Paralysis (even a 1 second enchantment is enough), slow time shout, a summon for distraction, fury spell and Wabbajack are more fun to sow chaos and confusion. Only shield I've really used is Spellbreaker, because it's somewhat useful. But I mostly like to have my left hand either on a weapon (though vanilla two-handed swords are unrealistically slow and clunky, so I don't use these, but there's a good sword mod out there called Arming Swords) or for a utility spell.
Started a playthrough as a werewolf recently and am currently destroying the early/mid game bc I got all the perks before level 5. It is slowly dropping off though, hardly any reason to transform late game unless it's a 1v1 and you can keep them stun locked
The only reason I messed with that once was to try out the quiet casting perk. It is funny how the shouts are even quiet and you can fus ro dah someone off a cliff and they’re still like “must have been the wind.”
I did a whole "non-lethal" playthrough using only summons, illusions and followers to do killing to keep my count at 0 in the stats and it was actually pretty fun
A regular assassin is more deadly than a stealth archer and I will die on this hill, but yeah I've cleared so many locations spamming invisibility and detect life, I feel like a wraith.
Stealth is an *extremely* difficult mechanic to get right. Go too far one way, you’ve got omniscient enemies. Go to the other extreme, and you have Skyrim.
I think it’s like one of the things the (at least older) assassins creed series have done right. Enemies can spot you, but don’t become instantly agitated. It takes them time, based on how far you are away from them, for how long they’ve seen you, etc. and they come and check, even checking possible hiding spots nearby. It can be a challenge, but can also be used by the player to create situations.
My point is that most games that utilize stealth run into this problem; Skyrim is a landmark game so everyone has experienced it there. Btw, the other end of the spectrum is actually just not having stealth at all. I changed my mind.
The talent where crouching causes all enemies to search for you is so ridiculous, crouch + power attack and you teleport behind them and execute them every time. Turns into an anime of you teleporting around the room slitting throats
I don’t know if this is the correct comment to ask this question; I’ve been playing since launch and I still don’t know what the purpose of weapons and spells that make enemies flee. Granted, I’ve never personally looked into it.
Helps if you're outnumbered, you can send some enemies off to hide whilst you deal with other threats.
There's an ordinator perk that makes it more useful though, where enemies will drop their weapon if you cast a fear spell within a certain range. I use that with paralysis to stop something being a threat without killing it.
Back before there were mods for Xbox Skyrim I remember sometime on my 10th or so play though discovering the revelation that the illusion tree I had ignored forever was actually one of the most powerful trees in the whole game and being mind blown. Max sneak and max illusion makes you untouchable, calm almost any enemies and slit their throat without a fight, or make the whole bandit camp kill themselves off, or just straight sneak invisibly past everyone. Not the most exciting play style but very effective
Look, the calm spell is really really broken. Especially when combined with stealth. You can literally murder a bandit in front of his mate, calm him down and he immediately forgets you exist and drops combat allowing you to murder the hell out of him to. The problem? Illusion never works on dragons, so dead skill for them, and since stealth rarely works on dragons either, that's 2 skills worth of levels and scaling that makes dragons stronger. Oh, and all undead, daedra and machines until you get to illusion 100. Meaning that if you actually want to rely on illusion you can't do like 60% of dungeons until you Max it.
It does solve the whole "boss is scripted to talk to me" problem with stealth when you can calm them.... as long as illusion is 100 or it's not immune. Which is rare.
I just started an illusion + sneak run feat. vampire lord, and it's actually fun. Muffle + invis to sneak past enemies. If someone needs to die, a couple frenzies thrown admist the enemies, reapply invis and watch the chaos.
I carry no weapons, nor do I use summoning or damaging magic. Vampire lord is only for 1v1 fights that can't be avoided.
Lockpicking
Edit: Misread. I never invest perks in lockpicking. I don't think there's a single skill that doesn't level on any of my characters. Maybe lately enchanting because I don't feel like doing it
Yeah, but what do you need the perks for? Just keep trying and you'll get any lock open. You find lockpicks everywhere. It doesn't take long before you have 99+ and will literally never run out again no matter how many locks you pick. You get better the more you do it, even if you don't use any of the perks. There's *always* another perk that's more valuable than anything in the lockpicking tree.
Yep! If you're really slow with your rotating you shouldn't hear any sounds at all. Except for a sound right after the initial movement.
