What did they do to Skyrim's difficulty?

[galdon2004]

I don't know if my game is just broken or if they've patched something to make it harder, but I recently decided to start playing again, and it is insane.

So, damage-wise, every enemy takes way more damage than I recall. i can do a x3 damage sneak attack with my bow.. and the enemy's health tends to barely move at all.

speed-wise, every enemy seems to suddenly have limitless stamina, and are able to keep up with my sprinting despite my being a thief and therefor having high stamina and light armor.

Enemies are respawning way more than before; all other play throughs, I wipe out the bandits on my way to the graybeards in the beginning then I don't have to worry about them later when following delphine. Hah ooh, no can't do that anymore. they all respawned, the tower reset, and the difficulty was cranked up to total insanity.

The real icing on the cake was that I tried using relentless force and the bandit just ran right through the middle of it without even flinching! Am I missing something, or did Bethesda make a patch that upped the difficulty over the last couple months?

 

[scorptatious]

I keep hearing about how people find Skyrim too easy. When I played I got my ass handed to me by dragons, bears, those ice wisp thingies, ect.

One particularly insane moment I had was during that one part in the game where I was helping one of those werewolf guys. (Can't remember what they are called) At one point in this cave, there was a very large group of bandits that did tons of damage. They swarmed my quest partner and knocked him unconscious, and then proceed to beat me down to a pulp. Took me several reloads until I finally used a scroll that used a firestorm attack that took some of them out, and weakened the rest to the point where I can take each of them out with a couple of swings. It was crazy.

This was on the default difficulty setting too.

Although it has been a long time since I last played Skyrim, so I don't know how much has changed since then.

 

[Maxtro]

Try changing the difficulty setting. If you are on the setting you want.

Set it to the easiest setting. Save then quit the game. When the game is back set it to the setting you want to play at.

 

[Joccaren]

Firstly, having just started replaying Skyrim, no. If anything, its easier than I remembered it - minus my modding of Dragons to make them butt rape you even if they're a basic dragon and you're level 42, and making potions heal over a period of 30 seconds rather than instantly.

Secondly, enemies always respawned like that. I mean, really, even before any patches came out each encounter area/zone/dungeon or what have you would respawn after being completed after... a week or so in game, IDK. In my latest playthrough, not even Helgen is respawning after I barged through there a few in game months back, so that's definitely not it. Also, unless you're talking about third level unrelenting force, then yeah, they kinda do that - make sure you used all three words.

Thirdly, things that may be causing increased difficulty;
-The difficulty setting. I mean it, if its set to insanity then your problems are the way they're meant to be. If its set to adept, then check the other things in this list.
-You don't have a follower with you. This makes things a lot harder as you no longer have a meat shield to distract enemies with. This made Meridia's dungeon's last room quite hard for me when I did it on this play through thanks to insta gib ice spells, and no-one to draw the 8 enemy skeletons so I could focus the mage. Got through it in the end when I realised I had a scroll of guardian circle I could use, but yeah...
-You haven't improved your weapons/armour. Really, this does help. A lot. You get a massive damage/armour class improvement using upgraded weapons or armour. Enchant for extra bonuses sometimes reaching 50% more damage per strike, amongst other bonuses like slowing movement, draining stamina or setting them on fire.
-You're a low level. Skyrim is erratic. Some enemies scale to your level, some don't, and some scale to your level +5 so you get your ass handed to you. As such, its quite possible that you're getting your ass handed to you thanks to the erratic scaling. Don't matter your level, if you come up against an enemy scaled to be far more powerful than you you're screwed.
-You have forgotten how to play well, and now just suck at the game. Nothing to be ashamed of if you're like me and had stopped playing for 8 months or so and are only now coming back. Its perfectly normal to suddenly have 0 skill, and need to relearn everything.

