What Difficulty Level Do You Play

[Brizzle Kicks]

I'm sure this has been done before but couldn't find anything in the search bar so vote away.

 

[Chadonraz]

Novice, because I was new to the series.

 

[Brizzle Kicks]

Novice, because I was new to the series.

We all have to start somewhere.

 

[TomatoThief]

Adept. I have dug deep into the game on Master, but ultimately became disillusioned. The reason for this being that friendly NPC's and followers scale up with the difficulty with enemies. This meant what might be an impossible dragon, troll, or bear fight became winnable (often easily so) with a single follower from a backwoods village. The reason I started on Master was to be forced to use every tool at my disposal to win. Turns out "every tool" is named "Lydia" (pun intended).

The only things that makes this game challenging are self imposed restrictions. I had hoped on Master I would not have to impose any restrictions on play, but I was wrong. Therefore, I scaled back to Adept, where all health and damage is equal. There is still the occasional fight that catches me off guard, usually multiple mages ice spearing me; but my number 1 enemy is still falling off mountains. Let's face it, this is simply an easy game for anybody with gaming experience beyond Mario Bros (unless you've beat it with no warps!).

TT

 

[jaomile]

Master but i played this game with so many diffetent characters so i know what to do and when so it is not difficult at all. I also don't have any followers. I do however invest a lot of perk points in smithing (and enchanting) so even though it is currently 52 I already made legendery steel plate armor and legendary skyforge steel weapons.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Kalin of High Rock]

Adept. I've got nothing to prove.

 

[Baelor]

Master for me, simply because I have logged so many hours on this game I need all the challenge I can get.

 

[AS88]

I almost always play on Expert, sometimes Master. I feel as though the game is too unrealistically hard on Master, unless making full over-use of smithing, alchemy or enchanting (usually a combination). Also, I find Destruction is useless on Master.

I'm hoping to get a decent PC soon, at which point I'll play on Master, but using the BYOG mod to increase my damage output, to closer match the more realistic damage the player takes on Master.

 

[The Wanderer]

I Change as my Character Progresses, usually starting on adept. Sometimes, on my Orc, 1 hitting everything with Valendrung makes everything but Master just too easy.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Adept, because I build limitations into my character. For one thing, I don't craft much. I have done Master, quite a bit for training (More damage means more experience) and to prove how over powered my OP builds are (Conjuration) but the ones I like are balanced, by not taking advantage of all the gamebreaking exploits I know are there. Like Backstabbing with a Sword.

If you run the Crafting Loop to cap out armor, more than triple the damage on a dagger, then backstab for 60x that, please don't complain that Master isn't hard enough. You systematically went through, and took all the challenge out, or read the guide written by someone else who did. If you Smith, Enchant, and Alc as a Breton Assassin, and make your own Daedric weapons, of course it's going to be too easy, no matter what you Mod in.

A real challenge to build is someone who never outstrips the game, even with such incredible powers as the Thu'um, and weapons like Volendrung. The easiest way is to leave off some, or most of the armor, and don't invest in any of the defensive skills (like Block) Then, dual wield, or 2 handed so you're forced to attack. See how long that lasts, on Novice. It's doable, hell even enjoyable, but for someone who's done nothing but crafted endgame armor from the beginning, it may be just a little too much of a challenge to just wear Fur. (Which can't be improved, by the way.)

The most balanced I've done is still Dreadfall, an assassin, but 2 handed so there's no higher Backstab bonus, unarmored so she's fairly fragile if she is caught, and Block as her only defense. On Adept, this comes out just about perfect. Not too powerfull, not so weak she dies every fight, actually the most fun if you know how to play her. The only cheat she uses is Silent Roll>>Great Critical Charge to ambush mobs she can't sneak close enough to, or when she runs out of Vampire Dust. That's it.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Try this: Run the Thalmor Embassy without giving Malborn anything to smuggle in first. (On PC, you can just reset the Quest.) Use only what you find inside, and some Quest items that stay in your Inventory. For instance, the Amulet of Talos on the gate guard who's executed when you first come to Solitude.

