A fairly new Skyrim owner here...

[WaysideMaze]

From what I hear a stealth and archery mix is broken to the point of insanity.

From what I hear everything is broken to the point of insanity.

I just ran around with an axe and shield in dragon armour smacking the shit out of everything in my way. I didn't even use any of the smithing/alchemy/enchanting glitches. I didn't see the need.

Been a while since I've been on it. May try it again sometime.

 

[Spectral Dragon]

Just about anything can be broken. I have a conjuration archer, but I'm using a mod which scales conjured weapon damage, so I don't know how viable that is on a console. It's fun on a pc (Once I killed a giant with 2 arrows! No, really! Or maybe it was a skeever...) but besides an Atronarch, I think sticking with regular bows and arrows is the best alternative. Light armor, and sneaky sneaky!

 

[Launcelot111]

Archery is essential for the sole reason that nothing else will consistently hit dragons. Summoned units have terrible aim, and dragons don't land very often while at full health.

I did the stealth archer route as well, with a conjuration twist. Conjuring bound bows and sneak attacking everyone is unstoppable once you have the skills down, and if you get caught, summon a frost atronach and run away or switch to a sword. The one hitch of this is that the bound bow makes a sound when summoned which will alert enemies, but there's a perk to fix that. And as been noted, things you craft/enchant are streets ahead of all the legendary artifacts you find (sadly). You don't need to grind those two stats all the way, as you can quickly get to 50 in each and craft solid weapons. Alchemy isn't essential. You'll be finding plenty of health/magic potions.

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

If you're going for an sneaky archer I suggest heading to Riften and joining the Thieves Guild ASAP, you get some great enchanted gear. Also I'd also suggest getting you're conjuration up as well, since Bound Bow is probably the best bow in the game and you get infinite deadric arrows a bonus. Tie that in with the criticals from stealth and you're golden.

 

[FreeCookies]

In skyrim, any build can be made to be broken. 'Pure' characters seem to be weaker than cross-class characters. Archery (or daggers) and stealth is completely OP, but the same can be said for 100 enchanting with master level destruction spells.

 

[thesilentman]

I had done a few runs which my main was, yes, stealth and archery along with a one handed weapon with magic (Destruction and Conjuration occasionally). Then there was that one time where I did a telekinesis and fists only run...

Anyway, I personally liked the hybrid of magic and weapons I used. I simply wandered around with an enchanted weapon and killed everything I saw. If you want a spells list I used, just reply.

But I personally think that the best part of Skyrim is the fact that any build is broken to the point of insanity and is functional, even a mage run. So experiment and see what works for you best.

 

[Nouw]

Stay away from bears because they will fuck you up. Dragons? Not so much.

 

[TheCommanders]

Don't be a mage. They made magic pathetic this time around. Why bother flinging ineffectual spells when you can craft and enchant a weapon to obliterate everything in your path? You'd figure, what with the pretty graphics tied to spells, that they'd've encouraged their use.

Yeah, this bugged the hell out of me. Fortunately, being on a PC means I can find a mod to fix that shit, so I did. Better Magic seems to work fine. Also, Midas Magic adds some fun spells.

 

[Neyon]

Tbh You really don't need tips, you'll be fine on your own with anything, including archery. That said, in my experience the hit detection on arrows is (or was when I played) very bad, especially with headshots. Very often (perhaps aove 90% of the time) arrows would pass straight through the head without hitting the target.

 

[Donnie Restad]

...in search of some tips. I "purchased" (Xbox 360 version, got the game for free via trade-in special at Gamestop) Skyrim a couple of days ago, and have been itching to jump right into it. I figured the game has been out long enough that the more hardcore-based players would have some general tips as to how to get started on a given character.

For some reason, I have the urge to make a character specializing in archery, as magic has never been my forte in these kinds of games and a straight-up melee class doesn't sound all that engaging. I figured a bow would be the only tool I need to get the job done.

Would the Escapist have some pointers for what I am considering my first venture into the Elder Scrolls universe?