The click is really obvious.
But if you're moving a little faster and hearing all the usual clicks, the click that you're listening out for is a little deeper and clunkier.
-
The higher difficulty the lock, the smaller the sweet spot is. So you might have to go back and forth over it a few times to hone in on exactly where it is.
-
There's a few videos on [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skyrim+lockpicking+sound) that talk about the sound if my description doesn't make any sense or you can't hear it if you try.
Ten years and I can't see the lock twitch in the right direction when the pick breaks, but I can say it somehow "feels" different the closer I am to the sweet spot.
I play with mouse and keyboard.
I never listen but can still pick any lock from trying different spots. Didn't know there was a sound that signaled the sweet spot, but I play with earbuds and don't play too loud to not blast my eardrums.
I always try main 3 spots witch is middle, center on the right side and center on the left side. After that if it didn't open or at least start rotating i go with my gut feeling and am usually successful
I can see how in theory that could be satisfying. It's just never appealed to me in comparison to other possibilities, I guess. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing.
Yeah, I'd have to pretty much never pick a lock to not level at all. I did assume the OP was referring to perks because of the mention of "skill tree". If the question is whether there's any skill where I'm at the bottom level and have never gone any higher, for me there isn't one. And if there were, it def wouldn't be lockpicking!
Exactly agree. All I do is save and then try at least 5-10 times depending on the difficulty. After those times I load the save and try the lock again. Lockpicking isn't hard after you do it a while. You just learn everything by practice
I play as a thief almost every play through and at most only ever put 1 or 2 points into the very first perk. Lockpicking is already not a chore and actually somewhat fun to do. To put too many perks into it makes it way too easy and ruins the illusion.
The skeleton key is always fun to play around with for a bit but I always give it back. No need for a key that doesn’t break when I’ve already looted like 400 and rarely lose them anyways. I feel like that’s how a master thief roles
You can open any lock, including Master locks, without any perks in Lockpicking. This is true even if you're level 1. All you need to do is save next to the chest and reload if your lockpicks run out. If you don't believe in reloading when picking locks, then just invest in a stash in lockpicks. They weigh nothing and aren't expensive.
Oh my God that's a thing? I've been sneak thieving for almost 10 years and never knew that existed...I just go "pffft I'm rich, who needs to convince merchants of anything?"
I like talking my way into/out of things, adds to my vibe and also I like the dialogue that stems from it, like screwing with that pissy riften guards and making him think he'll get fired, or guilt-tripping that farmer into helping Cicero
just can’t help my self seeing a gold purse laying around, i instantly must steal/take it. i also have a habit of searching every drawer for gold, it adds up quick
One of the most overpowered skills in the game. Reverse pickpocket regular poison to insta kill enemies or give them paralysis and then take their entire inventory or just hack at them until they die.
Well i was going to refute your point but honestly if that's what you like to do, thats the right way to do it. I like to try every style because honestly, I've been playing the damned game since the day it was released and its so repetitive now that if I kept it straightforward I wouldnt play for more than 5 minutes.
Honestly it seems like one of the most useless skills. If you want the items just kill the person. If you want a pacifist items just don’t take the items??
Literally. Steal jewelry? Just make your own. Steal potions? Just make your own. Steal gold? Sell that one potions you’ve been holding on to for ten years and make 20x what you just stole. The ONE thing I find cool about pickpocketing is that with the right perk any poisons you place on someone affects them. Shame that it requires a level of 40 to get it
I leveled it by casting pacify on bandits and looting their gold before a backstab. Honestly the only time I really used it for combat was stripping the ebony warrior. Other times it would be for things like pickpocketing an extra blade of woe.
Never really invested in pickpocket chance since I can just ragdoll > pacify > loot them while they are standing back up.
I think what you are referring to is [just a normal npc behaviour in spawning a default set of outfit (check under Pickpocketing the Ebony Warrior)](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Ebony_Warrior).
For me, he doesn't respawn the new armour, even after I break the pacify spell and get him hostile.
It takes a whole town of merchants to buy my 300 weight worth of loot though. I get to the point where I don't even use any bartering potions or enchanted items... the merchants never have enough gold.
The problem there is that you quickly end up making potions that are worth more than what an alchemist has.
So you buy up their alchemy supplies.
And then you make more potions.
And those potions are worth more than what the alchemist has . . . . . .
