The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Catch-All

Stengah wrote:

Once I needed to grind unused skills to keep leveling, I justified it by thinking my character was disappointed that the denizens of Skyrim were no longer a challenge, so they're deliberately handicapping themselves by using skills they're not masters of yet. I also got a Steam Workshop mod that lets me spend dragon souls on perks, to make leveling them more fun and find a use for all the extra dragon souls I get.

That right there is something I kind of wish they'd add for everything. Buying the perks for Lockpicking and Pickpocketing and such I could justify with dragon souls... not so much with level ups.

I'm curious what people use for their Magicka/Health/Stamina choices for levels. By the time I hit 80, I'll be at 300, 400, 400 (What? I like to sprint and carry more stuff and slow down time with my zoom! :D). What's everyone else doing for choosing those stats?

I'm around 400, 400, 300. I like mixing magic and melee, and especially at this point, i'm so flush with gold I rarely pick up any loot. No need to carry a ton of stuff around.

I'm around 400, 400, 300 as well. I may have used the console to increase my max carry weight to well over 1000.

beanman101283 wrote:

I'm around 400, 400, 300. I like mixing magic and melee, and especially at this point, i'm so flush with gold I rarely pick up any loot. No need to carry a ton of stuff around.

I still have houses to buy and mansions to build starting next week!

Demosthenes wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

I'm around 400, 400, 300. I like mixing magic and melee, and especially at this point, i'm so flush with gold I rarely pick up any loot. No need to carry a ton of stuff around.

I still have houses to buy and mansions to build starting next week! :D

Good point! There was a standing stone I used for a while that bumps up your carrying capacity. That came in handy for quite a long time. Now that my houses are built, and I'm focusing on questing and leveling to 81, i'm using the Lover's Stone.

beanman101283 wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

I'm around 400, 400, 300. I like mixing magic and melee, and especially at this point, i'm so flush with gold I rarely pick up any loot. No need to carry a ton of stuff around.

I still have houses to buy and mansions to build starting next week! :D

Good point! There was a standing stone I used for a while that bumps up your carrying capacity. That came in handy for quite a long time. Now that my houses are built, and I'm focusing on questing and leveling to 81, i'm using the Lover's Stone.

Yeah, I've been using the Lady and the 3 Class stones pretty much all the time as a matter of leveling skills. Getting that character to 81, maybe I will try out one of those other stones.

Two mods recently helped me with carry weight. I was already using the Bandoliers, but then installed Apocalypse Spell Package which has a Feather 150 spell that you just toggle on or off. Then I tried the Alchemists Hidden Valley (mentioned in this thread, thanks!) and that has a Summon Chest spell, which pretty much eliminates the worry about carry weight. To be honest, the chest is a little OP and I feel guilty using it, so I've been trying to forget about it and only use it when transferring massive amounts of items from one home to another, that sort of thing.

Brownypoints wrote:

81

or Skyre ?

I cant decide which. I have never used wrye bash to make the leveled list combine so I kind of want to avoid that if i can

I have used Skyre extensively. It is very good! I am not sure if the current release is stable for Dragonborn, though

Montalban wrote:

Two mods recently helped me with carry weight. I was already using the Bandoliers, but then installed Apocalypse Spell Package which has a Feather 150 spell that you just toggle on or off. Then I tried the Alchemists Hidden Valley (mentioned in this thread, thanks!) and that has a Summon Chest spell, which pretty much eliminates the worry about carry weight. To be honest, the chest is a little OP and I feel guilty using it, so I've been trying to forget about it and only use it when transferring massive amounts of items from one home to another, that sort of thing.

I couldn't get Bandoliers to work, maybe I just installed it wrong.

I just make liberal use of the Feather spell from the base game, and otherwise I drop things I can't carry. If I'm not going to sell it for gold, or it's not going on a wall hanging in my home, then I try not to keep it. I don't exactly want all the cheese wheels in Skyrim on my floor.

