Game too easy? Try a character with no smithing or enchanting!

[Oren74]

So I started with Nord Warrior...sword and shield. Had a blast, but than I started leveling up crafting and enchanting...and it got WAY too easy.

Started over with a thief in light armor. Didn't powerlevel crafting, but, even with decent crafted/enchatning equipment, it got WAY too easy.

I've recently started over a third time. And I know there is a hardcore playstyle here somewhere...but, I really don't want to interrupt my game play to find a place to sleep or run all over the map everytime I want to go somewhere.

So, I started a battle-mage. Atl/Conj/Rej/1-Hand/Heavy & Speech. RP'ing it that my character does not craft or enchant. So I just used equipment from quests or vendors.

I'm having a blast. Encounters are just right....if I play lazy and just run in hack n slash...I'll die. Dragons are tough, finding a new item in a treasure chest adds a level of excitement. Plus, no hoarding ingredients, having a crafting set of gear...means more time to adventure, less time pounding out daggers and leather bracers.

I strongly recommend this playstyle, with any class, to increase the difficulty without significantly changing the way you like to play the game.

 

[mikenmar]

I'm an archer with high sneak. I never bother enchanting or smithing, or even using magic for the most part. It's still pretty easy; there are very few situations that you can't handle with a bow, especially when your victims never see you.

 

[Couthful]

Agreed 100%. Also no Alchemy!

 

[Skullrattla]

I find smithing, trading, enchanting, all of that crafting stuff utterly tedious, and likewise for obtaining materials, that you have to find, mine, then smelt, then whatever. It's complicated, boring, i never have the materials so i rarely bother. If it was all in one station I'd be more interested perhaps.

As a result, I 'm finding the game VERY challenging on Adept difficulty and prefer it this way. At this rate it will probably take me another 2 months to finish most of the quests, which is fine by me!

 

[Kayson]

I do play normal way with Enchanting and Blacksmithing and Everything, But i'll have to give that play style a go When i can

 

[morguen87]

I do this as well. I don't like grinding, and having the best armor and weapons in the game would make me bored quickly. Haha, call me old fashioned, but it's much more satisfying to upgrade by killing an enemy who's better armed and armored than you and take his stuff. If I had the best things already there wouldn't be any fun in that and it'd make dungeons a lot more boring...half the fun of exploring a dungeon for me is looking for anything that will upgrade my character.

It's kind of funny that everyone who complains about the game being too easy has grinded their smithing and/or enchanting skill to 100. You'd think most people would be able to see the correlation there....haha guess they're good at mindless grinding but not at connecting dots...

It is a shame though that not grinding skills that essentially break the balance of the game is apparently considered an alternative play style - hence this thread.

 

[Eva]

Agreed 100%. Also no Alchemy!

^ This!

I just made a new character last night (Beyonce the Redguard- don't judge me) and she's going to specialize in heavy armor/2h weapons/1h weapons and I'm not sure what else yet (she's only level 4), but I'm avoiding Alchemy, Enchanting, and Blacksmithing. I set it on Master Difficulty and I feel like it's set just right for what I'm trying to do- I'm having tons of fun.

 

[Gemini Sierra]

It's kind of funny that everyone who complains about the game being too easy has grinded their smithing and/or enchanting skill to 100. You'd think most people would be able to see the correlation there....haha guess they're good at mindless grinding but not at connecting dots...

It is a shame though that not grinding skills that essentially break the balance of the game is apparently considered an alternative play style - hence this thread.

I've never understood why people do this grinding. Just naturally doing most of the skills is the way I go about things. It's funny, in smithing, the only thing I work towards, and usually by just making a piece of jewelry or some leather armor is so that I can get to the perk of Arcane Blacksmith which allows you to upgrade magical armor. After that, I wait until I find the armor I like and upgrade it, which increases smithing too.

I think people are to used to the MMO's that require you to do a bazillion things so that you can level up and so in a game like this they do the same thing and then "break" it for themselves because they can just walk through and do what ever they want.

 

[Oren74]

I've never understood why people do this grinding. Just naturally doing most of the skills is the way I go about things. It's funny, in smithing, the only thing I work towards, and usually by just making a piece of jewelry or some leather armor is so that I can get to the perk of Arcane Blacksmith which allows you to upgrade magical armor. After that, I wait until I find the armor I like and upgrade it, which increases smithing too.

I think people are to used to the MMO's that require you to do a bazillion things so that you can level up and so in a game like this they do the same thing and then "break" it for themselves because they can just walk through and do what ever they want.

I dunno, my 2nd character casually did smithing and enchanting...and I still ended up with equipment that was far superior than anything I could find in the game.

