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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 19, 2011 18:52:27 GMT -5
Guys.... guys Guys. Listen Guys i have the best tac guys listen i have the best tactic ever guys I'll dual cast guys DUAL CAST guys listen here I'll use Dual cast, and stagger EVERYTHING
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 20, 2011 21:27:47 GMT -5
As a Khajiit, I spend a hell of a lot of time in the crouch position, sneaking up on Imperial guards as they transport prisoners from wherever they caught them to wherever they're going. If they're well out in the wilderness, you can rank up two to three levels of Sneak by the time they've gotten where they're going.
I'm only on about lv 15, and the sneak rank is about 51 so far. Between that, Lockpick, Pickpocket, Restoration and Illusion, I've been ranking up at a rate of around 1 level for every 45 minutes to an hour of gameplay, which, for me, is roughly twice as fast as the first ten levels.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 20, 2011 23:39:44 GMT -5
average games have exploits good games have little exploits epic games encourage exploits YAY FOR SKYRIM!
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 21, 2011 0:14:38 GMT -5
I ran into a couple of Mudcrabs the other day. They're actually pretty cool guys. That fellow looks unusually like my Restoration skill trainer. Our workout: Apply Apprentice or magic skill-specific robes i.e. Alteration, Restoration etc. Allow trainer to nip you two to three times. Start restoration Repeat, or mix well with Oakflesh Level up in 10 minutes
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 21, 2011 19:56:00 GMT -5
i like to jump around in the smithing forges and set myself on fire, but your trainer sounds a lot more fun and interactive also, i have a few mage questions 1) When using dual cast, just HOW MUCH better is the damage? And does the blast radius of fireballs increase? 2)Does sneaking also give double damage to magic attacks? 3)how does fire increase damage taking work?
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Den
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Post by Den on Dec 21, 2011 22:06:18 GMT -5
1. It takes 2.8x Magicka to do 2.2x damage with Dual Cast. Despite taking a loss in power consumption, it has its uses.
Dual Casting is excellent if not mandatory for Illusion since it boosts the level of the spell effect. Dual Casting is somewhat useful for Conjuration and Alteration since most of their magic is based on duration or active effects. Dual Casting sucks for Destruction unless you are using Impact. You're better off slinging one handed spells if going for efficient output. Don't use Dual Casting for Restoration.
2. Magic has no Sneak attack bonus.
3. When caught on fire, targets will take an extra few points of damage per second for however many seconds they are on fire. It varies between which fire spell you use.
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 21, 2011 22:37:16 GMT -5
Jumping around in the forges can help, but I wouldn't know if doing that would provide you with a light armor or heavy armor benefit. When you take damage from the mudcrab, it'll provide a benefit in terms of the armor skills if you're wearing any armor that's either light or heavy. Early on, I'd suggest using both types so that the skill level increases on both - at least, until such time as you get to the levels where there's a tangible benefit for using all one type of armor.
Also, when you're up against a relatively weak enemy, if you find more than one of them at a time, you can use destruction spells on one, kill it, then use conjuration to reanimate the corpse and it'll level you up more efficiently with your conjuration skills.
I'm only just starting to use the alchemy lab, and it's fairly slow going, but the skill levels increase at a better rate than my illusion spells.
I'm struggling to level up my lockpick skills any further - usually I intentionally break the lockpick so that the skill level increases that way.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 21, 2011 23:56:03 GMT -5
oh damn thanks den now i know why my fireball kamehameha's are so costly also, i only have 120 hp and only wear magic robes is that bad? would it be better to start wearing enchanted light armors/increase health? I can get insta killed by giant frostbite spiders jumping on me, so i'm basically dead unless i have a healthly amount of MP. I'm not sure if i'm playing mage the right way, seems like im all offense and no defense
*Most of my buddies claim mages are for sissies. I laugh while i dual cast impact and nothing can touch me
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Den
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Post by Den on Dec 22, 2011 5:44:10 GMT -5
A proper mage should be using all five schools of magic.
Illusion for Crowd Control. Fear, Fury and Calm to scatter the enemies. Courage to boost allies' abilities. Going invisible to avoid a fan collision.
