I predict that I will spend my Thanksgiving weekend putting 70 hours into Skyward Sword, just as I have done with Twilight Princess back in 2006. It will be the best 70 hours in the history of gaming. Although, I did for the longest time expect this Zelda to be sort of crappy, especially compared to Twilight Princess, which I thought was nearly perfect. I don't know why I was thinking it would suck, I guess I just wasn't all that impressed with early gameplay videos. Also, anybody else notice in Skyrim that just about everyone begging for help on the road ends up trying to murder you? Now I usually just kill everyone I see when there are no other witnesses around.
I'm at level ten right now. I've only been attacked three times along the road, but I try to avoid going too far at night. One time I even helped the person (Cicero) and got some decent coinage for it. I can't kill a dragon for the life of me, except the very first one where I had five NPCs helping. Maybe I need to start building up my spell casting and archery a bit.
I dunno if it's just the character type I'm going for (Battle Mage) or what, but I am having a hell of a time with combat in Skyrim. I'll fight a group of bandits in which 3 out of the 4 of them go down with one dual cast fireball. Then the last guy will have a great sword, my fireballs seem to only take about 10% of his health down at a time, and he rapes me once he gets close even though I'm in heavy armor. Being 16 hours in, I feel like I've made a terrible choice. I'm hoping that once I get further into my skills and spend perks in Enchanting and heavy armor that I will be beastly.
I'm somewhat convinced that being something like a battlemage is the wrong way to go in a game like this. I've gone complete mage; robes, spells, all my attribute bonuses going into magic and I'm owning a vast majority of the bad guys. Everything that will boost my abilities with magic, I'll put my effort into. I can take down dragons on my own with just my fireball spell. It irks me a little though, I figured dragons would be the hardest creature - or one of the hardest - but there are definitely much harder ones out there. Giants, for example, waste me; mind you, I have yet to run across any copper or white dragons as of yet.
I'm thinking I probably should have done pure mage, but I've already sunk some perk points into heavy armor and smithing, so I guess I will stick with it. I'm just hoping that heavy armor with the right enchantments will be worth it. I also need to start using my ward spells more often and get that perk that increases my fire spell damage.
Start disenchanting the fuck out of everything you find that is magical and get your enchanting skills up. Then you can enchant yourself some badass armor; finding enchanted items is pretty easy in this game, so, it shouldn't be terribly difficult overall. I think there's also some bonus's to having light armor as a mage but I haven't found evidence of that yet.
I agree, the hybrid classes seem to be extremely weak. I went pure warrior with heavy armor and two-handed weapons. I'm playing on default difficulty and have only died once. Dragons aren't that hard with my class; they seem to go down in two or three hits after I got the unique warhammer from the Cursed Tribe quest. I suggest sticking with either a pure warrior, pure mage, or pure stealth.
Yeah, it seems that if you streamline your character, it's almost easier. Which comes down to game-class balancing issues really. That said, the way I play the game is a lot more different than someone who plays warrior classes. I'm also going to up the difficulty on my game once I get home.
I've already put about 4 points into heavy armor/smithing going towards a battle mage, but I'm strongly considering giving up on that and going pure mage with mainly conjuring and destruction, with resto and alteration as a backup. Ugh, not sure what to do, thankfully I've spent most of my points in destruction/resto/enchanting.
Penny Arcade already on top of the dragon vs giants deal: I tried making my orc warrior tank-like, building up smithing, blocking and heavy armor. Using a 1H weapon, I can't come anywhere near killing a dragon, and 2 breaths of frost/fire/whatever each one decides to spit out at me, does me in. I feel like armor is not highly regarded in this game so far. Trying to get some resistance enchants on my armor, but slow going so far. Think I need to do some side quests and rack up some cash and XP. Spoiler Turning into a werewolf is pretty fun however. EDIT: Anyone do any mining yet? It seems like ore is nowhere near as plentiful as herbs, which bothers me.
Is that what that fucking thing is on the 7000 steps up to the greybeards? A giant? Jesus, I barely put a dent in it. I tried a couple of times, but eventually just ran right by it.
Believe you're thinking of a white frost troll. Use fire spells and enchantments against trolls. I ran from that particular one however.
They toned down the level scaling system from Oblivion, but I'm pretty sure it's still in the game. That means if you level up a lot of non-combat skills, you get dead much faster. I'm playing a hybrid and it's pretty effective. Dual fireballs at range and when things get close, switch to a mace and healing. Level 20 and it's working pretty well so far.
I gave up on the whole battlemage thing, the lack of mana and mana regen from not wearing robes just seemed to be too crippling. Now I'm going for a pure magic build with a focus on destruction/conjuration/alteration. Hopefully this will work better.
I played skyrim all day yesterday and completed maybe 5% of the main quest. It's setup where you just wander and find one landmark or dungeon to clear, then you walk a bit further and find another. At one point I ended on top of a mountain battling a dragon next to one of those shrines that give you shout words. I always go with a faster in these types of games, so this time I decided to go with the straightforward two handed, heavy armor character and bash skulls in with my warhammer. I have to say though, it can be very daunting trying to choose where to spend your perk points. Obviously I'm putting points into heavy armor and two handed weapons, but I also dumped a dew into restoration to keep myself healed so I can handle dragons more easily. Other than that, i have no clue where to spend my points. I guess I'm just worried ill waste points somewhere and get fucked over by it. By the way, do you guys tend to stick to first or third person when you play? I find it much easier playing in third person. This game is so much like darkfall its scary, similar gameplay, skill leveling and themes.
If you're going with a heavy armor wearing warrior type, I would definitely suggest putting perks into smithing so you can create and improve all the really good heavy armors. You also may try enchanting as well so you can enchant the armor you create. Playing a mage type, I use first person for combat so that I can aim my spells better, but I do a lot of exploring or walking around town in third person.
I'm going as a stealthy thief, and while my archery is badass and makes dragons easier, I'm definitely having the same issue you guys are where some guys are easy to kill while others completely jack me. I thought I'd messed up too. Good to know I'm not the only one who can't handle a frost troll.
They simplified most of it. They're actually way better than they were before. Just look at them and think about what you had before. Think about your champion and what you really try to do. They're right when they say the previous mastery system wasted a ton of points. No reason Mordekaiser who isn't a support champion, should have 21 points in utility. Plus they look cooler, we're in the year 2011 dammit.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is good enough that I took a sick day today. I can't stop myself from keeping on, not for sleep for my job...