, makes it a lot easier. Otherwise you have to level up the spell class to learn it and that takes a long time.

Once you hit 100 enchanting you can bestow two enchantments per item, so I usually use soul trap and then frost or fire damage. It doesn't matter whether you use the little ones or big ones as far as leveling goes, so save your big ones for recharging and use all the petty ones for enchanting every little bauble you find.

When you finish that Azura quest, you can choose whether to make it a light gem or dark gem or something like that. If you choose the dark path then it becomes a rechargeable black soul gem that you can use over and over again. Also, finishing the mage's college plot or buying the house in Markarth will make your enchanting/alchemy life much easier.

[miketheknife]

Another question for you Lotus or whomever chooses to answer. When it shows the damage of my weapon on the info page for the weapon, does that take into effect my skill with that particular weapon? The reason I ask is because my warhammer says it's like 40-something damage. But when I look at my weapons, there is a little arrow next to my 'Dawnbreaker' sword indicating it's a more powerful weapon. However the damage with that is only 10. Is that because I've leveled up my two-handed skill to where i do more damage with the hammer? I have tried using Dawnbreaker and it just doesn't cut it even though setting fools on fire is a worthy and amusing activity.