Like Morguen said, a big part of the fun of these types of games is getting a quest reward...or finding an item, that is a significant upgrade to a current item. Now, you just get the materials, and build the best stuff. No fun...

 

[Couthful]

I think people are to used to the MMO's that require you to do a bazillion things so that you can level up and so in a game like this they do the same thing and then "break" it for themselves because they can just walk through and do what ever they want.

QFT

I dunno, my 2nd character casually did smithing and enchanting...and I still ended up with equipment that was far superior than anything I could find in the game.

Like Morguen said, a big part of the fun of these types of games is getting a quest reward...or finding an item, that is a significant upgrade to a current item. Now, you just get the materials, and build the best stuff. No fun...

The natural items found in game are so weak compared to crafted items, even the artifacts. There are hardly any items with 2 enchants and the ones which come with a single enchant still don't come close to a decently leveled Enchanter until you are way up there high in level.

 

[Straumgald]

I might try this when I make my Paladin character. I am currently on my 3rd character with trade skills. My thief only has two points in smithing though, just enough to upgrade magical weapons and armor. Even with Nightingale Armor I am at the armor cap (over 800 actually) and Blades swords are at 225 damage each. I got regular Scimitars off some Redguards and they upgrade to 225 damage. All my smithing gear was off vendors or dropped in game too.

 

[Icy Seeker]

Yeah When you Grind to get Deadric your really just grinding to enjoy the game less. Although some people like to feel as powerful as a god so I have an account for that.

 

[Straumgald]

Yeah When you Grind to get Deadric your really just grinding to enjoy the game less. Although some people like to feel as powerful as a god so I have an account for that.

Daedric armor is secondary to the overpoweredness. I run normally upgraded dwarven armor and hit the armor cap. The lower armor cap is what kills it. If it wasn't for enemy spell slingers I would never die. I still get 2 shot by high level mages/necros on master. Ancient dragons also one shot me with fire.

 

[Durn]

I run a pure melee character on master. Cloth, mage armor, and bound battle axe. No archery. No tradeskills.

 

[Xiomn]

Does game difficulty affect how easy you're detected? i swear i'm getting detected more easily on master than i was on my other stealth character on adept difficulty. Seems like i can be a really long range away from the enemy undetected than i shoot them with a bow and they instantly detect me from miles away like they somehow have night vision and automatically know where the arrow came from -_-

 

[conchvegas]

I'm having a blast. Encounters are just right....if I play lazy and just run in hack n slash...I'll die.

I agree with you for the most part, I'm not really enchanting any of my weapons, just using enchanted weapons as I come across them, and I'm not really leveling in smithing at all either. However don't diss hack n slash. Sometimes it's the only way to go. You can't use stealth/archery all the time. Sometimes up close and personal is where it's at.

 

[Anonylulz]

I didn't make armor until like level 38-42 and just enchanted my gear in the 60's. It's really not necessary at lower levels or difficulties and from what I gather most people who do it end up one-shotting eveything and stop playing. That's sad.

 

[Couthful]

I didn't make armor until like level 38-42 and just enchanted my gear in the 60's. It's really not necessary at lower levels or difficulties and from what I gather most people who do it end up one-shotting eveything and stop playing. That's sad.

True this. In my experience there is no need for them at all even in the 70s on Master. When this is the case kind of makes me wonder why the option is even there in the first place, its not like the game will scale to be harder if you're enchanted.

I guess its there for those who want to be "god like" but thats just boring to me hehe!

 

[Gurgeh]

First post. First character ... almost to 45. Sword and shield to start, switched to bow/sneak, now trying to work magic into it. Lately I've been liking dual-wielding conjured swords and raising corpses of corpse raisers while giving my follower only a corpse-raising staff.

Brought smithing up to the improve-magic stage, and will probably bring enchanting up to max. Enchanting and selling daggers is a great way to make cash, and I want to buy all of the houses.

Not sure what the fuss is all about in this thread, and the judgmental tone. What makes the game so cool is the variety of ways through it.

It's a single-player game -- worrying about how others are playing it is weird.

 

[Oren74]

First post. First character ... almost to 45. Sword and shield to start, switched to bow/sneak, now trying to work magic into it. Lately I've been liking dual-wielding conjured swords and raising corpses of corpse raisers while giving my follower only a corpse-raising staff.

Brought smithing up to the improve-magic stage, and will probably bring enchanting up to max. Enchanting and selling daggers is a great way to make cash, and I want to buy all of the houses.

Not sure what the fuss is all about in this thread, and the judgmental tone. What makes the game so cool is the variety of ways through it.

It's a single-player game -- worrying about how others are playing it is weird.

It's a message board my friend. No worrying, just talking. To each their own, re-read the thread title even. Glad you're enjoying the game!