What is your favorite hold in Skyrim? Least favorite?

[Calcium]

I'm liking how much variety there is in favourites here.

I spend most of my time in Whiterun and it's close between there and Windhelm for my favourite city. I love the almost prehistoric looking hot springs between Windhelm and Riften. Are these in Eastmarch or The Rift though?

Least favourite would be perhaps Falkreath. I just don't feel it stands out compared to other areas.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Favourite - Whiterun Hold/The Reach

Least Favourite - Hjaalmarch/Winterhold

Hjaalmarch has that horrible swamp in it and generally looks like shit. And Morthal is a terrible town. Winterhold other than having the College of Winterhold, The Shrine of Azura and Alftand, the giant Dwemer ruin that serves as one of the few entrances Blackreach, has nothing in it.

 

[Emiscary]

Whiterun for the most part. Best home option, home of my favorite guild (I only wish it was in my power to tell Kodlak to go **** himself with regards to the cure...)

And least is Windhelm, largely because it's glitched all to hell and the 10k house for sale is a *GOD DAMN MURDER HOUSE*.

 

[Krais101]

I'm not sure about favorite, but I have to say, I found The Rift, and Riften, disappointing. When I heard the name, I pictured a great fissure in the earth with a city carved into the cliffs on either side. Instead we got Bravil again...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The rift is an absolute joy to explore, all those waterfalls and golden orange forests.

Least favourite - anywhere thats nothing but snow and rocks.

 

[Doubler]

When it comes to the holds themselves, the Reach always manages to get to me with it's beauty.

When it comes to the cities I enjoy all the mayor ones a lot, they're really well done. I have some issues with Markarth not feeling properly lived in, with hundreds or thousands of years of Reachmen and Nord occupation apparently leaving no traces, but even it is very impressive.
I probably like Windhelm best though. Beautiful architecture in a really cold, hard climate, and a strong sense of age and indomitable permanence. It's very imposing.

 

[OctoH]

Favorite: The Rift...because I need all the merchants for their money.
Least Favorite: The Pale...because, seriously, there is nothing there.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

It's a tie. There's that completely frozen wasteland towards the north. It feels so lonely up there. It makes me wish they incorporated a hardcore mode that would force the player to take a shelter and build a campfire while there at night. This game would be 10,000,000% better with survival mechanics.

I also like the Western portion of the map. It's a bit tougher to navigate than most areas, but I like that about it. I like the Forsworn too. They're the most interesting "normal" enemy to me (as opposed to...ugh...Draugr and Bandits). And Markarth is wonderfully designed.

Least favorite: Either the northeast or the starting area.

I'm guessing you have it for the 360 or PS3. If you've got it for the PC then you need to start checking out the mods:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11163
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=6745

There are even a couple of mods that make food, drink and sleep necessary. While great for emersion they all tend to suffer from "modder overenthusiasm" where the person that makes them forgets they are supposed to be a small part of a larger game, and it essentially becomes a food consumption simulator, where as soon as you stop eating all your stats drain away and you die.

On topic, My favourite hold would be Whiterun, because it is so central to everywhere else, and I don't actually really like any other holds. Markarth and Riften are horribly corrupt, Winterhold is dead, Morthal and Dawnstar are stagnant and Windhelm is sinister. Solitude's alright, I suppose, but it's right next to the creepy swamp.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

I really like Whiterun because I am a sucker for wide open plains and rocky crags. As for least favorite I would have to go with WInterhold cause I don't really care for the constant snow(hoping for the seasons to be included at some point)

 

[V TheSystem V]

Don't know which cities apply to which hold, but:

Favourite - Markarth. I'm a sucker for architecture, and the river running through the town and the steam everywhere just makes it look so beautiful.

Runner up - Whiterun. It's so Norse it makes me wanna cry. I stayed there doing misc. quests on my first playthrough for about 12 hours. I did everything for them there, and was devastated when I had to evict the Jarl in the Civil War questline.

Least favourite - Morthal. Seriously, this place? It feels dead. There's a burnt-down house complete with ghost-child, a vampire infested cave about 2 minutes' walk from the place, and the Jarl is a crazy woman who gets visions and doesn't wanna do anything herself (then again, most of the Jarls are like that). Plus, any city with Deathbells growing near it isn't a good place to take up residence.

 

[XMark]

Favourite - Whiterun, just because it's right in the middle of the world and I spend more time there than anywhere else.

Least Favourite - Morthal. Boring place, doesn't even seem important enough to warrant being marked as one of the main holds. And it's in the middle of the ugliest swampy area.

