Official Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim thread!

[TinCow]

What perks/skills are people going for?

I've been playing mainly one-armed/shield so far, although I am unsure whether to go for axes, maces or swords (or all 3). I've tended to use axes so far as the damage stat is higher but have no idea how well that's balanced with weapon speed (swords are fastest; maces slowest but with mid-level damage) and with the perks (bleed for axes, AP for maces and crit for swords).

Looking at the perk trees, the ones that grab me are the quality of life/utility ones from archery (zoom, slow time); heavy armour (weightless armour) and sneaking (muffle armor, running has less effect on stealth) as I use all those skills a lot. Having block stop arrows and reduce magic damage also sounds good for me.

Anyone got any tips on magic? I've tended to avoid it so far except for healing after combat.

Also how do you get started on enchanting? I used to know this for Morrowind/Oblivion, but now I find myself staring at these soul gems I keep looting and don't know where to begin.

I've always avoided magic in ES games, so I chose to go as a mage in this one just for a change of pace. I'm a Breton mage, and have dumped almost all my level up points into magicka. I've found it to be very viable, when played properly. My main issue at the moment is deciding whether to be a robe-mage or a light armor mage. The robes provide massive bonuses to mana regeneration and decreased spell cost, and I can sling spells almost constantly while wearing a robe, with potions only required for large groups. However, robes also make me very fragile. As such, I'm trying to work my way towards being a light armor mage. I'm currently sporting full Dark Brotherhood gear, which is very nice for protection and combat. I use a bow as a secondary weapon, since I'm squishy due to low HPs, so even when out of mana I like to remain at a distance.

The main difference I find with being a light armor mage versus a robe mage is in prolonged magical combat. In light armor, mana regeneration is sufficiently slow to make it difficult to use magic after my initial pool is depleted. So, I tend to wade in with the big damage spells, then switch to bow to finish the battle. If it goes long enough to regenerate, I switch back to magic. However, I continue to carry around my robes and I put them on if I encounter a situation where I feel like I need to have a lot more magic at my disposal. What I am working towards, though, is a custom set of enchanted light armor with mana regeneration buffs. A set like that will serve both purposes without needing to swap back and forth.

As far as damage goes, magic is superb. I haven't bothered much with conjuration, alteration, or illusion. I'm generally just destruction and restoration. For a destruction mage, the perk tree is really very important. The 1/2 cost perks, the double casting perk, the staggering perk, and the increased damage perks are all essential IMHO. In fact, the only perk on the tree I'm not interested in is the increased range on rune spells. Double casting with staggering is itself very powerful. Everything you hit is staggered, and that gives you enough time to get off another spell. Provided I can maintain my mana, I can essentially disable and kill any single target with repetitive double casts. They simply don't recover long enough from the stagger to start moving again before I hit them with the next blast, which staggers them again. Dealing with crowds can be a bit more difficult, but that's only because I'm just barely getting to a high enough level for the crowd control spells to become affordable, mana-wise, in combat.

The damage spells themselves are also convenient for tactical decisions. I do not specialize in any single one and instead use all three, and have spent points in perks for all three. Fire is pure damage and I use it as my standard. Lightning is essentially the anti-mage spell tree, as it hurts mana as well as health. Hurl several double blast lightning bolts at an enemy mage and they won't be tossing much back at you. Cold is for crowd control situations, as the slow effect allows you to better handle multiple enemies coming from multiple directions.

I do drink a fair number of potions, but alchemy is always a no-brainer skill for me in ES games. I harvest everything I come across anyway and restore health and restore mana potions are extremely easy to make and common to find in Skyrim. I've never had much of an issue with running short on them, particularly restore health.

I will say that unless you're going to really fill out the destruction perk tree, I would not bother trying to use much in the way of magic for damage purposes. Without those perks, destruction does not seem to be very cost effective on the damage scale. If you're a warrior looking for some magic on the side, I would instead recommend using conjuration, alteration, or illusion to assist you. Something that you can cast at the beginning of a battle as a buff and then forget about. Destruction is really reserved just for dedicated mages with large mana pools.