First, you must realize something. You do not own Skyrim. Skyrim now owns you.

What I've found to be the best course of action is to pick a main form of combat and stick with it. Spreading your skill out over a bunch of different weapon types just makes you suck at everything.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

From what I hear a stealth and archery mix is broken to the point of insanity.

The trick is getting your skills built up to that point. It'll be a fun challenge. The great thing about Skyrim, at least in my experience, is that pretty much any path you choose can work. Some may be harder, granted, but it'll still work.

Bottom line, jump right in! You'll have a blast.

The trick with Stealth(at least for me) is avoiding the temptation to max it out before I even leave Helgen Keep..

Don't be a mage. They made magic pathetic this time around. Why bother flinging ineffectual spells when you can craft and enchant a weapon to obliterate everything in your path? You'd figure, what with the pretty graphics tied to spells, that they'd've encouraged their use.

Also, stay away from mammoths and giants.

Mages can be quite OP in Skyrim, based on my experience. I haven't played in a long while so I don't remember the name of the perk, but there's a perk that makes it so that when you dual cast spells, it automatically stuns an enemy. Not a single enemy is immune to this. Even dragons are susceptible(I don't know about Alduin, I never got to fight him in the first place). So just get four pieces of equipment with -25% mana cost on Destruction magic and bam, infinite mana with infinite stun. You get the first shot and it's game over for the enemy. It's quite humorous at times, but can definitely get boring.

The only thing I know about Archery is that if you get really high Conjuration and Conjure Bow, you can have some fun. Thaat's...about all I got. :x

 

[LetalisK]

Do the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild quests. They are really fun and you get some pretty awesome armor, and definetly combine stealth with your archery. Oh and if you ever played Oblivion don't worry the bows are 200x more effective than before .

Oh thank god. I love stealthing around with a good bow and a sword for back up. Playing through Oblivion now and it's quickly becoming gimp. Glad to hear I have something to look forward to in Skyrim.

 

[VaughanyT]

I've never really been a fan of magic in Skyrim, could be because I'm impatient, but I always go for hack n' slash method. However, the only advice I can give that might be useful is don't go with two handed swords. Using sword and shield together makes you much better in melee combat plus you can really limit the damage dealt out by ranged attacks.

Then again this guy is right on the money;

Literally just do whatever you find entertains you the most. That's what the game is about.. it's not about "best class builds".. though you could certainly make it about that and no one will stop you. But you'd be doing yourself a disservice, in my opinion.

 

[chuckey]

Whatever you do, don't let your companion die in the largest cave in the game, you will never find him/her again.....

 

[AT God]

If you liked Oblivion, Skryim is Oblivion with a larger world and a few more things to do. Don't believe all the hype saying that it is drastically different then Oblivion, the combat is still just attack/block and most of the game is spent wandering around a diverse but still samey landscape.

I haven't finished it because I got bored after I maxed out the only useful skills and now have nothing todo but side quests, however I did pick up a few tips that may help you, or could be the reason I lost interest in the game so take them with a grain of salt.

-Enchanting is very useful for about one use. Get the best weapon you can make, get enchanting as high as possible, then drink potions and enchant your item to have the best possible buff, I have a sword that does 35 damage per second for 12 seconds and also captures souls to allow for reacharges. Enchant armor also to help you lug more stuff around. You can also enchant armor to increase your ability to enchant armor later giving them a better enchantment to enchant with again until you hit some maximum percentage

-In the same vain, smithing can be done the same ways enchanting, use your smithing to upgrade your items to their best, drink potions to make the the best you can make them and then you wont use the skill again

-Don't spend all of your time doing every quest in one town before moving on to another one. I did this and after I spent 30 hours doing everything I could for one town, I picked a new one and realized everything I had done over leveled me and now the better larger towns were all pointless except for the more awesome houses. I think if you do quests from each town at the same time you wont feel this jarring effect. After doing everything in one town when I saw there were 6 more towns I didn't feel like playing anymore so avoid doing that.

