Poll: Skyrim choice

[kitabatake12]

Hey, it's me again!
Which one can offer you the real Skyrim experience?
I mean, the way Skyrim shall be played.

And about the story, shall I start with it or leave it?

 

[Barbas]

I'd go with option 2 for the archery fun. The main quest definitely ain't the highlight, so I'd go for the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild instead.

 

[Rozalia1]

Second choice, the best option out of the very bad gameplay of Skyrim.

 

[Elfgore]

I have the most fun with a either a sword and shield or two-handed weapon. The stealth archer/rouge classes are just so fucking broken it bores me. Unless you play as a high elf you'll also hemorrhage magika when casting spells at low levels. Skyrim is viking country, you can't beat a long-sword or a battleaxe.

 

[Jamash]

I don't think there's any one class that will provide the real Skyrim experience, but my favourite build out of the half dozen I played with was a hybrid Mage/Warror Spell-Shield.

I took all the skills in the Heavy Armour and Block trees, employed a shield as my main weapon and used a combination of Illusion, Alteration, Restoration and Destruction for my magic.

It was by far the most fun build I used. The Heavy Armour, Block and Alteration skills meant my character was a walking tank with practical immunity to all forms of physical and magical attacks. I could shield bash, disarm and stun lock foes indefinitely, with my free hand casting a Restoration spell every so often to keep my stamina and health topped up, while the Invisibility and Silence spells from the Illusion tree meant I could become invisible, silent and completely undetectable while performing a sprinting shield charge through enemies, knocking them off their feet and off ledges, but because I was undetected, they just assumed it was a strong gust of wind that was bowling them over and killing them.

If I found myself drawn into ranged combat, I could either just keep my shield up and deflect or absorb arrows and spells as I slowly advanced towards them and bashed them into oblivion, or I could just block their ranged attacks and fling offensive Destruction spells back at them with my free hand.

As far as hybrid Battle Mage builds go, I think the combination of a shield and spells better than a sword and spells, as you still retain the ability to block, attack with the shield, and cast spells with your free hand, whereas a traditional Sword-Spell can't block with their weapon and use magic at the same time, and defence in close combat is usually the biggest weakness of a magic user. Also, if your magic is up to scratch, you shouldn't really need a sword, especially not when a shield on it's own is an underestimated offensive weapon in it's own right and leaves your main hand free for spells.

The best thing about this type of build is that it's hilariously fun. The aformentioned combination of Invisibility, Silence and Shild Charge never gets old, like if you encounter a procession of Thalmor with a prisoner walking down the road, you can just become undetectable and then knock them over like bowling pins and observe the confusion, and it's just plain fun to charge through a crowded city and scatter groups of citizens and guards, then watch them pick themselves up and try to figure out what the hell happened, and why the bloke who was patrolling on top of the wall now lies broken in the middle of the town square.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I prefer a kind of sneaky, light battle mage. Light armor & conjuration spells with a bit of sneak & illusion thrown in just to screw with things. So much fun making your enemies fight each other then you sit back & pick off the survivors from the shadows with a conjured bow.

Honestly though play around with everything & find what you enjoy the most.

 

[Vern5]

Other.

Installed multiple followers and jacked up the difficulty by removing the level scaling. I specialized in healing and illusion so I could buff my mercenaries and keep them in the fight. Technically, I never killed anyone but I didn't exactly have a peaceful run, either.

As for the REAL Skyrim experience... you would probably want to use a variant of the One-Handed skill so you can properly emulate the Trailer-Dovahkiin.

 

[AmberSword]

I won't comment on playstyle, because almost anything works, though there's a lot less customization and stats compared to oblivion. Also, they made it very hard to gimp yourself like last time, so long as you stay around Adept difficulty.

