Best Skills and Strategies for playing high difficulty

[EdjeNoh]

When I started my first character I sucked s***. I tried to level all skills equally and ran around with companions all the time. I got by fine on the lowest difficulty level, had occasional troubles on the second and couldn't do so well on the third difficulty or higher. I'm now playing my third character and now I'm doing quite fine with the Adept (third) difficulty level as I focus more on specific skills (did destruction, restoration and conjuration mage on my second character) and working on a sneak, one-handed and archer right now. Yet I cannot imagine myself playing the highest difficulty level. Especially in those moments when the spawning enemies start to get tougher (you know how Skyrim adapts this to your current level and then after you reach some point the spawning enemies become relatively easier again), I find I'm having troubles.

 

I wonder what you guys most effective strategy is for creating a strong character to play those higher difficulty modes (expert and master)?

Edited February 7, 2013 by EdjeNoh

[StayFrosty05]

I play a loner Dovahkin (no followers) on Expert/Master...I prefer Expert to Master due to the badly balanced input/output damage ratio on Master, I prefer my game more realistic....My Dovah is a Light Armored Stealth Alchemist (Poisons) Archer....with Smithing and Swordsmanship as his secondaries.

 

I have Mods that add much tougher random enemy spawns, smarter Combat AI and add tougher more numerous Dragons (swarming Dragons)....I am not a great player, am rather lousy with close quarter combat timing and slow to react, etc...but am a very good shot with the ranged Bow and Stealth (a good eye and very patient)....My greatest saving grace in being able to play the higher difficulties with the added Mod nasties is my strategic play style, I rely very heavily on carefully planned strategy and tactics...and very dirty fighting.... :devil: ..... :tongue: ....Dovahkins death is an extremely rare event in my game, most usually doesn't die at all in a game run....level 1 to level 56....I am happy to hand out some tips on what I do if it interests you, though the majority of my tactics, strategies are geared firmly towards a Stealth Archer...there are plenty of other helpful tips floating around in my game play too.

 

One of the main ones 'Know Your Environment!' : Where was that last Bandit Lair, Giant Camp, Dragon, etc...that you saw?...Keep it in mind, you may need it...if your attacked by overwhelming forces make a fast bee line (sprint once in a while) for that last Lair, Camp, etc...that you saw, baiting your opponents to follow you....sprint through that Lair/Camp, don't stop for anything, lead your opponents straight through it...get yourself to a reasonably safe distance on the other side, turn around, sit down and watch the pandemonium break out as they all start trying to kill each other.... :biggrin: ....pull out your Bow and start keeping their fight even, whittle down their health at your own leisure, you will be left with a MUCH smaller party to contend with.... :happy:

 

Second part to 'Knowing Your Environment'....always keep terrain, hillocks, etc... between you and their Archers and ranged Mages, take their sword wielding foot soldiers down first.... bait them to come to you, don't go to them ....back peddle to keep them spread thin so your not taking on to many at a time, keep them strung out.

 

There are quite a number of Tactics I use successfully, as I said, happy to share if your interested... :happy:

Edited February 7, 2013 by StayFrosty05

[DXDXUSER]

I have found a really powerful classbuild to be the Nightblade. The Nightblade specializes in Illusion magic, Light Armor, One-Handed (specifically daggers) and Sneak. The best perks to get are:

 

Quiet Casting in the Illusion tree. This allows you to cast spells silently.

Assassain's Blade in the Sneak tree. Daggers will do 15x damage from sneak attacks.

and Expert Illusion in the Illusion tree. Although this is not necessary, it allows you to cast spells like Invisibility easier.

 

These perks create a deadly combination. I guess an early game strategy would be to get a decent dagger and an Illusion spell, preferably Muffle. Muffle is the next best thing to Invisibilty early-game. Basically cast Muffle whenever you encounter an enemy and go into sneak mode. This will increase your Sneak and Illusion skills exponentially. Sneak attacks also level your Sneak tree pretty fast.

 

Level yout Illusion to 75, by using trainers or simply by casting it during combat. Then go to the College and find a Dunmer mage named Drevis Neloren and purchase the Invisibility tome. (He is in the Hall of Countenence) Invisibilty combined with your high Sneak skill can take out even a Dragon Priest in one hit.

 

A good piece of armor to get would be the Shrouded Gloves. Thes are found in the Dark Brotherhood Sancuary on a shelf near the entrance. (It don't matter if you choose to join or destroy the DB, they are there either way). These gloves combined with the Assassain's Blade perk will increase your sneak attack bounus with a dagger to 30x.

 

Sorry for the long description, but if you really want to survive on higher difficulties, try this.

[littleork]

I pretty much play all my character at master, I will usually try to stay outside or do easy dungeons at first, I do a good focus on alchemy, enchanting and smithing without doing too much, I will take advantage of alchemy that can make your smithed gear and enchantment better. You can become really strong quick if you use those professions properly.