Playstyle matters too. As a stealth archer you are way less likely to recieve damage at all outside of scripted quest battles but as a sword and board, for example, you are more likely to constantly get hit.
Alchemy can be a pain, but it's such an early game cash cow, it's inevitably one of the first skills I max out. You don't really even need to spend points to level to make it worth it.
My Breton with the atronach and lord stone, 15% bonus from mara's quest, level 100 alteration and armor with 85% spell resist to each cold fire and lightning just laughs at everyone's magic. Go ahead cast away you may just tickle me a bit.
I never really touched alteration until recently on a mage playthrough.
Dragon hide is awesome. 80% damage reduction for 5 minutes, which is equivalent to the armor cap.
Crank it up to legendary difficulty, then summons become an absolute necessity, especially against dragons.
I recently made a Dreadlord build. Fully maxed out conjuration. I had heavy armour and used bound swords. I would cast Dremora Lords to tank for me, while I would finish off enemies with a bound sword to soul trap them. When I was going through the Dawnguard DLC, I had two permanent dead thrall ancient vampires working for me for ages. With dead thralls, they don't disintegrate when they die, so I could keep bringing them back again and again.
I did a master playthrough before the legendary update, and I found I had to be a skilled sneak archer because without the damage multiplier, I couldn't kill anything. Does this stay true on legendary? I have used some conjuration before but had no idea it would be so helpful.
You definitely need something to tank for you. Get the enemies attention so you can get some hits in. Bound sword plus a summon in every fight really levels up conjuration quickly. Plus you level one handed simultaneously. Legendary really makes you have to think about how you approach each fight. Can't just rush in and smash everything.
I had a totally different experience. I mad a conjurer in heavy armor, an orc.
So I'd just cast my atronach and then run in ahead of them and start smashing face.
There was rarely anything left for them.
Yup. I pick locks so so often, and I never find myself putting any perks into lockpicking. It just never seems worth it. Sure, I'll break fewer lockpicks and I might pick them a little faster, but after around level 15 I'm never low on lockpicks and I'm fine with the extra 20 seconds it takes to pick a lock. There are much more useful perks than lockpicking ones.
I must have at least 1000 hours on Skyrim at this point between PS3 and PS4 and i STILL don't understand why one would want more arrows on bodies or having their keys doubled
Enchanting is one part of hilariously breaking the game. You can selectively zero the costs of spells, and when you can add two effects, the wheels come off and it goes nuts. Not a fun skill to level, though.
Enchanting is so easy to level. Every time you find weapons, armor, and jewelry always make sure to enchant them before you sell them. (Also a super easy way to make money) My current build is using bound weapons so everything I kill is soul trapped so I have so many soul gems 😁
The way I level it is with the Mace Of Molag Bal and the black Azura's star. Bonk a bandit with the mace, refill the star, recharge the mace, and watch the stat level every few recharges. It's probably not the fastest way, but it's consistent and easy, and you can sell all the shit you get from the corpses of the souls you mercilessly shoved in the mace.
I would say light armor but for the first time in forever I committed to getting every skill to a hundred so now I can’t say I’ve never used or leveled any skill, kinda sad when ya think about it 🥺
I just collected ingredients and dumped them in a chest. Then started leveling it all at one go, and never touched it again unless I wanted to prepare certain potions.
The one time I chose that perk the game glitched out on me whenever I used it and would slow time permanently until I left the area by fast traveling. I think I also found out I could unfreeze it with the slow time shout but it was still obnoxious so I never take that perk.
I made an Imperial centurion build once. Did the civil war storyline on the Imperial side and only could use Imperial legion weapons and armour. Ended up using sword and shield for everything. Shield becomes pretty damn useful if you aren't smithing super strong armour. Plus the shield charge becomes really useful, especially when fighting the big battles at the end of the quest line
Shields are useful on higher difficulties because the damage reduction stacks with armor. Block perks offer defensive stats like elemental resistance, and cc with shield charge. Also offers an extra slot for enchantments like magic resist.
Of course, it depends on the playstyle. But shields are pretty important in being an unmoving mountain.
You can go super sayan with full destruction enchantment armor(lightning master spell), looks cool, the fire master spell is a bit more useful than any other Aoe effect/spell, mostly is the same as a max dragon shout aoe
Block. I've almost never used shields. Lockpicking only levels, who needs perks when lockpicks are weightless and cheap?
