Favorite play styles

[greyday01]

My favorite weapon is the bound bow. It is powerful and versatile. It never runs out of arrows, doesn't encumber you and is as useful up close as well as for those enemies perched out of reach or flying. Also with sneaking you can kill from a distance and not be detected by other enemies nearby. Some bows with double enchantments can do more damage but the bound bow's other advantages make up for that as it can be poisoned if not enchanted. With the proper perks it also soul traps for my enchanting.

 

For hard enemies I alternate between summoning a helper and conjuring a bow. My magica replenishes while I'm shooting arrows until the daedra dies and needs to be re-summoned.

 

I always go for light armor. The protection it offers is enough and the lower weight advantage more than offsets the slightly lower protection.

 

For crafting my favorite is enchanting. I don't bother enchanting armor and weapons other than what I use myself or give to a follower. What I do enchant is rings and necklaces. I carry a pick with me at all times and mine any ore I come across. Iron gets smelted and transformed to silver, crafted into rings and necklaces then jeweled with the gems found while mining and enchanted with petty or lesser gems. That's a easy income source with the main outlay buying empty petty soul gems. Grand gems I save for items I use myself like elemental protection rings and amulets.

 

As for general playstyle I'm a collector. I want one of every item I can find especially the unique items, even useless items like a broken sword hilt or Pelagius's hipbone. I chose my homes for lots of storage. I also try to at least get close enough to find every site on the map even if I don't enter them.

 

What are your favorite weapons, armor, crafts, homes, spells, whatever?

[HadToRegister]

Stealth Archer/Magic User.

I cast Frenzy, and watch the Bandits Kill each other, then raise their dead, and watch their dead friends kill who's left.

[Gorgopis]

May be spoilers below, but,

 

 

One cannot argue with the elegance and grace of just a bound bow and light armor, unless using a dragonbone bow double-enchanted with fear and turn undead against level 80 or higher enemies. Add a little lingering damage health or lingering damage magicka poisons to either, and take your time sniping, after Shouting, full throttle, Slow-Time. Watch enemies run, cower, and wither. Wear the Ancient Shrouded Armor, or Nightingale Kit, with Sneak, maxed, and Muffle-Enchantments, and stand right in front of Draugr Deathlords, who can’t find you.

 

I keep my Amulet of Talos (do not give it to Greta before the embassy, or even after, so it cannot be removed from my inventory) equipped with negative-time cool-down shout-stats, after equipping and unequipping it while leveraging the Alchemical Resto-Exploit, so I can shout my fave Cyclone and follow immediately with my second fave, Slow Time, and then snipe mid-air enemies. As often as not, Cyclone pulls enemies toward you, or launches them up. I had to travel to Solstheim early as possible, to purge those barrows with Serana and a follower or a custom NPC, to grab me those cyclone walls. It’s also fun to hit any highly-perched enemies with a full dose of Unrelenting Force.

 

Is it my imagination, or does the bound bow inherit some of the damage and features of any superior and enchanted solid bow you first use and precede it with? The Chaos enchantment with Soul Trap or Paralysis on a backup bow allows for pleasant surprises with Efx and killmoves. An enhanced Bow of Fate may equal these other pleasantries.

 

On the other hand, playing as a Mind-Illusion Wizard is extraordinarily fun. Dual-casting Frenzy with Illusion-enchanted gear sends it a very long distance, and you can hit a bandit camp from five or more clicks away. I like walking near an enemy fort, a camp, or into a dungeon, casting Mayhem. Next, I convert closer opponents into allies with some Bend Will. Next, I shout full-bore with Aura Whisper, so I can watch the fighting through the walls, and cast invisibility on my character. A few bouts of Mayhem really wreaks havoc in a dungeon.

 

Or, if I’m on a collection run, or simply seek some challenging entertainment, I travel to a highly populated camp, say Karth*****, or R** E****’s A*****, H**’s E**, repeatedly cast Harmony, and see if I can pickpocket all forsworn and rob all chests without getting attacked, or without killing anything.

 

I guess that just leaves wearing maxed out health and magicka enchanted gear with Ahzhidal’s Armor, marching around a crowd of enemies, 1-handed with an enchanted Dragonbone Mace, plus a Dragonscale shield, or 2-handed with the Bloodskal Blade, and watching enemies fall paralyzed onto my bootlaces, when they bounce off the armor.

What styles are these?

[gnarly1]

Stealth Archer/Magic User.

 

I cast Frenzy, and watch the Bandits Kill each other, then raise their dead, and watch their dead friends kill who's left.

I've always suspected that, for all the time you spend on these forums helping people out, that there is another side to you, lurking in the shadows, malevolent and disturbingly evil.