Really, the only thing the patches have done is made Skyrim easier if anything. Stables restock horses now, so there's no more one horse per city limit + Frost and Shadowmere, many bugs have been removed so its a lot harder to say the game glitched you out of pro quest rewards, or got you killed that way, mounted combat [Whilst absolute arse] has been added so you can fight on your horse [Unless you're a mage], ect.
If you're finding it too hard, and none of the above are correct, mod it. Its not that hard if you DL the creation kit to just slightly edit enemy stats, though it can be a bit time consuming =/

 

[SlaveNumber23]

The highest difficulty is pretty much impossible to play on for the entire time, you will be forced to turn the difficulty down for some enemies. You shouldn't really have any trouble playing on the middle difficulty though, if you are just rethink your strategy and maybe try kiting enemies or picking them off one by one rather than fighting larger groups. Illusion and sneak can make the game very easy, just make enemies kill each other and then pick off stragglers with a bow or dagger sneak attacks. Otherwise maybe level smithing and enchanting and make some insane armor?

 

[DustyDrB]

Just turn the difficulty down. Unless you really just enjoy damage sponge enemies, I can't see the appeal of the game on anything higher than Adept. Perhaps if they made it so enemies simply do much more damage to you and limited health potion usage then it would be more fun.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I hope you are right OP. I played and the only trouble I ever had was one mage that done tons of damage and you were trapped in a cage with a master level lock when he starts to kill you. He was a bastard.
Otherwise the only problem I have had is dragons because I am a dagger/sneak character and you can't sneak up on them. Not that I couldn't kill them, they just got to touch my health bar unlike everything else in game.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

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Time to brag about my nerdiness.

I started a second playthrough on master difficulty because it was the only real challenge. The enemies aren't really hard, you just can't stand there with derp painted across your face and wonder why they're raping you.

Also, Magic and Archery are really pretty damn weak in Skyrim. Your best bet is going a Warrior with Heavy Armour and a sexy Two-Handed weapon. Also, get up your smithing as quickly as you can otherwise you'll just get broken in two. And after that, your enchanting. My two handed Axe is doing double the damage because of a couple of enchantments I placed on my armour to increase Two-hander damage.

It really is a shame though that Archery and Magic are so weak and bland. If only they had the same kind of spells and arrow techniques like Dragon's Dogma.

 

[Joccaren]

Time to brag about my nerdiness.

I started a second playthrough on master difficulty because it was the only real challenge. The enemies aren't really hard, you just can't stand there with derp painted across your face and wonder why they're raping you.

Also, Magic and Archery are really pretty damn weak in Skyrim. Your best bet is going a Warrior with Heavy Armour and a sexy Two-Handed weapon. Also, get up your smithing as quickly as you can otherwise you'll just get broken in two. And after that, your enchanting. My two handed Axe is doing double the damage because of a couple of enchantments I placed on my armour to increase Two-hander damage.

It really is a shame though that Archery and Magic are so weak and bland. If only they had the same kind of spells and arrow techniques like Dragon's Dogma.

This.
Higher difficulties aren't especially harder, just a lot more tedious thanks to massive amounts of health on enemies.
2 Handed or Dual wielding is probably the best way to go, though sword and shield is quite usable after you get the perk for slowing down time when enemies power attack [That perk is WAAAY too exploitable with some enemies. Wait for them to power attack, wipe out their whole encampment in slow motion. Its just lols].
One thing that does make archery and dagger sneaking somewhat possible is paralyses poison. No resists, just 3 seconds of them on the ground. If you can acquire a lot, 1 on 1 fights become laughable. Anything more and it starts to stack up a bit, but you can maintain a 3 on 1 with enough potions, though they're rare enough you'll never do that.
In order of strength overall I'd probably go dual wield, two handed, then sword shield. Two handed is strongest at the start of the game, whilst Dual wield lags behind a little with its only advantage being constant power attack [Press both attack buttons at once, but do not hold. You will basically power attack, without and stamina cost], and its actual power attack which is a 3 in one power attack that does a lot of damage. Where Dual wield really starts to shine though is when you get lvl 3 elemental fury and the two speed perks in one handed. You can power attack 3 times in a second [The 3 power attack power attack 3 times in a second, so really around 9 power attacks in a second], and even on master nothing stands long against that.
The stagger from two handed weapons though is very useful, as is the ability to block - though prepare to get insta gibbed even whilst blocking a lot of the time on master - you're better off just staggering your opponent constantly, though I've come across a bit of a rhythm to that thanks to seemingly being unable to stagger an already staggered enemy.