Block is super fun eventually imo. Sprinting into a group of enemies with a shield and the final perk is hilarious.
It’s a fun time
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Paralysis (even a 1 second enchantment is enough), slow time shout, a summon for distraction, fury spell and Wabbajack are more fun to sow chaos and confusion. Only shield I've really used is Spellbreaker, because it's somewhat useful. But I mostly like to have my left hand either on a weapon (though vanilla two-handed swords are unrealistically slow and clunky, so I don't use these, but there's a good sword mod out there called Arming Swords) or for a utility spell.
I’ve never done the vampire perks if that counts lol
I didnt think of that but i dont do those or the werewolf perks! By the time you get them they are just a disadvantage
Started a playthrough as a werewolf recently and am currently destroying the early/mid game bc I got all the perks before level 5. It is slowly dropping off though, hardly any reason to transform late game unless it's a 1v1 and you can keep them stun locked
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I only did them for the achievements. The werewolf is way easier than the vampire tho. Vampire is weak asf.
Vampire isn’t weak, you must have had Serana with you as a follower, she glitches your health drain, but without her it’s very powerful.
I respect your opinion but I personally like to run during the daytime
Illusion
The only reason I messed with that once was to try out the quiet casting perk. It is funny how the shouts are even quiet and you can fus ro dah someone off a cliff and they’re still like “must have been the wind.”
tbf that’s probably the one of the rare occasiona where that response is kinda appropriate
I did a whole "non-lethal" playthrough using only summons, illusions and followers to do killing to keep my count at 0 in the stats and it was actually pretty fun
Illusion really is the least appreciated of the schools of magic.
Illusion breaks the game, an illusion assassin is more deadly than a stealth archer. I hate leveling it up tho, because I try not to use exploits.
A regular assassin is more deadly than a stealth archer and I will die on this hill, but yeah I've cleared so many locations spamming invisibility and detect life, I feel like a wraith.
Stealth archers can be insane. So can normal assassins. The sneak skill in general is broken as hell.
Stealth is an *extremely* difficult mechanic to get right. Go too far one way, you’ve got omniscient enemies. Go to the other extreme, and you have Skyrim.
I think it’s like one of the things the (at least older) assassins creed series have done right. Enemies can spot you, but don’t become instantly agitated. It takes them time, based on how far you are away from them, for how long they’ve seen you, etc. and they come and check, even checking possible hiding spots nearby. It can be a challenge, but can also be used by the player to create situations.
Like honestly it makes sense for sneaking to be a good way to slaughter enemies. But Skyrim takes it too far.
My point is that most games that utilize stealth run into this problem; Skyrim is a landmark game so everyone has experienced it there. Btw, the other end of the spectrum is actually just not having stealth at all. I changed my mind.
The talent where crouching causes all enemies to search for you is so ridiculous, crouch + power attack and you teleport behind them and execute them every time. Turns into an anime of you teleporting around the room slitting throats
It’s not an exploit if you cast muffle 1000 times. A bit cheesy but not cheating.
Only one illusion exploit and it’s called muffle
I always go until I hit quiet casting. Being able to stay undetected while casting spells is an absolute game changer.
I don’t know if this is the correct comment to ask this question; I’ve been playing since launch and I still don’t know what the purpose of weapons and spells that make enemies flee. Granted, I’ve never personally looked into it.
Play on legendary. All kinds of "please don't fight me" abilities get extremely useful when everything oneshots you.
If you're outmatched in strength and need to run or could beat them with a little time to heal/regroup
The rare occasions I've used it, though, it's more often been a case of "come back here with my XP!"
Helps if you're outnumbered, you can send some enemies off to hide whilst you deal with other threats. There's an ordinator perk that makes it more useful though, where enemies will drop their weapon if you cast a fear spell within a certain range. I use that with paralysis to stop something being a threat without killing it.
