Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[lamaros]

Weight limit isn't really an issue too, it's just that running around with 100 potions = 50 semi-perma weight. +100 armor and weapon. That's like 150 consumed by default.

100 potions? That's way too many!

You can get Conditioning or Unhindered. Though that take a little bit of time to level up. Really the only time you should ever go over the limit is if you kill two dragons at the same time and you're a smith. Or you have OCD.

[rk47]

I checked my level 15 guy before, he ran with 48 minor heals , 20 stam pots, 20 medium heals 5 regens, and 20 poisons.
I do use poisons but the healing potions are there because mages usually force me to go through 3-5 bottles per engagements if there's more than one of them. Especially the fucking Hagravens...

[tmp]

Since i play on medium difficulty i refrain from potion use in combat so that things can get a wee bit interesting. It seems to work ok -- the ebony blade i've picked around l.15 does all the healing i need, and that's with the basic, unupgraded hp drain

[koro]

Because spergy min-maxers are infiltrating the highest levels of our internets. If you're asking the question, you really (really) don't need to worry about it.

Both armor types are good for melee. It's just that weapon + shield users have a bit of an easier time with Light Armor due to the 50% stamina regen bonus while in light armor perk, which you normally need extra +regen gear to get in heavy armor. This helps a lot for doing a lot of shield bashing.

My Heavy Armor character has Restoration along with the "healing spells also restore stamina" perk, so if I get winded, I back off a sec, drop my shield, bring up my +75 health spell, and pop it twice to get a huge chunk of stamina back.

[Miasma]

Poison sucks.  It's vendor trash.

[Miasma]

Finished the game so I thought I'd try bringing Lydia out for the first time, my sneaky playstyle didn't favor companions.  I use my fancy storm clouds shout that changes the weather to rain and thunder for the entire zone.  It kills her.  End of experiment.

[rk47]

Poison sucks.  It's vendor trash.

At low level they actually double your attack damage on any swing. Think of it as a one shot enchant.
At medium level they can do around 20-25 which is pretty handy if you really want that sneak attack arrow to finish off in one shot.
It's free if you know where to harvest deathbells and skeever tails. Add a pinch of salt for a 30 second slowing effect.

[Fabricated]

Heavy armor owns. I'm Heavy Armor and sword n' board and I'm a walking battle tank. Go deep into the heavy armor tree and make sure you're rocking a full set of the best stuff you can get and you're good.

The thing that's annoying as hell to me is that you really need to focus hard on some areas. I've got a lot of points invested in the heavy armor and block trees along with some in smithing. Alchemy and Enchanting are really powerful and you have ample ingredients for both just thrown at you in gigantic piles even if you don't go out of your way to trap souls or pick flowers...but you can't do anything worth a shit with either skill unless you dump a fuckload of points into their trees.

[lamaros]

Heavy armor owns. I'm Heavy Armor and sword n' board and I'm a walking battle tank. Go deep into the heavy armor tree and make sure you're rocking a full set of the best stuff you can get and you're good.

The thing that's annoying as hell to me is that you really need to focus hard on some areas. I've got a lot of points invested in the heavy armor and block trees along with some in smithing. Alchemy and Enchanting are really powerful and you have ample ingredients for both just thrown at you in gigantic piles even if you don't go out of your way to trap souls or pick flowers...but you can't do anything worth a shit with either skill unless you dump a fuckload of points into their trees.

I like that you have to focus, being able to make one super character that can do everything is lame. Replays with different perks make the game more fun.

[Sky]

Cheater.

But....MUST LOOT DWEMER RUINS.

[tmp]

Finding the patchnotes funnier than the game itself.

ok, i take that back. Skyrim, the eternal comedy of tragic errors...

[Soln]

Level 32 and 15 pages of this thread to catch up on.  Fawk.

[rk47]

nsfw LOL

[Sheepherder]

I just saw Lydia disembowel the pilgrim.

[Ingmar]

Finished the Civil War quest and got some classic Bethesda bug action. Apparently we're just going to leave


lying around the throne room forever.

[Ruvaldt]

Finished the Civil War quest and got some classic Bethesda bug action. Apparently we're just going to leave


lying around the throne room forever.

[Ingmar]

Also, all the deposed jarls from the other side are just sitting around the throne room bitching at me. 

[Lucas]

The Dovahkids!!!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQmYF35w74

[NiX]

nsfw LOL

I'm hoping that's a clothing mod and she's performing a crafting animation. If not.. 

[Murgos]

Alchemy and Enchanting are really powerful and you have ample ingredients for both just thrown at you in gigantic piles even if you don't go out of your way to trap souls or pick flowers...but you can't do anything worth a shit with either skill unless you dump a fuckload of points into their trees.

What do you consider a fuckload of points?  Enchanting is pretty much done at 5 points (+100% effectiveness) unless you really want double enchant in which case you can get there for 8.  The elemental enchants are nice, if that's what floats your boat, but +25% to an element is hardly required for 'anything worth a shit'.  This is even more true for alchemy, I see no reason to move past the first 5 Alchemist perks.  Really, I'm not entirely convinced I'll get any perks in Alchemy even though I make lots of potions, by the time I have perks I don't know what to do with I doubt if I will be relying on health pots to keep me on my feet.

