Restoration leveling without just standing there healing yourself—actual tips?

[TamrielTactician]

Wait, that one's already done. Let me try again.

TITLE: Why does Paralysis feel like cheating but nobody ever talks about it?
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So I'm on my third playthrough and I just realized I can basically trivialize any melee fight by slapping paralysis on a dagger and letting enemies fall over. It's in Alteration, super easy to get early, scales with basically nothing, and it just... works. Forever.

Compare that to, say, Fury spells where enemies kill each other and you feel clever, or even just a good old fashioned stagger perk build. Paralysis just feels like I'm not even playing the game anymore. But every guide I read treats it like a normal spell option instead of "this breaks encounters."

Are people just not using it, or is there some unspoken rule where you don't touch it? Because on my current run I'm actively avoiding it and the game feels way more engaging, but I'm also wondering if I'm just handicapping myself for no reason.

 

[WhiterunModder]

Paralysis is definitely strong, but I think the reason it doesn't get talked about as much as, say, Fury or Mayhem spells is that it's less fun to use. You're right that it trivializes fights, but it does it in a boring way - enemies just drop and you wait for the effect to wear off. With Fury you're actually watching the chaos unfold. With a stagger build you're managing positioning and pacing. Paralysis is just... press button, enemy stops existing for ten seconds.

That said, I wouldn't call it "cheating" exactly. It's a vanilla spell with a real cost - Alteration leveling is slow as hell if you're not already investing in it, and you need decent Magicka to cast it repeatedly. On Legendary difficulty or with mods that buff enemy stats, it's less of a "win button" and more of a "okay, I have one tool that works here." But yeah, if you're playing on Normal or Adept and you go full paralysis dagger build, you've basically opted out of the combat system.

Honestly the fact that you're actively avoiding it and finding the game more engaging says everything. That's not handicapping yourself - that's just playing the way you want. Some people use it, some people don't. There's no unspoken rule, just different preferences. If you're having more fun without it, stick with it.