Difficulty level - Did I do something wrong?

[Holt59]

Hi everyone,

 

So I'm getting back to Skyrim after a few years and I have some troubles with the difficulty and I am wondering if I did something wrong with my mods or... if I am just bad at it. I've always played a kind of sneaky character, with light armor and dual-wielding but this time I wanted to try something different.

 

To give you an idea here is my current character : Level 29, 225 HP / 210 Stamina / 160 Magicka, I am playing heavy armor (67 skills) + mace (55 in skills) + shield (38 in skills), with some perks in these trees (I am using Ordinator). I have an armor rating of 241 (never found better pieces currently, no armor enchant), and I have a 33-damage mace (Ebony I think) with a 12 point static shock enchant.

 

I am playing on Adept difficulty and I am getting wrecked in most dungeons. I am currently doing the first Companion dungeon, and right after entering the second portion (Dustman's Crypt), I get 5-6 enemies on me, something like 2 level 25 and 2 level 14 (+ others), and I am just getting destroyed, and Farkas does not help the slightest because he is getting wrecked like me. If I don't block, I am getting 2-shots by the level 25 enemies, and even if I block I am getting tons of damage. Low-level enemies still do a ton of damage to me. On the contrary, my attacks do very little damage to the high level enemies. I had similar issues earlier on within Brittleshin pass with tons of necromancer and skeletons...

 

I don't think I have any mods that would alter the difficulty drastically... I have some issues with Immersive Creatures that spawns lvl 55+ enemies, but these are different...

 

Does the above scenario look normal to you on Adept difficulty? Is is just me that should play differently (or lower the difficulty)? Or should I look a bit closer into my mods?

[jjb54]

NO, nothing wrong.

 

It has to do with the combined:

.... Level you are at and not at, especially skill level.

.... Using Heavy armor and weapons, combined w/the above.

 

You are .. well .... and easy target.

[Anselmp]

An ebony mace that does only 33 damage? Are you sure it's not wooden? Also, how did you get to level 29 and only now start with the Companions? And what happened to all the perks? (Armor and main weapon should be as high as allowed). Why are you raising the Magicka if you are playing a warrior?

[jjb54]

An ebony mace that does only 33 damage? Are you sure it's not wooden? Also, how did you get to level 29 and only now start with the Companions? And what happened to all the perks? (Armor and main weapon should be as high as allowed). Why are you raising the Magicka if you are playing a warrior?

 

Ebony Mace starts with a base damage level of 15 with a weight of 19 lbs. So the OP did some upgrade to get it to 33.

[Holt59]

NO, nothing wrong.

 

It has to do with the combined:

.... Level you are at and not at, especially skill level.

.... Using Heavy armor and weapons, combined w/the above.

 

You are .. well .... and easy target.

 

Could you clarify a bit? I get that my heavy armor / one-handed / block should be higher than what they are right now, but isn't heavy armor / shield / one-handed a good combination?

 

An ebony mace that does only 33 damage? Are you sure it's not wooden? And what happened to all the perks? (Armor and main weapon should be as high as allowed). Why are you raising the Magicka if you are playing a warrior?

Well it's not an « Ebony mace », it's some weird mace (probably from a mod) which had ~25 damage at first and I upgraded it. And since I needed ebony to upgrade it, I assumed it was about the same (hence the « I think »).

 

Also, how did you get to level 29 and only now start with the Companions?

Well, I did... Other quests? I also started with two-handed, which is why my block and one-handed are slightly behind... I am focusing on improving them right now, but I often ran into the issue above ;)

 

Why are you raising the Magicka if you are playing a warrior?

I wanted to try some kind of hybrid magic-warrior build... I am currently mainly focusing on restoration (on the spell part), but if I managed to catch up on one-handed / block, I'd like to invest into destruction a bit more.

 

I am not looking for an OP build, I just want to enjoy the game, without rolling on everything, but without dying on every single pack, which is why I wanted to check (before eventually changing the difficulty), if the issue was me (my gameplay / my build) or some bad mess with my addons. Your answers are pretty clear on this point, so thank you ;)

[jjb54]

 

Could you clarify a bit? I get that my heavy armor / one-handed / block should be higher than what they are right now, but isn't heavy armor / shield / one-handed a good combination?

 

Not at the beginning of the game / character. It is best to build yourself up to it. Much like weight training. You just don't start with 300 LBS, so to speak. Each piece takes stamina from you - which means you have less to use in attacks and protection. Thus likely why one of the reasons you are getting ' cut down ', is you have no energy left.

 

Simply put, the armor will only protect you so much - but if you are using up your stamina and health just carrying the stuff around and trying to protect ... you have nothing left to protect and move forward and thus SKILL POINTS are lost ..... not gained.

[thumbincubation]

Something you might want to do: Carry your old 2H weapon in addition to your mace and shield, and make use of the favorites menu. Start the fight with mace/shield to gain your experience and familiarity, but if you begin to get overwhelmed, then you can switch up quickly and clean house until the enemies are down to a more manageable level.

 

If you're not using spells, don't put any more points in magicka. Go all health and stamina. Since you do have some magicka, though, it can't hurt to keep a couple healing spells available to you. Use them frequently, even if you're only mildly injured, to build the skill. At a relatively low level (I want to say 30, but don't quote me) you can put a perk in restoration, in which your healing spells also restore your stamina. That will help you immensely in a fight, because no only do you get some health back, but some attack power as well.

 

Even if you don't consider yourself an alchemist, you can still make basic level paralysis potions. Collect/buy/find/steal all the canis root, imp stool, deathbell, and river betty you can find. Canis root and imp stool will put the bad guy down for a few seconds, so you can heal, move out of their way, or whatever. Add deathbell to the mix and you will do some damage on top of the paralysis. Add river betty instead of deathbell, and you'll do even more damage. (Deathbell & river betty also make a hefty poison by themselves, if you prefer. Keep a good supply of health, stamina, and paralysis potions on you, in addition to a few cure disease (vampirism is inconvenient) and whatever resistances you may need.

 

Enchant your armor and weapons. It can only help you. If, for roleplay purposes, you don't want to become a master of all trades, look for a mod called Honed Metal, in which you can pay blacksmiths to make and upgrade armor for you (Eorlund Greymane can get you legendary) as well as paying mages to enchant things for you (Farengar gives a respectable 20ish pts elemental damage in early game.) Then you can focus on being a warrior, and let them worry about your gear. If you still feel weak, ask for an absorb health enchantment so you get a piece of their health with every hit.

 

Don't forget to shield bash. Not the powerbash, where you hold the button and the NPC happily moves out of the way while it winds up, but the quick tap of both buttons. Bust them in the mouth with your shield and they'll stagger for a second, allowing you to line up a good power attack. Then with your mace, try out a combination attack. Tap, release, then hold your attack button. It will begin a light attack and then immediately follow it with a power attack. It eats stamina, but it will ring their bell for them. Try to only attack when they can't. You don't want to stand there and trade blows. Move in and let them start their attack, then move back and let them miss, slip in, hit them while they're still recovering from missing you, and then back out. Between that and the shield bash, you should be hitting them more than they hit you.

 

Hope it helps.

Edited April 13, 2020 by thumbincubation

[Shabdez]

Been a while since my last playthrough, but I wonder about your main combat stats still being somewhat mediocre while your character level has already reached 29. You must have gained a lot of levelups with other skill increases. This was the first lesson I had to learn when I started playing Skyrim: Don't raise too many non-combat skills at the beginning too fast. This will not only give you levels, but also your enemies and make them much stronger. And there is no way to talk a group of undead out of fighting or pickpocket your way out.