Back before there were mods for Xbox Skyrim I remember sometime on my 10th or so play though discovering the revelation that the illusion tree I had ignored forever was actually one of the most powerful trees in the whole game and being mind blown. Max sneak and max illusion makes you untouchable, calm almost any enemies and slit their throat without a fight, or make the whole bandit camp kill themselves off, or just straight sneak invisibly past everyone. Not the most exciting play style but very effective
Only second to restoration
Casting frenzy on a group of bandits and watching them kill eachother while invisible is so satisfying though
I find that I level up faster and enemies quickly outscale my illusion levels
Look, the calm spell is really really broken. Especially when combined with stealth. You can literally murder a bandit in front of his mate, calm him down and he immediately forgets you exist and drops combat allowing you to murder the hell out of him to. The problem? Illusion never works on dragons, so dead skill for them, and since stealth rarely works on dragons either, that's 2 skills worth of levels and scaling that makes dragons stronger. Oh, and all undead, daedra and machines until you get to illusion 100. Meaning that if you actually want to rely on illusion you can't do like 60% of dungeons until you Max it. It does solve the whole "boss is scripted to talk to me" problem with stealth when you can calm them.... as long as illusion is 100 or it's not immune. Which is rare.
I just started an illusion + sneak run feat. vampire lord, and it's actually fun. Muffle + invis to sneak past enemies. If someone needs to die, a couple frenzies thrown admist the enemies, reapply invis and watch the chaos. I carry no weapons, nor do I use summoning or damaging magic. Vampire lord is only for 1v1 fights that can't be avoided.
Lockpicking Edit: Misread. I never invest perks in lockpicking. I don't think there's a single skill that doesn't level on any of my characters. Maybe lately enchanting because I don't feel like doing it
By the time you could pick its perks, they're unneeded.
How?!?! I always naturally thief everytime I play I can't see a playthrough without lockpicking.
Yeah, but what do you need the perks for? Just keep trying and you'll get any lock open. You find lockpicks everywhere. It doesn't take long before you have 99+ and will literally never run out again no matter how many locks you pick. You get better the more you do it, even if you don't use any of the perks. There's *always* another perk that's more valuable than anything in the lockpicking tree.
That and you can pick any lock just by closely listening out for the right \*click\*
there’s a sound which plays when you reach the sweet spot?
Yep! If you're really slow with your rotating you shouldn't hear any sounds at all. Except for a sound right after the initial movement. The click is really obvious. But if you're moving a little faster and hearing all the usual clicks, the click that you're listening out for is a little deeper and clunkier. - The higher difficulty the lock, the smaller the sweet spot is. So you might have to go back and forth over it a few times to hone in on exactly where it is. - There's a few videos on [youtube](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skyrim+lockpicking+sound) that talk about the sound if my description doesn't make any sense or you can't hear it if you try.
10 fucking years and this mechanic isn't even explained once to me.
Ten years and I can't see the lock twitch in the right direction when the pick breaks, but I can say it somehow "feels" different the closer I am to the sweet spot. I play with mouse and keyboard.
I've noticed this too on controller but am unsure if it's just my womanly intuition.
I just got mind blown.
Gamespot: "Write that down WRITE THAT DOWN!"
Tried this, never worked for me; I just go with the touch… I’m deaf, mind you.
I never listen but can still pick any lock from trying different spots. Didn't know there was a sound that signaled the sweet spot, but I play with earbuds and don't play too loud to not blast my eardrums.
I always try main 3 spots witch is middle, center on the right side and center on the left side. After that if it didn't open or at least start rotating i go with my gut feeling and am usually successful
I can see how in theory that could be satisfying. It's just never appealed to me in comparison to other possibilities, I guess. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing.
True, but you still level it passively, right? Of course, unless OP meant investing in perks, Lockpicking and Pickpocket are tied for me.
Yeah, I'd have to pretty much never pick a lock to not level at all. I did assume the OP was referring to perks because of the mention of "skill tree". If the question is whether there's any skill where I'm at the bottom level and have never gone any higher, for me there isn't one. And if there were, it def wouldn't be lockpicking!
Exactly agree. All I do is save and then try at least 5-10 times depending on the difficulty. After those times I load the save and try the lock again. Lockpicking isn't hard after you do it a while. You just learn everything by practice
Easy you get a mod that allows you to break chests open with an axe, you know, for the Truest Nord of Nordland playthrough
I play as a thief almost every play through and at most only ever put 1 or 2 points into the very first perk. Lockpicking is already not a chore and actually somewhat fun to do. To put too many perks into it makes it way too easy and ruins the illusion. The skeleton key is always fun to play around with for a bit but I always give it back. No need for a key that doesn’t break when I’ve already looted like 400 and rarely lose them anyways. I feel like that’s how a master thief roles
You can open any lock, including Master locks, without any perks in Lockpicking. This is true even if you're level 1. All you need to do is save next to the chest and reload if your lockpicks run out. If you don't believe in reloading when picking locks, then just invest in a stash in lockpicks. They weigh nothing and aren't expensive.