[dukesilver28]

I'm sure lots of players would say lots of different things, but here are a few of my general suggestions (note: I'm basing these suggestions off of vanilla skyrim--mods can change about everything, of course). I tend to play more as a stealthy character, but a lot of these suggestions still apply no matter what type of character you're going for, especially the first suggestion:

 

1. Work hard to level up at least one crafting skill: enchanting, smithing, or alchemy. I'd suggest working on enchanting and smithing, unless you're trying to build a more "pure mage" style character that doesn't wear armor. Some crafting skills can actually improve your ability with other crafting skills. For example, you can use enchanting to increase your skill with smithing (fortify smithing) and alchemy (fortify alchemy). Alchemy can also help increase your smithing skills (fortify smithing potions, and fortify enchanting potions when used with fortify smithing gear equipped). The crafting skills aren't that helpful at first, but I'd say that in the long run they're the most useful skills for building a powerful character.

 

2. Don't spend a single perk on lockpicking. If you're having trouble picking locks, try to find some fortify lockpicking gear, or if you're working on your enchanting skills, craft some lockpicking gear once you're unlocked that enchantment. Some of the higher level lockpicking perks may be nice, but overall, your perk points are much better spent elsewhere.

 

3. I wouldn't spend a perk on pickpocketing, either, but you might just want to focus on pickpocketing for the fun of it. You can get through almost all of the Thieves Guild quest (and complete all the needed side jobs for restoring the guild) without picking a single pocket. The poisoner perk may be fun, but the assassin's blade perk from the sneak tree is overall much more effective for stealthily taking out enemies. Plus, poisoner only works against enemies that a.) have pockets and b.) are susceptible to poison. Like with lockpicking, your perk points are better spent elsewhere than on pickpocketing.

 

4. Sneak is extremely effective and easy to level up. However, don't spend more than one perk point on the first perk in this tree--the increase in your sneak skill with each additional perk point invested past the first one is minimal. The right side of the sneak perk tree is extremely useful: with the assassin's blade perk, combined with the Dark Brotherhood gloves, you can do a sneak attack that deals 30x the normal damage of the dagger. The muffle spell from Illusion, or muffled boots (such as the DB boots), will make sneaking up on enemies much easier.

 

5. In vanilla skyrim, weapons and armor > magic. Destruction magic is effective early in the game, but weapons will be much, much powerful in the long run, assuming you use crafting of some sort to improve them.

 

6. Restoration is still a pretty useful school of magic no matter your character build, however. Obviously, the healing spells are helpful. Also, wards are effective for a.) blocking dragons' fire/frost breath and b.) blocking the higher level draugr's shouts, such as unrelenting force and disarm. The spellbreaker shield can block these things, too, if you pick that up.

 

 

Okay, I wrote quite a bit, but a lot more could still be said. Hopefully this is helpful.

[Sirropoo]

Playing Master Mode, I dont care what skills you start with, you MUST keep you main combat skills leveling (perk wise), no enchanting, no smithing etc. ...and Health Health Health. (going Magic at start and "Master Mode", NEEDING magicka will hurt your NEED for health, Starting out as pure Magic user is "Master Mode PLUS", IMO)

 

I'd highly suggest going melee at first because melee weapons far outshine Magic and you need that initial "umph".

 

You very likely may not move into other skills until level 20 or past, whatever you do, do not let NPC's level "outlevel"

your combat skills.

 

Edit: One last item, get a Companion QUICKLY, should be your first objective.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Sirropoo

[EdjeNoh]

Good points, guys!

 

I have the assisin's blade perk and found that to be working very well, but it's tougher to be stealthy in more open-battle ground types of environments and when you encounter a group of enemies as you'll be spotted faster. Also Draugr and undead sometimes just emerge from their crypts when you enter proximity, which may make stealth a bit harder.

The tip for taking out the short-range combat enemies is worth a try. Perhaps my difficulties also come from mods like wars in skyrim as more enemies will spawn in the outside world, which will make it very tough to win against a group of strong forsworn, bandits or even five werewolves xD

 

I did not know about the invisibility tome, I always regarded Illusion magicka as pretty useless, so I never investigated it. Maybe I should start leveling in that.

 

I also heard a co-worker of mine talk about double-enchanting his bow with both fire and frost damage so that it became a very powerful weapon. Might try that too..

Edited February 8, 2013 by EdjeNoh

[Kayyyleb]

Sneak and archery.

 

SNEAK AND ARCHERY!

 

Most powerful synergy in the game. You can clear entire dungeons without even being detected at medium to high levels. Smithing, enchanting, illusion and light armor make excellent secondaries. I only ever play on master difficulty and combining a bow with sneak is just so insanely good I can't stop using it.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Kayyyleb

[aleksanderne]

Sneak, 1 Handed, block and a bit archery.

 

With this you will be overdeadly even at master.

 

If using Skyrim Redone, its even better.