Could you make a great character that focuses 15 points on vials of goo and 13 on glowy things?  Sure, and I bet it would be fun but if that's not your focus it's not even close to required.

edit: If you also consider that you can enchant +Alchemy gear and Brew + Enchant potions then even with just 5 points in each you can make some really strong equipment/potions.

[Bunk]

I'm having a blast with my current playthrough. Thought my mage was too easy, so I'm playing a dual weild assassin/alchemist. I use a bow when needed, but have no perks in it, and at level 20 I've not cast a single spell. Also not using any companions - Lydia guards the loot in my house.

Alchemy can get pretty effective if you are willing to drop the perks. Not only can I make fortify Health 35 + Heal 70 potions with common ingredients, I can make Fortify 2H + Resist Cold + Fortify Illusion + Restore Stamina (something like that anyway) potions using up 20 gold in ingredients that sell for over 800.

Had a rather sillymoment on the weekend. Running along, I spot a Cave Bear chasing me along the far side of the river. As I get to a bridge, there are two hunters, which go after the bear. I run up and use my racial Animal Freindship on the bear to see what happens. The bear stops attacking and starts running back down river to where he started, with the second hunter chasing after him. The first hunter had already died.

So I go over to loot the hunter, and after getting his gear I'm overloaded, so I drop a suit of Forsworn armor on the body. I take off down the road. Ten minutes later, I'm picking flowers on the road side, when this hunter comes running towards me. Stops, drops in to conversation, and asks me if I mind if she takes this suit of armor I dropped on her buddy's dead and looted body about three miles down the road.

[El Gallo]

- I used Heavy Armor all the way. Why does it suck exactly, and why is light better, for a melee character?

As a spergy powergamer, the answer is that you can hit the armor cap wearing light armor, even without a shield, if you have smithing.  http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Armor#Armor_Cap

That being said, heavy armor looks bad ass.  It also makes it easier to hit the AC cap earlier in the game, or without spending as many perks.

[Miasma]

I like the way the light dragon armor looks compared to the heavy dragon armor.  Neither of them are great but heavy dragon looks like shit.  Ebony and daedric are of course awesome but both are lower tier.  Didn't know there was a cap though.

As for alchemy once you get into the level 40s "Ultimate" potions start dropping which simply restore all of your health (or magic or stamina), so all the bonuses and perks which make alchemy percentage based stronger are worthless since you can't heal more than your full health.

Edit: That's odd, the link above says daedric armor is stronger than dragon.  I had just assumed dragon was the best since it's at the top of the smith tree.  Oh well, at least with light armor you don't have to search all over for Daedra hearts.  And speaking of daedra hearts you can buy two at a time from an npc in the mages college unless you never buy from him before you are made archmage.  I'm stuck with not being able to buy from him because I didn't know that.

[Sky]

Why the hell would they put such a low cap on armor?

I keep forgetting to remove my ebony + speech (and other stuff) helm and it didn't seem to matter, guess I know why.

Miasma, Daedric is lower in smithing but higher in effectiveness. Harder to get the daedric hearts, vs the plethora of dragony bits. At level 38, I've had one daedric heart show up, and that I looted from a necromancer's lair or something (my shiny new axe...though I could only swing legendary on it).

[Miasma]

Yeah I followed El Gallo's link and found that out, edited my post too.  You can buy two hearts each week from a guy in the mages college if you aren't already archmage.

[El Gallo]

Why the hell would they put such a low cap on armor?

Who knows? :bethesda: (I feel like that should have an icon, but I can't think of any simple picture that adequately captures the unique blend of awesomeness and incompetence that Bethesda stands for).

I kind of think that smithing (and to a slightly lesser extent, enchanting) are just game-breakingly overpowered.  They also essentially remove loot-hunting as a motivation in the game.  I think I would enjoy the game more if I could resist using those skills, but....spergy powergamer.  

[Sky]

I just pretty much make a smith in every game that allows it. Even in TOR I'm planning on making an armorer (and it fits with RP, since I'll be a bounty hunter and mandalorians are a bit into their armor).

[Murgos]

Considering that it takes over 100 smithing along with all of the +heavy/light armor perks to get to the cap I don't think it's particularly low.

[rattran]

For relatively easy farming of Daedra hearts:

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I was gonna mention that.  Did that questline and had 7 hearts in my pack.  Wondered what the fuss was about.

[calapine]

R.I.P Lydia.... All that is left is an ashpile and some armor.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, that happens.  Go hire the woman who you get through a fist fight.  She's awesome.  It's like dating in Scotland.

[Ingmar]

You'll get 4ish daedra hearts doing the  daedric quest as well.

[Sheepherder]

Why the hell would they put such a low cap on armor?

Who knows? :bethesda: (I feel like that should have an icon, but I can't think of any simple picture that adequately captures the unique blend of awesomeness and incompetence that Bethesda stands for).

100   Health.
500   Effective Health with max armour.
1000 Effective Health with max armour and perfect blocking.
1667 Effective Health with max armour and perfect blocking with perks applied.

The cap on mitigation is, in fact, ridiculously fucking high.

[koro]

And yet bandit chiefs with two-handed weapons can still three-shot you.