GrumpyBadger
Article Writer
Hey all
I thought I'd share this with the community as my first contribution. I'm an experimental archaeologist by profession, and it was only a matter of time before I started messing with my ultimate "crafter" Broc, and his abilities to make some pretty sweet armor and enchantments.
To start with, I don't condone "cheating" just to make something ludicrously easy. Broc's level 100 in smithing, alchemy, and enchanting all came from hard work and a cumulative of over 140 hours of gameplay. Also, on the other side of the coin - for roleplay experience, sometimes things can "help."
Broc is originally a light-armored two-handed warrior. He is a member of the Companions as well, and just your textbook good-natured "stick-jock."
For an additional 40 points in armor at the time, I removed Broc's sweet scaled armor and put him in GLASS... a NORD, warrior, and member of the Companions, in the elite armor of the Aldmeri Dominion, at a certain prominent member's funeral! OUCH... totally roleplaying killing.
This is where the fortify restoration exploit really comes in handy. But it also has a problem.
we all know now, that the resto loop exploit can make some absolutely ludicrous speed level potions. Armor and damage easily in the millions! Which also makes it not so fun, to me.
If you don't know about the fortify restoration exploit loop, please check this out:
if you'd like to see it, I really like this explanation. He explains it quite thoroughly, to where I could even follow it!
Yes, hitting a dragon, bare-handed ONCE... is awesome!! but only once for me, I could see it getting old really quick.
I wanted to be able to use it, to be able to wear ANY and ALL armor, and weapons, and be competent at ANY level. But not so God-powered and OP that it loses its challenge.
so I came up with this:
Fortify Restoration LOOP Experiment.pdf
Fortify Restoration LOOP Experiment.xlsx
anyway, I treated this just like any other experiment I have done. Using as many constants as I could. First, let's look at Broc's stats:
Level 50 Nord Warrior (warrior's stone)
Green - it's a good potion/deal/percentage - basically it's a good potion that makes pretty good stuff, and even very little of a perk sometimes. I like these, but they aren't as "good" as I'd like, in both the amount of ingredients used, or in the types of soul gems used either. AKA, their efficiency to me isn't as good as it could be.
Red - "breaks" it - those "ludicrous speed" potions with ridiculous percentages. This is where I noticed they start for me. Now these aren't necessarily a bad thing, but they are definitely STRONG.
Basically my requirements for these simply are:
with only level 15 smithing you ask?
here's where it shines: armor rating of 21 (superior)!!
this potion works great for weapons too. Yes, Broc already is strong in two-handed greatswords, so still, those are his go-to weapons.
but what about his bow?
an improved Dragonbone Bow, with Broc's perks at 100 smithing, only equals 291 damage!! He still has less damage than my lady's Nightingale character with 100 Archery, and an ELVEN BOW! - yeah, she's seriously strong at range.
in other words, it helps "level out the playing field" so to speak, so my character no longer wears Elven gear to a NORD funeral or wedding!! - it's embarrassing!
Also, I really enjoy the fact that level 100 smithing is still required to fully take advantage of the perk.
about the efficiency - this is with only 1 item, and it's only enchanted with a PETTY soul gem!!
I'd like to think my work here is complete.
I also further up the challenge a bit with something I've heard called "Adept +" which I enjoy. The difficulty is rather simple - I don't like enemies that can absorb a stoopid amount of damage from my greatsword, even when I connect, and I also don't like it when I get hit with a greathammer across the head and don't die. - so, I basically leave the difficulty setting at "Adept" and just never put any perks in Health. In other words, Broc has AMAZING STAMINA
*now I know what you're thinking, what about the RED ones?*
personally, I love them for the appropriate circumstances.
I'm a "widower" I guess you could say...
my wife in real life was killed doing her duty. Lydia, in her own way, even reminds me of Shannon alot. Just like Broc initially started out as a character of "me in Skyrim"
umm...
yeah. I don't want to "come home from adventuring" with Broc, only to find his wife, Lydia dead in the grand hall next to my steward, and housecarl, and his son, Blaise, taken off to the orphanage.
I think that little "trick" with Hearthfire is complete and utter BS so I used my red potions to break it. Literally.
Here's how to make sure you never have to worry about your loved ones again -
some serene music to listen to while reading this:
kept me from going insane working on this project
I thought I'd share this with the community as my first contribution. I'm an experimental archaeologist by profession, and it was only a matter of time before I started messing with my ultimate "crafter" Broc, and his abilities to make some pretty sweet armor and enchantments.
To start with, I don't condone "cheating" just to make something ludicrously easy. Broc's level 100 in smithing, alchemy, and enchanting all came from hard work and a cumulative of over 140 hours of gameplay. Also, on the other side of the coin - for roleplay experience, sometimes things can "help."
Broc is originally a light-armored two-handed warrior. He is a member of the Companions as well, and just your textbook good-natured "stick-jock."
For an additional 40 points in armor at the time, I removed Broc's sweet scaled armor and put him in GLASS... a NORD, warrior, and member of the Companions, in the elite armor of the Aldmeri Dominion, at a certain prominent member's funeral! OUCH... totally roleplaying killing.
This is where the fortify restoration exploit really comes in handy. But it also has a problem.
we all know now, that the resto loop exploit can make some absolutely ludicrous speed level potions. Armor and damage easily in the millions! Which also makes it not so fun, to me.
If you don't know about the fortify restoration exploit loop, please check this out:
Yes, hitting a dragon, bare-handed ONCE... is awesome!! but only once for me, I could see it getting old really quick.
