Help me devastate Skyrim.


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So i'm 17th level, a personal high in two years, and i'm barely limping thru Labrynthian looking for David Bowie... i mean the Staff of Raistlin... Magnus! the staff of Magnus.

any who, i'm getting killed left and right so i remember someone suggest i look up a video of someone else do it, because sometimes the walkthroughs aren't much help without a visual. and this dude is like 50th level and evidently has artifacts, and is almost bored to death "yep, so bored with ice trolls, ice troll here, blah blah" and i'm like "i..run away from ice trolls..."

So, how do i make the baddest ass character for Skyrim and just devastate everything.

what race works best for martial, two handed weapon types and whats the baddest wizard type combos, rogue types too.

i've been going archer magic focus but not having the best of luck.


For one thing, consider lowering the difficulty. There are odd difficulty spikes around 15th and 30th level before the game becomes piss easy again.

Race type is largely a matter of preference. The only thing that changes are potential resistances (Bretons resist Magic, Argonians Resist Disease, nords Resist Cold, Wood Elves Resist Disease AND Poison), slightly different starting skill values (largely irrelevant), and 1/day powers you will never use.

Smithing and Enchanting are broken, use them if you want easy peasy gameplay.

My personal preference is Breton mages, Wood Elf rogues, and Orc warrior types.

Since you're looking for the Staff of Magnus, you're part of the College so I assume you're a mage.

What are your highest skills, what gear do you have, and what are your Magicka, Health, and Stamina values?

Generally speaking as a mage you want high Magicka and then every 5 levels or so pop an increase in HP. Stamina is worthless to you.

I suggest wearing armor as a mage. There's not really any downside once you can enchant your armor with the same stuff your robes would normally have. If not, you want the Mage Armor perk(s) from Alteration ASAP and the best 'Skin spell you can find or buy. Alteration is ridiculously easy to level. No armor is hard mode, pretty much.

Try putting some levels in Conjuration, or picking up a Housecarl or other follower to draw attention away from you.

As a warrior, you want armor and your main weapon skills, plus Smithing and whatever else sounds fun (Restoration is good).

As a rogue, Sneak is king. Sneak is the most broken skill in the game. At 100 Sneak you can basically isntakill anything in the game. Shadow Warrior lets you teabag in front of an enemy and make them lose sight of you temporarily, giving you a free attack at 6x damage. Get the gloves from the Dark Brotherhood and make that x12 damage. You can one-shot Ancient Dragons with a rusty iron dagger.

Mods I recommend:

Apocalypse, Magic of Skyrim. New spells, all VERY well balanced and interesting, and makes all schools of magic combat viable (Alteration and Restoration debuffs, Illusion with some fun effects, and more verastile Destruction spells).

Immersive Weapons and Immersive Armor (balanced, VERY nice looking armor and weapons, added to leveled lists so enemies use and drop them as well).

Ordinator (Perk overhaul by the same guy that made Apocalypse. Perks actually DO things now instead of largely being numerical boosts).


I suggest building the 'badass viking' (youtube vid has walkthrough/demo of how) and punch the game world to death in a brutal overwhelming fashion.


Unarmed combat is hard as balls in Skyrim since no perks add to unarmed damage and only one item adds to it. Even a Khajiit with Gloves of the Pugilist effects does about as much damage as a normal Steel Dagger, with no potential for magical enchantments on your fists.

Not a good choice for someone already struggling with the game.


To each their own, i was suggesting an option i found fun as hell to play and thematically met his request.

Reigning in my gut waspish reply reflex, i will instead say your post has a nice breakdown on mechanical details to help the fellow as well as a handful of solid mods.


I'll admit Vanilla Skyrim isn't my thing (I've generally had more fun using SkyRE or Perkus Maximus, but if you're not on PC those aren't going to be options.) But one thing that's almost universally true regardless of mods - Combat First. The game's systems are set up on a presumption of combat skills being at particular levels compared to your character level - if your primary damage skill is above this, you will devastate, almost regardless of which skill that is. Although, as a mage, you need spells to go with it, and a warrior type needs appropriate weapons.


PerMa is really fun, but requires a LOT of updating, compatibility patches for almost EVERY other mod you use and then running the patcher again and again...I got tired of it.

Definitely worth a shot though, especially with low mod counts. Only potential problem I see is that combat is more deadly with PerMa due to the base combat and stealth changes.