Alteration for Defense. Armor Flesh to gain an armor rating to its absolute maximum (with a Dual Cast Ebony Flesh while wearing no physical armor and having Mage Armor 3 Perk).
Conjuration for Interference and Backup. Dem Atronachs, man. Dem Atronachs.
Restoration for obvious reasons. Also for healing others. Also wrecking Undead. Also a lot of Restoration Perks are great.
Destruction for poking at enemies. A barrage of Hadouken and Kamehameha aren't going to match the damage output of a good sword, but a mage isn't meant to be a raw damage dealer. He has versatility. Runes and Firewalls are neato.
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mannon
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Post by mannon on Dec 22, 2011 18:32:04 GMT -5
I didn't know so many bros were even into TES. It's one of my all time fav franchises, though I'm perpetually at least one game behind the times. I only recently got Oblivion. ;3 Not in a hurry to get Skyrim either since my PC can barely handle Oblivion. I'll get there eventually.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 22, 2011 19:56:43 GMT -5
Skyrim is my first TES game, and the first bethesda game i've played for more than an hour
Instantly fell in love with skyrim's freedoms, where previously i had never heard of TES except for occasional youtube poop videos of oblivion This video is partially why i even decided to check out skyrim
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 23, 2011 11:40:03 GMT -5
There's so many guides and videos on youtube about the most effective way to boost gold, and consequently learning particular skills through training with said gold.
What I've found is that the Alteration spell Transmute is possibly the most beneficial spell. With one use, it turns iron ore into silver, and then using it twice will turn silver ore into gold ore.
Between the abundance of iron ore, the gemstones you randomly get from mining, and pickpocketing amethyst and garnets, you've basically got a license to print money in-game.
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Den
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Post by Den on Dec 23, 2011 12:15:16 GMT -5
Step 1: Chop Wood Step 2: Chop More Wood Step 3. Chop Lots More Wood Step 4: Chop Even More Wood Step 5: Chop a Whole Lotta More Wood Step 6: Chop Wood Like It's Going Out Of Style Step 7: Make Sure Every Word Is Capitalized And Chop Wood Step 8: Become The Leading Cause For Deforestation By Chopping Wood Step 8: HONEST GOLD FOR HONEST WORK Step 9: Notice There Are Two Step 8s
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niteshadex
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Post by niteshadex on Dec 23, 2011 14:42:54 GMT -5
Sounds like Fables 2-3 Jobs...
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kalar
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Post by kalar on Dec 24, 2011 2:11:08 GMT -5
A proper mage should be using all five schools of magic. Illusion for Crowd Control. Fear, Fury and Calm to scatter the enemies. Courage to boost allies' abilities. Going invisible to avoid a fan collision. Alteration for Defense. Armor Flesh to gain an armor rating to its absolute maximum (with a Dual Cast Ebony Flesh while wearing no physical armor and having Mage Armor 3 Perk). Conjuration for Interference and Backup. Dem Atronachs, man. Dem Atronachs. Restoration for obvious reasons. Also for healing others. Also wrecking Undead. Also a lot of Restoration Perks are great. Destruction for poking at enemies. A barrage of Hadouken and Kamehameha aren't going to match the damage output of a good sword, but a mage isn't meant to be a raw damage dealer. He has versatility. Runes and Firewalls are neato. Ehem. Illusion is absolute garbage. The effects do not scale up to high enough levels to make it a worthwhile investment of perks. Alteration. You ain't wearin' no dress? You ain't no mage! Get Mage Armor 3/3 and wave goodbye to the Smithing and Heavy Armor trees. 300 Armor is plenty. Conjuration. This is where it's at, Dem Atronachs indeed. *cough* Dem Dead Thralls. *cough*Restoration. 2/2 Recovery, 1/1 Regeneration, and hey look! The rest of the tree is complete crap. Right. Destruction. Wait, I can't alternate vulnerability spells any more and then one-shot any Foxtrotting thing in the game any more? Well, hell, I can stun any Foxtrotting thing in the game indefinitely now. Good 'nuff.