For mass transfers, you all know you can order a follower to take everything from a chest, and that they have no encumbrance limit right? It's super easy to completely transfer things from one house to another. Just fair warning, some items may or may not be marked as Stolen afterwards.

ahrezmendi wrote:

For mass transfers, you all know you can order a follower to take everything from a chest, and that they have no encumbrance limit right? It's super easy to completely transfer things from one house to another. Just fair warning, some items may or may not be marked as Stolen afterwards.

When handing items to followers, they have encumbrance. I've never ordered them to take items from a chest before though.

absurddoctor wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

For mass transfers, you all know you can order a follower to take everything from a chest, and that they have no encumbrance limit right? It's super easy to completely transfer things from one house to another. Just fair warning, some items may or may not be marked as Stolen afterwards.

When handing items to followers, they have encumbrance. I've never ordered them to take items from a chest before though.

Picking items up off the floor works to, though you have to drop them one at a time, otherwise Solid Dwarven Metal (5) gets turned into Solid Dwarven Metal (1) when you tell them to pick it up.

ahrezmendi wrote:

If you want to naturally hit the really high levels, the way to do it is to not hyper specialize. Don't be just a sword + board heavy armor character, use everything. Montalban is right that if you build 40 levels using only one set of abilities, you're going to have a hard time switching to others. However, if you level using a wide array of skills then you'll have a much easier time.

Yeah, I'm at level 70 now, and have never gone out of my way to grind anything, but rather play the way I'm interested in. I got to ~44 with stealth/sword-and-board, becoming a man-god in the process; then I switched to full-on melee heavy armour and two-handed. There was an increase in challenge as I started building those skills up, but it was welcome at that point. Then when I'd 100'ed all my combat skills, I switched to magic at around level 65. I'm a little low on the defense side (Stoneflesh + back to light armour, but I don't get full-set bonuses since I'm wearing the Aetherial Crown to boost XP (Lady Stone + Mage Stone)), but Conjure Sword with my 1H abilities keeps me in the fight (with Fast Healing in the left hand), mostly. It's nice to have new challenges!

The only skills I'm not using are Destruction (much) or Illusion (at all), so maybe I'll have to tour Skyrim, gratuitously casting Rally in every city, once I've raised everything else to 80s/90s.

Demosthenes wrote:

I'm curious what people use for their Magicka/Health/Stamina choices for levels. By the time I hit 80, I'll be at 300, 400, 400 (What? I like to sprint and carry more stuff and slow down time with my zoom! :D). What's everyone else doing for choosing those stats?

I deliberately went 0:2:1 (ideal melee ratio) until I had 400 health, 320 stamina (I also like to run forever, carry lots (thief!), and zoom), now everything is going to magic to fuel the leveling (currently 280).

ahrezmendi wrote:

I just make liberal use of the Feather spell from the base game, and otherwise I drop things I can't carry.

Wait, there's a Feather spell in the base game? I've never found it, just Fortify Carry Weight potions.

misplacedbravado wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

I just make liberal use of the Feather spell from the base game, and otherwise I drop things I can't carry.

Wait, there's a Feather spell in the base game? I've never found it, just Fortify Carry Weight potions.

Oh, maybe it's being added by one of my mods, possibly SkyRe. I lose track sometimes.

absurddoctor wrote:

When handing items to followers, they have encumbrance. I've never ordered them to take items from a chest before though.

Yeah, this is only applicable when ordering them to use chests or pick up items off the ground like Stengah mentioned.

ahrezmendi wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

I just make liberal use of the Feather spell from the base game, and otherwise I drop things I can't carry.

Wait, there's a Feather spell in the base game? I've never found it, just Fortify Carry Weight potions.

Oh, maybe it's being added by one of my mods, possibly SkyRe. I lose track sometimes.

absurddoctor wrote:

When handing items to followers, they have encumbrance. I've never ordered them to take items from a chest before though.

Yeah, this is only applicable when ordering them to use chests or pick up items off the ground like Stengah mentioned.

Feather is not in the base game, it has to be added using a mod.

