Skryim Master Thread

[Wood]

I think my sneak is so high that Dragons can't see me when they are flying around above me, even when I'm running around. Either that or they are scared. I like to think that they are scared. Yeah, definitely.

How high is your sneak?

I haven't put any effort into leveling up my sneak other than...sneaking as I walk around, and it's already almost 60. The only perk I added beyond the initial one was Muffle, because I wear heavy armor. But now that you mention it, a few times dragons have flown over me and just kept on going.

[slurmo]

oof. you guys left me waaaay behind.


my progress is slow.

[Wood]

Very frustrating hour last night.

Fought a blood dragon at top of mount and when I got it to 50% health, it disappeared. Livid.

Then I went to the cave to make my hottie Redhand lady from Whiterun happy, and my game froze up on me thrice inside the Alikr cave.

[Wood]

Turns out that there's a glitch in the game that I haven't heard about, until now.

So as I mentioned last night my game kept freezing. It pissed me off.

Turns out I think it related to my having too many individual save files. Since they gave me the option of saving a new point every time, I did that. But as I found out from a bit of web surfing, if you keep making new save points and not deleting or overwriting old ones, it can materially impact both the load/lag times of the game AND lead to freezing issues.

Looks like I'll be deleting a bunch of stuff tonight.

[Chris]

Turns out that there's a glitch in the game that I haven't heard about, until now.

So as I mentioned last night my game kept freezing. It pissed me off.

Turns out I think it related to my having too many individual save files. Since they gave me the option of saving a new point every time, I did that. But as I found out from a bit of web surfing, if you keep making new save points and not deleting or overwriting old ones, it can materially impact both the load/lag times of the game AND lead to freezing issues.

Looks like I'll be deleting a bunch of stuff tonight.

That is GOOD to know because I save all the time. Especially now that I'm doing the Thieves Guild quests and usually save right before and right after any sort of heist.

BTW, I know I mentioned it, but if you want to make BANK, the combo of potion making and moving around the map for Thieves jobs is awesome. LOOT LOOT LOOT. I've got over 20K in gold, and I don't even feel like I've tried that hard.

I'm too the point that I don't even use the alchemy planner. I've made so many potions that I just use the potion list in the alchemy menu and go to town. Every time I run into a shop that sells ingredients I clear them out and drop the stuff off in my "alchemy chest" in my house (which has all my enchanted alchemy gear as well) and then do a massive potion session every few days.

Having your archery skill over 75, mixed with a couple perks and a kick ass enchanted bow almost feels broken. One shot kills on guys that use to take a while to hack away at is pretty cool.

The Thieves side jobs are awesome. The bigger jobs that secure fences and vendors for the Guild pay off huge. So fun.

Mage quest next week.

[Wood]

That is GOOD to know because I save all the time. Especially now that I'm doing the Thieves Guild quests and usually save right before and right after any sort of heist.

BTW, I know I mentioned it, but if you want to make BANK, the combo of potion making and moving around the map for Thieves jobs is awesome. LOOT LOOT LOOT. I've got over 20K in gold, and I don't even feel like I've tried that hard.

I'm too the point that I don't even use the alchemy planner. I've made so many potions that I just use the potion list in the alchemy menu and go to town. Every time I run into a shop that sells ingredients I clear them out and drop the stuff off in my "alchemy chest" in my house (which has all my enchanted alchemy gear as well) and then do a massive potion session every few days.

Having your archery skill over 75, mixed with a couple perks and a kick ass enchanted bow almost feels broken. One shot kills on guys that use to take a while to hack away at is pretty cool.

The Thieves side jobs are awesome. The bigger jobs that secure fences and vendors for the Guild pay off huge. So fun.

Mage quest next week.

That's cool. I'm pretty sure I'm avoiding the Mage quests. My guy, outside of shouts, almost never uses magick and I just can't see getting through the Mage quests without it.

[Wood]

Per Chris' last update, it's truly amazing how massive this game is.

I have no idea how many hours I've played (a lot), but I'm almost level 40 and have yet to:

*** Set foot in Dawnstar, Falkreath, Morthal, Riften, Solitude, Windhelm or Winterhold
*** Finish the Companions Quest or Main Quests
*** Star the Bards College, Winterhold, Dark Brotherhood, Imperial Legion, Thieves Guild or Stormcloak quests
*** Learn most shouts (I know three, none fully)
*** Fight any Atronachs, Automatons, Spriggans, Wisps or Falmer

This game is HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE

[Rowland Pearce]

Dragons are still not attacking me. I think it might be a bug. They used to attack me every time, now I can be on the ground jumping up and down, dragon shouting for them to come and get me but they just ignore me and fly away. Stupid dragons...