Only mod I know of that lets you make a true "Arcane Archer" type character though, it was super fun.


The most broken character I've ever had was a kajit archer/assassin. Do the dark brotherhood and thieves quest line the gear and perks give some ludicris bonuses to sneak and crit. By the end of both you can stand in front of a creature in plain sight, crouch to vanish from its perception, and one hit kill it with almost any dagger.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

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Skyrim Rampage Cap'n Yesterday wrote:

So i'm 17th level, a personal high in two years, and i'm barely limping thru Labrynthian looking for David Bowie... i mean the Staff of Raistlin... Magnus! the staff of Magnus.

any who, i'm getting killed left and right so i remember someone suggest i look up a video of someone else do it, because sometimes the walkthroughs aren't much help without a visual. and this dude is like 50th level and evidently has artifacts, and is almost bored to death "yep, so bored with ice trolls, ice troll here, blah blah" and i'm like "i..run away from ice trolls..."

So, how do i make the baddest ass character for Skyrim and just devastate everything.

what race works best for martial, two handed weapon types and whats the baddest wizard type combos, rogue types too.

i've been going archer magic focus but not having the best of luck.

Bearing in mind I am nowhere near a power player for Elder Scrolls, I'm also a character with a lot of Archery and magic focus, although my character is more focused on being a thief at the moment. I'm playing largely Vanilla (just SkyUI and some other minor tweak mods)... here's some advice for your current character, if you decide to stick with him/her:

- First, do another questline for a little while. I haven't done it in this playthrough yet, but I recall some of the later quests in the Mage Guild quest are tough, and 17th level is fairly "low" for that.

- Level up more--if carefully--which means use skills. For your archer/mage: the spells you want to be good at, cast them over and over (even if you don't need to); activate the Mage Stone near Helgen to help those go higher. I find archery does not seem to level as quickly as some other skills (even with the appropriate Stone, the Thief stone, activated) but again, use it use it use it. Find places where there are low level creatures you can shoot lots of (like the animals that run around everywhere) and zap spells at. Some skills do seem to boost faster than others, like enchanting, smithing, and sneak, but be aware of course it's not helpful to boost those skills massively if you're not planning to use them. If you keep leveling due to improving your sneak, but you want to buy Archery perks, but you haven't leveled Archery enough to do that, it's not going to help. (That said, Sneak and Archery do combine well because sneak attacks with the bow deal x3 damage.) I find wandering around fighting bandits (who are EVERYWHERE) a great way to level.

If you do want to be good at Smithing, indulge in Hearthfire if you have that DLC. Crafting all those nails and stuff for your house building can raise that very effectively.

- Find better gear. Daedric Prince quests are usually fairly short and often net you some cool stuff. Go through As someone else said, the Thieves' Guild and Assassins' Guild quests also net you some good gear --- but depend upon your playing a thief/assassin sneaky type, of course. I am playing an archer-thief and the Thieves' Guild quests have helped me level a lot as well, but again, that's if you want to play that kind of character. Thieves Guild quest ends with you getting a good bow as well. If you have the DLC, the Dawnguard quest line also nets you a good bow.

- Archer-mage isn't a BAD combo, but the challenge is good protection. The character I'm playing is rather glass cannonny as it is because I'm not good at focused builds myself. You don't want heavy armor because you want speed. You can't cast and shoot at the same time (unlike, say, a sword-mage who can swing with one hand and cast with the other). So--learning from my own mistakes--you may either want to really focus on clothing+Alteration spells for protection, or buy up light armor perks to max out your protection.

General build advice, presuming Vanilla:

I chose dark elf because I felt like it, but turns out that's a great choice for the thief/mage/archer I'm playing, because they start with good sneak, illusion, destruction, and light armor.

Khajiit and Bosmer are also great archers as well as thieves, but are poorer mages.

I would go Breton or High Elf for mage build; the high elf's improved magicka regeneration is especially helpful here.

For sheer melee butt-whupping, I would do one-handed-weapon+shield (as shield maneuvers build Block effectively) with an orc (heavy armor) or Nord (light armor). Redguard's also good. Orc would be my first choice for their berserker rage ability on top of good skills. I would in that case do the Riverwood and Whiterun quests and join the Companions -- of course being able to become a werewolf can also amp up the melee skill as well. :) I'd go and take the civil war quests for that kind of character as well, as lots of opportunity to run around and attack things and build up weapon and armor skills.

