Forums » Elder Scrolls

• Paul Skavland

  

  • 9 posts
   

  June 16, 2012 10:14 PM EDT

  Hi,

  I play on the 360 so I can't use the awesome mods that I'm sure exist for the PC, so don't point me to those. I swear I may need to get a new PC just for this game. 

  Yes I'm playing on Expert/Master. 

  I'm not looking to bitch about how broken crafting is, we all know it's broken.  But I don't like the "NO smithing/enchanting" rules because then I feel like I'm missing out on part of the game's content completely.  For example, I had a lot of fun becoming a Blood-Kin to the Orcs so I could gain access to an Orichalum mine and make my own Orcish armor. I also enjoy Azura's quest and I have fun disenchanting items and crafting little goodies for myself.  But how do I not break the damn game?

  It's easy to make myself "squishy," the main problem seems to be how much damage I'm able to do.  It seems like the second I have the skill to craft, say, an Ebony sword, if I temper that sword I'm OP.

  Any good rules of thumb like, "over 500 armor is too much" or "if your weapon does more than 90 damage per hit that's too much" or anything like that?  How do you guys deal with this problem (other than avoiding crafting totally)???

  All suggestions welcome, thanks 

• Ponty

  

  • 708 posts
   

  June 16, 2012 10:19 PM EDT

  When I'm playing I typically have a rule of not getting any Smithing perks with a prereq of over 50 Smithing (Minus Arcane Blacksmith of course). Unless the build requires it, I won't get anything in Enchanting besides the recharging perks or ranks in Enchanter. And I'll never give myself a 50% spellcost bonus to more than 1 school.

• lanep25

  

  • 377 posts
   

  June 17, 2012 3:02 AM EDT

  Don't temper your armor and swords if you think of yourself as too overpowered.

• Paul Skavland

  

  • 9 posts
   

  June 17, 2012 2:54 PM EDT

  @Ponty thanks for the suggestions, I'll add those to my list.

  After some testing last night I have a few ideas for myself (and hopefully helpful to others):

  1. I can temper my weapon OR use a Fortify 1H/2H enchantment but not both.

  2. Use enchanting/smithing instead of ranks in Armsman/Barbarian.  Limit myself to 1 rank only if I want Savage Strike/etc.

  3. Got this idea from Ponty's Skystrider build: only enchant weapons with 1-2 points of fire or frost damage, gives the "slow" effect or "burning" damage but not a ton of actual damage.

• Guilherme

  

  • 16 posts
   

  June 17, 2012 3:07 PM EDT

  If you do play on master, a tip I can offer is not overpowering any skill, as it imo breaks the game, for example, instead of making a billion iron daggers to power level, acquire leather and ores from the adventuring throughout skyrim... A miniquest has you clear koensygrr mine near markath, as soon as the forsworn are cleared from there you can mine all the gold ores in there, netting you 53 gold ores and thus making 52 golden rings to enchant, it gives you enchant and smithing xp (alot) and it is fully legit, another tip is not fast travelling if perhaps for carriages, it will have you discover many of the wonders in the game, and again, if played on master, will make it f*cking really challenging. Hope you understand my message! Have fun

• RuneRed

  

  • 856 posts
   

  June 18, 2012 10:35 AM EDT

  Usually I will only concentrate on one crafting skill (if any) - I may get one or two perks in another, but not more.  Rarely do I get any crafting skill to 100 - I rather go 'adventuring' instead of working on my crafting skill.

    I limit my characters to one or two of the major questlines, and then I retire them.  And I retire my character by 50th level, regardless.  The game is not really designed for levels beyond that.

• Paul Skavland

  

  • 9 posts
   

  June 18, 2012 1:22 PM EDT

  @RuneRed: I've noticed that about 50th level.  I find my characters headed for retirement in the 40s, and I only have one character, my very first, that made it to level 57.  (Because I "wasted" perks, hehe)

  It makes me wonder sometimes why they didn't make the level cap 50? I mean, the game sure loses its luster by that point. Huh.

  I guess I'm just sad because the last two characters I've made were both builds I found on this site, and they were both so much FUN to play that I can't believe it's retirement time ... *sniff sniff*     (Ponty's "commander" and Mason's "volkihar")  I wonder if I don't use the mage/thief/warrior stone next time if that will help?

  Anyway thanks all for your input.