This game is HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE

The game is infinite if you want to just keep going doing side quests, and adventuring. Things like going to an innkeeper and asking for work, or going to the Thieves Guild and getting a couple of houses to rob, are randomly generated and will keep you going indefinitely.

I think I'm the leader of everything now except the Thieves Guild which needs lots of side quests to be completed first.

I'm going to start doing the High H'rothgar "find a dragon word" side quests to find all of the word walls. I want all of those shouts at my disposal.

[Wood]

Dragons are still not attacking me. I think it might be a bug. They used to attack me every time, now I can be on the ground jumping up and down, dragon shouting for them to come and get me but they just ignore me and fly away. Stupid dragons...

The game is infinite if you want to just keep going doing side quests, and adventuring. Things like going to an innkeeper and asking for work, or going to the Thieves Guild and getting a couple of houses to rob, are randomly generated and will keep you going indefinitely.

I think I'm the leader of everything now except the Thieves Guild which needs lots of side quests to be completed first.

I'm going to start doing the High H'rothgar "find a dragon word" side quests to find all of the word walls. I want all of those shouts at my disposal.

I wonder if it's because of your sneak?

I found a pair of muffled boots and with my sneak already way up, it's hard for anyone to notice me unless I want them to. I've noticed that dragons do the same to me. In the aforementioned issue last night where I got the dragon to 50% and then he disappeared, I had to waste about 20 arrows shooting at him as he flew around just to get his attention. He was flying right by me over and over and not attacking.

As to High Hrothgar, I'm headed there now. Two sessions ago it was my plan, but I didn't realize I had to walk around a whole effing mountain and find the 7,000 steps.    So as always I got distracted by the various camps and caves and redoubts on the way there, cleaned them out, and then had to head back to town to destock and go back via Fast Travel.

I'm going to learn some damn shouts. You best BELIEEEEEEEEEEEEVE dat.

[Chris]

When I read that there was a special gift you can get after doing 125 Thieves Guild side quests I started to realize that I will never "finish" this game.

[Stupendous Man]

I killed two giants and a mastodon last night in one prolonged fight. It was intense.

using my werewolf form really helped

[PercussionMasta]

When I read that there was a special gift you can get after doing 125 Thieves Guild side quests I started to realize that I will never "finish" this game.

Sheesh, dude.  I just went a read a little bit about the Thieves Guild on the Wiki.  There's a LOT more to do than I thought.  I'm not even as far along on the main quests as I thought.

[Wood]

I killed two giants and a mastodon last night in one prolonged fight. It was intense.

using my werewolf form really helped

That's a great example of how quickly you can level up without realizing it.

Seems like just a week ago I avoided Giant/Mammoth camps because I was tired of having the giant knock me into space. 

Then I stumbled upon a Giant camp (two giants, near a cave, no mammoths), and I was able to get a really high perch on rocks that I wasn't even sure they could reach me. So I figured, what the heck. Sniped one. They both started trying to get up the rocks after me, and I figured I could fight them...figured it would take maybe 8-10 arrows each.

Took me two (with a critical hit on one) and three to kill them. BOOM!

SO then I went back and sought out all the Giant camps I had avoided previously and took them out and their mangy beasts. 

[Stupendous Man]

That's a great example of how quickly you can level up without realizing it.

Seems like just a week ago I avoided Giant/Mammoth camps because I was tired of having the giant knock me into space. 

Then I stumbled upon a Giant camp (two giants, near a cave, no mammoths), and I was able to get a really high perch on rocks that I wasn't even sure they could reach me. So I figured, what the heck. Sniped one. They both started trying to get up the rocks after me, and I figured I could fight them...figured it would take maybe 8-10 arrows each.

Took me two (with a critical hit on one) and three to kill them. BOOM!

SO then I went back and sought out all the Giant camps I had avoided previously and took them out and their mangy beasts. 

I'm still only level 15. I would've gotten my ass handed to me had I not fought them

in werewolf form

[Wood]

I'm still only level 15. I would've gotten my ass handed to me had I not fought them

in werewolf form

Nice.

I've yet to

become a werewolf, mainly because the side quest I have to finish before I get to to the werewolf transforming

quest involves going to Markarth and killing an ice wraith. I fucking hate that shit city.

[Stupendous Man]

Nice.

I've yet to

become a werewolf, mainly because the side quest I have to finish before I get to to the werewolf transforming

quest involves going to Markarth and killing an ice wraith. I fucking hate that shit city.

Weird. I haven't even set foot in Markarth yet.

[PercussionMasta]

I think it might be time for an epic Skyrim spreadsheet.

[Jeff B.]

