As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Please post in new thread [Skyrim] & [The Elder Scrolls]

1858688909198

Posts

  • The_SpaniardThe_Spaniard It's never lupines Irvine, CaliforniaRegistered User regular
    Ok I'm just going to let you guys decide for me now. I promised myself I'd re-install and finish Oblivion/Shivering Isles/DLC before I played my new copy of Skyrim because I'd never be able to go back, and I never finished the game the first time around. Now I want to do it with a handful of overhaul mods, both graphical and gameplay or just not bother. Now I'm on my second install attempt and I'm going to need to go for a third because I'm bit by bit figuring out which mods are breaking things and which ones work. But multiple people are telling me to just say eff it and skip right to Skyrim. Should I stick to it and play through Oblivion once and for all to put it behind me, or just forget about it?

    Playstation/Origin/GoG: Span_Wolf Xbox/uPlay/Bnet: SpanWolf Nintendo: Span_Wolf SW-7097-4917-9392 Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Span_Wolf/
  • Al_watAl_wat Registered User regular
    Esh wrote:
    Al_wat wrote:
    Esh wrote:
    How good can the potions get? I've got a +50% in my bag at the moment for Fortify Smithing.

    I can make +130% smithing potions, and +32% enchanting potions

    I have 100 alchemy, smithing and enchanting. I did the recursion thing (no fortify resto potions or other glitchy stuff) to its max, which gets me a +29% enchantment for smithing or alchemy.

    I just watched a video where a guy did that exact thing. I just need to get Alchemy to 100 now. What's the respawn rate on Giant camps anyway? What are some other potions that are really good for leveling fast?


    Alchemy is a real bitch to level to 100. I found it more tedious than Enchanting or Smithing.

    Giant camps is I think a couple weeks. While they are good to farm they don't respawn fast enough to satisfy leveling alchemy as fast as possible. You do still want to get their toes whenever they are available, though.

    I think potions like invis, slow, paralyze were generally the highest value. Its kind of counter intuitive because you can make really high value potions that are pretty much useless in actual application (unless you choose the right perks) due to having conflicting effects. However since the more gold a potion is worth the more your skill raises, you want to be making these.

    What I did, rather than going around farming ingredients for specific potions(other than toes) was just rotating through all alchemy shops on the map and buying literally every ingredient they had. Each one has an alchemy station. I would make all potions I could that would value higher than, say 200 (or any value you arbitrarily choose which gives a noticeable skill increase), then sell them back. Then move to the next shop. This should provide you with a net positive in gold. Make sure when you do this you are wearing enchanted +alchemy gear, this will make you skill up faster through higher potion values.

    you can find lists of potions, relative potion values and ingredients through google. You might want to use these in the beginning when you still don't know what a lot of ingredients do. Trial and error works fine also. I tried using the lists myself and found them tedious as hell, trial and error served me well. This is also why I chose the above method - it's easier to go buyout a vendor, make everything you can and then move on than it is to hunt down specific ingredients.

  • HeisenbergHeisenberg Registered User regular
    God damn that crimson nirnroot quest was such a fucking waste of time.

    Spent like 45 minutes searching every inch of Blackreach for two lines of dialogue and a 10 page book.

  • DusdaDusda is ashamed of this post SLC, UTRegistered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Ok I'm just going to let you guys decide for me now. I promised myself I'd re-install and finish Oblivion/Shivering Isles/DLC before I played my new copy of Skyrim because I'd never be able to go back, and I never finished the game the first time around. Now I want to do it with a handful of overhaul mods, both graphical and gameplay or just not bother. Now I'm on my second install attempt and I'm going to need to go for a third because I'm bit by bit figuring out which mods are breaking things and which ones work. But multiple people are telling me to just say eff it and skip right to Skyrim. Should I stick to it and play through Oblivion once and for all to put it behind me, or just forget about it?
    Have you done the dark brotherhood quest line yet? That's pretty much the only thing I cared about in Oblivion.

    Dusda on
    and this sig. and this twitch stream.
  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Is the bonus from improving smithed items bugged?

    I made scaled armor, and upgraded it to Exquisite, for 77 armor.
    Later, I made another set and upgraded it to Flawless, for 85 armor.

    No matter which set I wear, I get the same displayed armor value. The Exquisite armor says +77, but it actually adds +85 when equipped, if the number on the bottom of the screen is correct.

