Is master really that much better?

[skyrimaddict1323]

Brutal it is.. i got one shotted by a restless draugur.. im used to being able to one-hit a restless draugur without even using a power swing. So far it's a HUGE challenge, but more fun and more satisfying. Except for the dragon.. The first dragon was WAY easier to kill than a draugur deathlord. I was hoping the difficulty being on master would help that..

 

[ACEHOLE_76]

Also, i'm wearing imperial heavy armor for the rp. Will standard smithing/enchanting allow me to improve this enough, or would you suggest the alchemy loop to get it to the same (or near) the stats of legendary daedric? Do you guys max your damage resistance to the 567 (i think that's what it is, never done it) or just upgrade as much as you can without the loop?

what is the loop? going back and forth from alchemy to enchanting tables? my dragon scale armor is 1375 so if that is what you are talking aoubt imo that is the way to go and anything can be way over the cap by doing this. there is a cap to this so imo this isnt a cheat or an exploit imo just a path to play......

 

[ACEHOLE_76]

if you are on the PC tougher dragons make it tough. if not you have to plan to keep yourself weak enough to keep it interesting, if that is you wish.......

 

[skyrimaddict1323]

what is the loop? going back and forth from alchemy to enchanting tables? my dragon scale armor is 1375 so if that is what you are talking aoubt imo that is the way to go and anything can be way over the cap by doing this. there is a cap to this so imo this isnt a cheat or an exploit imo just a path to play......

That's the one. I've always wanted to do it but never have mainly because i see no point in leveling alchemy other than to be able to do this. Not to mention i got so close to the cap with legendary daedric on my orc warrior using only an enchanting skill of about 85 and bought or found +enchanting and +smithing potions and smithing gear i made, i was only like 50 points off, so i didnt think it would matter. However, now that i'm playing on master i have a feeling i'm going to be delving into alchemy alot more for health pots and poisons, so no better time to try it right?

 

[skyrimaddict1323]

if you are on the PC tougher dragons make it tough. if not you have to plan to keep yourself weak enough to keep it interesting, if that is you wish.......

On 360 for now. But when i get back all the dollars that uncle sam borrowed , my first investment is going to be a new Alienware laptop

I actually had no interest in PC gaming, and LOVED my Xbox untill i got skyrim, but lately i've been looking at vids of all the amazing mods and just drooling...

 

[Necromis]

I can understand if you wanted to exploit on a weapon. However, using the exploit on armour is foolish, as it could be 1million armour and it would do the same as one at the cap.

I personally would suggest a sneak archer for master. At least as the best chance to survive. An assassin with decent stealth and the bonuses from the perks has a better chance of killing and surviving. Just play smart and run away when you have to. I am even thinking about running a character on master like this just for a bit of fun.

Right now I am running a 2h orc warrior. Had originally thought not to even touch enchanting, just do smithing heavy armour and 2h skills. However when reading up on the Orcs they are into enchanting their items, so I have started working on that. Right now he uses dwaven hammer and orcish armour. Tried doing archery a bit with him but his damage out put sux so badly I just tossed all my archery gear to my follower. Though I am gonna kick her to the curb shortly to do some heavy armour leveling. It don't work too well when she kills them while I am sitting there letting them beat me up. LOL

Oh that being said, I first tried sneak with follower, but found they absolutely SUCK for a sneak. So if you were going to play a sneak on ANY level I would say kiss the follower good bye.

 

[skyrimaddict1323]

I can understand if you wanted to exploit on a weapon. However, using the exploit on armour is foolish, as it could be 1million armour and it would do the same as one at the cap.

I personally would suggest a sneak archer for master. At least as the best chance to survive. An assassin with decent stealth and the bonuses from the perks has a better chance of killing and surviving. Just play smart and run away when you have to. I am even thinking about running a character on master like this just for a bit of fun.

Right now I am running a 2h orc warrior. Had originally thought not to even touch enchanting, just do smithing heavy armour and 2h skills. However when reading up on the Orcs they are into enchanting their items, so I have started working on that. Right now he uses dwaven hammer and orcish armour. Tried doing archery a bit with him but his damage out put sux so badly I just tossed all my archery gear to my follower. Though I am gonna kick her to the curb shortly to do some heavy armour leveling. It don't work too well when she kills them while I am sitting there letting them beat me up. LOL

Oh that being said, I first tried sneak with follower, but found they absolutely SUCK for a sneak. So if you were going to play a sneak on ANY level I would say kiss the follower good bye.

I understand that exploiting armor to thousands is just a waste and most likely just going to cause glitching, i just want to cap my heavy imperial armor TO the cap (or as close over as i can get, because i doubt i can get it perfect) because i plan on keeping that armor throughout this whole playthrough. I don't want to exploit a weapon because the only reason i'm switching to master is to give myself a channenge. If i made a weapon that could kill everything in one hit even on master, that would defeat my pupose.

I was thinking a sneak archer because i love them, that's what more than half of my characters are, but i was worried that i'd be way too underpowered in lower levels, and end up just pissing the baddies off and getting dominated because i can't hold my own. Maybe i'll try one next, after i get the hang of the enemies being so tough, but for now i thought a sword nd board was the safest. not to mention it fits my rp

As for a sneak character with a follower, i've had a couple that were decent (aela and janessa) but usually roll without them. There's several sites you can go to where they have all of the followers skill levels, and ssome of them have pretty high sneak. That said, i have no idea what aela's or janessa's sneak levels were, i just noticed that they didn't make me stand out as much and make it impossible to sneak effectively.

 

[Zoa Two Tails]

The dark brotherhood followers are usually good sneak followers.

