RatcatcherOfKvatch

@wolfpack91: Legendary difficulty is as different from Master as Master from vanilla. The number of things that can kill you with 1 hit are many more in the jump from Master to Legendary. I'm not saying Skyrim isn't doable with a pure mage and no followers, but "own all skyrim" is quite a stretch. Give it a try; see what you think. @Lord Garon: It sounds like you're always one Chaurus Reaper bite away from a restart. Despite being a strong advocate of the permadeath rule I don't actually like dying. Do you use Lord Stone and the Mage Armor perks or accept that any lapse in situational awareness (or luck) should rightly result in death? I'm up to 3 high-level characters who have never died, but I don't think any of them have never been hit by something that, were they completely unprotected, would've killed them. Is that what makes the game interesting to you? The constant threat of 1-shot oblivion hanging over you?

If you go to Solstheim right at the start you can get the Werebear one-shot conjuration, which is ridiculously powerful at low levels, but you can't start the main quest until its time comes. Nobody Escapes Cidhna Mine (Unless They Can Conjure a Werebear) is a great quest to take after visiting Solstheim at a very low level.

Boots: Fortify 1-Handed Armor: Fortify Health Ring, Necklace, Shield: Resist Magic (MR caps at 85%; if you get it in 2 put Fortify Health on the third piece) Bracers: Fortify 1-Handed Helmet: Magicka or Archery. Are you more healer or archer? Weapon: Do the Companions quests for Skyforge and Nord Hero steel weapons. Take the Steel Smithing perk. Block: Fortify Health on shields? Don't do it. If you're badly hurt and switch out your shield to heal I think you can die, or at least be put on death's door. You can afford to drop your MR briefly, but not your health. Your best defense against the dreaded 1-hit-kill giant orc hammer is your shield. Watch your back; you don't have a shield back there. With other builds you might be obliged to constantly run around and maneuver, but with your build in-your-face aggression to the fore with a wall or a friend at your back wins the day. Attack: Don't burn all your stamina attacking. Save some for blocking. Standard attacks don't cost stamina, so you don't have to stop fighting. Don't power-attack an alert, maneuvering opponent. They'll just sidestep you. Power-attack opponents if they are staggering, blocking, drawing a bow, distracted, backed into a corner, or otherwise maneuver-impaired. Shout: Elemental Fury is a pretty good one. Stone: Lord, or maybe Atronach. The Atronach Absorb effect gets all the attention, but at low levels its fortify effect is just crazy. The Lord Stone's 25% MR is also pretty insane, so either is a good choice. Your Build: 1-H warriors are in terms of survivability and close combat the strongest build in Skyrim. Supplement with healing and you're the ultimate Squad Captain, a team player not making wild swings with 2-handers and not letting your companions fall.

I've always thought once you become so wealthy it would start translating into political influence you should be able to improve the factions. The poor Stormcloaks are wearing rags, and if you side with the Imperials their situation isn't much better. The College of Winterhold is crumbling along with its city. If I care about these institutions and have enough money to raise an army, well ... why shouldn't I want to fix the guardrails on the Winterhold Bridge or put some decent boots on the feet of my fellow Stormcloaks?

The Dragonborn wins the "who you'd most like to have a beer with" contest. The HoK / CoC is more powerful and leads a more intellectually stimulating life, but the Dragonborn, Hadvar, and Ralof bursting into drunken song in the Sleeping Giant Inn, their past differences forgotten, who wouldn't want to knock back one too many Honningbrews with those guys? The CoC is the intense intellectual type, more at home pondering Daedric artifacts and the nature of Oblivion with the equally well-educated and soft-spoken Martin Septim. While their conversations would be endlessly fascinating, cogitating on the nature of the universe doesn't win the beer prize. Hadvar and Ralof would be bored to tears. The Dragonborn would never bore his drinking buddies. On the other hand Sheogorath knows how to have fun, so maybe Ann Marie learns to lighten up in the course of defeating / liberating Jyggalag. But Sheo is an act. She might as well be doing the royal wave when she declares, "Cheese for everyone." When the Dragonborn buys the room a round of mead he's really feeling it. My two drunken Septims anyway.

Unless there's a particular perk you want, then you should level like crazy to unlock it. I'll dance on a forge fire if that's what it takes to get those extra few points of Restoration to get me to the Respite perk. (Burn-and-heal, burn-and-heal, now wonder mages have such a reputation for madness ... "Get out of my forge, you crazy witch!") What can I say, I'd rather walk on hot coals than have to stop running ... (I haven't actually had to train Restoration since Legendary mode was introduced -- I get plenty of practice healing just trying to make it through the day. But I don't fault anyone leveling a skill so they can do basic things like block arrows with a shield or run faster holding a bow. Why shouldn't you want to be able to do that?)

