Skyrim: Elder Scrolls 5

[Achilles]

It's difficult to put "melee" in one bucket. One-handed with a shield is pretty monotonous - running charge for a critical and shield bashing to stagger or disarm. Dual wield does a lot of damage and you get some very pretty kill cams, but it's mostly just spamming power attack and hoping that whatever you're fighting will drop quickly. Two-handed seems to be the only one where some skill in involved (see stoffe's last paragraph).

 

Personally, I try to mix it up. Two-handed weapons for beasts (including dragons) and draugrs, dual wield vs bandits and mages, sword-and-board for thieves, assassins, falmer, and boss-types. Keep in mind that there are some fun blocking perks to consider in all this as well. Also, Become Ethereal is something of a game-changer once you get it.

 

One last thing: the weapon-type specific perks are largely a waste. I take the five base ranks and the charging criticals for both, the decapitation perk for one-handed, and sweep for two-handed (handy against mobs during civil war quests and crowded barrows).

[leXX]

I generally engage very rarely in straight head-on melee combat. While my character is no thief (never even joined the thieves guild) I feel that more sneaky ambush-style gameplay is more rewarding. Engage on your own terms, snipe with a bow from range or sneak up behind and slit their throats before they even know you're there. Then they'll have no time to hurt you or use any annoying abilities they have either.

 

Unless you really have a problem with the morality of it, I highly recommend doing the Thieves Guild main quest line. You get the Thieves Guild Armor and Nightingale Sword and my personal favourite so far, the Nightingale Armor. On completion you get what is widely considered to be the best bow in the game, The Nightingale Bow, so doing it for that alone makes it worth it, plus it looks damn cool. You also get Chillrend, the best sword in the game and The Skeleton Key. If you get the guild back to its former glory (what I'm doing atm) you also get a decent Guild Armor. Basically it is the perfect Questline for a stealth archer.

 

As for melee combat, I think it sucks. I've played through the whole game as a stealth archer pretty much avoiding ever having to use it as I one or two shot everything from a distance before they even know I'm there. When I do have to use it, it feels extremely inaccurate as you end up just swinging wildly hoping for the best.

[stoffe]

Unless you really have a problem with the morality of it, I highly recommend doing the Thieves Guild main quest line.

 

Part morality, part the thieves guild crowd appearing to be jerks in general. Seems like in the other quest arcs you generally fight for something while the thieves are just petty thugs making life harder for ordinary common people, while leaving corrupt wealthy nobles alone or even working with them. The thieves guild you bump into in the street extort people for money, swindle commoners and frame innocents for crime they didn't commit. The crowd in the sewer tavern were a generally unpleasant lot as well. Doesn't exactly compel me to join and help them out.

 

Heck even in the Dark Brotherhood questline your victims generally deserve their fate in one way or another, even if they're pretty nasty.

 

But, I guess I did try the Dark Brotherhood quests in my last playthrough (rather than exterminate them as I did previously). So maybe should give the Guild a try this time around too. Could always reload an earlier save if they make me feel too dirty I suppose. But... if you're allowed to put down Maven Blackbriar during the Thieves Guild quest I'm sold on doing it.

 

You get the Thieves Guild Armor and Nightingale Sword and my personal favourite so far, the Nightingale Armor. On completion you get what is widely considered to be the best bow in the game, The Nightingale Bow, so doing it for that alone makes it worth it, plus it looks damn cool. You also get Chillrend, the best sword in the game and The Skeleton Key. If you get the guild back to its former glory (what I'm doing atm) you also get a decent Guild Armor. Basically it is the perfect Questline for a stealth archer.

 

My current Dark Elf is my 4th character so I go more for style than straight utility this time around, and use a few mods with new outfits and armor. I currently kind of like the Rogue armor I'm wearing, blends well with the already dark theme of the character.

 

 

Also, the spectral bow from Labyrinthian looks pretty badass to me, so I stick with it for style even if there are better weapons around

 

[ChAiNz.2da]

I dare say stoffe I think that's the first pic of one of your characters (that my old brain can recall) that doesn't have snow white hair!? Still awesome nonetheless!

 

My current character has a similar idea in bows as you do BTW (I use the bound FX though).. though his also has some custom modded ethereal arrows/quiver to match hehe

[Prime]

Thanks for all the info lads and lasses. I picked it up today.

 

Think I'll start as the wandering swordsman.

[Darth Payne]

Looking at some of the mods available for the PC version of this game i *REALLY* wish they would be available for the Xbox as well... as that is the version of the game that i have.

 

Some of them look *AMAZING*, way better than some of the normal ingame items.

 

I'm hoping that there might be some new and better items in the new DLC.

 

Edit:

Holy ****, for the first time that i can remember, i just found enchanted Dragon Plate Armor in the loot.

 

+20 Heavy Armor.

[Darth Payne]

Just started downloading Dawnguard a few minutes ago.

[leXX]

Good. Let us know if it's worth the money.

[Taak Farst]

it's good, but this sorta proves to myself that I now just see the elder scrolls as meh.

[Red Hessian]

it's good, but this sorta proves to myself that I now just see the elder scrolls as meh.

 

Yep, it's all vampires and werewolves these day, it seems.

[*~*Darth pOOba*~*]

Yep, it's all vampires and werewolves these day, it seems.

So true.

I bought the game ... Last month maybe... I haven't slept since then haha. Now I haven't played the other Elder Scroll games so I don't no if Skyrim lives up to the legend or not, but to me, so far at least, its been a really good game.

[The Doctor]

So true.