Still, I haven't played vanilla Skyrim in ages, so I'm probably remembering a couple of things wrong. Decided to change around a fair bit to make things more challenging on Adept, so that it wasn't just a meat soak contest. Dragons especially...
Ah mods, you are brilliant.

 

[Hagi]

Skyrim's difficulty slider isn't actually located in the options menu. That's just a silly slider which increases or decreases the amount of time spend in combat and the number of potions/food consumed.

It doesn't actually make the game harder.

What does make the game harder are mods. They're capable of adding a real challenge to the game which doesn't boil down to having to hit the enemy six times as often and them having to hit you six times less (especially since Skyrim doesn't have a dodge feature meaning avoiding damage is only possible through potion spam or abusing game mechanics like stun dual destruction casting).

Leave that silly slider in the options menu alone. Use mods.

 

[Robot Number V]

I don't know about it being any harder or easier, but people seem to be describing their own experiences, so I'll just go with that. Personally, I kept at the middle difficulty setting (I think there were two easier settings and two harder ones, but I don't remember what it was called) for the grand majority of the game, and I never had too much trouble. The only times I turned it down were when (a) A really tough dragon kept kicking my ass, or (b) I ran into anything that could kill me with one shot. Because that shit will not fly.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Time to brag about my nerdiness.

I started a second playthrough on master difficulty because it was the only real challenge. The enemies aren't really hard, you just can't stand there with derp painted across your face and wonder why they're raping you.

Also, Magic and Archery are really pretty damn weak in Skyrim. Your best bet is going a Warrior with Heavy Armour and a sexy Two-Handed weapon. Also, get up your smithing as quickly as you can otherwise you'll just get broken in two. And after that, your enchanting. My two handed Axe is doing double the damage because of a couple of enchantments I placed on my armour to increase Two-hander damage.

It really is a shame though that Archery and Magic are so weak and bland. If only they had the same kind of spells and arrow techniques like Dragon's Dogma.

This.
Higher difficulties aren't especially harder, just a lot more tedious thanks to massive amounts of health on enemies.
2 Handed or Dual wielding is probably the best way to go, though sword and shield is quite usable after you get the perk for slowing down time when enemies power attack [That perk is WAAAY too exploitable with some enemies. Wait for them to power attack, wipe out their whole encampment in slow motion. Its just lols].
One thing that does make archery and dagger sneaking somewhat possible is paralyses poison. No resists, just 3 seconds of them on the ground. If you can acquire a lot, 1 on 1 fights become laughable. Anything more and it starts to stack up a bit, but you can maintain a 3 on 1 with enough potions, though they're rare enough you'll never do that.
In order of strength overall I'd probably go dual wield, two handed, then sword shield. Two handed is strongest at the start of the game, whilst Dual wield lags behind a little with its only advantage being constant power attack [Press both attack buttons at once, but do not hold. You will basically power attack, without and stamina cost], and its actual power attack which is a 3 in one power attack that does a lot of damage. Where Dual wield really starts to shine though is when you get lvl 3 elemental fury and the two speed perks in one handed. You can power attack 3 times in a second [The 3 power attack power attack 3 times in a second, so really around 9 power attacks in a second], and even on master nothing stands long against that.
The stagger from two handed weapons though is very useful, as is the ability to block - though prepare to get insta gibbed even whilst blocking a lot of the time on master - you're better off just staggering your opponent constantly, though I've come across a bit of a rhythm to that thanks to seemingly being unable to stagger an already staggered enemy.