Skyrim's it, buddy. It's all up to you. Shore up the Stormcloaks, make the College of Winterhold a competitive center of knowledge relative to the other powers, keep the East Empire trading, keep the dragons from killing the people, keep the Blades from killing the dragons, ally with or ruthlessly exterminate the Forsworn, and maybe you can get Skyrim whipped into shape in time to face the Dominion. I'd say your plate's pretty full. Talos guide you. Oh, and the Argonians seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, since you asked. No one but the Hist knows what their long-term agenda is or what sacking the southern half of Morrowind has to do with it, but politically and militarily I can't think of any reason they wouldn't be a major power around this time.

I installed Paarthrunax Dilemma, but haven't played it yet. You might give it a try, although I can't endorse it without actually having gotten to it yet.

I liked everything about it. There was also one in-game feature I loved to hate. Once you start down the path far enough to attract Miraak's personal notice you will feel a very strong motivation to finish him off as quickly as possible. I won't say why, but when you hear yourself saying, "Miraak, you b*stard, not again!" then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. (And you'll hear yourself saying that at least once, I promise.) I always complain a lot so I should really have some complaints about Dragonborn, but I can't really think of any. There's humor, there's adventure, the island feels like part of the rest of the world, it's connected to the world, it belongs moreso than Dawnguard even, if I had to compare, although Dawnguard suffered from being set in a Skyrim built before Dawnguard's population existed. With Solstheim being a new land everyone in it belongs there. Okay maybe this counts as a complaint: I don't think I ever managed to get the Skaals to actually trade with me. They have theoretical shops and traders, but for whatever list of reasons they're never available. I'm sure eventually I'd have done enough quests and hung around long enough to hit the right hours for the shops to open, but I don't believe in practice I ever managed to sell a single item in Skaal Village. I did a bunch of quests for them, thinking, "As soon as I finish this one surely at least one shop will open," but alas I was to be perpetually frustrated. It's a small island, though, so that's a pretty minor complaint. Oh, right, about the missing shops: you get a portal to a safe container you can open anywhere in Solstheim. Do I care if the shops never open if I can just stuff everything in an Oblivion box? You can stuff all kinds of things in your Oblivion Box and never worry about encumbrance anywhere on the island ever again. Who cares if the Skaal shops never open?

The difference between spamming matchsticks while your follower carves 'em up versus clearing whole blocks of rooms before your follower can clear her throat is alchemy. "Pure Mage" is what you'll be when you're not juiced up, so you want that experience you've got it. On Legendary it's particularly humbling. Anyway the biggies for you are Flame Cloak (because you get it early and free from Yisra), Impact, Paralysis, at least 1 rank of at least 1 of the three Destruction elements so Impact will work on the really big stuff, and really strong Fortify Destruction potions. As soon as you're done following Ralof / Hadvar you'll want to recruit Faendal and go straight to Whiterun to get Flame Atronach and Healing Hands. The first dozen levels you'll be doing a lot of healing. It's nice to not have to take risks with collateral damage. As a healer time is on your side. When you hit 40 Restoration you get Respite, the "permanent sprint perk", so it's not like your career is standing still or anything. The fastest way to level Destruction without leveling anything else is to draw really big enemies into really small places, preferably with a zone close at hand so you can recover more quickly. Silent Moons Camp is perfect for this. Bring a follower, clear the camp (indoors too), dismiss your follower, then draw angry giants and mammoths to the iron gate on the ground floor. When you run out of juice just hit the trapdoor, recover at the super-fast "non-combat rate" indoors, then back up the ladder, dump another full tank on whatever's outside the door, and Destruction will level almost exclusive to anything else. The researcher in Solstheim, the guy who lives in the giant mushroom, he or his assistant has a lower-level Alteration spell with a paralysis-like effect. Detect Life is the most reliable natural way to level Alteration and Transmute even before that. Once you start paralyzing enemies Alteration will shoot straight to 100.

You can't possibly lead the life the Dragonborn does without occasionally breaking the law due either to collateral damage or the exigencies of extreme circumstances. An investigator operating outside the corrupt legal framework (The Forsworn Conspiracy) is obviously going to have to steal his evidence if he hopes to ever crack the case.

