Does anyone else find Skyrim challenging?

[chaospearl]

I check this forum every morning to see if there are any interesting new threads, or older ones I'd like to respond to. I do the same at the Bethesda Skyrim forums. And it feels to me that almost every day I find myself reading a different thread in which someone complains about how ridiculously easy the game is. Based on what I've read here, a 4 yr old with palsy could play Skyrim on Master with Deadly Dragons installed and find it boring because there's no challenge.

 

I started playing on the easiest difficulty level because I'm not very combat-oriented and I wanted to get a feel for the controls before I encountered any real challenges. The first dungeon delving experience I had was retrieving the golden claw from Bleak Falls, starting out at level 1 with some Imperial leather armor that I'd smithed up to "fine" quality. As I explored through the caves I tweaked the difficulty around and eventually settled into my comfort level at the default Adept setting. It was challenging and I found myself gripping the controller in a death lock at times and feeling the 'exhilaration mixed with absolute terror' that I normally associate with being in 1st place on Rainbow Road during the final lap at 150cc, knowing that if I so much as exhale too quickly going around a sharp turn, it's all over. It was fun, though I knew I'd want to go down a notch to Apprentice during those times when I just wanted to relax and enjoy immersing myself in the world.

 

Then I tasted my first epic dragon battle at Whiterun, and I died. No, that isn't quite the phrase to describe my untimely demise. I was mercilessly slaughtered within seconds, face down eating dirt before I even saw which direction the dragon was coming from. I was destroyed, pwned, humiliated. In a single instant.

 

Once I'd regained my wits, I loaded a save and staunchly waded back into the fray, this time lasting almost fifteen seconds before I was engulfed in a fiery inferno and reduced to a pathetic little pile of grey ash.

 

It quickly became apparent that I had to keep moving, nay, sprinting hellbent for leather just to keep out of range of the dragonfire. If I were so much as caught by the edge of the blast I lost 90% of my health, and to be trapped anywhere in its direct path meant sooner-than-instant annihilation. Most of my concentration was occupied with frantically circling the camera across the sky trying to keep track of where the dragon was so that I didn't get caught pinned between it and the structure I'd taken cover behind. Every attempt to avoid making myself a target was utterly futile; no matter where I ran to or tried to take cover, crouched, wedged between, or hid behind, the dragon would be swooping directly towards me, opening its great maw, and -- gameover. I found myself in a repeating pattern of sprinting pell-mell for cover, reaching it and turning my eyes upwards to sweep the skies, only to be fried to a crisp deliciousness before I could even ascertain which direction the blast had come from.

 

I re-loaded the same save perhaps twenty times in as many minutes as my own humiliating epic fail played itself out over and over again. There were occasional miracles, magic moments in which I sighted the dragon before it could bank to the angle needed to charbroil me with a single breath, and managed to loose one or two arrows even as I faced my inevitable flaming death. Each arrow that struck true took with it about one percent of the dragon's health; possibly less, because the Whiterun guards were letting fly their own arrows at the same time.

 

Eventually, rather than suffer a nervous breakdown stemming from frustration with a video game, I turned on God Mode, took out a two-handed greatsword and walked to the middle of the field, waiting for that (censored) to land. He rained down white-hot fury and I stood there and laughed. I laughed some more with each blood splatter as I kept swinging and swinging with wild untrained glee, and I was laughing when I brought my blade down for the final stroke and was rewarded with that killcam where you straddle the dragon's neck and shove your sword down into the top of its head.

 

The reason I'm posting is because I would simply like to know if I'm the only one who is evidently an incompetent newb. Remember, that epic failure described above to survive more than thirty seconds against the very first dragon you see in the game occured on default Adept setting, and I don't use Deadly Dragons or any other mod that tampers with difficulty.

 

Now, I freely admit that I don't care about the combat in Skyrim or any other RPG title. I really don't play too many action games for that matter, and you won't find any shooters in my game library. That said, there's nothing wrong with my reflexes. I'm perfectly adept at platformers and have no problems with the handful of fast action-oriented titles that I do play. Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto, Uncharted. Pre-Ocarina Zelda titles, wheee! So... what's the problem, why do I fail so laughably at Skyrim?

 

Is anyone else out there playing on Adept and feeling challenged?

[NoobusExtremus]

After you've gained some skillpoints, and increased your health numbers a bit, and maybe grabbed some slightly better armor, you'll find that you can stay alive long enough to start getting the feel for combat. You might even have time to formulate some type of strategy - like strike, retreat a few steps, block, strike, run around, strike, etc.

:biggrin:

 

It all comes with time, patience and practice. I'd have to go look, but I think I'm still playing at Adept and am a pretty strong level 50 archer and one-hander character. Sometimes to make things more interesting, I'll shoot the baddies with crappy falmer arrows so I don't one-shot so many of them.