 

[Necromis]

first, no follower, IMO, is a good sneak follower. Even Cicero will run up and attack things while I am trying to snipe from afar.

You will be underpowered for the lower levels vs your opponents. That is what makes Master a challenge. Sneak is a matter of stategic advantage. You shoot and move, if caught you run away. Remember, as I have posted many times on here. Running away for a sneak is not cowardice it is strategy. You run away, then sneak back for the kill. Another thing is don't *hide* and shoot from the exact same spot as the AI will home in on where you shot from for the place to look. So shoot from one place then while they search for you move about 10 meters away either laterally or diag from where you shot from.

 

[skyrimaddict1323]

first, no follower, IMO, is a good sneak follower. Even Cicero will run up and attack things while I am trying to snipe from afar.

You will be underpowered for the lower levels vs your opponents. That is what makes Master a challenge. Sneak is a matter of stategic advantage. You shoot and move, if caught you run away. Remember, as I have posted many times on here. Running away for a sneak is not cowardice it is strategy. You run away, then sneak back for the kill. Another thing is don't *hide* and shoot from the exact same spot as the AI will home in on where you shot from for the place to look. So shoot from one place then while they search for you move about 10 meters away either laterally or diag from where you shot from.

Yes, i understand how to snipe, i've done it a few times.

What i meant is am i going to be able to find enough arrows at lvl 1-5 to kill a draugur deathlord with a hunting bow? I was concerned that it would do such little damage that i could put a hundred arrows in a tougher opponent, run out, and then be stuck or be one-shotted.

 

[Sal the dragontamer]

wait you can play skyrim on laptops?!

 

[skyrimaddict1323]

wait you can play skyrim on laptops?!

Of course you can, provided you have a laptop with sufficient capabilities. There's a thread (I believe by Skullrattla) about how to play on an old macbook.

Alienware is one of the top brands in pre-built gaming computers, and the one i'm getting should be able to run Skyrim like a breeze. Plus they are extremely customizable and supposed to have amazing battery life (up to 8 hours of gametime on the one i'm getting).

Now, if anyone from dell is reading this, can i get a discount for repping you??

 

[Necromis]

Well, whether you have enough arrows depends on if you keep every arrow you find. As with almost every dungeon you go thru you will get arrows. I had over a 100 by the end of the first quest dungeon alone. With the perks in sneak and archery your damage will go up. Level 5 should see you out of the first dungeon and that guy is not that hard even in CQC on normal difficulty. I would suggest just bouncing back and forth from the pedistal he is on and the pedistal for the stairs out. He has to keep running around to get you and only can shout at you from a distance. Just double normal number of arrows it takes to kill something and that should give you an idea of how many it will take to kill them now, rounded down sometimes.

 

[ACEHOLE_76]

I understand that exploiting armor to thousands is just a waste and most likely just going to cause glitching, i just want to cap my heavy imperial armor TO the cap (or as close over as i can get, because i doubt i can get it perfect) because i plan on keeping that armor throughout this whole playthrough. I don't want to exploit a weapon because the only reason i'm switching to master is to give myself a channenge. If i made a weapon that could kill everything in one hit even on master, that would defeat my pupose.

some weapons ignore 80% of armor (maces) so an armor rating of 1550 is better then one at 600. as for the weapon without perks or using the restoration cheat 147 is the strongest weapon I could make.

 

[ACEHOLE_76]

Well, whether you have enough arrows depends on if you keep every arrow you find. As with almost every dungeon you go thru you will get arrows.

just a heads up PC gamers you can get a mod that lets you make arrows with firewood + chicken feathers + ignot

 

[Necromis]

Have you tried to kill one of them chicken spies? LOL They bring the whole dayum town down on your head.

 

[ACEHOLE_76]

Have you tried to kill one of them chicken spies? LOL They bring the whole dayum town down on your head.

yes wtf :/

 

[DJFlegg]

I started on the standard difficulty and havn't done much but smith to 70 and do a few dungeons, I can see me turning it up a notch soon though, the good thing is you can alter difficulty at anytime so even if you come across a boss that just wont go down no matter what you try, knock it down a level, knock him out, and bump it back up =)

 

[Revan42]

Could anyone suggest a good build for a beginner on master? Im thinking sword and board Imperial, heavy armor, and archery. Anything else that would be necessary to not get destroyed?

if you want to make master easy, go with a sneaker character. enchanted + upgraded daggers, bows, and armor(i like a mix of dark brotherhood and thieves guild stuff), sneak perks to make bigger boom when you sneak attack(for that you must get the dark brotherhood golves at least. 30x damage with a dagger sneak attack). oh, and also get a bit of illusion to. that helps. finally when you start running out of things to perk into, go for 5/5 armsman(first thing) in 1h for even more dagger sneak damage....30x sneak attack damage with iron daggers(what damage do they do, 8? 10? ill just say 10 easier to do the math), would be about 300 damage, not counting 1h perks, smithing or enchanting, power attacks, etc....its way to easy. although, if you dont get a sneak attack off, be prepared for a fight, because you cant do much damage without sneak attack. but you almost always will.

 

[Lorelei]

What i meant is am i going to be able to find enough arrows at lvl 1-5 to kill a draugur deathlord with a hunting bow? I was concerned that it would do such little damage that i could put a hundred arrows in a tougher opponent, run out, and then be stuck or be one-shotted.

I had no trouble with arrows on my archer/dual dagger assassin at those levels on master, and I was only using my bow at that point because I didn't have the Assassin's Blade perk yet. Most opponents would take me about 5 or 6 shots, and with looting some of those back I never ran out. Just be sure to have a stack of 100 or so before you enter a dungeon.