@PJ: But by that time the CoC's "destiny" to deliver the AoK had been fulfilled like 20 quests ago. She takes the Amulet, packs it off to the Blades, and her "destiny" is done. The King knew to hand her the amulet, that she would get it to the Blades. It's the Blades who fiddle around and lose the darn thing, but it's not your destiny to help them get it back -- it's your choice. Your destiny was to deliver, and you got it done. (In a linear quest of course everything is "destiny", but it's a plausible story alternative if she delivers the Amulet then goes fishing maybe Savlian inspires Martin to go fulfill his destiny without your involvement. The player's PoV jumps to Savlian, Savlian becomes the "Hero of Kvatch", and he and Martin go deal with the Oblivion crisis while The Amulet Courier of Destiny goes hunting Nirnroots for Sindarion.)

There's a quest in the main line where you go undercover. It really bothers me if I become a Stormcloak officer before taking that mission because it doesn't make sense for Delphine to tell you the Thalmor have no idea who you are when they very clearly should. They would know who the officers are and not trust them. (If you're an Imperial officer you could always pretend you're leveraging your officer status to gain social rank; it's a perfect cover.) The same "anonymous officer" weirdness attaches to the College of Winterhold questline I'd say any time after the Dwemer mission. The Thalmor have received specific orders regarding you personally. Elenwen would almost have to have known about if not given those orders. How could she possibly not know who you are, especially if you're the Archmage? In the Greymane liberation mission against the Thalmor no one who sees your face, knows of your involvement, and is on the side of the Thalmor lives to tell about it. That one's ok. It's purely personal preference, but it bugs me when I'm "undercover" after I've done things that should've put me on the Thalmor's radar. If Miraak knows who I am 5 minutes after I talk to the Greybeards how could the Thalmor possibly not know that new guy at the party is actually the Archmage who killed two of their agents -- whom they had specifically ordered to kill you? How could they not know you're a Stormcloak officer? Could I bring my drinkin' buddy Galmar, too? We might as well make it a real party. In terms of gameplay the "Become Ethereal" shout allows you to fall without dying. You have no idea how useful that is until you start using it. Whirlwind Sprint will kill you if you use it while running downhill, so in a way they're counterparts. Ask me how I know. :tongue: The "Dragonrend" shout allows you to force an engagement with a dragon. Given the rampant epidemic of Dragon Attention Deficit Disorder (DADD?) it's very convenient to be able to force your eminently distractible opponent to stop fussing around with ice wolves and mudcrabs during an epic fight with the Dragonborn.

Well I'll give you a straight answer. It seems a fair question. Block is best learned in stages. Start with horkers, graduate to mammoths, then finally giants. When you're training block with horkers it's enough to simply step out of the way if you need time to recover, but with the giant-sized trainers you want cover they can't fit in, like the Moon Forge. Smithing has 2 ways to level quickly ... well, 3 I guess. First is leather. This takes no perks. Attack anything on 4 legs, build I think leather bracers for most efficient work. If you want money and don't mind leveling speech build armor and sell it. There will always be more elk. Second is Dwemer School. This requires 2 perks. Go to Avanchnzel and get the Dwemer skill-leaning perk and start hauling massive quantities of Dwemer junk (the kind that makes ingots) back to civilization and make, umm, I don't know, daggers I guess. The Avanchnzel perk also enables you to make Dwemer equipment of especially high quality, so it's kind of like getting the next perk early. Third is the Nord Hero Master Craftsman. This requires 1 perk. Once you've leveled Alchemy and Enchanting you can make ridiculously powerful items that only require the steel perk. You've got Forsworn right off the bat, then Skyforge Steel after one really hard quest (Dustman's), then Nord Hero after finishing the Companions quest line. If you've mastered Alchemy and Enchanting your smithing gear and potions will be so good you don't need more than one smithing perk.

You could argue that all the King knew about the CoC was that she was destined to take the Amulet of Kings to its proper place. The Oblivion-gate-closing overachieving was completely of her own choosing ...

Ahh, yes: addendum to the list of things that can kill you at level 60: 1. Gravity 2. Several doses of poison applied simultaneously (Forsworn, major settlement, ran in without a plan or poison resistance, paid the price. Screen turned green. Dragonborn died.) 3. Spinning Dwemer blade traps + corners. You have ~1 second before you lose your thousand health points to figure out which way to jump. If you jump toward the corner you die. The only way out would be through the open door (the one that triggered the trap) or a leap over the blades that clears the far end of the blade disc. Yup, that door in Avanchnzel. You know the one ... The oncoming 2-hander problem maybe 1 rank of Ice Form is best. 2-3 ranks are too slow, but the level 1 Ice Form shout works pretty quickly -- faster than Paralysis either by poison or spell.