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 24, 2011 6:08:36 GMT -5
There's a few guides online of how to increase pickpocketing - personally, I don't like many of them at all.
The best way I've found is simply to go around pickpocketing gold, or high value yet high percentage chance to steal items. Usually rings, garnets, amethyst and similar.
Went from rank 21 pickpocket to the low 40s in about five in-game days.
Edit: actually went to Light Fingers 2/5 and the rate of successful pickpockets was unbelievable. One in-game day in Whiterun went from 43 to 60.
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mannon
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Post by mannon on Dec 24, 2011 7:36:14 GMT -5
I'm assuming you used save games to avoid getting arrested for failures. ;3 Though... doesn't everybody do that in TES games?
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 24, 2011 7:56:33 GMT -5
No, I just pay the bounty - between 25 and 75 gold is nothing when you're swiping about 1500 gold worth of stuff, four times a day.
And at a rate of 90% success with things even up to and including 800 gold, it's a small price to pay - literally.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 24, 2011 13:33:45 GMT -5
i tried to pick pocket money off the redguard guy who captures that redguard chick who hangs at the whiterun bar he was very angry at me and started to kill me, i un fortunately had to kill him too and steal his stuff and since he died, that paralyzed redguard lady went mobile again, but this time she was hostile. I had to kill her too, but atleast i got decent jewelry :3
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Den
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Post by Den on Dec 24, 2011 14:59:21 GMT -5
Illusion...absolute garbage. The effects do not scale. Alteration. 300 Armor is plenty. Conjuration. Dem Dead Thralls. Restoration. The rest of the tree is complete crap. Destruction. Wait, I can't instakill everything like I could in Morrowind and Oblivion! The Expert Level Fear/Fury/Calm spells with the Level boosting Perks will successfully affect everything that doesn't have an inherit resistance (Dragons and some bosses). Anything is rendered non-threatening or will fight in your favor with a single spell. No enemy scales up past Level 50, Illusion magic scales up to 62. Illusion is the BEST school of magic. Dual Casting EbonyFlesh with Mage Armor 3 gives the mage 567+ Armor, the maximum possible damage reduction that only a full suit of Daedric or Dragon armor can reach at 100-ish Smithing and Heavy Armor 5/5. A single Skill at Level 70 requiring Six Perk Points doing what two Skills at Level 100, a minimum of Ten Perk Points and the highest levels of armor are needed to do. Also, Magelight. (Summon a Storm Atronach and a Dremora Lord) Dremora Lord: A CHALLENGER IS NEAR (Thirty seconds, one Dragon Priest and twelve+ Draugr later) Dremora Lord: NO MATCH AT ALL Respite, Recovery, Regeneration, Ward Absorb. The only mostly useless Perk is Avoid Death. Armor will only go as far as lessening damage, Wards will also almost completely nullify magic damage. With both Armor Flesh and a Ward, a mage is almost completely immune to all damage. The 100 Weakness to Fire for 1 Second + 100 Fire Damage touch spell we mages used in ages past ain't gonna fly no more. Of course, that's what Alchemy is for. Put some Juniper and Bleeding Crown together, (or maybe some Longfin, Crown and Ice Wraith Teeth). Hit a guy with that poison and then light a guy on fire. Amplify that easy bake oven in your hand into a crematorium.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 26, 2011 12:12:17 GMT -5
I just started caring about alteration for my mage, and i've spent all my saved up perk points in the alteration tree (only lvl 31, but i have the perk that gives me 2x armor rating IF im not wearing armor). Problem is that my morokei mask counts as armor and negates my double armor rating. I miss my super fast magic regen, are there any replacements around? My enchanting is lvl 72 but i'm not going to use my grand soul gems just yet an any circet. I miss having 200% magic regen D:
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Den
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Post by Den on Dec 26, 2011 15:16:40 GMT -5
A hood with Fortify Magicka to increase your maximum magicka. Since regeneration is based on a percentage of your total magicka, having more also helps with regeneration.
