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[tha_devil]

Is there any reason to keep all the dragon bones you get from killing a dragon? Should I just sell them?

I guess you need it to create dragon armor or something? Anyways i always sell, its way to heavy in my inventory.

 

[nicoga3000]

So, is there any whim or reason to Alchemy? I usually just click 3 random things I have in my bag and see what happens. Accidentally wasted all of my vampire stuff though.

Also, what other crafts should I level? Is it necessary to put stuff in skill trees for Blacksmithing or anything? Dragon armor sounds awesome...

Alchemy is really awesome once you get the hang of it.

First, eat every new ingredient you find once. That opens the first effect.

When you go the Alchemy table, you can combine 2-3 ingredients. Assuming you're not creating a per-determined potion shown in the left pane, you have free reign over the ingredients entirely. So let's use an example (arbitrary stuff here):

Select an ingredient, call it Health Berry (1/4 known effects, Restore Health). Now select any other ingredient from the list. We'll select Hurt Berry (1/4 known, Damage Health). When you try and create this potion, it will give you the result "Failed".

Now select Health Berry again. Hurt Berry will be greyed out because you've tried it and it FAILED. That means between those two ingredients, there are NO possible outcomes. Select Regen Berry (1/4, Regen Stamina). Create potion.

Potion of Regen created! Discovered effect Regen Health (Health Berry), Regen Health (Regen Berry).

OK, cool. So now Potion of Regen is added to the list.

Go ahead and select (from the list again) Health and Regen Berry. Now if you create this, you will get the same Potion of Regen every time. But let's add a third ingredient, say Magic Berry (1/4, Restore MP). When you create this, you MAY get a new potion and you MAY discover new effects, if the Magic Berry shares any with the two previous ingredients.

Say it creates a potion, Potion of Regen again, but you also discover effect Regen Magic (Regen Berry).

So now, you have the following!

Health Berry (Restore Health, Regen Health, ???, ???)
Magic Berry (Restore MP, Regen MP, ???, ???)
Regen Berry (Regen Stamina, Regen Health, Regen MP, ???)

You can craft a potion with those three ingredients assuming an effect between them is shared. But you can also create potions with the three of them that will have stacking effects, like Restore Health, Restore MP, Regen All. It compounds.

Using that third ingredient, you can start creating crazy combinations, like Restore Health and Fortify Bow Damage.

When you know a recipe, you can select it from the list on the left, which allows you to add the ingredients in a quick "tabbed" format. After you add 2 of them, you can now go pick a third from ANYWHERE to see it's effect. Health Berry, Regen Berry (because these two are in the Potion of Regen tab), and then go select Death Berry. Maybe it creates a potion that heals you but also poisons you? Stuff like that.

Alchemy is a LOT of trial and error at first, but once you wrap your head around the inner workings of the base system, you can make some really crazy potions. I've got some that drain MP, stop MP regen, and cause poison damage. Like, this is prime time for my arrows. Stuff like that is where Alchemy shines.

I hope that wasn't miserably hard to understand. It's harder to type than it is to say, which is how I was trying to portray this...Haha

 

[AEREC]

Does the difficulty ramp up in this or do I need to adjust it? I'm level 6 on the default right now and I'm 1 and 2 shotting enemies with my 2handed axe.

It varies...you will probably always be able to one or two shot humanoids wearing minimal armor, once they start wearing heavy armor it will take a bit more. It's also a bit more challenging where you are fighting 3 or more enemies too...but one on one fights will always be easier unless it's a giant or something.

Im somewhat content with the difficulty on adept, but nothing has been overly difficult yet and Dragon fights are unfortunately too easy.

I think once I finish the main storyline...Ill bump up the difficulty.

 

[nicoga3000]

Tip for enchanting: enchant your dagger and/or bow with Soul Trap, at its lowest strength. As far as I can tell, it only uses the charge when you actually store a soul. Even if that wasn't the case, you'll be 1 shotting lots of things anyways and 1 second is all you need.

Actually, it uses a charge whenever you strike your enemy or fire the bow. But still, lower time and more charges is better. My bow has a 3-second window (so that if my atronach or companion deals the final blow right after hitting them, it's OK), but if you're melee or rolling solo, 1-second is perfectly fine (get more charges anyways).