Good luck!


It's true, what they say "you never know how little you know about a video game until everyone tells you"

All great stuff, i'll look into it all.


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For an archer/mage (my favorite combo) Conjuration is a crucial skill. Use it often and liberally. Put perks into it.

Eventually you can summon two things. Two Dremora Lords will provide you with a very stout frontline, though at very high levels I find I sometimes have to always keep that spell equipped because they still die very fast against certain enemies. They also hit extremely hard and can easily deal with ice trolls and bears.

The other excellent thing to summon are Storm Atronachs. Dremora Lords are great, but they only attack melee. Storm Atronachs have a ranged attack, so they can deal with archers in hard to reach places or dragons. They won't kill a dragon, but they can divert it's attention long enough for you to heal up and ready your next attack.

Conjuring levels off your summoned creatures engaging in a fight. You can't just sit and spam it alone, they have to engage something. They don't have to kill it though. If your creature survives, consider summoning a new one after the fight is over, so you get credit for advancing again on the next fight.

As others have said, start developing your thief skills. Archer/mage/thief is a very natural pairing. Thief/archery combines for very high sneak attack damage and mage/thief combines great for sneaking.

Basic dungeon strategy: sneak around and 1-hit kill enemies until you find a group too large to do this with. Then summon your monsters, let the enemies aggro on them and then proceed to pick them off with your bow.

If you're leveling a new skill (from 10 or whatever), consider going back to the starting region and going through a mine/cave/tomb or two. You'll get some easy points in the new skill and can get used to it without as much risk.

The downside of archer/mage/thief is that you tend to not wear heavy armor. This makes you vulnerable to one-shot kills at high levels. Things like Forsworn Ravagers tend to cause loading screens.


Well I started over last night before I checked the thread, I decided to go with angry nord chick with a big axe, I'm also focusing on enchantments and conjuring (which is more recent) I'm only 6th level.

My main issue was I was building characters more with Oblivion and Fallout 3 in my mind, I'm also all over the place :-)


DeathQuaker wrote:


Archer-mage isn't a BAD combo, but the challenge is good protection. The character I'm playing is rather glass cannonny as it is because I'm not good at focused builds myself. You don't want heavy armor because you want speed.

Just to point out, at 70 Heavy Armor (pretty easy to level up as a melee character since you get EXP every time you get hit, and decently fast for a close range archer) you can get Conditioning, which removes the speed penalty and problem of it weighing so much more.

Though, at really high levels Light and Heavy armors provide the same amount of protection (While Heavy Armor gets a bigger end-game number with Daedric, that's meaningless because there's a cap on how much armor can add to your damage reduction, and Dragon Scale is capable of hitting that same cap, albeit a bit later since IIRC you can hit it with upgraded Ebony Armor).

Also the reason the Thief Stone isn't increasing your Archery faster is because it's a Combat skill, you need the Warrior Stone for that (or Lover).

Edit: Assuming you have the Unofficial Skyrim Patch which fixes the bug that makes the Thief Stone increase it. I always forget that's a mod, it's so ubiquitous.


Where do I become a werewolf?

Also do I gotta keep going back to the old dudes on the mountain to learn new shouts every time I kill a dragon and or find the writing on the wall or what have you, or is it more automatic.


captain yesterday wrote:

Where do I become a werewolf?

Also do I gotta keep going back to the old dudes on the mountain to learn new shouts every time I kill a dragon and or find the writing on the wall or what have you, or is it more automatic.

Companions questline in Whiterun is what you want.

And no you just have to spend a dragon soul in the menu after you find a word wall.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Skyrim is a video game. There are websites devoted to shortcuts of every popular game out there.

Just google "skyrim cheats" 'skyrim walk-through" "skyrim aid" and you should get tons of material from the video gaming crowd.


In the base game, I too found that a character with maxed stealth (with the "Hide in Plain Sight"-like ability), DB gloves, and a dagger is completely silly.
However, my Skyrim has so many mods that is currently completely different from the base game. <.<

Like Rinjin mentioned above, I really recommend PerMa: they're at a stable version right now, so you won't have to update a million times, and the compatibility patches are all in one place in one Nexus Mod Manager/Mod Organizer installer (Speaking of which, if you're modding, taking the time to learn to use MO helps tremendously). Personally, I didn't find PerMa as irritating to install than, say, ENBs or FNIS dependent mods.*
But yeah, it's basically a game with a completely new gameplay with PerMa.