[RedRavyn]

You know, the people in the next apartment over probably heard me laughing as I read your account. Are you new to Elder Scrolls games? The reason I ask is that I found Oblivion (the only other one I've played) equally challenging right when I started it, and I went into that game as a Borderlands and Half-Life 2 veteran. There's nothing like a new game-system and unfamiliar challenges to serve you up a healthy portion of humble pie.

 

I didn't get owned badly in Skyrim until my trek up to High Hrothgar and I was surprised by the troll who makes his home up on the ledge, but I went into Skyrim viewing it from my perspective as an Oblivion player. I concentrated upon stealth and archery from the outset, especially since I knew there would be dragons. If you don't have some sort of ranged attack in Skyrim you're going to find life a very difficult career from which to retire gracefully. Either that or you'll have to find yourself some archer or battlemage buddies to tag along with you on your adventures.

 

At low levels you really can't fight that dragon by yourself, on the ground, with a sword. This is why Bethesda was kind enough to supply you with a squad of trained archers and battlemages to whittle down the dragon's health so you can get in the killing blow. Yes, his attack is devastating for a beginning character. Later on in the game when you've managed to "upgrade" your gear and yourself you'll find dragons to be pushovers, just like everything else in the game gets to be after about level 30 or so.

 

In the meantime, stay out of sight. There's a reason they staged that fight at the Western Watchtower. You can take refuge inside it and the dragon can't get to you. Pop out and take a pot-shot with a bow whenever you can. Keep the tower, and especially its broken bits and pieces, between you and the dragon. A sufficiently large obstacle can block all of the dragon's breath weapon. Then you dodge back out and take another two or three shots and backpedal or just turn and run if he starts toward you.

 

Eventually, his health will be worn down to the point at which he can't fly and he'll do a belly-flop onto the ground and stay there. That's when he's most vulnerable, but if you really want to see that battle-ending kill scene in slow motion do not attack him from the front. If you think his breath is bad, you should feel his teeth.

 

Oh, and if you're careful you can just go to the very top of the tower. He'll usually ignore you and go for the people on the ground, but you can always jump down onto the stairs to escape his breath attack. It's a perfect vantage point for keeping an eye on him and filling him with arrows.

 

I've been playing on Adept since day one, by the way. That's my comfort point for low-level play, which is what I prefer. I've been retiring my characters when they reach the upper 30s. I find that the limitations of low-level play make the game much more challenging than when I have the ability to nuke just about anything that walks, swims, or flies in Skyrim, even at the higher difficulty levels.

[Brandy1123]

There are pleanty of things in Skyrim encountered during you're first walk through that will take great pleasure in counting out your coin. Like what has been stated, learn from your mistakes and try new things. As for dragons, I found them pretty boring and bland once i figured them out. Use cover, even a single tree and you'll find that dragons no longer are a huge threat, but a distraction. I have been playing master level, with Skyrim Wars and tougher dragons for quite some time. Like most PC games, your gameplay adjusts to the difficulty. Now vanilla Skyrim seems like Mario Brothers. jump over the barrel and kill the ape.

 

There's a lot going on in the world of Skyrim. It takes a while to get used to what dragons are on the hunt and what dragons just fly around with no ability to target you. Your learning curve will be fast. You'll remember the first run because of the Epic fails and then knowing what things you should have had with you. Just wait til you have a multi-dragon encounter. WooT!!! :P

[gibbstar]

I agree with Brandy. At first getting used to the controls and layout makes things somewhat difficult but once you learn the different fights and what works best on what type of enemy, it gets a lot easier. I think this is a more polished control/fight system than oblivion was, and thus more easily mastered as my char does what i want easier. i played through my 1st char on adept then played a couple others mid way on adept as well. I started a new warrior on Master and things were a lot more challenging at first. then as i gained perks and better gear, things got back to being on the easy side. dragons still take longer to kill (i dont really have ranged spec except for 2 pts into archery for aiming/pulling), but most everything else dies pretty fast now (lvl 35). figuring out your character build and how you tackle the enemies and their various fighting styles makes a big difference.

[robanybody2000]

@ Brandy. That's Donkey Kong.Mario Brothers is with mushrooms and turtles. :thumbsup: .Other than that i agree wiyh you completly.

[tiy991]

@ Chaospearl

 

Okay, first off. I play at Expert with DD, and a few combat realism mods. I play light armor with daggers and bows. I take 2 hits from a bandit's steel sword and I'm dead. I die quiet rarely though. Second, here's my advice to you. Keep your eyes on the enemy. Learn to move without looking where you're going, of course without getting yourself trapped. Now, in light armor, especially at the difficulty I have it set at, you need to be VERY mobile. I turn a Berserk Orc Warrior's 1 minute fight into a 10 minute fight. I run all around the room, kiting, shooting when I can, and stabbing as I run by. If you're going to play in light armor, learn to not get hit. If you want to live forever and take damage like a boss, go roll an orc, get in some steel gear, grab a warhammer, pop your racial, and go to town. Otherwise, keep your eye on the prize, never stop moving, be fast, be nimble, don't get hit.