    If I drop the Flawless and re-equip the Exquisite, my displayed armor value descends to +77. If I'm holding the Flawless in my inventory, though, re-equipping the Exquisite yields +85.

    Free Giraffe Rides!!! on
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    Is the bonus from improving smithed items bugged?

    I made scaled armor, and upgraded it to Exquisite, for 77 armor.
    Later, I made another set and upgraded it to Flawless, for 85 armor.

    No matter which set I wear, I get the same displayed armor value. The Exquisite armor says +77, but it actually adds +85 when equipped, if the number on the bottom of the screen is correct.

    What's the displayed value, out of curiosity?

    If it is 567 or higher, don't worry about it, since that is the effective cap.

  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    MechMantis wrote:
    Is the bonus from improving smithed items bugged?

    I made scaled armor, and upgraded it to Exquisite, for 77 armor.
    Later, I made another set and upgraded it to Flawless, for 85 armor.

    No matter which set I wear, I get the same displayed armor value. The Exquisite armor says +77, but it actually adds +85 when equipped, if the number on the bottom of the screen is correct.

    What's the displayed value, out of curiosity?

    If it is 567 or higher, don't worry about it, since that is the effective cap.

    My armor's not nearly that good, I'm at 176 AR with the flawless scale.

  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    Huh.

    Any enchantments or set bonuses you're forgetting about?

  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    Esh wrote:
    Al_wat wrote:
    Esh wrote:
    How good can the potions get? I've got a +50% in my bag at the moment for Fortify Smithing.

    I can make +130% smithing potions, and +32% enchanting potions

    I have 100 alchemy, smithing and enchanting. I did the recursion thing (no fortify resto potions or other glitchy stuff) to its max, which gets me a +29% enchantment for smithing or alchemy.

    I just watched a video where a guy did that exact thing. I just need to get Alchemy to 100 now. What's the respawn rate on Giant camps anyway? What are some other potions that are really good for leveling fast?

    I think Invisibility potions are the way to go. If you wait for giant toes, it's going to take you a lot of in game time.

    Invisibility potions are luna moth wings + chaurus eggs, both incredibly common ingredients. Spend one night scampering around Whiterun, then visit almost any dwemer ruin and/or Blackreach for your eggs. You'll also acquire shitloads of money, soul gems, and gear to sell and use to buy more ingredients.

    Alchemy sucks to level, it is by far the slowest and most tedious of the crafting skills, but it can be done with relatively little inconvenience. You just have to accept that, unlike Smithing, the skill is going to go up gradually rather than five sittings.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • harvestharvest By birthright, a stupendous badass.Registered User regular
    The thing with alchemy is that you have to plan to raise it from the start, and make those invisibility/paralyze/slow potions. If you collect ingredients all the time and just deposit them in a chest somewhere (or the Breezehome alchemist satchel) when you're ready to start working on the skill in earnest you'll have a good stock of common (and uncommon) reagents ready to go.

    That said, if you want a big boost just take a stroll along north coast of the lake west of Riften to harvest luna moth wings. They can be combined with chaurus eggs, nirnroot, or vampire dust to produce an invisibility potion that should sell for a good chunk. Spend a few nights farming wings and dive into a couple falmer-infested caves/ruins and you'll go a long way into alchemy. Also, you can use this list to create the best potions based on what you have available. It is sorted from highest to lowest value potions, with "lowest" (100 points on this scale) meaning invisibility and nothing else.

    B6yM5w2.gif
  • KeiosKeios Registered User regular
    So, I'm having troubles. Dragon troubles specifically. I've pretty much ignored the main questline and just wandered about sneaking into peoples homes and stealing all their crap. As a result I've managed to get my sneak and pickpocket as well as blacksmithing, enchanting and alchemy up to 100. this means that while I'm grand so long as I can sneak up on someone and stab them in the back for massive damage insta-death, as soon as I try to kill a dragon the bugger eats me. Whole. Any ideas what I should do to overcome this? Possibly start carrying a dragon-resistant shield just for those fights?

    steam_sig.png
  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    Keios wrote:
    So, I'm having troubles. Dragon troubles specifically. I've pretty much ignored the main questline and just wandered about sneaking into peoples homes and stealing all their crap. As a result I've managed to get my sneak and pickpocket as well as blacksmithing, enchanting and alchemy up to 100. this means that while I'm grand so long as I can sneak up on someone and stab them in the back for massive damage insta-death, as soon as I try to kill a dragon the bugger eats me. Whole. Any ideas what I should do to overcome this? Possibly start carrying a dragon-resistant shield just for those fights?

