Ways to be harder to kill?

[Inquisitor Saken]

I'm starting a new character who will only wear a single piece of the best light armor I can find until I get Ebony Mail. I'm not sure whether I should use mods to make it light armor, though, or just use it as is. Either way I don't plan to put a lot of points into the 'increase armor rating by x' perks. With this it'll probably be mage hood and boots.

I want to find ways to avoid taking damage without the use of smithing, enchanting or alteration. I want to be really annoying, basically. So far I'm thinking of the Shadow Warrior and Avoid Death perks, and taking the steed stone so I can run fast enough to simply dodge attacks (not sure if this will be needed though, with only one piece of armor). Possibly conjuration if it really gets the point where I need something to tank for me, and a follower to make early game a bit less horrifying. What do you think, any ideas?

 

[tx12001]

Best way to be harder for enemis to kill is to set the game to Novice Difficulty, enemies will only do 50% damage to you and you will do 200% damage to them also smithing armour while wearing necklaces that increase smithing and using the workbench to upgrade armour rating is better then spending perks in armour.

 

[Mr Forz]

Sneaking and companions/pets will be your best friends then.

 

[LotusEater]

Lord Stone seems like an obvious choice for durability, but you seem to be leaning towards Steed Stone. Steed Stone seems like a waste imo. I don't detect anything on your build that will weigh you down.

You could quest early for the Become Ethereal and Ice Form Shouts. Whirlwind Sprint to make you slippery. Looks like you are already pushing Restoration so the Circles of Protection would be good for undead.

Blocking perks up the left will help if you plan to bear a shield. Especially if you want to block arrows. If you decide to use a shield then you can quest for Spellbreaker. Spellbreaker is much, much better than it looks on paper. It's all about priority when damage is calculated and Spellbreaker is a great first line of defense.

Diadem of the Savant is a circlet with a small armor rating.

Hope some of that helps. Happy to see a fellow Ebony Mail lover.

Good luck!

 

[Inquisitor Saken]

Lord Stone seems like an obvious choice for durability, but you seem to be leaning towards Steed Stone. Steed Stone seems like a waste imo. I don't detect anything on your build that will weigh you down.

You could quest early for the Become Ethereal and Ice Form Shouts. Whirlwind Sprint to make you slippery. Looks like you are already pushing Restoration so the Circles of Protection would be good for undead.

Blocking perks up the left will help if you plan to bear a shield. Especially if you want to block arrows. If you decide to use a shield then you can quest for Spellbreaker. Spellbreaker is much, much better than it looks on paper. It's all about priority when damage is calculated and Spellbreaker is a great first line of defense.

Diadem of the Savant is a circlet with a small armor rating.

Hope some of that helps. Happy to see a fellow Ebony Mail lover.

Good luck!

I wasn't too sure on Steed either. I don't really know many of the standing stones since I'm bad at finding them, but I'll definitely give the Lord stone a whirl. As for the shouts, Become Ethereal in particular sounds like a lot of fun in combat, I can't believe I never thought of it . Block fits kind of well since I'm going archery/one-handed, so might as well grab those perks if I end up using a shield. Thanks!

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Since I like to wear clothing as opposed to armor, even on many of my warriors, I have a tendancy to enchant with health regen on most things and absorb health on many weapons and make a lot of health regen potions (ingredients are easy even early game). While I don't really take less damage (unless I'm doing a lot of sneaking) and I don't like to use alteration spells, the regen seems to offset it a great deal. I find that the lady stone is a big help as well.

Example: I have a battle mage that didn't wear any armor at all until about level 50 (when I got dragonscale) but wore mourner's clothes and a mage hood or Alik'r wrap. With a shield and massive health regen & absorb, I never really had any issues. Early on, I used conjure familiar and conure flame antronach quite a bit to create diversions. I also ran away a lot. With a quick sprint I could usually outdistance even the fastest sabre cat or bear.

 

[Nighthiker77]

http://skyrimforum.com/index.php?threads/27202/

I killed Alduin and Miraak on master with this build using no equipment at all.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

http://skyrimforum.com/index.php?threads/27202/

I killed Alduin and Miraak on master with this build using no equipment at all.

You punched them to death? I remember that one, I just don't feel like revisiting. It made me feel so inadequate.

 

[Nighthiker77]

Bound bow, dremora lords, storm atronachs, Lord Stone mainly.

Silent casting and stealth are essential, and I'm not going to lie, it really wasn't that easy

 

[Nighthiker77]

The perks you almost have to have to make that work are twin souls, quick draw, ranger, silent casting, magic resistance 3/3(unless Breton) and silent roll sure was nice but not entirely necessary.

 

[Nighthiker77]

You definitely want conjuration so you aren't alone in Skoldafn and Apocrypha.

Silent shadow summoning high mobility sniper. Mind-bending illusion wouldn't hurt.

 

[LotusEater]

You definitely want conjuration so you aren't alone in Skoldafn and Apocrypha.

Silent shadow summoning high mobility sniper. Mind-bending illusion wouldn't hurt.

I never really understood why people regard Apocrypha as being so difficult. I'm always alone in there. You basically have endless Magicka and endless Stamina in most zones. I think Apocrypha is too easy, even at Master level. Lurkers are easy to elude, they telegraph their attacks big time. I wish it were way harder. Seekers fall hard to flames and all you have to do is kill one and their conjured buddy disappears. The most dangerous thing to worry about imo is the random tentacle that might give you a swat, but those are easily avoided as well. Candlelight easily handles all darkness.

I dunno, I never feel threatened there at any difficulty. Wish I did, be more fun.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

You definitely want conjuration so you aren't alone in Skoldafn and Apocrypha.

