Ironman on master level.

[Pilegeron]

Hi folks, this is my 1st post. FYI, Ironmaning a game means....you die...you're dead....game over....start over.

I Ironmanned Morrowind. I Ironmanned Fallout 3 on average difficulty, never once used a mini-nuke, game just ended suddenly b4 I expected it to.

I got to about lvl25 in Oblivion with Oscurro's mod. (never player Oblivion vanilla, refused to fight bandits in ebony armor! Still I never was interested enough in the Oblivion main quest to care about "finnishing" it though. )

Most games are impossible to Ironman on "average lvl" because most people expect (I'm guessing) bossfights to be tough enough that at some point you will get killed. (tried to Ironman The Witcher on easy difficulty, but occassional boss critical stuns made me realise that was not going to be possible)

 

THE SKYRIM MASTER GRIPE....

 

What is the deal with heavy armored, 2 hander mobs on master level? They are so OP'ed and require so much kiting, that I have given up on the idea of trying to Ironman Skyrim at master level. I was doing Dustman's cleft, or whatever it's called, the quest where Vargas from the Companions accompanies you. All fine untill orc in Steel armour with 2H Sword comes out and knocks Vargas out of fight in about 4 hits. I have reloaded this fight over and over again, just to believe that this non-boss mob was really for real. This mob was doing 50-125 points of damage per hit (non-blocked). Vargas, who is likewise equiped in hvy armour with 2H Sword is completly useless against the orc, and I am able to maybee get 2 hits in b4 I have to kite/heal again and repeat. Sure, with multiple reloads and barring any critical hits from the mob I could win the fight but that is not how I play solo RPG's. This was at lvl9 btw.

 

I'm not really looking for condolances or strategy tips. I'm just wondering if anyone else has abandoned attempting a Ironman game on master level because of the ridiculouse scaling of heavy armor and 2H weapon damage.

[Herculine]

Due to the size of their game worlds and the expansive scope of the gameplay in the Elder Scrolls games I think it's obvious that the devs never intended anyone to try to play through them without saving their progress, so in an "ironman" scenario you really can't criticize the gameplay balance. The games were never intended to be played that way.

[Leel]

Agreed that Mob was fairly tough since i fought them before I got my super bow gear. I finally figured out to stand on the landing above the entry where they come in and shoot an arrow through the door to draw them and then run away and hide. When you come back they have rearranged in the next room so you can get a clean sneak attack on the Orc and take him out and then the others are pretty easy. Hope this helps.

[Pilegeron]

Due to the size of their game worlds and the expansive scope of the gameplay in the Elder Scrolls games I think it's obvious that the devs never intended anyone to try to play through them without saving their progress, so in an "ironman" scenario you really can't criticize the gameplay balance. The games were never intended to be played that way.

 

Well, I'm not so much criticizing as I am seeking some mutual experiances while playing on master level. I'm beginning to suspect that maybee Vargas' level is static. When I did this instance at lvl 6 Vargas seemed very durable.

 

My other suspicion is that mobs make a big scale up jump at lvl10. I noticed this while fighting the 1st dragon at 8th lvl and then at 11th (at middle difficulty). There seemed to be a huge difference with dragon damage. Since I was playing the Dustman dungeon at lvl 9 master, I was thinking that maybee the mobs where like lvl 11 or 12, making them jump up a lot higher in their damage as well as armour. If this is the case, maybee I should stay in town and level up in saftey till about 15th level if on master mode. I love the perceived danger of master level, but the 2H weapon hits are a bit ridiculouse.

 

Love the avatar btw.....wood elf girls are my fav.

[Aluminumfoil]

It seems that on Elite and Master, enemies like to synch-kill you without a chance to dodge or block their attacks, sometimes from full health. It's a pity, because aside from that I'd like to play the game on Master, but it's just too frustrating to see an attack coming, push block, and then get treated to a video of my character putting his shield down and letting his head get cut off.

 

If you really want to maximize your ability to play and win the game at Master without dying, you might try simply never leveling up past level 2. Buy the first rank of Smithing with your perk so that you can run around in legendary Steel armor and weapons while the rest of the world is wearing Fur and Iron, get married so that you can always have +2/s regen in all your stats, just never click the level-up button ever again.