If Ann Marie has the deepest connection to the Daedra (even deeper than Martin's by the end of her journey) and the Dragonborn the deepest connection to Creation and the Words that composed it ... both are pretty epic in their own way. I need to play Morrowind, just suck it up and deal with the "walking around with sticks up their butts" animations -- they look like walking scarecrows, it's hideous -- anyway I'll learn to put up with it. Everyone keeps talking about how great Morrowind was, so surely I'll get used to it after awhile. I have to see the Nerevarine's exploits for myself, and Morroblivion has never quite worked right, so I guess it's time to make peace with the retro technology and dive in already.

You did figure out pretty much what I was asking for, and I know I'm not the first to ask for a "lore-friendly" follower, but the look is important as well. Someone who talks with a perfect Norwegian accent recorded with expertly-engineered mic levels, is on a first-name basis with every Housecarl, could argue politics at the New Gnisis, and can by integrating with "Run for Your Lives" clear a town in 3 seconds flat yelling, "By the Gods! Dragon!" but looks like a Japanese cartoon character still doesn't fit. But you pretty much get the gist, yeah. Sounding like I was going a little bit crazy was intentional; I'm sorry if you found it off-putting. There was a nugget of truth behind the clumsy humor; traveling Skyrim with Nirn's only Mori Girl is as annoying conceptually as stock ticker crawls on Word Walls or Pantea belting out Pantera. In-character it feels like having an outrageous-looking companion that no one notices but me makes me kind of scizo, like, "If she's real then why doesn't anyone but me notice how unusual she is?" Vilja incidentally came pretty close to closing the deal, it's just the sound engineering was outside what I could tolerate, especially those times when the combat dialogue pegs the meter. The sound of a voice on an overdriven mic is so annoying to me it's almost painful. I do appreciate the effort, though. I know I sound like a snob, but Bethesda did a good job with the look-and-feel of their own companions, so I'm not really a snob, just spoiled. (Not by the AI, though. Phooey!) Hey while we're on the subject of combat dialogue, it doesn't need to sound intense 99% of the time. Anywhere north of Level 4 you've killed more battle-hardened enemies than a retired Roman Legionnaire. Your follower, by necessity as blooded as you, wouldn't hyperventilate at the first sign of trouble, at least not after the 12 dozenth deadly encounter. This would be a great time for her to give you a clue how she's doing; dialogue should be tied to her health level, as should its emotional intensity. Bethesda gets this really wrong; when Lydia gasps, "It's ... nothing!" like she's really dying you look at her health and she's barely touched, or she's on death's door yelling, "I'll kill you if I have to!" What a missed opportunity ...

Besides unprofessional sound engineering, which is to be expected -- professionals know how to compress mics and get the right gain on their preamps, but you can't really hold amateurs to that standard -- my pet custom follower peeve is they don't look vanilla enough. It's like having Imaginary Friend Mister Snuffleupagus hovering around inside your Beautiful Mind while you interact with the world as a schizophrenic trying to pretend how out-of-place your imaginary friend isn't. Yes, it really weirds me out, but then I can use HiAlgoBoost without going cross-eyed so each of us has our own sensitivities I guess. It's not like I need everything to be perfect, it's just this one thing really bothers me. Intelligent companions with non-annoying dialog that fits the scenery and context would be really awesome, but the fit has to be right or it seems a little crazy. "Get out of my head! You're not real!" <-- psychodrama So are there any reasonably-presented followers who are more intelligent than the stock offerings?

H of K. Ann Marie is humble before Martin's great sacrifice, allowing him to take all the credit even when as Sheo she could've set the record straight. (I think Sheo's more like a "Daedra Suit" Ann Marie wears for official functions than her new body. I figure when she goes home for the day she puts on her "real" body. Sheo has a bit of a stalker problem, after all. What better disguise than her own body when she wants some anonymity? See, that makes her anonymity before Martin come full circle ... except for that statue in Bruma she's pretty much in disguise when she's dressed as herself. She's like her very own Grey Fox Cowl. Ironic, right?)

Meant to say 20x its weight. 5x weight and you couldn't take 2 steps without needing a wagon.

Yes, the back-story and unusual (but clearly well-informed) tracking shots were both spectacular. Whoever's running the camera really knows their world geometry and the ins and outs of all the objects.