And obviously do yourself a favor and use the unofficial patches :P

*And those two aren't exactly vital: even the lightest ENBs take a big dent in your performance, and you usually only need FNIS for alternate animations, kinky stuff, or giggle physics.


I play it on my 9 year old Xbox 360, the one that doesn't have internet access (unless video get a thing for it, which isn't gonna happen.

Thanks tho, would if I could:-)


Bummer. Un-modded Skyrim is...less good.


Start with Stealth, Archery, Conjuration. Those are my favorite three. I will load up a game tomorrow and do some more research. Yes, I ALSO am on the X-Box 360.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Rynjin wrote:
DeathQuaker wrote:


Archer-mage isn't a BAD combo, but the challenge is good protection. The character I'm playing is rather glass cannonny as it is because I'm not good at focused builds myself. You don't want heavy armor because you want speed.

Just to point out, at 70 Heavy Armor (pretty easy to level up as a melee character since you get EXP every time you get hit, and decently fast for a close range archer) you can get Conditioning, which removes the speed penalty and problem of it weighing so much more.

Though, at really high levels Light and Heavy armors provide the same amount of protection (While Heavy Armor gets a bigger end-game number with Daedric, that's meaningless because there's a cap on how much armor can add to your damage reduction, and Dragon Scale is capable of hitting that same cap, albeit a bit later since IIRC you can hit it with upgraded Ebony Armor).

Also the reason the Thief Stone isn't increasing your Archery faster is because it's a Combat skill, you need the Warrior Stone for that (or Lover).

Edit: Assuming you have the Unofficial Skyrim Patch which fixes the bug that makes the Thief Stone increase it. I always forget that's a mod, it's so ubiquitous.

I don't have the unofficial patch (the only mod I'm running at the moment is SkyUI and a really minor one that makes the Stones of Barenziah show up as quest markers), so it is the Thief Stone that rules it. (Actually, I think it makes sense to have Archery be a thief skill anyway. Certainly made leveling my thief character easier.) I'll probably install it though at some point, I'm just lazy about looking up mods.

Good luck, captain yesterday.


It's certainly different than Fallout 3 :-)

I miss my Tesla Cannon and Fatman.


DeathQuaker wrote:
Rynjin wrote:
DeathQuaker wrote:


Archer-mage isn't a BAD combo, but the challenge is good protection. The character I'm playing is rather glass cannonny as it is because I'm not good at focused builds myself. You don't want heavy armor because you want speed.

Just to point out, at 70 Heavy Armor (pretty easy to level up as a melee character since you get EXP every time you get hit, and decently fast for a close range archer) you can get Conditioning, which removes the speed penalty and problem of it weighing so much more.

Though, at really high levels Light and Heavy armors provide the same amount of protection (While Heavy Armor gets a bigger end-game number with Daedric, that's meaningless because there's a cap on how much armor can add to your damage reduction, and Dragon Scale is capable of hitting that same cap, albeit a bit later since IIRC you can hit it with upgraded Ebony Armor).

Also the reason the Thief Stone isn't increasing your Archery faster is because it's a Combat skill, you need the Warrior Stone for that (or Lover).

Edit: Assuming you have the Unofficial Skyrim Patch which fixes the bug that makes the Thief Stone increase it. I always forget that's a mod, it's so ubiquitous.

I don't have the unofficial patch (the only mod I'm running at the moment is SkyUI and a really minor one that makes the Stones of Barenziah show up as quest markers), so it is the Thief Stone that rules it. (Actually, I think it makes sense to have Archery be a thief skill anyway. Certainly made leveling my thief character easier.) I'll probably install it though at some point, I'm just lazy about looking up mods.

Good luck, captain yesterday.

The Unofficial Patches (there's one for the base game, and one for each of the three DLC) are a GODSEND. They fix a lot of the crippling, gamebreaking bugs and annoyances, like that glitch where if you equip two items with the same enchantment they becomes the same thing basically and you can't equip both from the favorites menu. The names will even change and I hated it.


I'm a bit bored with Fallout New Vegas, so guess what I started over!

