What truly is the strongest combat style ?

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what is truly the best combat style


  • Total voters
    46

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
I'll take total paranoia and avoidance combined with homicidal rage any day. My character goes heavy, 2 handed & bow with the occassional dual wield and assassination and likes to remain unseen while doing it. Sure nobody can normally kill him, but he doesn't want to take ANY damage - ever. On the other hand, when confronted with a face to face enemy he goes beserk and starts killing. Lord help you if your a follower or innocent bystander and get in the way. He'll take you down too.

I think my next run through will be a simple assassin. As this is my first run through, I'm really enjoying the stealth and killing thing the most. Since I don't steal unless forced to, a thief is kind of out.

Fortunately, I'm morally ambiguous enough to not care who I kill, as long as it pays.
 

AS88

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Aren't the ___Flesh spells Alteration, not Restoration?

I do like this kind of build, it does sound interesting.

I would probably go 1H/Block/HA/Rest/Alt/Conj, but I would probably try to add Archery, (I like playing Archers:D). Plus, I would be able to get both the bound sword & bound bow from Conjuration, which would serve to lighten the carry weight that HA brings versus LA, by not having to carry a sword or a bow.

Yeah, I know, they are Alteration. I should have clarified, though. I said something like 'and -flesh spells, depending how far you want to take the magic side,' but I see what you mean.

Thing with using Alteration as a Paladin is, you often don't need to get the cost-reducing perks, because by the time you need to heal, you've regenerated everything you lost from casting an expensive Alteration spell :)
 

Joker

Cook, Wine Taster, Scotch Taster, Adventure Seeker
Yeah, I know, they are Alteration. I should have clarified, though. I said something like 'and -flesh spells, depending how far you want to take the magic side,' but I see what you mean.

Thing with using Alteration as a Paladin is, you often don't need to get the cost-reducing perks, because by the time you need to heal, you've regenerated everything you lost from casting an expensive Alteration spell :)

Like a Ward spell.....

Might have to play around with this some to get the right balance, for my style of play..... :D :D :D
 

AS88

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Like a Ward spell.....

Might have to play around with this some to get the right balance, for my style of play..... :D :D :D

Well, unless you were facing a mage or a dragon, you wouldn't need a ward, and if you did, they should be cheap enough to cast in the short bursts you actually need it.

Yeah, differences of opinion are inevitable for a question like this, because everyone plays and naturally thinks differently
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
I have to agree with the posters that note that, on the whole, you will be physically assaulted, not magically. It is far more important to protect yourself from a physical assault and be able to defend youself. Sure there are magic users in the game, but they are not the majority.
 
I have to agree with the posters that note that, on the whole, you will be physically assaulted, not magically. It is far more important to protect yourself from a physical assault and be able to defend youself. Sure there are magic users in the game, but they are not the majority.
I like to cover both bases, if not getting both up to the Cap. Against Magic, I much prefer Spell Absorption to resistance, even if I don't use it myself. An offal lot of damage can be avoided, or prevented my manuvering, or setting up the situation to prevent getting surrounded, and pounded from all sides. If you can avoid that, at least I can make do with less than half damage reduction from Armor. You don't want to be so squishy that any stray arrow puts you in mortal peril. Beyond that, if I'm not dying, I have enough defence, and can invest the next levels' points on offence. Defense doesn't win fights, it keeps you from losing. That's my usual priorites.

Mages get my attention. Unless I'm siphoning off the Magicka to annihilate the rest of the enemy, I kill them before they can do enough Damage. I fear Frost most, because of the biff to mobility. I still think if we're talking about any fight, all else being equal, Spell/Sword is the strongest combat style.
 
Ebony Warrior is a spellsword and he was pretty easy to beat.

I hate frost mages.
LOL, I kited him over Wall of Flames/Frost. It's not direct damage, so he can't reflect it, and he couldn't catch me in Slo Mode. It wasn't even a fight! I cherry tap most bosses.
 

The Honorable Gidian Diva of Sass

Sahrot Vahlok Spaan. Bahnahgaar. Minion #88!
Staff member
Well the point is, how can you use your paralyze spell, Ice Form, Slow Time, etc, etc, on somebody that you are not able to see at all ? My character is completely invisible and undetectable; if I can not be seen, how can you wonder that you are about to die ? Do you understand my point ? You can not bash, damage or kill what you cannot see my friend !
If you were in real combat, how can you kill a sniper that you don’t have any idea where he is ?
Aren't their detect spells/shouts? Also, a vampire or a werewolf would realistically be able to smell you. Hmm... Overall the build is too situational, and against a good tank ineffective. Tank beats Sniper in a modern battlefield.