I've always wanted to marry Faralda, for two specific reasons: first, she above all others (except the Dragonborn of course) understands and anticipates the threat from the Thalmor to the college, and second, she trusts you enough to take a chance on talking to you about it. Maybe Mirabelle understood as well, but Mirabelle didn't take enough interest in me to bring me into her counsel. Faralda takes a chance on you, makes you part of her suspicions. She takes a specific interest in you for the right reason, "sees something you" not in the sort of mawkish Harry Potter way but more of a "this guy might be on the level" kind of way. She's level-headed, intelligent, smooth, savvy, and dedicated to the good of the College. She also trusts you and thinks highly enough of you to reveal her misgivings about the Thalmor. In Faralda, then, is the combination first of compatible aims and world-view -- she would understand why an alliance with the Stormcloaks is necessary, or barring that would have very well-thought-out arguments against -- and a personal trust in me which I would feel comfortable reciprocating. Either she's playing a very long game for the Thalmor or I know I can trust her because she trusted me. Perfect alignment of the political, professional, and personal ... what's not to like? But, well, she's married to her job I guess, or she's just not that into me. *Sigh*

Some really good advice here. High ground is especially good for area explode-on-impact attacks (fireball & chain lightning) because the ground burst turns near-misses into hits. Low ground isn't usually a handicap because there are so few enemies that actually use these attacks, but it's definitely a poor place to be against Krosis, and almost everyone meets him eventually. Ice Storm shoots through walls. Locked doors are particularly good things to shoot through. Its short range makes it a specialty item, good when you need it. You can also shoot it through a frost atronach. For that matter if we go back to the First Floor ("Friendly Fire") you can spew all the flames you want over and across a flame atronach and it won't complain. This may sound even easier than working with a dog, but FA's have an AI that maneuvers for ranged attacks, so the dog is still a good idea. FA's rarely follow your plan to stand between you and the enemy you're hosing with fire. Still, there are many situations, mostly indoors, where you can do this and it works quite nicely. Ice Form is the way you turn Shouts into Crowd Control, in case anyone was wondering. If you have companions (dog, follower, atronach, etc.) try to ice an enemy no one is engaging. You can also enfilade and ice a bunch at once, at least if they're roughly collinear, then you don't have to worry about which ones are engaged: they'll be the ones who start moving again. If you don't have Ice Form then Fus (with or without Roh Dah) is a meager substitute but better than nothing. I disagree with the advice to attack the strongest enemy first. Unless it's a summoner (and in some crypts you'll get a super-summoner who controls every enemy in the room, so obviously you want to get that guy) anyway under normal circumstances attacking whatever is already engaged is best. If you have Ice Form it's academic. Tackling Volunruud I have a real example to draw on that shows I've missed the most important tactic that got me out of there alive. I'm convinced I made about the best choices I could under the circumstances; that was NOT a place to be at Level 7, but Lyds and I were in it anyway. There's free money unguarded and waiting for the taking all around that place, but once we grabbed it I was like, "Why not?" Ugh, that was close. Eduj is wildly powerful for level 7, though, so Lyds wielded it with pride through several levels. Anyway the final battle proved the most important tactic has so far gone unmentioned: MEDIC! Keep your companion fully healed! Next to avoiding things that can 1-shot you that's Job 1, whatever other decisions you make. Kvenel has a devastating death-shout, and I had no idea it was coming until it ripped through us. After seeing to my own rapidly-falling health -- a close call -- because I was already in position and had been keeping her at full health Lyds had a close call but never faltered. Had I been slacking even a little at that moment of unexpected doom things would've gone much worse. The First-Aid Shot. If you're trying to conserve, Healing Hands is Legendary-proof and at the tiniest dose possible ridiculously efficient. Resource management may not be a top priority when you know you're in a fight for your life, but let it drag on long enough and you'll come face-to-face with the need. This fight was all-out, but near the end I had burned through everything I had and was chomping on raw Red Mountain Flowers, so if you're either not up against it or you've been up against it a little too long it's good to know a tiny shot of healing to your companion -- the First-Aid Shot -- is amazingly efficient at any difficulty. That reminds me ... on a related note to First-Aid (but not to Kvenel): The First-Aid Strafe. Cast while running down a line of friendlies. This gives First-Aid Shots to everyone. Sometimes neutrals go hostile so be advised. (Honestly I think this is a bug. Only happened once.)

No compass sounds like a good one. I know my way around well enough I probably won't miss it. If I do ... extra fun, right? If friends and enemies could bruise and bleed you wouldn't need health bars, just heal the haggard ones on your side and finish off the bleeders from the other. You can kind of do that with fire dragons: the one on fire is probably the one who needs your help. Re: Stuff the blades: I'm with 'ya, brother.