I wanted to be able to use it, to be able to wear ANY and ALL armor, and weapons, and be competent at ANY level. But not so God-powered and OP that it loses its challenge.
so I came up with this:
Fortify Restoration LOOP Experiment.pdf
Fortify Restoration LOOP Experiment.xlsx
anyway, I treated this just like any other experiment I have done. Using as many constants as I could. First, let's look at Broc's stats:
Level 50 Nord Warrior (warrior's stone)
- Level 98 Enchanting - 5/5 Enchanter, Insightful, Corpus
- Level 98 in Alchemy - 5/5 Alchemist, Physician, Benefactor
- Level 100 in Smithing - ALL 10 Perks
- Level 82 Archery - 3/5 Overdraw, Eagle Eye, Steady Hand 1/2
- Level 87 Two-Handed - 5/5 Barbarian, Champion's Stance, Devastating Blow, Great Critical Charge, Sweep, 2/3 Deep Wounds
- Level 47 Heavy Armor - 1/5 Juggernaut
- Level 73 Light Armor - 4/5 Agile Defender
He has 24% fortify alchemy enchanted gear. All four available to him:
- circlet
- leather bracers
- ring
- necklace
Green - it's a good potion/deal/percentage - basically it's a good potion that makes pretty good stuff, and even very little of a perk sometimes. I like these, but they aren't as "good" as I'd like, in both the amount of ingredients used, or in the types of soul gems used either. AKA, their efficiency to me isn't as good as it could be.
Red - "breaks" it - those "ludicrous speed" potions with ridiculous percentages. This is where I noticed they start for me. Now these aren't necessarily a bad thing, but they are definitely STRONG.
Basically my requirements for these simply are:
- hits armor cap with just leather bracers
- can go from 15 to 100 in Smithing (post legendary) just by improving said bracers
- some even make an insane amount of money.
as I said this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'll get to that in a bit.
Cyan - "It's a BINGO!!" - these are my favorites. They make a good amount of percentage, but don't go ludicrous. They also cost less in either ingredients, soul gems or BOTH!!
For example my favorite combination:
- use three 24% fortify alchemy items
- proceed to do the Fortify Restoration loop 5 times
- after the 5th time, remove all but one fortify alchemy item.
- make as many fortify enchanting potions as you wish
now head over to the enchanting table:
- drink a potion
- enchant anything you'd like with fortify smithing
- enchant, but with a petty soul gem!!!
- this will create a "fortify smithing of 930%" which sounds ALOT but isn't all that bad
with only level 15 smithing you ask?
here's where it shines: armor rating of 21 (superior)!!this potion works great for weapons too. Yes, Broc already is strong in two-handed greatswords, so still, those are his go-to weapons.
but what about his bow?
an improved Dragonbone Bow, with Broc's perks at 100 smithing, only equals 291 damage!! He still has less damage than my lady's Nightingale character with 100 Archery, and an ELVEN BOW!
- yeah, she's seriously strong at range.in other words, it helps "level out the playing field" so to speak, so my character no longer wears Elven gear to a NORD funeral or wedding!! - it's embarrassing!
Also, I really enjoy the fact that level 100 smithing is still required to fully take advantage of the perk.
about the efficiency - this is with only 1 item, and it's only enchanted with a PETTY soul gem!!
I'd like to think my work here is complete.
I also further up the challenge a bit with something I've heard called "Adept +" which I enjoy. The difficulty is rather simple - I don't like enemies that can absorb a stoopid amount of damage from my greatsword, even when I connect, and I also don't like it when I get hit with a greathammer across the head and don't die. - so, I basically leave the difficulty setting at "Adept" and just never put any perks in Health. In other words, Broc has AMAZING STAMINA
*now I know what you're thinking, what about the RED ones?*
personally, I love them for the appropriate circumstances.
I'm a "widower" I guess you could say...
my wife in real life was killed doing her duty. Lydia, in her own way, even reminds me of Shannon alot. Just like Broc initially started out as a character of "me in Skyrim"
umm...
yeah. I don't want to "come home from adventuring" with Broc, only to find his wife, Lydia dead in the grand hall next to my steward, and housecarl, and his son, Blaise, taken off to the orphanage.
I think that little "trick" with Hearthfire is complete and utter BS so I used my red potions to break it. Literally.
Here's how to make sure you never have to worry about your loved ones again -
- do the fortify resto loop with all four enchanted items, or you can even do it with only one. Just be ready to use a TON of ingredients to get there.
- make the "fortify restoration" percentage equal or greater to one of my RED ones
- make the "fortify enchanting" potions - 4 - 8 of these works, depending on your "crew"
- I have Lydia
- Jordis - my steward
- Valdimar - housecarl of my home Windstead Manor.
- start making some "fortify health/fortify health regen" jewelry.
- I've yet to see them not have that jewelry equipped.
- and by having both fortify health/fortify health regen on them, at these insane levels it literally makes them unkillable. And this is on "vanilla" 1.9 Xbox360 Legendary Edition of Skyrim.
- follow steps as above
- make his boots "fortify carry weight/fortify stamina"
- he has an insane amount of carry weight when wearing these boots. I loaded up everything I had in his home - still not encumbered. And he can sprint almost indefinitely, so if he has to, when wearing only blacksmith apron/fancy boots, and his ring and necklace, when in doubt he can run away. (I don't use fast travel).
"may your roads lead you to warm sands"