 

[jeemer]

Tip for enchanting: enchant your dagger and/or bow with Soul Trap, at its lowest strength. As far as I can tell, it only uses the charge when you actually store a soul. Even if that wasn't the case, you'll be 1 shotting lots of things anyways and 1 second is all you need.

Is there a specific place I can get an item with the Soul Trap quality so that I can disenchant and learn it for enchanting, or is it from random drops?

 

[zlatko]

Has anyone done much with enchanting? I'm at work and fiending for my skyrim hit, so I've been planning out the rest of my characters build. I'm currently at level 21 and I figure I can get most of what I want combat/sneak/armour wise by around level 38-40. That leaves me enough perks before 50 to perk up to the top branch of enchanting/alchemy/smithing. Currently looking at enchanting.

I get that you disenchant/enchant items to put your skill up. I know you have to soul trap in order to fill the gems, so that you can create enchantments. What I'm wondering is;

1. Is there a specific place I can get an item with the Soul Trap quality so that I can disenchant and learn it, or is it from random drops?

2. Is the soul trap spell very low in magicka cost? I am mainly using dual wield/bow with lots of sneaking. I had to increase my magicka once or twice in order to use Clairvoyance, but I don't want to decide to spec enchanting and then find out I still don't have enough magicka to cast soul trap.

Just checking it's viable for my build. I could always go with alchemy, which technically suits my build much better if I went the poisons route, but I find applying them repeatedly a bit of a chore. Prefer the idea of lots of buffs on my armour, hp/stamina stealing on my melee weapons and shock on my bow...

1) Go into the Conjuration skills. If you dip I think it's 3 into that perk tree, you can make the bounded swords (spell you can cast to give you a soul sucking sword of doom) have that quality automatically.

2) The spell I believe is 60 MP to cast, but again you don't need it if you just main hand a good weapon, and off hand your Bound Sword for the final blow/s. My main weapon is the Bound Sword since I'm leveling Conjuration and Destruction as my main focuses for damage. I think you can also conjure up a two handed axe that you can have soul trap on thanks to that perk.

 

[Acheteedo]

<Alchemy guide>

Thanks dude! That's motivated me to try some alchemy out.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I'm playing a female orc battlemage blacksmith in full iron armor at the moment. For my first playthrough I'm saying the hell with stats and guides, I don't care if she's a gimped mess for the entire game, she's awesome.

 

[gdt]

I really, really, REALLY wish Bethesda would just straight copy/paste the Demon/Dark Souls combat in this. It's just so meh. I can't even tell if my sword connects half the time, always need the blood spray to be sure.

The Souls combat would fit so perfectly here, it's sort of similar in the first place.

Edit: Could someone theoretically mod that into the game?

 

[jeemer]

2) The spell I believe is 60 MP to cast, but again you don't need it if you just main hand a good weapon, and off hand your Bound Sword for the final blow/s. My main weapon is the Bound Sword since I'm leveling Conjuration and Destruction as my main focuses for damage. I think you can also conjure up a two handed axe that you can have soul trap on thanks to that perk.

Ah awesome. I'll double check the perks I'm after against my remaining levels up to 50 in case, but I'm not certain if I'd want to perk into conjuration pre-50 as I'm cutting it a bit close on the perks for my desired build as-is. As long as I can cast the spell I'm all good. Thanks

 

[Slermy]

70 is supposedly the hard limit.

This is incorrect. If you raised every skill to 100 you'd be around level 80.

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

I really, really, REALLY wish Bethesda would just straight copy/paste the Demon/Dark Souls combat in this. It's just so meh. I can't even tell if my sword connects half the time, always need the blood spray to be sure.

The Souls combat would fit so perfectly here, it's sort of similar in the first place.

Edit: Could someone theoretically mod that into the game?

Damn I'm just used to looking at the health bar.

 

[zephervack]

So talking about Vampirism.


I remember in Oblivion you have the choice but somehow im now a Vampire in Skyrim without anyone asking me!!!

I was fine with it, but now, i cant even enter towns, everyone just attacks me, game is rendered unplayable without being able to buy/sell, talk to people about quests etc.