I'm going with a summoning big f!**ing sword build. I'm not even dicking around with destruction, if I can't run them thru and slam them on the ground while my Atronach dances around, then, I'm probably not beating them.

Thursday or Friday I'm looking for the Ultimate Legendary version, so get your advice in now for the epic restart. :-)

I'm going to die so much.


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Skyrim Rampage Cap'n Yesterday wrote:


I'm going with a summoning big f!##ing sword build.

It's a testament to how fun magic can be in this game that I'm not sure whether you mean a two-handed guy who summons monsters to help, or a full Conjuration user who beats faces with a Conjured 2H sword.


Both?


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Both is good.


Right now I'm rocking the Axe of Whiterun, summoning Atronachs, then switching to my big f&@*ing sword, and then stab and slam.

The problem with Skyrim and Elder Scrolls in general, is the enemy has a huge advantage in action economy. So that's why I like to have something to soak up blows, companions die, get stuck on a root or block my most obvious way of devastation, so I prefer summoning my meat shields.

I also have a staff of zombies, for when I really want to break my opponents psychologically. :-)

Liberty's Edge

Rynjin wrote:

Unarmed combat is hard as balls in Skyrim since no perks add to unarmed damage and only one item adds to it. Even a Khajiit with Gloves of the Pugilist effects does about as much damage as a normal Steel Dagger, with no potential for magical enchantments on your fists.

Not a good choice for someone already struggling with the game.

Relevant (Skip to the last few minutes if pressed for time, watch parts 1 and 2 if you want the full story)

Yes I replied to a post from almost a year ago, why do you ask?


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*tiny voice* i'm still an advocate of the 'badass viking' for over the top carnage.

Liberty's Edge

My character Krieger is sort of a Viking. Uses a big axe and that Restoration perk that also restores Stamina. Just goes to town on the baddie of the week with Lydia and a Spectral Assassin in tow.


You want to be deadly?

Step 1: Make a sneaky alchemist, dual daggers, invest everything into potion effect duration, sneak attack multiplier and one handed damage.

Step 2: Brew tons of potions of invisibility (Ash Creep Cluster, Chaurus Eggs, (Crimson) Nirnroot, Ice Wraith Teeth, Luna Moth Wing and Vampire Dust. Be careful though, vampire dust and i believe it was ice wraith teeth or chaurus eggs, one of the two, will poison you as a side effect)

Step 3: Sneak around, sneak attack for 16x damage or something, then chug another invisibility potion. And repeat step 3 until everything is dead.

Another nice combo, that however takes a lot more levels to pull off is an illusionist/conjurer. Why fight when you can have things fighting for you? Including some of your enemies.


Rathendar wrote:
*tiny voice* i'm still an advocate of the 'badass viking' for over the top carnage.

Indeed, it's just not the same without the Fist of Rawr! or a Super Heated Fist.

Unless there happened to be a Fist of Rawr! type weapon.


Also, I keep forgetting I don't have VATS so I'm shouting at just about every one, which is fine, unless I forget to take it off sprint shout.

"Oh! Hello, why am I suddenly standing right next to you with a bow out? Funny story..."


By the by, if you want to power level because you're tired of the early game, on console I believe a Conjuration glitch still works: Spam Soul Trap on a corpse, and you'll get loads of Conjuration experience really fast.


Goddamn a+&#&~% Greybeards! I swear those f~@$ers want me to die.

The first shout they send me out for is Volunruud.

Volunruud! Really!?! The place with the assf*%* beefy ice atronach summoning ghost and his entourage of Draugr wight overlords.

F!+! you old man. F~@~. You.

Scarab Sages

Skyrim Rampage Cap'n Yesterday wrote:

G*!*+!n a!#@@!+ Greybeards! I swear those f*~%ers want me to die.

The first shout they send me out for is Volunruud.

Volunruud! Really!?! The place with the assf$$@ beefy ice atronach summoning ghost and his entourage of Draugr wight overlords.

F&%& you old man. F#&#. You.

Don't go there right away. Go do other stuff, level up, get better gear. I got the mission to go to Volunruud and waited until I was probably five or six levels higher before actually completing it.

We bought an Xbox One last week. When the Skyrim remaster comes out in October I guess I'll have to start all over again, unless there's some way to export my existing character into the new version.

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