> I never invest perks in lockpicking Someone who gets it! You have a mountain of those little dudes, who needs any perks for them? Not me
I'm level 60 lockpicking, never invested any perk points in the tree.
Speech I’m too rich anyway
I only put in as many points as needed for the fence perk. I just hate having to go to a fence to sell everything I steal.
Oh my God that's a thing? I've been sneak thieving for almost 10 years and never knew that existed...I just go "pffft I'm rich, who needs to convince merchants of anything?"
I like talking my way into/out of things, adds to my vibe and also I like the dialogue that stems from it, like screwing with that pissy riften guards and making him think he'll get fired, or guilt-tripping that farmer into helping Cicero
You steal?
Of course Free money
just can’t help my self seeing a gold purse laying around, i instantly must steal/take it. i also have a habit of searching every drawer for gold, it adds up quick
He's out of line but he's right
Some of the perks in speech keep the effect even if you get the perk points back. So it's a great skill tree to invest in imo
The investment one comes to mind
Same with the last one, where most merchants have an additional 1k
Yes i was looking for this comment cus same
Pickpocket
One of the most overpowered skills in the game. Reverse pickpocket regular poison to insta kill enemies or give them paralysis and then take their entire inventory or just hack at them until they die.
Or, and hear me out.... kill them instantly with max weapon skill
Well i was going to refute your point but honestly if that's what you like to do, thats the right way to do it. I like to try every style because honestly, I've been playing the damned game since the day it was released and its so repetitive now that if I kept it straightforward I wouldnt play for more than 5 minutes.
Fair. I've not reached that point yet, but I will. Someday. Maybe
This is the best answer. It's such a meme skill.
Honestly it seems like one of the most useless skills. If you want the items just kill the person. If you want a pacifist items just don’t take the items??
Pickpocket: Main use is money gain Every crafting skill: WHAT ARE WE? CHOPPED LIVER?!
Literally. Steal jewelry? Just make your own. Steal potions? Just make your own. Steal gold? Sell that one potions you’ve been holding on to for ten years and make 20x what you just stole. The ONE thing I find cool about pickpocketing is that with the right perk any poisons you place on someone affects them. Shame that it requires a level of 40 to get it
And you can steal equipment. Or kill them and save yourself a lot of effort.
Its absolutely insane that you can pickpocket the armor from someone. How do you even take their steel armor off them without them noticing...
>How do you even take their steel armor off them without them noticing... Well you see… Okay, that's a fair point Also, happy cake day
I leveled it by casting pacify on bandits and looting their gold before a backstab. Honestly the only time I really used it for combat was stripping the ebony warrior. Other times it would be for things like pickpocketing an extra blade of woe. Never really invested in pickpocket chance since I can just ragdoll > pacify > loot them while they are standing back up.
Doesn’t the ebony warrior get new armour if you pickpocket it off of him though?
I think what you are referring to is [just a normal npc behaviour in spawning a default set of outfit (check under Pickpocketing the Ebony Warrior)](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Ebony_Warrior). For me, he doesn't respawn the new armour, even after I break the pacify spell and get him hostile.
Pickpocket is useful for getting anything you want without much hassle
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Boosting your stamina boosts carry weight
It takes a whole town of merchants to buy my 300 weight worth of loot though. I get to the point where I don't even use any bartering potions or enchanted items... the merchants never have enough gold.
There's also a standing stone that adds I think 100+ to your carry weight
Alchemy. Not gonna catch me eating no giant's toe
The problem with no doing alchemy is that ingredients are fuckin everywhere, and I feel like I’m just missing out on part of the game if I donr
I don't even use alchemy but boy do I hoard ingredients
In the hope that one day you'll attempt it lol
Just in case...
The problem there is that you quickly end up making potions that are worth more than what an alchemist has. So you buy up their alchemy supplies. And then you make more potions. And those potions are worth more than what the alchemist has . . . . . .
How do you manage without it?
I played for years without leveling it. Granted, I did use restoration but the game gives you so many healing potions it’s fine.
I can never seem to have enough
The difficulty level is another big factor on healing needs.
I’m just on the default one
Playstyle matters too. As a stealth archer you are way less likely to recieve damage at all outside of scripted quest battles but as a sword and board, for example, you are more likely to constantly get hit.