Is there any way to fix it or somehow remain a vampire without everyone hating me?

Thanks

 

[Evlar]

I'm a vampire but I just want to be loved.

Monster!

 

[zlatko]

I really, really, REALLY wish Bethesda would just straight copy/paste the Demon/Dark Souls combat in this. It's just so meh. I can't even tell if my sword connects half the time, always need the blood spray to be sure.

The Souls combat would fit so perfectly here, it's sort of similar in the first place.

Edit: Could someone theoretically mod that into the game?

I'd be more impressed with the Witcher 2 combat.

 

[scy]

Drelas' cottage? FUCK that guy. I ended up waiting till i leveled up, snuck in there like 10 hours later, and then gave him the business.

Jesus christ I found him last night and he rocked my 22 Mage like she was nothing until I got some better positioning done. Most of her level gains are from non-combat skills so the fight with him was ... unpleasant. Thankfully, nothing can seemingly kill Lydia and Drelas only spammed Fire spells so a Flame Atronach just kind of tanked him forever. I used the opportunity to level most my spell schools ... then realized that I'd need to figure out a way to outdo his healing

And then he didn't even have the decency to drop anything good!

 

[webrunner]

1) Go into the Conjuration skills. If you dip I think it's 3 into that perk tree, you can make the bounded swords (spell you can cast to give you a soul sucking sword of doom) have that quality automatically.

2) The spell I believe is 60 MP to cast, but again you don't need it if you just main hand a good weapon, and off hand your Bound Sword for the final blow/s. My main weapon is the Bound Sword since I'm leveling Conjuration and Destruction as my main focuses for damage. I think you can also conjure up a two handed axe that you can have soul trap on thanks to that perk.

If i'm currently levelling an archer/stealthy character, is it worth it to try to level up to get Bound Bow? How is it compared to actual bows?

 

[gdt]

I'd be more impressed with the Witcher 2 combat.

That's a step of from this sure, but even that borrowed from Demon's Souls (and isn't anywhere near as good).

 

[DarkoMaledictus]

I really, really, REALLY wish Bethesda would just straight copy/paste the Demon/Dark Souls combat in this. It's just so meh. I can't even tell if my sword connects half the time, always need the blood spray to be sure.

The Souls combat would fit so perfectly here, it's sort of similar in the first place.

Edit: Could someone theoretically mod that into the game?

Yeah Demon/dark combat is ages ahead of this, but not sure its doable in first person. They would have to change a lot to make it viable... But yeah fully agree Skyrim combat has nothing on Dark/Demon.

 

[DRock]

It varies...you will probably always be able to one or two shot humanoids wearing minimal armor, once they start wearing heavy armor it will take a bit more. It's also a bit more challenging where you are fighting 3 or more enemies too...but one on one fights will always be easier unless it's a giant or something.

Im somewhat content with the difficulty on adept, but nothing has been overly difficult yet and Dragon fights are unfortunately too easy.

I think once I finish the main storyline...Ill bump up the difficulty.

Thanks, maybe I'll try bumping it up and see what happens. Is there a penalty for adjusting the difficulty mid-game with achievements or anything else?

 

[gdt]

Yeah Demon/dark combat is ages ahead of this, but not sure its doable in first person. They would have to change a lot to make it viable... But yeah fully agree Skyrim combat has nothing on Dark/Demon.

That's true. Didn't think of first person because I do combat in 3rd. Can't stand 1st person melee.

 

[nicoga3000]

If i'm currently levelling an archer/stealthy character, is it worth it to try to level up to get Bound Bow? How is it compared to actual bows?

Not sure on how Bound Bow is, but I've got a pretty awesome Falmer Bow enchanted with 10 frost damage that (on top of my bow damage enchants) is doing like, 53 base damage (not including arrows + that frost damage). I don't know if bow damage enchants increase the damage done by bound bows or not (I would guess yes, but I've got NO idea).

The benefit to actual bows is the ability to enchant them.

 

[Crazetex]

Thanks, maybe I'll try bumping it up and see what happens. Is there a penalty for adjusting the difficulty mid-game with achievements or anything else?

Nope. Change it whenever you feel like it.