-MOST IMPORTANT TIP: If you are planning on doing light armor, follow the perk tree as if you were pursuing heavy armor, the final type of armor, dragon armor, can only be unlocked if you followed the heavy armor tree even though it contains both heavy and light armor. Also the heavy armor weapons are better than the light armor weapons.

I wasn't a big fan of the game but it did consume lots of my time so I hope my tips can help, I'm not trying to dissuade you from forming your own opinion, I am pretty sure I played the game wrong because I found it boring

 

[KINGBeerZ]

Magic in Skyrim is actually fairly easy to get through the game with particularly when you get up to a high enough level with conjuration and can start summoning up storm artronachs like no ones business. I'm not sure why some people say that magic sucks in Skyrim when in my opinion it is one of the easiest ways to beat the game.

 

[Wayneguard]

...in search of some tips. I "purchased" (Xbox 360 version, got the game for free via trade-in special at Gamestop) Skyrim a couple of days ago, and have been itching to jump right into it. I figured the game has been out long enough that the more hardcore-based players would have some general tips as to how to get started on a given character.

For some reason, I have the urge to make a character specializing in archery, as magic has never been my forte in these kinds of games and a straight-up melee class doesn't sound all that engaging. I figured a bow would be the only tool I need to get the job done.

Would the Escapist have some pointers for what I am considering my first venture into the Elder Scrolls universe?

I'm playing my first archer in Skyrim right now. Archery + stealth is quite good. A couple tips though: Archery is counted as a Stealth skill even though its in the combat skill group so when you pick your sign from the Guardian stones, choose the thief if you want to have a bonus to your archery level rate (if you don't know what that means, the guardian stones are these three stones that you encounter after the intro dungeon. You basically get to choose whether your combat, magic or stealth skills level faster than the others). Also, since the latest patch, smithing takes fucking forever to level. You may not want to blow all your money on training but I've found it unbearable to level on its own since the patch.

 

[Mekado]

If you liked Oblivion, Skryim is Oblivion with a larger world and a few more things to do. Don't believe all the hype saying that it is drastically different then Oblivion, the combat is still just attack/block and most of the game is spent wandering around a diverse but still samey landscape.

I haven't finished it because I got bored after I maxed out the only useful skills and now have nothing todo but side quests, however I did pick up a few tips that may help you, or could be the reason I lost interest in the game so take them with a grain of salt.

-Enchanting is very useful for about one use. Get the best weapon you can make, get enchanting as high as possible, then drink potions and enchant your item to have the best possible buff, I have a sword that does 35 damage per second for 12 seconds and also captures souls to allow for reacharges. Enchant armor also to help you lug more stuff around. You can also enchant armor to increase your ability to enchant armor later giving them a better enchantment to enchant with again until you hit some maximum percentage

-In the same vain, smithing can be done the same ways enchanting, use your smithing to upgrade your items to their best, drink potions to make the the best you can make them and then you wont use the skill again

-Don't spend all of your time doing every quest in one town before moving on to another one. I did this and after I spent 30 hours doing everything I could for one town, I picked a new one and realized everything I had done over leveled me and now the better larger towns were all pointless except for the more awesome houses. I think if you do quests from each town at the same time you wont feel this jarring effect. After doing everything in one town when I saw there were 6 more towns I didn't feel like playing anymore so avoid doing that.

-MOST IMPORTANT TIP: If you are planning on doing light armor, follow the perk tree as if you were pursuing heavy armor, the final type of armor, dragon armor, can only be unlocked if you followed the heavy armor tree even though it contains both heavy and light armor. Also the heavy armor weapons are better than the light armor weapons.

I wasn't a big fan of the game but it did consume lots of my time so I hope my tips can help, I'm not trying to dissuade you from forming your own opinion, I am pretty sure I played the game wrong because I found it boring

Yeah, break the game as much you can and then go on wondering why this is so easy and boring....


What ?