I bought the game ... Last month maybe... I haven't slept since then haha. Now I haven't played the other Elder Scroll games so I don't no if Skyrim lives up to the legend or not, but to me, so far at least, its been a really good game.

 

I was the same - I'd never played the franchise before either, but REALLY enjoyed Skyrim. Apparently Oblivion was "better", I'm told, though I personally won't end up finding out. I don't like going backwards through franchises because I always end up disliking the earlier games intensely when I try them.

[Tyvark]

Oblivion was one of the greatest games of it's time. Personally, I enjoyed it when it first came out, did a bit of modding in some playthroughs, but once I played Skyrim I couldn't go back to it. The graphics of Skyrim were just so amazing compared to Oblivion.

[Q]

After the greatness that is Morrowind, Oblivion was a huge disappointment for me.

[Boba Rhett]

If "Blah" and "Eh" had a baby they'd name him Martin.

 

 

Martin would then go on to make Oblivion.

[Q]

I take it that you didn't like it, either?

[stoffe]

Apparently Oblivion was "better", I'm told, though I personally won't end up finding out.

 

In my opinion it wasn't. Of the three Elder Scrolls games I've played (not counting expansion packs, but counting essential mods) Oblivion was probably the one I liked the least.

 

Morrowind was great because of its storyline and exotic setting, but less so due to the uninspiring quest structure and being a bit too much hands-off in letting you figure out on your own where to go and what to do, encouraging Play-by-Wiki gameplay. Many of the dungeon instances (Ancestral Tombs in particular) were also quite boring to explore since they rarely ever turned out to have any reason for you to enter them. The lack of fast travel (aside from boats, stilt striders and mages guild teleports), while making the world more immersive also became a bit of a chore after a while, when you had to traverse the same pieces of already explored and cleared ground over and over, going back and forth doing quests (or searching for quest objectives), especially combined with the snails pace movement speed before getting a respectable Athletics rank. Later on with high athletics and jump/slowfall potions moving about became much less of an issue though. Jumping halfway across the continent in a single leap was quite handy.

 

Oblivion had pretty landscapes, but they were a bit too mundane overall to impress me (not counting Shivering Isles). It would probably have been better if they stuck with the lore version of Cyrodiil, making it a vast jungle, rather than the Medieval Europe it was transformed into in Oblivion. The main plot was also very uninspiring to me. In Morrowind and Skyrim your character is Somebody (Nerevarine, Dragonborn). In Oblivion you were cast as the Somebody's errand girl, and remained there for the rest of the storyline while Martin Septim was the one who was essential for moving things along (again not counting Shivering Isles). The loss of the open world (with Cities now being instanced), copypaste dungeons and loss of flight/jump magic also annoyed me a little. The horrible user interface compared to Morrowind also didn't do the game any favors.

 

Skyrim improved on graphics further and fixed some of the flaws of the previous games. More varied environments, more distinct dungeons, more interesting and unique quests (aside from the Radiant FedEx quests), Shout magic, and you're back to being someone special again. On the down side they managed to make the user interface in Skyrim even worse than the one in Oblivion, and they dumbed down the game system perhaps a bit too much (for good or ill). The main plot was also more interesting, but a bit too short IMO.

[Rogue15]

the worst part of morrowind was those god forsaken Cliff Racers.

[Dread Advocate]

the worst part of morrowind was those god forsaken Cliff Racers.

 

All hail St. Jiub for chasing them away after Morrowind but before Oblivion.

[leXX]

If "Blah" and "Eh" had a baby they'd name him Martin.

 

 

Martin would then go on to make Oblivion.

 

^ This.

 

One of the most over hyped games ever.

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

So.. Housebuilding, baking, and beekeeping.

 

And finally, fishing.

 

Pretty much some official mods with a pricetag. It'll be interesting to see how Beth handle it, as most of Hearthfire's features have already been implemented by Skyrim's modding community.

 

I'm a little sceptical about it - the new features sounds good on paper, but i think they're going to be shallow and unrefined, like most of the whole game (eg Marriage: One lousy ceremony and that's it).

 

Speaking of marriage, they better be making Serana marriable..

 

And still no mention of sex. Adoption, but no creation?

[The Doctor]

I'm with JIGOS - Hearthfire sounds like a mod collection, not an expansion pack. I counted the days before I got Dawnguard, and I adore the whole thing. Heathfire I can probably live without, at least until I get some extra cash.

[Prime]

I'm kind of looking forward to it if it adds some decent options. I'm not overly fond of any of the houses in the existing game.

[stoffe]

So.. Housebuilding, baking, and beekeeping.

 

And finally, fishing.

 

TES:Sims? Sounds a bit like the Keep management section in Neverwinter Nights 2 too, which I wasn't horribly fond of. I think I prefer roaming around adventuring. If I want an estate it would presumably be better to use the Creation Kit to make one, since it would be more like I wanted it that way.

 

Got Dawnguard and was satisfied with it (even though some things could have been fleshed out a bit more), but from what I've seen Hearthfire doesn't appeal to me. I think they should focus on making more full-blown quest arcs as DLC, since that's the one bit where the modding community is a bit weak in producing fully voiced quality content.

 

Speaking of marriage, they better be making Serana marriable..

 

Wouldn't that technically be necrophilia, since she's (un)dead and all?

 

And still no mention of sex. Adoption, but no creation?

 

You'll have to wait until you're the new emperor of Tamriel before you start another dynasty of dragonborns.

[Sabretooth]

And still no mention of sex. Adoption, but no creation?