The story though, listen to me on this one, trust me when I say its MUCH better than Oblivion (if you played that). You're no longer the Dead Emperor's Fetch Questing Dog. That said though, even if you don't want to go through the main quest, at least get to the point where you can dragon shout, I won't spoil it too much for you, but after that, make the painful climb up that mountain, it'll be worth it. Then you can proceed to rampage around the world as you please.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I had the most fun as a stealthy archer, but that's because stealth is so sick overpowered in this game, coupled with a braindead A.I.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Virtually any way you choose to play the game becomes fantastically easy fairly quickly and at least a few of them require that you play in such a way that any challenge quickly expires and so too does the fun. As a quick run down:

1) Archery is probably the easiest way to play the game. NPCs are terrible at the task and a player can annihilate groups of them effortlessly. Most will probably opt for a stealth archer route which eventually proves capable of one-shotting anything in the game while putting the player at very low risk. Combining that with some magic in the form of enchantments and you can break the game very quickly. The downside to this strategy is that your armor skills will be terrible and your stealth won't be quite good enough to avoid all fights which can lead to one hit kills by some of the stronger early game enemies. Once your stealth is good enough though, there really isn't any stopping you.

2) Stealth Melee is only slightly harder than archery but you very quickly become sneaky enough to avoid all detection. With the potential of a 30x backstab bonus, even a dragon can be killed in a single hit (assuming you can sneak up on one which is generally easier said than done). This way never does become super easy if only because there are many fights you can't sneak your way out of but thanks to constant use of daggers you'll end up with very high 1H skill and at least decent enough armor skill that you can shrug off a few hits even in light armor.

3) 1h and Shield is probably the simplest way to play the game. It never is difficult and so you start somewhere around easy and quickly pass to laughable. You'll also quickly build armor skills and thus become more or less immortal.

4) Dual Wielding is silly. It doesn't really provide any advantage in damage in the long run and actually reduces what you can do in a fight. This is probably the most boring way to play.

5) 2H doesn't really do any more damage in the long run than 1H but is probably better at dealing with crowds in the handful of situations where that might matter. You'll still end up fairly unstoppable fairly quickly. It seems like the most lore appropriate way to play the game, though.

6) 1H and magic is all about flexibility but you end up being kinda terrible at everything for awhile leading to frustrating gameplay. Offensive magic should be an all or nothing sort of arrangement.

7) Magic (Destruction focused) is awesome at first and then gets really terrible for a long time while you are stuck in situations where your current spells aren't quite good enough but you can't find the new ones yet. This route requires absolute committment early on because your entire capacity to fight relies on having plenty of mana on hand at all times. Eventually you get over a hump and gain access to apocalyptic spells and the ability to stunlock just about anything and can even wrangle free casting without much effort. All told, Destruction magic stays interesting longer than most strategies.

8) Magic (Not destruction focused) is probably my favorite way to play the game. Conjuration gives you a minion (two if you level the tree correctly) which combined with your hireling is a formidiable army in it's own right. Better than that, though, is the illusion tree which is probably the single most overpowered thing in games. Eventually it lets you avoid any fighting if you'd prefer all while making sneaking easier (and since you won't be doing your own fighting and probably stuck in cloth for quite awhile sneaking is super handy) but more importantly it gives you a pair of tools that makes any fight silly. Variations of calm and rage can be used to easily make up for your lack of personal combat skills and can incite entire crowds to fight on your behalf. Less impressive than destruction magic's enormous firestorms and blizzards but far sillier.

No matter how you play, you'll likely break the challenge fairly quickly so long as you don't fall into a trap of quickly leveling non-combat skills like Enchanting and Smithing (which leads to you encountering more powerful foes than your current tools are sufficient to deal with). All told, the best way to play, then, is the way that most appeals to you. The setting seems to demand a melee approach from a canon standpoint and the game is certainly more visually interesting since you get special animations from time to time. I personally think the sword animations (1h or 2h) are superior in all respects to the axe and hammer options but I also think that a 2h axe wielding nord is probably the most canonical way to play the game. Certainly an effective one given you can easily get an axe that does 900 damage a swing.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

After writing a ridiculously long list list of reasons each play style sucks, and realizing no one will read that crap I will just say what build I use since I've made dozens of characters, prior to them adding legendary skill resets.