[Sader325]

I did this fight on master with shitty gear on my spellcaster. First off, to win this fight at low level on master its imperative that you use the whiterun guards to your advantage. Theres about 10 of them there, and they are there for good reason. You are not meant to 1v1 this dragon and win at low levels, stop playing like you're a god among men, you're not YET. At this moment you are a lowly warrior just like all the other gaurds, so ACT like it and work with them and not alone.

 

Enjoy these moments, because later the fights become so ridiculously easy that you'll look back fondly on these fights and remember the only time the game was ACTUALLY challenging. By turning on god mode you're just cheating yourself out of a well fought victory.

[swiftfoxmark2]

Ended up having to restart my character and I upped the difficulty to Master, having played on Adept before. Between that and the DD mod, it was quite a fight on the first dragon. Using nothing but a bow (I tried close-range two-handed a couple of times and failed), I was able to take Mirmulnir down eventually.

 

Then I tried to take out a Mammoth for Ysolda, got caught in a stone hut with two of them surrounding me. Had to load an earlier save on that one in order to just get one lured out to me. Attacking one in a group will alert all the others and any giants nearby. And even a master-level player will have difficulty taking a group of mammoths and giants out.

 

The point is, you are going to have a tough time initially. I recommend the Lord Stone early on too since it gives you magic resistance and higher armor. Most likely, you have no defense against the elemental attacks of a dragon early on. I suppose the Book of Love reward is worth getting as well early on. At least, that is my next objective with my current character.

[chaospearl]

Okay, let me clarify a few things.

 

First, I'm not new to Elder Scrolls games or to Skyrim. I started playing Oblivion a few years ago, took a brief time-out to play through Morrowind, went back to Oblivion. I picked up Skyrim on release day and I've been playing it pretty steadily. The dragon battle I described happened sometime back in November -- the first time, that is. After that I just started popping the difficulty down to Novice anytime I'd died a few times in a row to the same enemy. From time to time I leave it on Adept before going to confront that dragon, and it always ends the same way. The same epic fail has been playing itself out pretty much every time I roll a new character on Adept.

 

I'm not entirely dumb; I do know how to take advantage of cover -- just read my first post again and count how many times the word "cover" shows up. If you're thinking the problem is that I'm trying to charge at a dragon 1v1 with an iron sword, please give me a little more credit than that! Not much more, mind you, seeing as how I'm the one who can't manage to stay out of the path of something the size of a house.

 

I don't think there was a single moment during that fight when I wasn't standing behind or next to a large wall or the side of the tower itself. I never came out from cover. I didn't have time to; the dragon was roasting me to a nice medium-rare doneness right where I stood before I even had a chance to consider something as stupid as running towards it. My problem is that there isn't anywhere to take cover that doesn't leave you exposed on one side, and what kept happening is that I'd charge for cover, get there, then start looking up at the sky for the dragon, and generally I'd "find" it when it swooped down in front of me and let loose a fiery inferno of death from point blank range. It never gave me the courtesy of swooping down so that the wall I was hiding behind stood between me and the dragon. It would swoop down from the other side and rain its instant annihilation upon my exposed side.

 

And if that didn't happen, then what would happen is that I'd see the dragon, from my concealed little corner, but it was far too high up or at the wrong angle to shoot arrows at, so my only options were to either wait where I was for it to come into range, or break cover and run like hell for different cover that was better placed. No matter which option I decided on, and I tried both many times, I ended up barbecued by the usual fiery inferno of death. If I chose option one, wait behind my chosen cover until I could take a shot, the dragon would indeed eventually come into range, and it would inevitably do so by swooping down at my exposed side and -- you guessed it; fiery inferno of death. If I went with option two and broke cover to get into a better position to aim at it, then it'd be the original situation all over again. I'd reach wherever I''d been running for, look upwards to find the dragon was no longer in the same place it'd been when I began to move, and before I could sight it again -- FIOD!

 

The absolutely aggravating thing is that this crap doesn't happen when I go down to Apprentice or Novice difficulty. I've stomped the dragon into the ground countless times. Because I'll begin the battle, and the dragon will be so busy eating Whiterun guards I could pretty much walk up to it and start slicing. It wouldn't unleash the FIOD unless I pretty much stood right in front of its mouth and waved my arms around. But the moment I got cocky and moved the slider up to Adept, suddenly the (censored) was deliberately targeting me every time, swooping around the tower and ignoring everything and everyone else in its singleminded determination to charbroil me in particular. It would ALWAYS be either too high up for an arrow to hit, or swooping down like a homing missle from hell targeted directly at me no matter where I was. And again, if I cowardly hid back down at Novice, suddenly I'd become invisible and could practically beat it to death with my fists before it even noticed me.

 

I am going to try the suggestion of actually going inside the tower, the one place where it can't possibly get me from an exposed side. That sounds like it might work, although I feel bad for the Whiterun guys...