Difficulty zones

[desdemonte]

I keep reading about difficulty zones and I'm wondering if there is a map with them shown. I'm wandering around at level 12 just mucking around, doing the odd dungeon and the boss fights seem to be really hard. I'm just wondering what areas/quests I should be sticking to. I don't want to go too far in the main quest lines yet.

Thanks in advance

 

[mcfrg]

A tip is to always bring a follower with you. They will warn you if they think there is going to be a tough fight ahead.

 

[desdemonte]

Hey- thanks. That's a good idea

 

[Psiberzerker]

In general, a good indicator is Snow. As you go up in Altitude, or north to the snowy wastes, the level of enemies tends to be higher. This is not the same as Game Difficulty, that's a straight up Damage Multiplier. You will just tend to run into more Snowy versions of Animals (Always tougher) and higher level Bandits as well as caves, and dungeons set up to be tougher than the starter ones around Whiterun, and Falkreath Holds. There are exceptions, Saarthal, and Ustengrav are both up north, but they're still Starter dungeons with regards to Difficulty. This is because all of the Faction quests are set up to get progressively tougher as you level.

 

[desdemonte]

Thanks much. I will keep that in mind as well. I was level 9 or 10 and heading to a dragon site northwest of Windhelm when I ran across a prison or something and got freaking pwned by the 2 casters, their skellies and ice atronach. 2 ice spikes and I was dead. And the buggers never miss!!! Lol .... Took me a while to figure it out, but I beat them eventually. I just hope all random encounters aren't *that* hard! Heh heh

 

[Psiberzerker]

Thanks much. I will keep that in mind as well. I was level 9 or 10 and heading to a dragon site northwest of Windhelm when I ran across a prison or something and got freaking pwned by the 2 casters, their skellies and ice atronach. 2 ice spikes and I was dead. And the buggers never miss!!! Lol .... Took me a while to figure it out, but I beat them eventually. I just hope all random encounters aren't *that* hard! Heh heh

Yeah, the road from Windhelm to Winterhold is a long hard slog at low level. Get some Magic Resistance, Armor does nothing to stop Ice Spike, for instance. 2 Conjurers with Frost Atronachs is pretty high for below level 10, did you happen to be around Fort Kastav? Stay away from there until you have some more Health, and Resistance.

 

[desdemonte]

Yeah, the road from Windhelm to Winterhold is a long hard slog at low level. Get some Magic Resistance, Armor does nothing to stop Ice Spike, for instance. 2 Conjurers with Frost Atronachs is pretty high for below level 10, did you happen to be around Fort Kastav? Stay away from there until you have some more Health, and Resistance.

That's exactly where I was lol!