Must be SkyRe then, I'm pretty sure that's the only mod I'm using which adds new spells. I wanted to try Midas Magic, but it's still too young and I think it would break the game.

ahrezmendi wrote:
absurddoctor wrote:

When handing items to followers, they have encumbrance. I've never ordered them to take items from a chest before though.

Yeah, this is only applicable when ordering them to use chests or pick up items off the ground like Stengah mentioned.

This qualifies as one of those things I wish I had learned long ago. Thanks guys!

For my PC brethren, with the Skyrim community Uncapper you can continue to level skills past 100 to continue levelling without the grind.

Prozac wrote:

For my PC brethren, with the Skyrim community Uncapper you can continue to level skills past 100 to continue levelling without the grind.

O_O that... would be nice.

Prozac wrote:

For my PC brethren, with the Skyrim community Uncapper you can continue to level skills past 100 to continue levelling without the grind.

Incidentally, it's also a requirement for SkyRe, so if you're going to use one you might as well use both.

Conjure Seeker is my new favourite spell. Who needs boring old atronachs and zombies when you can summon up your very own Lovecraftian tentacle-beast?

Really hoping someone at Sony has pressed the big red button on the servers during my drive home!

Downloaded, but not played too much (basically got to Raven Rock and went into a mine... not even done there yet).

I am very much freaked out by Flying Spaghetti Monster's realm. It's weird and I kind of hate it... but in a good way. It's intriguing and interesting, but the whole place puts me on edge.

Spoiler:

The buildings made of books were a nice touch, as well as all of the baddies dropping books as their loot. Found quite a few I didn't know existed so far.

Is Illusion the easiest skill to level? This Nord on the street says yes. From 19 to 70, just walking around casting Muffle while doing all the other things I had to do.

Gravey wrote:

Is Illusion the easiest skill to level? This Nord on the street says yes. From 19 to 70, just walking around casting Muffle while doing all the other things I had to do.

Alteration's really easy too, just hang out somewhere with a lot of NPCs and cast Detect Life.

muttonchop wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Is Illusion the easiest skill to level? This Nord on the street says yes. From 19 to 70, just walking around casting Muffle while doing all the other things I had to do.

Alteration's really easy too, just hang out somewhere with a lot of NPCs and cast Detect Life.

Riften's market and Whiterun near the Bannered Mare both during the day are good for the Detect Life method. I leveled both at once by finding a caged wolf outside of a dungeon just north of Shor's Stone (north of Riften) and casting Muffle and Stoneskin over and over again with my enchanted gear to make them both free.

Conjuration is also pretty easy with Soul Trap on your horse over and over. That only took about 30 minutes for me to max out.

muttonchop wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Is Illusion the easiest skill to level? This Nord on the street says yes. From 19 to 70, just walking around casting Muffle while doing all the other things I had to do.

Alteration's really easy too, just hang out somewhere with a lot of NPCs and cast Detect Life.

Or transmute a crapload of iron ore --> silver ore --> gold ore, then make jewellery.

BlackSabre wrote:
muttonchop wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Is Illusion the easiest skill to level? This Nord on the street says yes. From 19 to 70, just walking around casting Muffle while doing all the other things I had to do.

Alteration's really easy too, just hang out somewhere with a lot of NPCs and cast Detect Life.

Or transmute a crapload of iron ore --> silver ore --> gold ore, then make jewellery.

I'm giving it to Illusion as the easiest, since Muffle has no conditions: cast it anywhere around anyone or no one.

Congratulations, Illusion, you are the winner.

Still strikes me as weird that Alteration only levels things like the armor spells if you cast them in active combat. I would cast Stoneskin before going into battle so I'm protected going into a battle after giving myself a few seconds to regain the mana. Preparation? Not rewarded? What?

You'll gain the skill increase as soon as combat starts. I've frequently cast Stoneskin, attacked some dudes, then got a skill level up as soon as they see me. Same goes for conjuring minions or bound weapons. As long as enemies see you before the spell wears off, you'll get the boost in skill progress.