Silent shadow summoning high mobility sniper. Mind-bending illusion wouldn't hurt.

I never really understood why people regard Apocrypha as being so difficult. I'm always alone in there. You basically have endless Magicka and endless Stamina in most zones. I think Apocrypha is too easy, even at Master level. Lurkers are easy to elude, they telegraph their attacks big time. I wish it were way harder. Seekers fall hard to flames and all you have to do is kill one and their conjured buddy disappears. The most dangerous thing to worry about imo is the random tentacle that might give you a swat, but those are easily avoided as well. Candlelight easily handles all darkness.

I dunno, I never feel threatened there at any difficulty. Wish I did, be more fun.

I absolutely agree. I suppose if you were to try it at, say, level 10 you might have some issues, but, in general I agree whole heartedly that Apocrypha is definately amongst my top 10 difficult areas.

 

[LotusEater]

You definitely want conjuration so you aren't alone in Skoldafn and Apocrypha.

Silent shadow summoning high mobility sniper. Mind-bending illusion wouldn't hurt.

I never really understood why people regard Apocrypha as being so difficult. I'm always alone in there. You basically have endless Magicka and endless Stamina in most zones. I think Apocrypha is too easy, even at Master level. Lurkers are easy to elude, they telegraph their attacks big time. I wish it were way harder. Seekers fall hard to flames and all you have to do is kill one and their conjured buddy disappears. The most dangerous thing to worry about imo is the random tentacle that might give you a swat, but those are easily avoided as well. Candlelight easily handles all darkness.

I dunno, I never feel threatened there at any difficulty. Wish I did, be more fun.

I absolutely agree. I suppose if you were to try it at, say, level 10 you might have some issues, but, in general I agree whole heartedly that Apocrypha is definately amongst my top 10 difficult areas.

I've been there as early as lv5 and though it's a slower process with more evasion and running than attacking, with the Fonts scattered everywhere it's really easy to unload all your Magicka, fall back to a Font, repeat, fall back to another Font, repeat. There are some areas where there are more Fonts than enemies...

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I never really understood why people regard Apocrypha as being so difficult. I'm always alone in there. You basically have endless Magicka and endless Stamina in most zones. I think Apocrypha is too easy, even at Master level. Lurkers are easy to elude, they telegraph their attacks big time. I wish it were way harder. Seekers fall hard to flames and all you have to do is kill one and their conjured buddy disappears. The most dangerous thing to worry about imo is the random tentacle that might give you a swat, but those are easily avoided as well. Candlelight easily handles all darkness.

I dunno, I never feel threatened there at any difficulty. Wish I did, be more fun.

I absolutely agree. I suppose if you were to try it at, say, level 10 you might have some issues, but, in general I agree whole heartedly that Apocrypha is definately amongst my top 10 difficult areas.

I've been there as early as lv5 and though it's a slower process with more evasion and running than attacking, with the Fonts scattered everywhere it's really easy to unload all your Magicka, fall back to a Font, repeat, fall back to another Font, repeat. There are some areas where there are more Fonts than enemies...

I find that antronachs and conjured beings are great distractions. I like to use fire antronachs and bone-men (DG). That way I can either run away or get in shots of my own.

 

[ArcaneAuthority]

Conjuration and Health Regen and Health Absorb enchantments are definitely a must, don't get too confident in battle and always stay alert. When i did my thief build, whenever i got into a harder fight i'd tend to use atronachs to tank, and stab and run with a dagger. Just depends on your preference.

 

[AS88]

Without sounding ridiculous, one of the best ways to be harder to kill is to make a conscious effort not to get hit

+ Obvious Points, I know, but my point remains

 

[LotusEater]

Without sounding ridiculous, one of the best ways to be harder to kill is to make a conscious effort not to get hit

+ Obvious Points, I know, but my point remains

Evasion, evasion, evasion...

I'm with you. Since we got a little sidetracked with Apocrypha I'll use Lurkers as an example. They shamble like they have a gimp when chasing you. They raise their foot so slowly to stomp that you can easily run past and get behind them or just run farther away.

 

[ArcaneAuthority]

Without sounding ridiculous, one of the best ways to be harder to kill is to make a conscious effort not to get hit

+ Obvious Points, I know, but my point remains

Evasion, evasion, evasion...

I'm with you. Since we got a little sidetracked with Apocrypha I'll use Lurkers as an example. They shamble like they have a gimp when chasing you. They raise their foot so slowly to stomp that you can easily run past and get behind them or just run farther away.

I do agree with evasion but when you're constantly running away from a fight, it takes the immersion aspect away from the game, i prefer a more tactical approach to fighting rather than simply running away, each to their own but i think it makes gameplay quite tedious when you're constantly on the run.

 

[LotusEater]

Without sounding ridiculous, one of the best ways to be harder to kill is to make a conscious effort not to get hit

+ Obvious Points, I know, but my point remains

Evasion, evasion, evasion...

I'm with you. Since we got a little sidetracked with Apocrypha I'll use Lurkers as an example. They shamble like they have a gimp when chasing you. They raise their foot so slowly to stomp that you can easily run past and get behind them or just run farther away.

I do agree with evasion but when you're constantly running away from a fight, it takes the immersion aspect away from the game, i prefer a more tactical approach to fighting rather than simply running away, each to their own but i think it makes gameplay quite tedious when you're constantly on the run.

Good point, but I'm not talking about running away all the time. If you are running that much, keep running and go level up somewhere else. With solid evasion tactics, it's very easy to flank, get behind, shield bash and do whatever else you have in your arsenal to give you an advantage. Ultimately the key is to mix it up and keep your opponent on their heels. Evasion is a key component to that strategy.