    If your smithing/enchanting/alchemy are at 100, you shouldn't have any problems fighting dragons. Make some Fortify Smithing Gear, drink a 50% smithing potion and upgrade all your weapons. Then make a set of Fortify Weapon skill for the weapon you use(say, One Handed); you should be able to get 160% bonus skill from your enchanted gear (4 items, 40% each) and that's not including any alchemy recursion stuff you might do to get it higher. Then enchant elemental resistances to taste and craft lots of health potions and damage health poisons.

    All this should easily mitigate your relatively low skill in an attack stat.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • Qui-Gon JinnQui-Gon Jinn Registered User regular
    You can also wear clothing to increase smithing

  • BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    All dragons can be defeated by a simple 5-step process.

    1) Find a rock.
    2) Place rock between yourself and dragon.
    3) In between dragon breaths, pop out and shoot the dragon with an arrow or some magic.
    4) ???
    5) Kill the dragon now it's on really low health.

    If you throw in Marked For Death, you can kill dragons fairly handily this way.

    Sure, it's not quite running up and 2-shotting them, but it requires no levelled skills whatsoever.

    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    MechMantis wrote:
    Huh.

    Any enchantments or set bonuses you're forgetting about?

    Nope. One is enchanted, but just with -spell cost. The only variable that's changing is whether I'm wearing the flawless or exquisite version, with no corresponding change in AR.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Hmmm, which ending for the Azura quest do I consider good? The one where you let the mage cut it off from Azura but it only takes human souls, or the one where you give it back, and it doesn't? Hmmmm decisions.

    steam_sig.png
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Hmmm, which ending for the Azura quest do I consider good? The one where you let the mage cut it off from Azura but it only takes human souls, or the one where you give it back, and it doesn't? Hmmmm decisions.
    Considering Azura's always been helpful, downright GOOD even, also taking human souls is bad...

    Also everyone who's pissed off Azura's gotten their ass handed to them one way or another...

    I feel this needs repeating: Daedra are not demons in the traditional sense. Some are assholes, some are not.

    EDIT2: Furthermore, Azura's Star works more like a waterwheel, allowing the water (soul) to pass through it to do whatever (go to Aetherius). Normal soul gems do not, they're more like batteries (the soul is consumed utterly). Azura's benevolent usually, this is reflected in how her artifact works.

    EDIT: Oh, Free, just thought of this. Close the inventory screen after equipping your new armor, then open it again. Sometimes the numbers don't always refresh properly.

    MechMantis on
  • atat23atat23 Registered User regular
    Not sure how good this is as I only started Alchemy this playthrough, looks fairly useful though:


    http://rp.eliteskills.com/skyrim.html

  • harvestharvest By birthright, a stupendous badass.Registered User regular
    Holy shit that thing's amazing.

    B6yM5w2.gif
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Azura isn't good. Azura's PR is good.

  • VedicIntentVedicIntent Registered User regular
    So I think I'm getting a variant of the PS3 autosave freeze on PC. For the last week, I've been getting huge slowdown on the scene load when I fast travel to places, specifically cities like Solitude or Whiterun. As in, sitting for 5+ minutes while the view fades in after the load screen and CHUGS. The autosave notification is in the upper left the whole time. When autosave finishes, things go back to normal.

    I checked my save files, and they've gone from about 3MB for the earliest one to around 8.5MB for the most recent. This sounds a lot like the PS3 issue, but I haven't been able to find info on PC. Is this some cumulative save file thing I can't fix? Turning off autosave helps, but it's a huge pain.

    VT09mOz.png
  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    OH GOD YES

    (you can ignore all the ini shit)

    Free Giraffe Rides!!! on
  • VedicIntentVedicIntent Registered User regular
    Azura isn't good. Azura's PR is good.

    Azura is voiced by Linda Carter, I found out. And she's totally hamming it up for the role, which I kind of like - it has that "playing it up for the fans at a comic con" feel.

    VT09mOz.png
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    MechMantis wrote:
    Hmmm, which ending for the Azura quest do I consider good? The one where you let the mage cut it off from Azura but it only takes human souls, or the one where you give it back, and it doesn't? Hmmmm decisions.
    Considering Azura's always been helpful, downright GOOD even, also taking human souls is bad...