 

It turns out my suspicions were correct.....

[Gorgopis]

It’s annoying to activate the Doomstone and nurse a growing undead army across the map, since the Power evaporates too quickly, though reserving and then using the same power to raise Potema’s Draugr before she can is strangely satisfying.

Now, from the CK, is it cheating to mod the Doomstone to ten or twelve minutes, instead of three (?), and in-game swarm an ever-growing army of undead everything across Tamriel?

[HeyYou]

I also play a stealth archer. I don't generally use poisons, as I can one-shot just about anything even without. Of course, dragons always detect me..... if they even glance in my direction, regardless of my sneak skill. (currently just over 140....) That's ok though, My Ebony crossbow, with dragonbone bolts, enchanted with Soul Trap, takes 'em down fairly quick. Either that, or a few Thunderbolts dramatically reduces their health as well. :)

[greyday01]

Yes, bows seem the most flexible. Equally useful for up close and enemies perched out of reach. Second choice is sword and magic, either healing or something more aggressive. My least favorite is two handed or sword and board. Probably because I enjoy using magic with one hand.

 

I tend to not care for followers. They steal my kills, get me found when trying to sneak and sometimes trap me in bottlenecks when I go someplace with a narrow exit. Conjures can help with difficult fights without being underfoot all the time. I probably use fire attronaches the most. They are useful for lighting up archers that you can't see but keep shooting at you. They are not powerful but cost little enough magica that you can spawn replacements as they are used up. Though I do dislike their ending explosion. I do wish someone would mod their ending to be like a fire doused with water, just steam and hiss.

[HeyYou]

Yes, bows seem the most flexible. Equally useful for up close and enemies perched out of reach. Second choice is sword and magic, either healing or something more aggressive. My least favorite is two handed or sword and board. Probably because I enjoy using magic with one hand.

 

I tend to not care for followers. They steal my kills, get me found when trying to sneak and sometimes trap me in bottlenecks when I go someplace with a narrow exit. Conjures can help with difficult fights without being underfoot all the time. I probably use fire attronaches the most. They are useful for lighting up archers that you can't see but keep shooting at you. They are not powerful but cost little enough magica that you can spawn replacements as they are used up. Though I do dislike their ending explosion. I do wish someone would mod their ending to be like a fire doused with water, just steam and hiss.

Right there with ya on followers. I avoid them as much as possible. They are more of a hassle than they are worth... Barbus really put the final nail in the coffin though, when he pushed me off a cliff, heading for the cave his quest was pointing at.

[Gorgopis]

The Bl**dsk*** Blade allows some great up-close 2H action, while also giving a ranged “energy” attack, which can hit and push multiple enemies. It’s a nice alternative to sword-and-board, and somewhat challenging, since the ranged attack moves much slower than an arrow.

 

Achieving a killmove with that blade, bringing down a dragon, provides for very filmable moments.

 

That blade is another reason my character enjoys visiting Solstheim early on, though I hold off reading the cultists’s orders, so I can slow up M*****’s otherwise many thefts of MY dragon souls. As long as my character is there, visiting the cyclone walls, might as well pick up the Cudgel and the aforementioned Blade. Fun DLC. I like M’s Poisoned tentacles Staff, too, which has greasy horrid sound efx, (a squirt-gun in a bathroom shower? ) while being kind of underpowered.

 

As for annoying followers, I admit to hundreds of hours in the CK, making NPC’s, and altering existing ones, so I enjoy resetting the vanilla followers’ courage levels and agro-settings, and in game, my character double-enchants all their footwear with Muffle and Fortify Stamina. As they level up, they do tend to become hinderers rather than helpers, and jump in front of my kills, so my character has to take away their melee weapons, and give them only bows, or low-powered staves. With a multiple-follower mod, and my personal Skyrim.esp, I can manage a fairly large entourage/army, especially with multiple uncapped thralls, and the “Doomstone” activated, to collect an undead army. It’s fun seeing them all go to combat. I can add to the chaos by bending some enemies’ wills.

 

Without the CK, I would prefer Katria as my follower of choice, and, if you prepare, she’ll use any enchanted equipment you smith and enhance. She levels with you, so I like to find her activator book early on. Place some ectoplasm in her inventory, and in some playthroughs she becomes more corporeal. I find her more valuable by far than the Crown she seeks, so I leave her quest unfinished, so I can add two more followers. Off the record, she is the embodiment of the “ghost-ally” that hearkens back to that archetype in the very earliest video-games. She would benefit by more dialogue options.

When time permits, I have a great story about losing some followers in Apocrypha, including Frea. And then there was the time three of them joined me in the sky to close business with Meridia.