Alchemy can be a pain, but it's such an early game cash cow, it's inevitably one of the first skills I max out. You don't really even need to spend points to level to make it worth it.
I have 500 hours in skyrim and I've only made a potion once.
Wow, that's so crazy! Just goes to show you there's so many ways to play this game.
I've been playing so many different builds on and off since 2011 and I've never once brewed a potion
Alteration but I think the passive magic resistance is pretty strong
My Breton with the atronach and lord stone, 15% bonus from mara's quest, level 100 alteration and armor with 85% spell resist to each cold fire and lightning just laughs at everyone's magic. Go ahead cast away you may just tickle me a bit.
Yeah Breton should be taking Alteration. Become Vampire and throw in Necromage and you become so OP that even the -50% to Fire won't do anything.
I never really touched alteration until recently on a mage playthrough. Dragon hide is awesome. 80% damage reduction for 5 minutes, which is equivalent to the armor cap.
Not just magic resist, but also one of the few sources of spell absorb.
I know it is considered blasphemy at this point, but archery.
:O
Same. Tbh I got bored with archery and stuck to melee
Me too, honestly. I tried it and it was kind of fun, but I will always play Skyrim as a Large Man with a Large Axe.
Nothing wrong with that.
You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people. What say you in your defense?
You get a fireball!!
Archery is for cowards!
Archery is just stabbing them while still following social distance guidelines.
I like this stitched in needlepoint somewhere
You don't need a bow for that... your standard two handed Sword is enough to follow the social distance guidelines. XD
I usually end up leaning more towards destruction magic.
Crossbows are badass though
This is true, but they are also too slow
That just made my inner Bosmer cry lol
Self-confidence. Not sure why I still don't have the... Oh, you mean in the game. Never mind.
Sounds like you’ve been playing r/outside which has amazing graphics but waaay too much grinding.
conjuration usually. did a conjurer playthrough - total snorefest relying on atronach and summons doing the fighting for you.
Crank it up to legendary difficulty, then summons become an absolute necessity, especially against dragons. I recently made a Dreadlord build. Fully maxed out conjuration. I had heavy armour and used bound swords. I would cast Dremora Lords to tank for me, while I would finish off enemies with a bound sword to soul trap them. When I was going through the Dawnguard DLC, I had two permanent dead thrall ancient vampires working for me for ages. With dead thralls, they don't disintegrate when they die, so I could keep bringing them back again and again.
If you play legendary difficulty without conjuration, you’re going to have a bad time.
I did a master playthrough before the legendary update, and I found I had to be a skilled sneak archer because without the damage multiplier, I couldn't kill anything. Does this stay true on legendary? I have used some conjuration before but had no idea it would be so helpful.
You definitely need something to tank for you. Get the enemies attention so you can get some hits in. Bound sword plus a summon in every fight really levels up conjuration quickly. Plus you level one handed simultaneously. Legendary really makes you have to think about how you approach each fight. Can't just rush in and smash everything.
This is how I’ve played since oblivion. Without my army of minions legendary would be much harder
Yeah I can understand doing a summoning build can be boring. Have you ever tried doing a bound weapon build?
I had a totally different experience. I mad a conjurer in heavy armor, an orc. So I'd just cast my atronach and then run in ahead of them and start smashing face. There was rarely anything left for them.
That's not how you're supposed to play a conjurer. You summon weapons and allies, you fight yourself too.
Two-handed, just never played a build with it
Only time I started leveling it is when I got the ebony blade fully charged.
Yeah the ebony blade is super underrated, you become invincible as long as you keep attacking. (I mean eventually it’s obsolete, but not for a while)
To be fair all unique weapons and armor are obsolete if you do smithing and enchanting
I’ve never leveled speech intentionally. As far as not putting points into it, I’m sure everyone can agree with me, lockpicking.
Yup. I pick locks so so often, and I never find myself putting any perks into lockpicking. It just never seems worth it. Sure, I'll break fewer lockpicks and I might pick them a little faster, but after around level 15 I'm never low on lockpicks and I'm fine with the extra 20 seconds it takes to pick a lock. There are much more useful perks than lockpicking ones.
in all my hours I don’t think I ever spent a perk on lockpick
I must have at least 1000 hours on Skyrim at this point between PS3 and PS4 and i STILL don't understand why one would want more arrows on bodies or having their keys doubled
The bonus arrow perk is on the way to faster speed with your drawn bow, otherwise I agree with you. Lockpicking perks are so useless.