    Also everyone who's pissed off Azura's gotten their ass handed to them one way or another...

    I feel this needs repeating: Daedra are not demons in the traditional sense. Some are assholes, some are not.

    EDIT2: Furthermore, Azura's Star works more like a waterwheel, allowing the water (soul) to pass through it to do whatever (go to Aetherius). Normal soul gems do not, they're more like batteries (the soul is consumed utterly). Azura's benevolent usually, this is reflected in how her artifact works.

    Ok, it is decided, on this guy I shall give it back to Azura because I did make a bargain, and this way all the lesser monster souls can continue on with that circle of life shit.

    Now on my evil destructomage, he's gonna say fuck "fuck her turn it black" because human souls are useful and he's powermad enough to defy a daedra.

    steam_sig.png
  • SlortexSlortex In my chairRegistered User regular
    Now on my evil destructomage, he's gonna say fuck "fuck her turn it black" because human souls are useful and he's powermad enough to defy a daedra.

    Bonus points if you make the first soul you capture with it the woman at the shrine who gives you the quest.

  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Azura isn't good. Azura's PR is good.

    Comparatively you can't argue that she isn't though.

    I mean, you've got Mehrunes Dagon, Invader Of All Things, and Molag Bal, King of Rape as competition. Also, she hasn't done anything overtly evil. Only self-serving, which in the past has generally been a good thing for everyone involved.

    Especially her.

    I mean, look at Morrowind. Can you disagree that the entire Nerevarine thing was bad for anyone other than Dagoth Ur, who was by all accounts a goose of the highest order?

    EDIT: I do concede, however, that she does like her revenge. Also, is very very vain. But those are tolerable character flaws in such a character.

    MechMantis on
  • THESPOOKYTHESPOOKY papa! Registered User regular
    MechMantis wrote:
    Azura isn't good. Azura's PR is good.

    Comparatively you can't argue that she isn't though.

    I mean, you've got Mehrunes Dagon, Invader Of All Things, and Molag Bal, King of Rape as competition. Also, she hasn't done anything overtly evil. Only self-serving, which in the past has generally been a good thing for everyone involved.

    Especially her.

    I mean, look at Morrowind. Can you disagree that the entire Nerevarine thing was bad for anyone other than Dagoth Ur, who was by all accounts a goose of the highest order?

    EDIT: I do concede, however, that she does like her revenge. Also, is very very vain. But those are tolerable character flaws in such a character.


    Well...compared to Hitler....
    :rotate:

    d4753b065e9d63cc25203f06160a1cd1.png
  • MarsMars Registered User regular
    Wasn't Azura's Daggerfall quest basically just "This person doesn't like me killhimkillhimkillhim? And then in Morrowind she made some poor priestess sit in a muddy cabin alone for like 100 years just to win a bet. And with Sheogorath of all people.

    Azura's definitely not all that nice. She just doesn't go out of her way to screw mortals over like most of the other princes.

  • DozingDragonDozingDragon Registered User regular
    Azura's meddling and desire for revenge on the Tribunal led to the Oblivion crisis or at the very least paved the way for it by necessitating the liberation of the Heart of Lorkhan, which just happened to be one of the things maintaining the barrier between Mundus and Oblivion. Just check out the Nu-Mantia Intercept if you don't believe me.

    So yeah, she's not so nice.

  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    Oh Michael Kirkbride, you and your weird, trippy stream-of-consciousness-style characters.

    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • Warlock82Warlock82 Never pet a burning dog Registered User regular
    Bethryn wrote:
    All dragons can be defeated by a simple 5-step process.

    1) Find a rock.
    2) Place rock between yourself and dragon.
    3) In between dragon breaths, pop out and shoot the dragon with an arrow or some magic.
    4) ???
    5) Kill the dragon now it's on really low health.

    If you throw in Marked For Death, you can kill dragons fairly handily this way.

    Sure, it's not quite running up and 2-shotting them, but it requires no levelled skills whatsoever.

    Yeah this was my winning strategy. It's kind of sad how many fights in this game are won by using the crappy AI (and bad pathing) to your advantage :) I still find it funny I was able to beat a Giant really early in the game by simply standing on the ramparts of a fort I had cleared earlier because he was too stupid to get up there.

