Are NPC Mages too powerful, or is it me?

[DeadSpace]

dual cast>conjure familiars, atronachs, or reanimate the dead bandits, use lightening, while reanimated or familiar has got his attention nail him with lightening to drain his mp pool faster. ice can work as well, leave him walking, easier target.

 

got attacked early on by a vampire huntress (i was level 5...think the rand enc list hiccuped badly on that one) between embershard mine and riverwood...she tore me up (sneak+bow user) after the third time gulping pots, whipped out staff of the atronach, and ice, (didn't have lightening at the time) the apprentice spell, kept putting the atronach between her and me it would die from her ice shards/lightening in 1-2 hits but it would get a few hits in and explode on death while i hit her with ice eventually killing her.

 

at 50 now and still primary sneak+archer, but playing around with draining mages and testing (next character will be a caster), lightening/chain lightening and reanimating corpses forces them to melee pretty quick as their mana pool gets drained i have no real perks or skills in destruction, no levels either since it all went into primary build, but it's still effective. and more fun the one shot sneak attacks ^_^

 

dragon shouts, almost forgot those, very helpful. even the first one you get can stagger/knock them down letting you get some free hits in and/or conjure something else up.

[Ghogiel]

2. As far as I know, if you find a place at level one, everything that will spawn there from that point on won't level up with you, even if you revisit the place later on. It kinda gets your level, then it stays like that. There might also be some scripted locations that have hard to kill if not imposible enemies, but you're only sent there once you advance in ranks and therefore you get more powerfull items to aid you etc.

 

mope. It's called zoned leveling. meaning there are places that will spawn dragur deathlord and other high level dragur even at level 1. which will be casting adept level frost spells that will wtfpwn you and your companion in the same hit.

Edited November 19, 2011 by Ghogiel

[Pushkatu]

2. As far as I know, if you find a place at level one, everything that will spawn there from that point on won't level up with you, even if you revisit the place later on. It kinda gets your level, then it stays like that. There might also be some scripted locations that have hard to kill if not imposible enemies, but you're only sent there once you advance in ranks and therefore you get more powerfull items to aid you etc.

 

mope. It's called zoned leveling. meaning there are places that will spawn dragur deathlord and other high level dragur even at level 1. which will be casting adept level frost spells that will wtfpwn you and your companion in the same hit.

 

Well, even better. I remember how many times I got my arse kicked in Gothic games when I ventured into high level dungeons with my low level character. It was fun and it teached me a lesson, lol. Anyway... thanks for clearing that out. :thumbsup:

[dra6o0n]

2. As far as I know, if you find a place at level one, everything that will spawn there from that point on won't level up with you, even if you revisit the place later on. It kinda gets your level, then it stays like that. There might also be some scripted locations that have hard to kill if not imposible enemies, but you're only sent there once you advance in ranks and therefore you get more powerfull items to aid you etc.

 

mope. It's called zoned leveling. meaning there are places that will spawn dragur deathlord and other high level dragur even at level 1. which will be casting adept level frost spells that will wtfpwn you and your companion in the same hit.

Except you can't see a enemy's level, or any way to 'gauge' how difficult they are.

[SirValiantJones]

i think its just you to be honest

 

i havent had much trouble with them

 

just run in close and get them with your sword

[Shinamo]

A mage fighting a mage has to use different tricks, depending on the situation.

 

Easiest is of course dual casting Ice Spike/Incinerate to constantly stagger them until they die. This is best done when you initiate the fight and it's one on one. Fireball can be subbed if you need to AoE some nearby targets.

 

If they have a ward spell up and at power, they will spam it right before your spell hits constantly to prevent taking damage. You can go two routes here:

 

1. Cast a fireball/AoE on the ground below them, or wall behind them. It hits them and in some cases breaks their ward down if I remember right.

 

2. Equip Ice Storm in each hand, and charge them separately. Then unleash one right after the other, and repeat. Throw in a dual cast if you think you can get them to stagger status. The first one will break their ward often, and the second one will deal damage. I love using this on corridors, or where multiple people will eventually pop up. Just spam it 10-20 times, then collect from the corpses. This also works on mages hiding around a corner, or along the wall that you can't see.

[ogridum]

In this game, you have to exploit the AI, using cover.

You cannot let them attack unless you are attacking them. Before they kill you, you have to fall back to safe zone, to exploit heal yourself, before rinse and repeating. That works in all difficulties.

 

If you try to "stand and trade" with either melee or mages or archers on higher difficulty levels, you need the highest possible armor/shield/block/damage or highest magic resist possible/no mana on strongest dps spells you have, against another archer you actually cant stand and trade with because the time it takes for you to kill them even if you dont miss will always be lower than the time it takes them to kill you, even if you move around, and have all the archery perks, you need best armor mitigation and heals.

[Deleted3158906User]

In this game, you have to exploit the AI, using cover.

You cannot let them attack unless you are attacking them. Before they kill you, you have to fall back to safe zone, to exploit heal yourself, before rinse and repeating. That works in all difficulties.

 

If you try to "stand and trade" with either melee or mages or archers on higher difficulty levels, you need the highest possible armor/shield/block/damage or highest magic resist possible/no mana on strongest dps spells you have, against another archer you actually cant stand and trade with because the time it takes for you to kill them even if you dont miss will always be lower than the time it takes them to kill you, even if you move around, and have all the archery perks, you need best armor mitigation and heals.

 

How is taking cover exploiting? That's strategy.. :unsure:

[Dreadarm]

When fighting a mage with a melee character make use of SHIELD BASH it interrupts any and all spells, staggers them and allows you to pummel the shat out of them. Also there is a block specific feat that gives you an extra 50% resistance to elemental dmg while blocking. (this helps allot)

[Jagdpanzer38]

They are too powerful. I have a level 31 destruction/conjuration mage and I wen't up against a level 24 npc mage(used console to look at stats after reloading for the third time). I have just over 400 magicka, 160 health, and 160 stamina, whereas the npc mage had over 500 magicka, over 400 health, and about 100 stamina. not only that, but that mage was one shot killing me with a spell that does without perks 25 damage(37 with perks) even after my 25% magic resistance(breton). They have way too much health for a mage, and seem to get massive arbirtary damage bonuses to their spells. Although most enemies get arbitrary damage bonuses(and extra health) this is most pronounced with mages.

So once the creation kit comes out, I'm going to do my best to make sure the enemies are following the same rules as me in regards to damage and health. In other words, removing arbitrary bonuses.

I'm sick of bandits armed with iron weapons and fur armor hitting harder than my melee/archery/sneak character using legendary elven gear.