I use destruction in my left hand, a weapon in my right, with heavy armor. The main reason being that its easier to get higher defense that way so you can wear a circlet or hood if you want to/I think all light armor and most heavy armor in Vanilla Skyrim looks like ass.

I wear Steel Plate or Deadric if I'm feeling it. I usually don't feel it, so Steel Plate it usually is. It also has the questionable advantage of making your boobs shiny.

As far as weapons go, I prefer war axes for the bleed/higher damage/ready speed/style points. Unfortunately I think every weapon aside from Steel looks like ass with a few exceptions in Vanilla Skyrim. Also, the finishing moves with swords are SOOOOO much better and varied than axe/maces you will quickly grow tired of seeing the same 2 over and over. So out of convenience I have been using an ebony sword. It works and looks okayish. Still way better than glass or Daedric weapons/armor.

If I had Dragonborn I'd be all about the Stahlrim but I hate dragons, and they are still charging full price for the DLCs so I see no reason to pick it up just yet.

Personal gear preferences aside, I use a wide variety of spells in my left hand.

I started off dual casting destruction on this character, but since I prefer ice spells I needed a weapon to fall back on for pretty much everything since its a while until you can cast cost free/90% of the things are immune/resistant to frost as it is. I prefer ice spells for several reasons.

I don't like fire or lightning aesthetically in this game. I prefer having longer range than shock spells get. I like being able to spray the ground with frost and slow things down even if I miss them. I like slowing things down/killing their stamina in general.

Most importantly I like impaling things with spear of ice, and sending them flying off of cliffs etc. and that the ice spears stay stuck in the body afterwards. This is both amusing and useful in locating deer etc. in the underbrush for looting. Its a lot easier to spot a blue icicle than a charred corpse in the weeds.

I also on occasion like to play kick the can with a body using ice spears and knocking it into a river and guiding it down stream out of boredom.

If you suck at archery, then destruction affords you as good a way (or even better) of getting all that free leather just walking around out there. Also if you see a bunny, what are you gonna do? Let it be? Well good for you I guess...

Having a healing spell handy makes melee easier. It negates the need to block, which you won't be able to do anyways, and restores your stamina so you can power attack more than a pure warrior could ever do. All without putting any points into Stamina so you can have more health or magicka.

Detect Life is handy to find all that leather walking around so you can impale it with ice.

Lastly, and honestly the most importantly, GET DEEP FREEZE!

Then pop on frost cloak and go bowling. Sure you don't get any cool kill cams on paralyzed opponents, but its super effective and funny as hell watching a giant racing toward you, club raised, only to lock up and fall over.

You can just stand there and watch them die, or back up so they stand back up, then walk forward to make them fall down again.

If you prefer shock spells I would imagine shock cloak could be fun. Everything would just disintegrate around you. It would make looting tricky I bet.

I don't use runes because they cost a lot of magicka and don't get any benefit from damage perks. I don't use walls because they suck. I don't use master spells because they also suck to varying degrees. Lightning storm is actually awesome, but I rarely use it. Blizzard is REALLY disappointing

 

[The Random Critic]

Mine answer is none of the above

While I do prefer the indirect conflict route in most team base games (talk your way out, sneaky sneaky yada-yada), not so much with Skyrim. Due to the fact that it's The Elder Scroll. No matter what kind of character archetype I play (rouge, fighter, mage, merchant, speech guy, loremaster, blacksmith and enchanter). There is only one thing that needs to stay *fairly* consistent throughout all my character for me to enjoy TES.

Spoiler

Alchemy

And funnily enough, as I take alchemy again for the first time as I am replaying Skyrim. (With Requiem and other mods course) I realized that this is THE source of one of my most consistent enjoyment within all the TES. A source which no other game offer, save for a few mmo, but to me even those doesn't offer the same depth.

Maybe that's why I can't enjoy Daggerfall.