 

[popsicle_sundays]

I starting smithing last night and.....2 hours later, I'm addicted

 

[mocoworm]

Bethesda working on a Skyrim update for all platforms

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-15-bethesda-working-on-a-skyrim-update-for-all-platforms

Bethesda is hard at work on an update for all three versions of epic fantasy game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

In a series of Tweets to fans, Bethesda PR and marketing boss Pete Hines moved to reassure gamers that an update is around the corner - and urged patience.

Responding to one fan, Hines Tweeted: "Patches/updates take a little time. We can't turn it around quite that fast. It's been three days. Calm down, we're working on it."
Then: "We are continuing to work on an update for all platforms to address issues any bugs and perf issues we can."

Skyrim on Xbox 360 suffers from a curious texture problem that sees performance drop when the game is installed to the hard drive.

The issue only seems to occur if you have the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim installed to the hard drive - a process that is entirely optional. In this case, the highest resolution versions of the textures appear to stall and not load, meaning you're not seeing the game at its best. If you remove the install, and run the game directly from the DVD, the best quality artwork returns to the game.

But PlayStation 3 players have also reported texture streaming issues, and PC players have encountered performance issues, and even game freezes.

Hines advised players who have encountered problems to report them using a form on Bethesda's website. "Much better than trying to go thru me," he said.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

btw katana people i strongly suggest going to look for a cave west of whiterun called Bloated Man's Grotto. A very nice trinket can be found there ;]

I thought that place was just some bear cave, boy was I wrong.

Spoiler for the grotto:

Spoiler

The altar of Talos as the final resting place of the last Blade put me firmly in the pro-Stormcloak, fuck-the-Altmer camp. It was a surprisingly powerful moment.

So, without spoiling anything please, why should I do the civil war stuff before doing the MQ? Does it not jive all that well going the other way 'round?

 

[HammerOfThor]

Hey, for that mission where those guys are looking for the chick, then you find her at

Spoiler

the inn

, and you have to

Spoiler

go to the jail to talk to the prisoner

, is the better outcome to help her or them?

Alchemy is really awesome once you get the hang of it.
etc etc etc

AWESOME!!

So, you try everything you get once because then you know its effects, right?

 

[webrunner]

The murder quest is so super buggy and confusing. My fiancee already knows who did it but can't tell anyone.

 

[ckohler]

I need some reassurance guys.

I'm trying to play as a pure mage. I want to use magica for everything. I want to forgo armor and forgo weapons. My plan is/was to enchant all my ordinary clothes to buff me and use those spells (stoneflesh or whatever) in place of armor.

So I tried to enchant something for the first time last night. I disenchanted some magic stuff I found. Good stuff like robes that do +12% destruction & +50% magic regen. I try to enchant a ring and what does it give me? +1 Magic regen. WTF?! I know I'm unskilled and the soul gem I used was petty... but only 1%?!? Am I making a mistake? Will I ever be able to enchant items as good as the ones I'm finding?

Second, how good are those mage armor spells? Will I ever be as protected as what you can wear in the game or am I just setting myself up to be a glass cannon. I was under the assumption that using magic and Mage Armor, I could make myself untouchable at some point.

I'm only level 10, btw.

 

[HammerOfThor]

Skyrim on Xbox 360 suffers from a curious texture problem that sees performance drop when the game is installed to the hard drive.

I currently have the game installed. Does it load slower if its not?

 

[Salaadin]

I really, really, REALLY wish Bethesda would just straight copy/paste the Demon/Dark Souls combat in this. It's just so meh. I can't even tell if my sword connects half the time, always need the blood spray to be sure.

The Souls combat would fit so perfectly here, it's sort of similar in the first place.

Edit: Could someone theoretically mod that into the game?

I feel like Blocking and shield bashing work well and you know when those connecting based on enemy reactions and sound effects but youre 100% right about the sword. Its pretty difficult to tell if you connect or not and I end up having to watch their health bar to see it dropping to know if Im actually doing anything.

 

[Cetra]

I currently have the game installed. Does it load slower if its not?

Yes indeedy. But it also uglifies the game. Beth is working on a title update to address the problem though.

 

[coopolon]

I need some reassurance guys.

