Any way to increase game difficulty? (Im on Master)

[dukeozzy]

Well I am level 42 maxed out 2 handed combat, I got a daedric greatsword, ebony armor and a daedric plate and a mask of clavicus vile. And nothing seems to be able to kill me. Aside from Master Necromancers, Fire Mages and other high power mages, everything else is just a cakewalk. I miss going through a dungeon and actually being cautious and using my smarts like drawing them into traps, using my shouts and spells to buy me some time to fast heal but other now its quite easy. They say the things level up with you but they arent really that strong. Is there any way to make things stronger? Im playing on Master difficulty.

[Lachdonin]

Have you used the Smithing/Enchanting exploit? If so, i'd say replace everything with base line equipment and enchants.

[Matth85]

Not using the best gear you can thin off. So if you use, let's say, dadreic: You do not ugrade it. You also do not enchant anything.

Do not use comanions.

 

That means the game gets harder, and you do not have to drop anything for it.

[dukeozzy]

Have you used the Smithing/Enchanting exploit? If so, i'd say replace everything with base line equipment and enchants.

 

What do you mean by the Exploit? And I have enchanting at level 38 or something low and my smithing is at 100. I enchanted some of my gear to give me two handed strength, stamina regen, 2 second paralyze for my bow and greatsword, and a magicka regen with my clavicus vile helmet. Do you mean by using iron daggers to get to level 100? Yes and no, I am pretty far in my quests, beat the imperial campaign, and lots of others, I spaced out my smithing only too get stronger armor when I noticed I was getting killed quite a lot. But before level 30 or so I was using quest items and armors from loot.

[Lachdonin]

No, the exploit involves using Enchanting to enchant gear that gives you + enchanting, which allows you to infinately increase your enchanting. Then you can enchant something to give you + Smithing, which allows you to forge weapons with do hundreds, if not thousands of damage a hit. Its a cheap exploitation of the formulaic scaling of skills, and i personally want no part of it.

 

If you haven't done this, on the other hand... yuo may be SOL. Until the Construction Set comes out and you can tweak stats for yourself anyway.

 

That said, i find that between 20-30, and again betweeen 40-50 there are rough patches. Nothing seems to fit into that scale range. At 50+ you see lots of Ancient Dragons, Draugr Death Overlords and the like.

[vertex23]

Not using the best gear you can thin off. So if you use, let's say, dadreic: You do not ugrade it. You also do not enchant anything.

Do not use comanions.

 

That means the game gets harder, and you do not have to drop anything for it.

 

You just have to drop Smithed gear and an entire skill tree and making yourself weaker by using lower level gear. Yup, totally don't have to drop anything.

[mrboneguy]

Looks like there are some serious balance issues. Especially once you've got plenty of elemental resist enchantments on. Even with legit enchantments and smithing at 100 skill level, it's pretty crazy how powerful your character can be. I'm basically immune to all forms of elemental damage and I take very little physical damage - can easily heal it all up with one spell and get back to slaughtering with my 1h sword (which does more damage than destruction magic could ever hope to do).

 

Seems there are some high level balance issues. A player should never have to intentionally gimp themselves to keep balance. The balance should be built into the game. Things like the enchanting/smithing exploit should be fixed.

[CaptainChaos]

I don't understand how you aren't taking damage on master. My armor rating is 460 and even Falmer pose a serious risk to me if they are with their centipede buddies.

 

As I posted under another Master Difficulty post:

 

I run and melee everything. My 30th level Shaman warrior considers both ranged weapons and sneaking dishonorable, and will only use poison on regenerating creatures or those that use poison themselves. I have hardly used enchanting or smithing, just a tiny bit, that came naturally, no crazy iron dagger exploits. This game is TOUGH on Master. With an armor rating of 460 (Steel Plate all around) and 400 health, some random enchanted items (ring, necklace and gauntlets of fortify one-handed attacks, so 60% extra damage) and almost every Heavy Armor, One-Handed/Mace, and Shield Perk and I still die in 2-5 hits, especially from Falmer and those centipede things, plus mages can also hurt. I finally can stand against Draugr Scourges or Deathlords, but I have to be very careful. It takes me 5-20 hits to kill the above.

 

Incidentally, occasionally just to experimentation, I have tried fire magic against trolls and archery against vulnerable opponents. I don't understand. My attacks do almost NO DAMAGE. (I have a 20 in Destruction Magic, no perks, and 25 in Archery, No Perks). Some people have posted arrow duels with similar archery scores, supposedly on Master, doing massive damage. DK how they do that either.

 

In summary, as a non-sneaking melee character, I find Master extremely challenging, often requiring tons of potions. I must have spent 50k on potions already in my 100+ hours of gaming.

[Guest MajinCry]

I don't get how people become so strong. I tried doing the expert difficulty with a level 30 DarkElf that dual-wielded those blade swords at Epic level, with blade and orc armour at the same level.

 

And I still got hammered by enemies on Adept. Expert is a nightmare, and Master is insane XD

[SaturnFX]

At this point, ya...its all about giving yourself quirks..

 

You say your a warrior? two handed? impressive...so, call yourself a barbarian then and see all magic as wimply, or spooky and unnatural. use no enchantments, no potions, etc...live like a barbarian and reject all forms of magic and wizardry, from spell, to sword.

 

That should kick things up for you.

 

If your a uber master thief...why not go out without any weapons whatsoever...not even a dagger. be confident in your trade..(granted, my thief character wouldn't have an issue..with 100 stealth, and then all sorts of enchantment items reaching damn near 200 in stealth when its said and done, I can all but sit on their head and they wont see me)

 

As far as others saying balance...no, the game is balanced. Part of the point of leveling up is to eventually go from moron with a wooden sword fighting rats, to uber arse kicker eating dragons for breakfast without breaking a sweat...thats the point of it.

If you want to forever feel like the outside world is little more than death, then build up skills like speechcraft, lockpicking, etc...things that don't help you at all in battle but will level you up all the same...then you can be a level 50 wimp with a golden toungue

"Greetings giant dragon, About the concept of you digesting me, I believe we should discuss this matter in finer details due to the...aaaahhhh,,,fire!!!"