So my plans of playing Skyrim for a good chunk of the weekend were thwarted by sick kids and other issues.  It had been quite a while since I had last played so I sat down last night and got about 4-5 hours in.   I am still pretty early into the game but I got up to level 11, killed another dragon, finished some side quests and bought a house in Whiterun.  I did some mining and leveling up my smithing and archery. 

My biggest thrill was finally killing a mammoth.  I had made the mistake early on of going after one and him and his boys whooped up on me.  So this time as I was walking from Whiterun a dragon came down in the fields and somehow during the battle he pissed off a mammoth that was nearby.  Well after I was done with the dragon, Lydia was engaged with the mammoth and he wouldn't take off.  Every time he turned around she would shoot him with an arrow starting the process over again.  I was hoping after the dragon fight to just head back to Whiterun with the loot but I realized there was no way to do that.  So I said eff it and went after the mammoth.  None of his friends ever came and between my magic skills and nailing him with arrows (which seemed to really bump up my archery levels) he went down.  Probably not a big deal to some of you further in the game but after getting bashed by them not too long again it was good to finally take one down.

The only problem I had last night was that I tried to finish a quest and kill a bandit leader but he must be so much stronger than me becuase there was just no way I could kill him.  I need to level up and head back to the camp he is in (forget the name at the moment but it is northwest of Whiterun, near the Silent Moons Camp) but when  you get down to the last room there are 3 or 4 people.  One is a mage and two of them must have dwarven armor or some special armor on, it looks like they are glowing.  The mage is pretty strong as well.  I have managed to kill a couple of them but one of the two warriors always finishes me off with some strong ass double handed weapon that only takes like 3 swings to completely kill me.

Aside from that I just purchased my alchemy set for the house so I really want to focus on that and figuring out how to enhant weapons, specifically my bows.  Not sure if I will get time in tonight, I seem to be in an every other night playing schedule but I would like to brew up some potions/poisons and do some more smithing.

[Chris]

This breaks down the optimizing of enchantments and smithing to a freaking science:

Optimizing

When getting into end-game situations, or simply wishing to maximize your damage outputs, one can use Enchanting, Alchemy, and Smithing to do incredible things for both melee and ranged users.

    Get enchanting, alchemy, and smithing to 100. Smithing is the easiest to power-level, with enchanting close behind. Use your 5 training sessions on Alchemy, as it takes the longest. If you can, grab any necessary smithing perks for your armor/weapon choices. If you have the perks to spend, grab all levels of the pure power perks (the first one) for alchemy and enchanting, and the insightful enchanter perk.
    Buy or make a bunch of cheap sets of clothes or armor of any kind for: Hands, Feet, Body, Necklace, Ring, and helm.
    Stock up on grand soul gems and certain ingredients by any means necessary.
        Ingredients for Fortify Enchanting (Choose any two of the four): Blue Butterfly Wing, Hagraven's Claw, Snowberries, and Spriggan Sap.
        Ingredients for Fortify Smithing (Choose any two of the four): Blisterwort, Glowing Mushroom, Sabre Cat Tooth and Spriggan Sap.
    Make sure you know the enchanting recipes you want on your final armor, as well as Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Smithing
    At the enchanter enchant as many items you can with Fortify Alchemy, but make sure you are able to make one complete set of fortified alchemy apparel before completing. A set of alchemy apparel will have one item for head, neck, arm and hand. e.g. Circlet, necklace, bracers, and ring.
    Then, wear the alchemy clothes, and verify using Active Effects that the enchanting effects are active. There seems to be a bug where sometimes the enchanted item's effects are not active upon wearing. To correct just remove and then reequip enchanted items.
    Now make some Fortify Enchanting potions using combinations of: Blue Butterfly Wings, Hagraven's Claws, Snowberries, and the Spriggan sap. There are two respawning Enchanter's Philters in the Archmage's Quarters at the College of Winterhold, these increase the strength of enchantments by 20% for 60 seconds.
    At the enchanter, take the strongest enchanting potion you made, and enchant a new set of items with Fortify Alchemy.
    Works twice, however after two iterations the fortify enchanting doesn't increase the items strength, xbox tested
    Make some final Fortify Enchanting potions, and some Fortify Smithing potions (using Blisterwort, Glowing Mushrooms, Sabre Cat Tooth, and Spriggan Sap) to get your enchanting back up to max, and enchant your used weapons and armor as you please.
    Also, at the enchanter (and while your enchant potion is on) enchant a final set of cheap items with Fortify Smithing. Then, head to a smithy, with a grindstone and a workbench.
    Finally, wear your smithing items and equip the Notched Pickaxe and take your smithing potion, and improve any weapons and armor you've got. You will, of course, need materials to do it, but most should be fairly easy to come by. You will probably reach the armor cap with any armor you're wearing, and increase your weapons to massive heights (more than 500), especially with any offensive skill enchants.