I'm trying to play as a pure mage. I want to use magica for everything. I want to forgo armor and forgo weapons. My plan is/was to enchant all my ordinary clothes to buff me and use those spells (stoneflesh or whatever) in place of armor.

So I tried to enchant something for the first time last night. I disenchanted some magic stuff I found. Good stuff like robes that do +12% destruction & +50% magic regen. I try to enchant a ring and what does it give me? +1 Magic regen. WTF?! I know I'm unskilled and the soul gem I used was petty... but only 1%?!? Am I making a mistake? Will I ever be able to enchant items as good as the ones I'm finding?

Second, how good are those mage armor spells? Will I ever be as protected as what you can wear in the game or am I just setting myself up to be a glass cannon. I was under the assumption that using magic and Mage Armor, I could make myself untouchable at some point.

I'm only level 10, btw.

Yes, you can make stuff way better then what you find, but you have to level up enchanting, add lots of perks into enchanting, and use grand souls. It also doesn't hurt if you also level up alchemy to make awesome fortify enchantment potions (which can be helped along by enchanting fortify alchemy items, obviously you can break the game with this loop, but you can also use it reasonably.)

I think the mage armor can be good, but you'd have to invest perks into alteration (3 after some prerequisites to level up mage armor) and I'd also want to take stability to make it last longer.

 

[Haly]

If i'm currently levelling an archer/stealthy character, is it worth it to try to level up to get Bound Bow? How is it compared to actual bows?

There are bows with the soul trapping enchantment. Just buy one from a vendor, or enchant one yourself once you get the enchantment.

You don't even need to use a large soul gem for it, a petty one will give you "if the target dies within 1 second, fill a soul gem". But if you use it for last hits it will always give you a soul. I have two bows at the moment, one for damage, one for soul trapping.

 

[syllogism]

I need some reassurance guys.

I'm trying to play as a pure mage. I want to use magica for everything. I want to forgo armor and forgo weapons. My plan is/was to enchant all my ordinary clothes to buff me and use those spells (stoneflesh or whatever) in place of armor.

So I tried to enchant something for the first time last night. I disenchanted some magic stuff I found. Good stuff like robes that do +12% destruction & +50% magic regen. I try to enchant a ring and what does it give me? +1 Magic regen. WTF?! I know I'm unskilled and the soul gem I used was petty... but only 1%?!? Am I making a mistake? Will I ever be able to enchant items as good as the ones I'm finding?

Second, how good are those mage armor spells? Will I ever be as protected as what you can wear in the game or am I just setting myself up to be a glass cannon. I was under the assumption that using magic and Mage Armor, I could make myself untouchable at some point.

I'm only level 10, btw.

You can generally enchant better things than you can find, but mage robes are an exception in terms of magic regen. I think the max regen you can get by enchanting your own is 67% or so. Eventually it's probably better to just enchant the robe with -x% mana cost enchantments though.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Yeah Demon/dark combat is ages ahead of this, but not sure its doable in first person. They would have to change a lot to make it viable... But yeah fully agree Skyrim combat has nothing on Dark/Demon.

You wouldn't have to change a whole lot. Make every hit cause a minor stagger, increase the amount of stamina it takes to block and attack, and make stamina regenerate a lot faster.

Done, Demon's Souls.

 

[ElyrionX]

I need some reassurance guys.

I'm trying to play as a pure mage. I want to use magica for everything. I want to forgo armor and forgo weapons. My plan is/was to enchant all my ordinary clothes to buff me and use those spells (stoneflesh or whatever) in place of armor.

So I tried to enchant something for the first time last night. I disenchanted some magic stuff I found. Good stuff like robes that do +12% destruction & +50% magic regen. I try to enchant a ring and what does it give me? +1 Magic regen. WTF?! I know I'm unskilled and the soul gem I used was petty... but only 1%?!? Am I making a mistake? Will I ever be able to enchant items as good as the ones I'm finding?

Second, how good are those mage armor spells? Will I ever be as protected as what you can wear in the game or am I just setting myself up to be a glass cannon. I was under the assumption that using magic and Mage Armor, I could make myself untouchable at some point.

I'm only level 10, btw.