If you look, it's just visible at the neck of the Party Clothes. I kind of get off on the irony here. An Assassin can go in with Kahvovein's Fang to get past the first guards, and a pure Wizard does just fine. This is one of the ways I test my builds to see how effective they are irregardless of Gear, on adept. (Bound Weapons really help here.)

I've also bumped it up to Master to "Cherry Tap" tough enemies with little to no gear. Alduin, Warlord Gathric, the Dragon Priests, Madanach in a Loincloth, with nothing but your skills, and spells. That's an OP character, one who needs Nothing to be OP. That's how I know I've built it into the Character, and not his outfit/weapons...

 

[Adam Belmont]

I play on Expert. I've played on master a while but I didnt see the point by doing so. Master dificulty makes it harder to play but there's no reward for that. I think expert is challenging and funny at the same time.

 

[Perry M]

I played on 'Master' difficulty last time I was on, and there is no challenge to it if you can think ahead. You'll have to think of what you want to do, and how. I remember using magic defensively with the master level restoration version of the ward. The dragonskin also helps. It's more about how you apply yourself to the situation.

 

[DrunkenMage]

I play on master for my mage, else I over power too much. Dragon fights can last a very very long time with a Mage on master, you're fine unless they land and bite you, you're dead instantly if they bite you, lesser ward blocks all dragon breath attacks so it doesn't eat much of the magic bar. But impact from destruction, makes easy work on basically every enemy, since they stagger and by the time they recover you've hit them again and it repeats. My summoned creatures or thralls depending what I have around me, generally hunt down any survivors or fleeing victims.

Having illusion magic makes it a little too easy at times, since you can cause basically everyone to flee, go on a frenzy or just Jedi mind trick the bunch of them "You will not attack me"

 

[The Wanderer]

Try this: Run the Thalmor Embassy without giving Malborn anything to smuggle in first. (On PC, you can just reset the Quest.) Use only what you find inside, and some Quest items that stay in your Inventory. For instance, the Amulet of Talos on the gate guard who's executed when you first come to Solitude.

If you look, it's just visible at the neck of the Party Clothes. I kind of get off on the irony here. An Assassin can go in with Kahvovein's Fang to get past the first guards, and a pure Wizard does just fine. This is one of the ways I test my builds to see how effective they are irregardless of Gear, on adept. (Bound Weapons really help here.)

I've also bumped it up to Master to "Cherry Tap" tough enemies with little to no gear. Alduin, Warlord Gathric, the Dragon Priests, Madanach in a Loincloth, with nothing but your skills, and spells. That's an OP character, one who needs Nothing to be OP. That's how I know I've built it into the Character, and not his outfit/weapons...

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Saozig]

Whatever I'm in the mood for. If I'm not in the mood for a lot of hassle and just want to run around Skyrim and have fun, I'll lower it. If I want more challenge, I raise it. Sometimes things are more annoying rather than more challenging on Master so it's not exactly a goal I aspire to.

 

[DayWalker]

I change it as i level up. The reason for me doing so is because starting off i don't need the challenge as much as i do the experience, as i progressively get stronger, i then need the challenge as opposed to the latter.

 

[Irish]

I change the difficulty as I level up, though I've only played on Expert a few times. Since the highest level I've achieved is 30 so far, I usually stick to Adept or Apprentice, depending on what I'm doing.

 

[MyNameIsJon]

Try this: Run the Thalmor Embassy without giving Malborn anything to smuggle in first. (On PC, you can just reset the Quest.) Use only what you find inside, and some Quest items that stay in your Inventory.

I accidentally did this. I erroneously thought I could keep my armor, so didn't give Malborn my dragonscale. I gave him my good bow and a crappy knife.

I get in there and discover that I am essentially defenseless. I had kept my arrows thinking they wouldn't take those but they did. So now I have no arrows for the bow. When I did scavenge some arrows, the bow ran out of charges and I had no soul gems. LOL

It was challenging but rewarding, as most challenges are. A little stressful too as I hate to die.

 

[kyleekay]

It depends on my character. If my character is supposed to be a badass who can one-shot anyone, I'll play on Novice. If my character is supposed to be somewhat proficient in battle, I'll play on Apprentice. If it's just a normal character I'll play adept; I have one character for each difficulty setting right now.

I don't play on Master/Expert, because I'm not as cool as some of you.