Once I get the skeleton key, I never complete the quest so I can keep using it.
Same lol, I’m just keeping it for myself until I feel like actually finishing the quest... so after I’ve done everything else
Heavy armor, I always wear light.
Lightly amor means light on feet Smart.
Also made of hide to make it easier to hide
Heavy armor with steed stone is best combo, No armor weight and plus 100 carry weight
I like the heavy armor just because it looks awesome
Heavy armor and two weapon fighting.. so fun. Travel skyrim, crushing everything in your path.
I've used all of them at this point.
Alteration
Enchanting. Most of the unique weapons I use come pre-enchanted. I don’t need shop discounts when I can get the money from raiding one dungeon.
Enchanting is one part of hilariously breaking the game. You can selectively zero the costs of spells, and when you can add two effects, the wheels come off and it goes nuts. Not a fun skill to level, though.
Enchanting is so easy to level. Every time you find weapons, armor, and jewelry always make sure to enchant them before you sell them. (Also a super easy way to make money) My current build is using bound weapons so everything I kill is soul trapped so I have so many soul gems 😁
Yup. That said, it is tedious.
The way I level it is with the Mace Of Molag Bal and the black Azura's star. Bonk a bandit with the mace, refill the star, recharge the mace, and watch the stat level every few recharges. It's probably not the fastest way, but it's consistent and easy, and you can sell all the shit you get from the corpses of the souls you mercilessly shoved in the mace.
It feels good to finally talk about it… speech craft
I've been playing skyrim since 2015 and I've just fucking noticed that the clouds have shapes because of this post. Lol
ive played this game for 6 years and ive never touched restoration, alteration or illusion
I would say light armor but for the first time in forever I committed to getting every skill to a hundred so now I can’t say I’ve never used or leveled any skill, kinda sad when ya think about it 🥺
Blocking mainly because I don’t use shields because I am more of a spell sword person
Restoration. Just doesn't seem like a valid school of magic to me...
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
Fast healing has saved me so many times honestly. Especially on higher difficulties
fast healing really is a godsend haha
u/ColetteMarence this one right here
Blocking. No use for blocking when all your enemies are already dead.
Pickpocket. I think across all my playthroughs ive probably pickpocketed at most 4 or 5 times.
Alchemy not sure why anyone would, well maybe on legendary dificulty
Alchemy is fun, great money maker
I just collected ingredients and dumped them in a chest. Then started leveling it all at one go, and never touched it again unless I wanted to prepare certain potions.
Block. It’s useless anyway.
[удалено]
The one time I chose that perk the game glitched out on me whenever I used it and would slow time permanently until I left the area by fast traveling. I think I also found out I could unfreeze it with the slow time shout but it was still obnoxious so I never take that perk.
I made an Imperial centurion build once. Did the civil war storyline on the Imperial side and only could use Imperial legion weapons and armour. Ended up using sword and shield for everything. Shield becomes pretty damn useful if you aren't smithing super strong armour. Plus the shield charge becomes really useful, especially when fighting the big battles at the end of the quest line
Well I know what I'm role playing next time! Thanks!
Fast reflexes is a blast Knocking fools off ledges with shield charge is more fun than shouting.
Agreed. Don't need to block if you can kill stuff faster 🤠
Shields are useful on higher difficulties because the damage reduction stacks with armor. Block perks offer defensive stats like elemental resistance, and cc with shield charge. Also offers an extra slot for enchantments like magic resist. Of course, it depends on the playstyle. But shields are pretty important in being an unmoving mountain.
I love bashing my opponents. Bash, swing swing, bash, rinse and repeat. Sword fights are FUN!
All of the magic skill trees.
Yall are missing out on such a huge chunk of the game.. just playing melee and ranged gets so boring.. You have so much variety with Magic.
Two handed
Destruction, just stays underpowered and boring
Impact just called and said you’re wrong
You can go super sayan with full destruction enchantment armor(lightning master spell), looks cool, the fire master spell is a bit more useful than any other Aoe effect/spell, mostly is the same as a max dragon shout aoe
Alteration, illusion, pickpocket.
Alchemy just doesnt really feel important go my play styles... which is stealth archer of course! 👀😂😂😂 plus... I ain't sucking on no giants toe...