As a mage you will always be a glass cannon because of your low HP.

 

[Wanace]

So, without spoiling anything please, why should I do the civil war stuff before doing the MQ? Does it not jive all that well going the other way 'round?

I did the MQ before doing the civil war quests (sided with Imperials). There is one point in the MQ that certainly will not occur if you do the civil war first. So I imagine if you want to participate in this event you should complete up to that point in the main quest first. You'll know it when you see it.

 

[Lonestar]

Finally made it over to Riften last night. Traveled along the northern ridge (past Mzulft? Which looks cool), then south into the city. Saw my first werewolf, I guess. Or maybe it's a black haired troll. Spooked me at first, it basically looks like BigFoot.

Me and my Horse proceeded to get the hell outta there.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

I+1 Magic regen. WTF?! I know I'm unskilled and the soul gem I used was petty...

You're trying to create powerful magic armor without any training using the soul of a stray dog you found in the alley, of course it's shit.

I did the MQ before doing the civil war quests (sided with Imperials). There is one point in the MQ that certainly will not occur if you do the civil war first. So I imagine if you want to participate in this event you should complete up to that point in the main quest first. You'll know it when you see it.

Okay I'll stick with the MQ for now--I'm the fucking Dragonborn, I shouldn't concern myself with the civil war unless it gets in my way.

 

[TheExodu5]

Actually, it uses a charge whenever you strike your enemy or fire the bow. But still, lower time and more charges is better. My bow has a 3-second window (so that if my atronach or companion deals the final blow right after hitting them, it's OK), but if you're melee or rolling solo, 1-second is perfectly fine (get more charges anyways).

I was striking a ton of people yesterday and no charges were getting taken off my dagger. Gonna have to retest it tonight.

 

[Orlandu84]

Does the difficulty ramp up in this or do I need to adjust it? I'm level 6 on the default right now and I'm 1 and 2 shotting enemies with my 2handed axe.

My tactic for Elder Scrolls games is to increase the difficulty level as I level up. At level 7 I switched to Adept; at level 12 I went to Expert. My test for difficulty is whether I encounter things that challenge me. At expert right now I can usually easily defeat bandits, but trolls and dark elves are difficult. That's my two cents.

 

[Haly]

Petty gems are worthless for just about 99% of enchantments.

 

[ckohler]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to continue my pure mage ways.

You're trying to create powerful magic armor without any training using the soul of a stray dog you found in the alley, of course it's shit.

I just didn't expect it to be that bad. It gave me the false impression that the upper limits of enchanting would be far less than what items you can just find for free.

 

[Lonestar]

Wish saves could transfer from console to PC, as I'm tempted to swap. PS3, after a little while, becomes unplayable from Lag or whatever it is. It could be a known issue, or it just might be my PS3 is overheating and/or dying. Decisions, Decisions...

 

[Maybrick]

Unfortuantely it was my birthday on Saturday! I had to do stupid family stuff during parts of it! Luckily I booked off Friday and Monday so it was a four day weekend but I only managed to get about 30 hours in total when I wanted more!!!

 

[Wanace]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to continue my pure mage ways.



I just didn't expect it to be that bad. It gave me the false impression that the upper limits of enchanting would be far less than what items you can just find for free.

The way it's always been in TES series is that Grand Soul gems are really the only ones worth using to make gear. Greater Souls are also OK at times, depending on what you're finding out there in terms of loot. Everything else should only be used to recharge your weapons/staves. So if you find grand soul gems, especially filled ones, hang on to them for use in enchanting your gear.

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Hey, for that mission where those guys are looking for the chick, then you find her at

Spoiler

the inn

, and you have to

Spoiler

go to the jail to talk to the prisoner

, is the better outcome to help her or them?

TBH, I kind of feel like murdering both groups but she's a Redguard like me sooooo, I dunno.

 

[TheContact]

Just became

Spoiler

the arch-mage of the College

. What an incredible quest line.

Plus my mage now looks like a total badass

Whoa, you look like MF Doom!

 

[Leunam]

Welp, I won't be going back to Markarth anytime soon. Without going into too much detail, let's just say I am indirectly responsible for the deaths of nearly every person there. Shame, I actually really liked the place.