Notes on optimizing enchanting:

    You can use these methods to increase your stats at any point, for any skill level, using this same method. However, you will benefit even more at higher levels, and should focus on leveling it, and your other skills up, before optimizing.
    Even more powerful enchantments can be achieved by using an exploit connected to Fortify Restoration potions. The potions will increase any Restoration effect on an item, including Fortify skill enchantments. By taking a Fortify Restoration potion prior to equipping Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Smithing items (or by taking several Fortify Restoration potions, since this exploit works on potions as well) you can increase the Fortify Smithing and Fortify Alchemy enchantment strength on items. Because the effect stacks with each potion taken (by un-equipping and reequipping the apparel after each potion taken), you can increase these enchantments exponentially and make exponentially more powerful Fortify Enchant potions with the Fortify Alchemy apparel.

[Wood]

This breaks down the optimizing of enchantments and smithing to a freaking science:

Optimizing

When getting into end-game situations, or simply wishing to maximize your damage outputs, one can use Enchanting, Alchemy, and Smithing to do incredible things for both melee and ranged users.

    Get enchanting, alchemy, and smithing to 100. Smithing is the easiest to power-level, with enchanting close behind. Use your 5 training sessions on Alchemy, as it takes the longest. If you can, grab any necessary smithing perks for your armor/weapon choices. If you have the perks to spend, grab all levels of the pure power perks (the first one) for alchemy and enchanting, and the insightful enchanter perk.
    Buy or make a bunch of cheap sets of clothes or armor of any kind for: Hands, Feet, Body, Necklace, Ring, and helm.
    Stock up on grand soul gems and certain ingredients by any means necessary.
        Ingredients for Fortify Enchanting (Choose any two of the four): Blue Butterfly Wing, Hagraven's Claw, Snowberries, and Spriggan Sap.
        Ingredients for Fortify Smithing (Choose any two of the four): Blisterwort, Glowing Mushroom, Sabre Cat Tooth and Spriggan Sap.
    Make sure you know the enchanting recipes you want on your final armor, as well as Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Smithing
    At the enchanter enchant as many items you can with Fortify Alchemy, but make sure you are able to make one complete set of fortified alchemy apparel before completing. A set of alchemy apparel will have one item for head, neck, arm and hand. e.g. Circlet, necklace, bracers, and ring.
    Then, wear the alchemy clothes, and verify using Active Effects that the enchanting effects are active. There seems to be a bug where sometimes the enchanted item's effects are not active upon wearing. To correct just remove and then reequip enchanted items.
    Now make some Fortify Enchanting potions using combinations of: Blue Butterfly Wings, Hagraven's Claws, Snowberries, and the Spriggan sap. There are two respawning Enchanter's Philters in the Archmage's Quarters at the College of Winterhold, these increase the strength of enchantments by 20% for 60 seconds.
    At the enchanter, take the strongest enchanting potion you made, and enchant a new set of items with Fortify Alchemy.
    Works twice, however after two iterations the fortify enchanting doesn't increase the items strength, xbox tested
    Make some final Fortify Enchanting potions, and some Fortify Smithing potions (using Blisterwort, Glowing Mushrooms, Sabre Cat Tooth, and Spriggan Sap) to get your enchanting back up to max, and enchant your used weapons and armor as you please.
    Also, at the enchanter (and while your enchant potion is on) enchant a final set of cheap items with Fortify Smithing. Then, head to a smithy, with a grindstone and a workbench.
    Finally, wear your smithing items and equip the Notched Pickaxe and take your smithing potion, and improve any weapons and armor you've got. You will, of course, need materials to do it, but most should be fairly easy to come by. You will probably reach the armor cap with any armor you're wearing, and increase your weapons to massive heights (more than 500), especially with any offensive skill enchants.

Notes on optimizing enchanting:

    You can use these methods to increase your stats at any point, for any skill level, using this same method. However, you will benefit even more at higher levels, and should focus on leveling it, and your other skills up, before optimizing.
    Even more powerful enchantments can be achieved by using an exploit connected to Fortify Restoration potions. The potions will increase any Restoration effect on an item, including Fortify skill enchantments. By taking a Fortify Restoration potion prior to equipping Fortify Alchemy and Fortify Smithing items (or by taking several Fortify Restoration potions, since this exploit works on potions as well) you can increase the Fortify Smithing and Fortify Alchemy enchantment strength on items. Because the effect stacks with each potion taken (by un-equipping and reequipping the apparel after each potion taken), you can increase these enchantments exponentially and make exponentially more powerful Fortify Enchant potions with the Fortify Alchemy apparel.

My head hurts