Still, I haven't played vanilla Skyrim in ages, so I'm probably remembering a couple of things wrong. Decided to change around a fair bit to make things more challenging on Adept, so that it wasn't just a meat soak contest. Dragons especially... Ah mods, you are brilliant.

Argh!! I play on Xbox because my computer is too shitty to run Skyrim. Even on the lowest graphical settings. But as far as I know, vanilla Skyrim doesn't have these skills or "elemental furies" that you're talking about. I haven't tried sword and shield on master, but I could probably beat the enemy to a pulp in that too.

 

[SecretSmoke]

Elemental fury is a dragon shout. Forget where to find it, but it does have it, and you do want it. You *want* it bro.

 

[SecretSmoke]

(sorry double post...)

 

[WoW Killer]

I don't think any difficulties have changed through the patches.

Oh well. Want tips? Lets see. Best shout in the game bar none = Clear Skies. No arguments there. The Force Through Balance buff from Parthie improves all staggers, not just shouts, e.g. bashing with your weapon/shield. Early on in the game, if you're into Smithing and particularly the Light side of the tree, find Fellglow Keep just north of Valtheim Towers. You'll get three Quicksilver ingots (and also a further three ore from a vein close by), which allows you to get some Elven gear super early. If you do the quest Unfathomable Depths (starts in Riften docks), you'll get a perma-buff called Ancient Knowledge which has an incorrect tooltip. It states that it increases the strength of Dwarven armour and the rate you learn Smithing, but it actually increases the strength of all armour, and increases the amount you can sharpen/strengthen items (at 100 Smithing and only this buff, you'll have enough to reach the next level beyond Legendary). To make more money than you know how to spend, get a weapon with the Banish Daedra enchantment; putting this enchantment on an Iron Dagger increases the value by so much that you'll be able to buy filled soulgems straight from vendors and still make a profit. Warning: this is highly exploitative.

 

[Tethalaki]

Argh!! I play on Xbox because my computer is too shitty to run Skyrim. Even on the lowest graphical settings. But as far as I know, vanilla Skyrim doesn't have these skills or "elemental furies" that you're talking about. I haven't tried sword and shield on master, but I could probably beat the enemy to a pulp in that too.

It's a vanilla Shout: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Elemental_Fury

 

[Kyber]

I keep hearing about how people find Skyrim too easy. When I played I got my ass handed to me by dragons, bears, those ice wisp thingies, ect.

One particularly insane moment I had was during that one part in the game where I was helping one of those werewolf guys. (Can't remember what they are called) At one point in this cave, there was a very large group of bandits that did tons of damage. They swarmed my quest partner and knocked him unconscious, and then proceed to beat me down to a pulp. Took me several reloads until I finally used a scroll that used a firestorm attack that took some of them out, and weakened the rest to the point where I can take each of them out with a couple of swings. It was crazy.

This was on the default difficulty setting too.

Although it has been a long time since I last played Skyrim. so I don't know how much has changed since then.

I'm not sure but that event sounds a lot like the first guest for the Companions, if that's the case, you're supposed to be trapped in a cage, and you're friend is supposed transform in to a werewolf, and beat all of the enemies down with single swings, and not get damaged himself at all. I don't know, sounds like your quest got bugged or you did something that you weren't supposed to do.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Highest difficulty isn't too hard. Just have to know how to pick your battles and make use of alchemy, alteration and smithing correctly.

 

[WoW Killer]

Sorry, but archery is the most overpowered play style in skyrim hands down. Assuming you are getting perks of course. Archery has 50% stagger and 15% paralyze effects. Sneak skyrockets archery into utterly crazy stupid broken powerful.

Everything's overpowered if you don't limit yourself. With the Alchemy loop you can make a weapon that one-shots everything in the game; it's not really fair to say one style is better than another at that point. With sensible limits (and Master difficulty of course) I find that Archery starts to lag a bit behind melee later on, in raw damage anyway (and this is a character with Perks from both lines). And you've got more reliable staggers through bashing.

Sure there's stealth benefits to Archery too, but that's an exploit of its own.