As for my opinion on the strongest build... I'd say the Jack of All Trades. I've got the build down to perfection, and I can successfully fill the role of any class, and do it better than most masters. This build is just silly powerful late game. A whole new level of OP imo.
 

Pretty Vampires

Bunny Foo Foo
Orca:

In this fight, your Shadow Warrior is not sneaking up in battle. Both are aware of each other's presence.
A mage (like mine that has 100% cost reduction in Alteration) can just have detect life in one hand. Then your sneakiness will be of no use.
 
I just kept dual casting incinerate on him. It was pretty sad. I even let him get one shot on me out of pity :p
Impact Lockstun? Yeah, he's a pretty good gauge for OPness. I believe that was Bethesda's plan. When I think of a Fight in Skyrim, it's usually getting foreswarmed 30-1. Good mix of Marckmen, Melee, and Magic, out in the open it can go south prettquick, assuming you're not an unstoppable force with legs, that is.
 

The Honorable Gidian Diva of Sass

Sahrot Vahlok Spaan. Bahnahgaar. Minion #88!
Staff member
The Ebony Warrior is by far the best one on one fight a melee warrior can get in Skyrim. He is hands down the single strongest NPC. I dislike how people keep downplaying him so much, when he is such a valid equal.
 

Pretty Vampires

Bunny Foo Foo
The Ebony Warrior is by far the best one on one fight a melee warrior can get in Skyrim. He is hands down the single strongest NPC. I dislike how people keep downplaying him so much, when he is such a valid equal.

It's because if you're a mage, he's laughably easy.

The hardest fight in the game is Kaarstag.
 

The Honorable Gidian Diva of Sass

Sahrot Vahlok Spaan. Bahnahgaar. Minion #88!
Staff member
It's because if you're a mage, he's laughably easy.

The hardest fight in the game is Kaarstag.
I found Kaarstag laughably easy. I downed him in approximately 5 seconds, and his blizzard hardly scratched me. *sigh* Agree to disagree.
 

Locks066

Member
i guess it's the style you play that really effects on who and what is easy and hard to kill
 

Pretty Vampires

Bunny Foo Foo
I only fought Kaarstag once, and I was using an archer. Maybe this time around with my mage, I'll spam some fireballs and see what happens.
 

DrunkenMage

Intoxicated Arch-Mage
I found the strongest combat style out of my characters, was with my Witch hunter. Could combat all magic and take out undead and summons using the bound bow, applied with poison of my choosing, all would end up fearing me. Other enemies weren't too hard to dispatch.
 

High King of Skyrim

King of the barbarian horde
What are you basing this on? Are you basing this on the Shadow Warrior combat style against all of the other listed combat styles, or are you sharing your experiences with it against the common enemies of Skyrim?

Either way, I'll try a more realistic approach, as hard as it may be to imagine it:

Any combat style pertaining to Stealth is risky to go about, because your success rate can be based greatly on your environment; your literal settings, the time of day, what opponents you must face. A Shadow Warrior like yourself would obviously dominate in a dimly lit dungeon, with many dark corners, narrow corridors and big rooms. A typical bandit will be of no problem to you. However, if you were out on an open field, in the middle of day, and a dragon attacks... well, there goes your element of surprise. And you're definitely not one-hitting a flying dragon.

Every other style doesn't have to deal with this problem, because they don't rely on stealth to get rid of their enemies. Warriors just charge right in and kill everything and anything, against dragons of course they'll either have to wait until they land, blocking their breath in the process with their trusty shield, or if shouts are in fact allowed they can just use Dragonrend. Mages summon stuff and throw elemental balls of destruction, or whatever... same thing.

Now, let's say we're comparing these combat styles when stacked up against each other... the most fair thing to do would be to put these people in The Pit (Oblivion style) and see how they square off! Let's pretend they're all maxed out and get everything they can possibly get from their combat build.

Oh, crap... it seems as though the stealth-types have the short end of the stick again. In an arena? There's no place to hide. They're going to see you. No more element of surprise, and even if you happen to magically disappear, with a Sword and Shield Warrior's maxed out stats, they're like tanks. If they really wanted to be paranoid they'd just raise their shield up in a corner somewhere, and have their massive shield and heavy armor absorb the impact of a little dagger, if the Shadow Warrior manages to go unnoticed for that long.

However, if this battle happened to take place in a dark forest of cave, then the Shadow Warrior may come out victorious, because it's the surroundings that ultimately give them their lethality.

I'm not saying Stealth is not the way to be, and that it's the worst style. I'm just pointing out the major flaw it would have in certain battles due to it's dependence on the setting of the battle.
Shadow warriors may just be the best, who knows? But they seem cowardly to me. I prefer to face an enemy in open combat and whoever survives, survives. Courage and honour before hide and seek LOL:D
 
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