There's always Equilibrium. Siphon your own health with one hand and heal yourself with the other. Max out both in a matter of seconds.
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kalar
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Post by kalar on Dec 29, 2011 0:48:59 GMT -5
^ All fair points and I won't argue with Brotius Maximus ^ Illusion is still boring, let's kill stuff instead. But the hood concern calls into question the best "Mage" skill; Enchanting. Two enchants on a hood at max level should blow away anything you'd get from a mask.
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Post by randomguy987 on Dec 29, 2011 18:28:37 GMT -5
I gave Den's tips regarding the Illusion school a try . . . and wow, it really is easymode . . . .
If enemy sees you first: 1. Cast calm. 2. Walk behind complacent enemy and crouch/sneak. 3. Backstab for massive damage + chunk o' xp for the sneak skill.
If you see enemies first: 1. Crouch/sneak. 2. Cast fury (silently) on one of the enemies. 3. Enjoy the ensuing chaos.
To make it even sillier, you can level Illusion insanely fast simply by casting courage on every NPC you see when walking through town.
TL;DR: Illusion is nearly as silly as 100% weakness to magic spell-chains or 100% constant chameleon effect enchanted outfits.
Aside: Has anyone tried that "slow time" perk for bows? Once you get 2/2 points in it, you turn into a walking zirrGrizz montage.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 29, 2011 18:42:25 GMT -5
i used to be an archer then i made a mage account But yes, slow time is wonderfully amusing for sniping
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 29, 2011 19:23:02 GMT -5
I started [yet another] game as a Breton, focusing mostly on Conjuration, Illusion and Alteration.
It's genuinely stupid how many times I should have died by cave bear, snow bear, giant and so on, but survived due to buffed Magicka, faster Magicka regeneration and, most importantly, spamming Atronachs.
Even though I've unlocked the Frost, personally I still enjoy the Flame when it comes to Dragons, bears, sabre cats and the like.
The only thing that seriously gave me a whoopin' was the Falmer Gloomlurker in Shimmermist Cave and his pal, Dwemer Centurion. Boy, did they put a hurtin' on me.
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Post by saddaminsane on Dec 29, 2011 20:00:19 GMT -5
ceturions you say?
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tacit
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Post by tacit on Dec 29, 2011 20:10:20 GMT -5
My Destruction skill is pretty meh, and I was maybe level 18 at the time.
Going to go back shortly and give it what-for.
Edit: went back as level 27, 2 Frost Atronachs, some Lightning Bolts and a number of Firebolts, and both the Falmer Gloomlurker and Dwemer Centurion went down like a sack of...
Was unusually easy considering the grief I got last time.
Also, Detect Life is my new favourite Soul Gem filler-finder. Seriously, aside from Draugr and Skeletons, it's a long-range Heartbeat Sensor at all times of the day and night.
I mentioned earlier how pointless the use of Sneak perks were - boy, is that wrong. Between the 3x bonus for bow sneak attacks and the 15x dagger sneaks, the Khajiit is a beast.
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Post by aidsaidsaids on Dec 31, 2011 21:08:55 GMT -5
I've been playing a Breton battlemage and I'm continually amazed at how silly Impact is. No level requirements, no immunities (that I have found). Bosses, Ancient Dragons, Dragon Priests, everything. If you can manage to land one Thunderbolt (or whatever slightly less stylish spell you prefer) you win. One perk made the difference between almost turning down the difficulty (I play on master) and soloing dragons without taking damage.
It also interacts beautifully with Conjuration. There's not much in the game that can survive 2+ minions wailing on them while stunlocked for long.
Also, from a "flavor" perspective I love how the crafting skills in this game were implemented. Instead of there being basically a half dozen choices for good endgame gear, anything you want can be good (with Arcane Smithing). Hitting the armor cap with badass Imperial Armor is way manlier than the same Daedric suit that every Dremora in Obvlivion is wearing.
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Post by saddaminsane on Jan 1, 2012 0:46:08 GMT -5
yup, only thing impact doesn't completely destroy is other mages that use ward then you use runes/fire wall, or just sneak and then stun lock
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