    Switch: 2143-7130-1359 | 3DS: 4983-4927-6699 | Steam: warlock82 | PSN: Warlock2282
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    SightTDW wrote:
    I just started up Skyrim, just a couple hours in now (just got my first shout). Any advice on making a good battlemage? If I go with heavy armor is it possible to enchant in the mage-y bonuses I'm seeing on robes and such reliably? Other than that I think I just need to decide on what to keep in the other hand. One handed weapons are nice and all, but I do like the idea of a shield. Something about the image of a flame throwing wall of metal is highly appealing.

    I've been playing as a Battlemage, fire in the left and a sword in the right.

    Because of how magic works in this game, you're going to make things difficult for yourself if you try shield and magic for a couple of reasons:

    1. Magic doesn't scale with level, and you can't do much to improve the magic damage output, so you hit these chasms where your effectiveness tapers off dramatically while you wait for the skill up to get the next spell. I'm at 55ish in Destro, and my fireball is pretty useless now until the level 75 spells. All I'm doing is ploughing cash into training up, because actually using the spells is pointless. I think Destro is really balanced around dual-casting for levelling.

    2. Heavy Armor is what I'm wearing, and if you perk up Enchanting you can put decent mage enchants on, but you'll won't put as powerful enchants as the quest rewards for a very long time. Mage play is designed around light armor, so all the quest rewards for mages is light. My character setup means I don't/can't block, so I need the heavy armor.

    3. When you run out of Magicka (which you will, as you don't have the stronger quest reward enchants) you'll be boned.

    4. Destro's other annoying facet is that the splash damage you do from almost all spells will hurt followers, and you will kill them accidentally, either forcing you to reload or keep ploughing through your follower pool. Followers can't be killed be enemies (they lose all their health, kneel down, then recooperate), but you can kill them, and this is easily done when they have low health. This is somewhat avoidable when you have another source of damage as you can just stop flinging fireballs, but if your only damage output is a spell with splash damage, your life will be very difficult.

    What you're talking about sounds appealing, but Skyrim really isn't set up to support it. Above all else, the real kicker is the splash damage. Without that, you could have a follower that can also do damage for you while you recharge, and things would be OK. Killing your followers all the time is a real drag.

    Lewisham on
  • NeurotikaNeurotika Registered User regular
    Can you 'chant up an appreciable magic resist set for your Follower in those cases?

  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    ForceVoid wrote:
    Can you 'chant up an appreciable magic resist set for your Follower in those cases?

    This hadn't occurred to me. I guess that is one possibility. Maybe then Aela wouldn't have died in some Dwarven hell hole last night ;(

  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    People use companions?

  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited January 2012
    Couscous wrote:
    People use companions?

    Depends on your build. For the early days of a Battlemage, they're invaluable, as you can't take too much heat as you can't block, so you need the tank. Now I'm perked/enchanted up enough, I can tank myself, so just brought Aela along as a mule and shooty-person.

    Lewisham on
  • NeurotikaNeurotika Registered User regular
    Lewisham wrote:
    ForceVoid wrote:
    Can you 'chant up an appreciable magic resist set for your Follower in those cases?

    This hadn't occurred to me. I guess that is one possibility. Maybe then Aela wouldn't have died in some Dwarven hell hole last night ;(

    Report back, I'm thinking of adding some AoE spells to my rotation, but I was fearful of Follower slaying.

  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    I like how you get so many reactions from the guards when you're wearing daedra gear. Also, the guard's line about 'curved swords. curved.swords' is pretty great. The guards don't seem to believe that anyone would opt for curved swords.

  • Free Giraffe Rides!!!Free Giraffe Rides!!! Registered User regular
    Couscous wrote:
    People use companions?

    Who else is gonna carry all my shit?

    I've been using Jenassa for a long time. I have her dual-wielding heavily upgraded enchanted fire and frost swords. She's a blender.



    Something surprising about Destruction: the +elemental damage perks apply to enchanted weapons. You can get a very significant increase in melee damage from this.

    They do not, however, apply to several of the actual destruction spells. :(

  • KadokenKadoken Giving Ends to my Friends and it Feels Stupendous Registered User regular
    I'm an insane nine divines religious zealot, so I took the black star and fill it with the souls of evil doers. Also people who just deserve to die.

Sign In or Register to comment.