11-21-2011, 03:33 PM
I picked up Skyrim last week and I've been having fun with it so far. I enjoy that it's pretty open-ended though it is rough for a completionist, like me, who can get bogged down doing all of the same stuff with every character. I've been splitting my time in Skyrim between a mage character and a two-handed weapon melee character.
Initially, the mage felt godly, mowing down the hordes in dungeons with impunity. However, as time continued, her power began to wane. When she hit about level 10, I found that her spells just weren't cutting it anymore. I think it really drove the point home when I ended up in a fight with a mage boss that was flinging fireballs at me from a distance when I could only engage at medium-to-short range with the entry-level fire and lightning spells. When I entered a dungeon and was having to save and re-play every fight several times in order to make things work I finally got frustrated and switched over to the melee character. In the process, I noted that my hireling was actually doing more damage than the mage, could take hits better than the mage, and was generally out-classing her in every aspect!
The melee approach seems significantly more effective than my experience playing a mage. What used to be a difficult fight for the mage (that involved spamming the attack spell until I ran out of magicka and then running off to regenerate it) ends up being ended in two swings of the sword. Plus, when you've got two melee characters in the same area (including the hireling), both take hits which helps to keep them both alive.
So my overall take, so far, is the following:
- The world is huge with lots of fun things to discover!
- The different paths for character development don't seem to be particularly balanced.
- There seem to be some weird things in the game (Why can't my hireling ride on the horse with me?)
Initially, the mage felt godly, mowing down the hordes in dungeons with impunity. However, as time continued, her power began to wane. When she hit about level 10, I found that her spells just weren't cutting it anymore. I think it really drove the point home when I ended up in a fight with a mage boss that was flinging fireballs at me from a distance when I could only engage at medium-to-short range with the entry-level fire and lightning spells. When I entered a dungeon and was having to save and re-play every fight several times in order to make things work I finally got frustrated and switched over to the melee character. In the process, I noted that my hireling was actually doing more damage than the mage, could take hits better than the mage, and was generally out-classing her in every aspect!
The melee approach seems significantly more effective than my experience playing a mage. What used to be a difficult fight for the mage (that involved spamming the attack spell until I ran out of magicka and then running off to regenerate it) ends up being ended in two swings of the sword. Plus, when you've got two melee characters in the same area (including the hireling), both take hits which helps to keep them both alive.
So my overall take, so far, is the following:
- The world is huge with lots of fun things to discover!
- The different paths for character development don't seem to be particularly balanced.
- There seem to be some weird things in the game (Why can't my hireling ride on the horse with me?)
-TheDragoon