 

[VyseRogueKing]

First playthrough I did was a typical warrior. Straightforward simple pretty easy. I played like I was always in in it for glory.

My second (modded) play-through is a Spell-Thief. Pretty friggin' nice since my sneak attacks can kill most things easy but early on it's pretty hard considering if I get into a normal fight I'm like paper. Adds a bit of strategy to the game.

Go for whichever class catches your eye and you can hybridize as you please. Picking the best class isn't what the game is really about.

The main story isn't that important. I recommend going with it, while playing occasional side-quests until you go to Ustengrav to get Jurgan Windcaller's horn. That's where you get the last word of the Fus Ro Dah shout. It's really basic but really useful if you get surrounded. Then go wherever the hell you want. Help townsfolk, become a wanted man, wander the lands for adventure and loot, etc. Skyrim is a type of game where your freedom is what gives it the most depth.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Hey, it's me again!
Which one can offer you the real Skyrim experience?
I mean, the way Skyrim shall be played.

And about the story, shall I start with it or leave it?

I say go as a Nord Warrior. That way your character will feel like part of the game far more. There quite a few quests that just make so much more sense playing as Nord Warrior than some random Orc Mage or such.

Hell the first faction choice you experience right in the opening, it only makes sense as a choice if you are a Nord. Why would any non-Nord pick to join a group of Nord-supremacists.

 

[Risingblade]

Sword and shield makes you feel like a god

 

[Xan Krieger]

I think the most nordy skyrim experience would be to play as a nord warrior and join the stormcloaks. Nords love close combat and are too strong to be the bitches of those high elves so this is Skyrim as true as it can get.

 

[Sansha]

I'd go with option 2 for the archery fun. The main quest definitely ain't the highlight, so I'd go for the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild instead.

Yep, this. I never touch the main quest stories anymore.

Honestly, I've tried playing Mage, Warrior etc - I always just end up in sneaking, archery and dual-wielding fury because it's the playstyle I most relate to and enjoy.

What's grating to me is you can't be a stealthy mage, because firing one spell will get you instantly detected.

The way I play is I have a mod that removes the dynamic difficulty curve.
See, in the base game, the world revolves around the player's level, giving increasingly difficult tasks and enemies for equivalent reward.
This mod does away with that handholding bullshit, and your first day out of Helgen can (will) result in your way being blocked by level 40 bandits who kill you in a single hit, so the first 20 levels or so necessitate stealth for the pleasure of being alive.
The reward - my first Daedric weapon was in the first treasure chest I found. And the fights, oh the fights. Every single scrap, brawl, melee or duel is a challenging, exciting experience... when failing to dodge one attack will end your life.

 

[Barbas]

I'd go with option 2 for the archery fun. The main quest definitely ain't the highlight, so I'd go for the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild instead.

Yep, this. I never touch the main quest stories anymore.

Honestly, I've tried playing Mage, Warrior etc - I always just end up in sneaking, archery and dual-wielding fury because it's the playstyle I most relate to and enjoy.

What's grating to me is you can't be a stealthy mage, because firing one spell will get you instantly detected.

I never got heavily invested into the magic trees, but isn't there a perk for silent casting at one stage?

 

[Callate]

Mostly preferred to switch between archery and swords. Or more accurately, based on how I played: archery/stealth in dungeons and cities, swords everywhere else.

But if I had to choose between them, swords. A pair of well-enchanted swords go through everything like a knife through butter.

 

[Sansha]

I'd go with option 2 for the archery fun. The main quest definitely ain't the highlight, so I'd go for the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild instead.

Yep, this. I never touch the main quest stories anymore.

Honestly, I've tried playing Mage, Warrior etc - I always just end up in sneaking, archery and dual-wielding fury because it's the playstyle I most relate to and enjoy.

What's grating to me is you can't be a stealthy mage, because firing one spell will get you instantly detected.

I never got heavily invested into the magic trees, but isn't there a perk for silent casting at one stage?

Not that I recall, but I could be wrong.