I've been playing Skyrim since early June.

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I know, right?!? The joy and downright *potential* of a new character with all the possibilities is quickly drained by how much work and repetition is actually required, but then you get a new development idea and the whole damn process repeats itself.

DON'T STRAY DOWN THAT DARK PATH OR YOU'LL END UP LIKE ME AND NEVER FINISH ANYTHING OH GOD

 

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I'll try not to, I think one thing that can be said for Skyrim is that with there being so much stuff to do you can put off doing quests you've done before for a very long time. Also with playing an all-rounder mage you have a lot of options in how you approach combat, so hopefully things will remain fresh and the never-ending cycle of restarting will end.

 

I've been playing Skyrim since release, about 500 hours total, and I've never completed it. I always wind up starting over for one reason for another.

Last time I put in on hiatus for a bit when the Civil War Overhaul mod broke.

 

I started replaying Skyrim last night. Turns out with the right mods, it gets super immersive. Think I'll do my first proper playthrough ever.

 

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Definitely, what do you use?

I'm a big fan of Frost Fall and Realistic Needs and Diseases. Frost Fall especially adds a lot of depth since you can't just run freely everywhere.

 

My neighbour offered up his copy for the 360 last week after my son was playing it while we were over there. So, I opted to play as well. Have about 3-4 hours into it. I like it, typically I stuck to 3rd person games like Fallout and Arcanum, but this is fun to play in the 1st person. Going with a Nord, light armour, smithy, one handed and bow. I picked light armour because I figured I would do a lot of sneak/sniping until I am forced into pulling out my sword.

 

Where are all these old members coming from?

 

The secret forum.

 

Well I dropped the light armor idea, mainly because I have been unknowingly wearing heavy armour and already improved it to fine. My tip off was that my heavy armor is higher than my light armor. No more sneaking I guess.

 

Use the Steed Stone, up near Solitude. That way you don't get any noise penalties for heavy armour (or any armour) and it weighs nothing, which means you can sneak like billy-o. Conditioning has the same effect but it's a pain in the arse to level up heavy armour that high, unless you're rich and can excessively use trainers.

 

Change of character update(it was inevitable), I got bored of hack and slash. Decided to start over with a thief Khajiit. Have a question to ask. I only get a couple of hours a week to play and don't want to spend a lot of time messing around with Alchemy, which is another reason why I quit the warrior build because I didn't want to get into the time needed for Smithy either. Is it really necessary to invest in Alchemy for poisons or are they easy to buy?

 

I always thought that the sneak attacks themselves were vastly superior in terms of damage than poisons - which only really add a smidge on; especially if you use fortify archery equipment (for bows) or the nice dark brotherhood hand gear for daggers (fortify one-handed doesn't work on daggers for some peculiar reason).

However if you do want to use poisons, I found that really going for alchemy and enchanting (the whole alchemy and enchanting loop with a necromage vampire, coupled with Seeker of Sorcery and Ahzidal's Genius or Seeker of Shadows if you have Dragonborn) didn't produce overly superior results than what you could find in stores at high levels - so really I wouldn't worry too much if you don't feel like grinding up alchemy. The only trouble is you can't find poisons with more than one effect in stores, if that was what you were after.

 

I've exhausted my skyrim enthusiasm now, without ever bothering with alchemy.

I've concluded, though, that Kajiit sneak assassins are the most fun, and the throat slitting animation after a successful sneak attack is the most dopamine reward that the game can offer.

 

Sorry, mate, but the sneak assassins by excellence are nothing but Bosmer fellows.

 

Or, you know, Orcs seeing as they can deal double damage with their power.

 

I didn't say they were best, just the most fun.

I pick Kajiit particularly because the bare hand combat bonus makes the first ten levels a breeze.

Whatever the race, sneaking is a fun challenge even at uber levels.

 

Wasn't overly thrilled with the assassin build, so I went back to my warrior. Once I got into the whole mining/smithy thing I quite like it. My Nord is up to level 9 with 3 shouts. Leveling up heavy armour, one handed, block and smithy nicely. Secondary skills are sneak( for the 2X damage with the bow), archery and restoration. Not currently taking perks in them as of yet though, maybe later on. Wearing full steel superior armour, steel superior sword and shield. Gathering materials to upgrade Lydia's steel sword, shield and helmet. BTW, Will Lydia wear full heavy armour?

 

As far as I remember yes.