 

[Josh123914]

Favourite - probably either Whiteun because of how good it looks or the Rift for not being completely covered in snow.
Runner up - The Reach, I don't like the inhabitants but there's something about it that seperates it from the rest of Skyrim, the rocks? I don't know but I'm not suprised the Forsworn wanted it as it's own Province.

Least Favourite: Winterhold. I don't hate it, in fact the whole edge of the word feeling is pretty epic, but outside of some ruins and the College of Winterhold there's nothing there of interest. to top it all of the Hold Capital is literally an inn, a shop, and 3 houses, I understand that most o the city collapsed into the ocean, but that was 80 years ago and nobody thought of rebuilding? and it doesn't help that all their Jarl does is ***** about how hard they have it, blame the College of Winterhold (their ONLY source of income mind you) for all the bad stuff that happens to them an in general seems completely content with complaining about it instead of actually doing something about it.

 

[CleverNickname]

Least favourite: Winterhold Hold. Stupid name and shitty weather, no matter how often you shout Clear Sky at the clearly not very clear sky.

I love the whole southern half of the map. Gorgeous, tons of places, a lot of freedom. The area around Solitude is too difficult to traverse, and that one large mountain east of Markarth provides the same problem for that area.

 

[PPB]

I'm not sure if I would call it a favourite, but I recently "discovered" The Pale (and Dawnstar). I've played for about a hundred hours over 2 characters and after starting a new game last week I realised that I had never really explored The Pale much. I really like the snowy pine forests. Also, Dawnstar reminds me a lot of Easthaven in Icewind Dale. Perhaps it comes from being Canadian, but I just love winter scenery and The Pale has the best in the game in my opinion.

My least favourite would be Hjaalmarch, I just find it boring.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

I love the autum forests in the Rift, but Riften itself very rarely looks nice. It's normally too foggy and grey, but the first time I went there it was bright and colourful and looked amazing.

My actual favourite hold is probably the Reach, because it has some great views and the rocky terrain looks nice with its patches of grass. Markarth looks fantastic as an intact Dwemer city, although it has the same problems with fog.

My least favourite hold is probably Hjaalmarch, mainly due to the lack of interesting content in Morthal. I like the swamp, but Morthal itself has no quests apart from the vampire one.

 

[PinkiePyro]

favorite whiterun

least: tie between winterhold and Windhelm winterhold sucks and Windhelm is full of a-holes

 

[Euryalus]

The rift is an absolute joy to explore, all those waterfalls and golden orange forests.

Least favourite - anywhere thats nothing but snow and rocks.

Aww, but the snowy areas have such a serene beauty to them. Walking around at night with those auroras and snowstorms is awesome. Plus they remind me of the Phendrana drifts in Metroid Prime.

 

[Euryalus]

My Favorites are probably the Pale, Eastmarch, and the Rift (in no particular order). I would love the Reach more if I didn't keep getting knocked off mountains by the damn enemies lol.

Eastmarch is awesome because it has that whole Hot-springs Yellowstone thing going on (Old Faithful FTW) as well as snowy old Windhelm. It provides two unique settings in one area without having a change in environment that feels forced.

I love the pale because I have a thing for Ice and snow levels. They just have a sort of crisp and clean feeling to them that's hard to explain. It's the same reason I love Phendrana drifts in Metroid Prime and the Yeti Mansion in Twilight Princess. I also love winter for this reason (though ironically enough, I hate the cold as much as the next person).

The rift doesn't really give me any sort of exotic feeling while exploring it, It's actually a lot like a regular fall here in michigan (far more mountainous obviously), but I still find it very beautiful.

My least favorite holds are probably Whiterun and Falkreath. Whiterun because I'm not a fan of the tundra outside the city and Falkreath because it just seems like a very generic fantasy forest to me (and not even that fantasy-ish). I don't have as much to say about why I don't like these ones because they're actually pretty good in their own right. It's just that they feel underwhelming when compared to the others.

 

[Euryalus]

I love the autum forests in the Rift, but Riften itself very rarely looks nice. It's normally too foggy and grey, but the first time I went there it was bright and colourful and looked amazing.

My actual favourite hold is probably the Reach, because it has some great views and the rocky terrain looks nice with its patches of grass. Markarth looks fantastic as an intact Dwemer city, although it has the same problems with fog.

My least favourite hold is probably Hjaalmarch, mainly due to the lack of interesting content in Morthal. I like the swamp, but Morthal itself has no quests apart from the vampire one.

I used to hate Riften, but its grown on me. It just has a very rustic feel to it and the house makes me feel like I own my very own summer get-away cabin

I love the swamp outside Morthal! Everyone I know seems to hate it though
Morthal itself, however, is very boring. Nothing to do really.