Improving Skyrim / Recommended Mods thread (Mostly about Requiem)

[Mexi]

Funny - I'm not able to clear Mother Moss Cavern yet because there is no room to dodge the spriggan and the hunter bugged out for me, just repeating "hello" when I talk to him.

Also, do NOT travel at night! I was hunting the ghost stag and two gargoyle-vampires attacked me. Luckily I was mounted - since stag hunt - but they still killed me twice before I managed to escape.

Tip for fighting werewolves: go balls to the walls offensive on them as they regenerate. I guess it's the same with trolls. Killing that werewolf dude for Hircine was impossible as long as I just summoned pets to fight him and burned him here and there. Finally I decided to go all brawn and zero brains about it and burned my 300 mana away with firesparks on him while hacking him with Nettlebane. Dude fell over and died. Imagine my surprise. So kiting is not a viable strategy against anything that regenerates - which probably means trolls, werewolves and vampires at least.

Not only that, I aggro the spriggan, and then run. They attack Uthgerd or the hunter, and then I go in and hit them with torch and mace. You have to be quick, though, or else your partner dies fast.

The second to the last spriggan by the pond/waterfall is fucking sick. That bitch was hard as nails to kill. I think it might be the boss. Took literally several reloads, 2 stamina potions, and Uthgerd with a remarkable healing potion.

Yeah, I faced my first vampire at night. I threw 4 fucking fire balls at them from my staff, and they still wouldn't go down. What level do you have to be to fucking kill those bastards. I went into Biting Fang cavern (I think that's the name), and I ran into a fucking vampire decked out in full ebony armor. He rofl-stomped me fast. I wasn't expecting to find such a beast in there. I couldn't put 1 dent in the motherfucker. I'm scared to even think about doing Dawnguard.

I quit Skyrim pretty fast; therefore, I've never seen a gargoyle before. I can't imagine fighting those fucking things in Requiem. They look scary on the loading screens.

 

[Mexi]

Got to Level 40, I might start Dawnguard soon.

Pickpocket - Overpowered due to gear boosts and ridiculous access to good stuff by early-mid game. It also provides me with near infinite supply of arrows and potions when I empty guards pockets. At rank 75 I can disarm weapons off sleeping targets at 100% chance.
Lockpicking - goes up so quick, the only trouble is hitting minimum perk to start unlocking, this issue is solved by having Thieves Guild glove and eventually Adept locks will yield with no perk when Nightingale Glove is equipped. It becomes a free level-up as you pick every lock you see. Once I gained the Skeleton Key, the game only allows Expert lock despite the in-game lore supporting that this is the key that Mercer abused to open any door. Skytweaked it to allow Master lock and I'm done.
Stealth - Aside from getting better at sneaking, getting to 50 is a personal preference, I kinda like not triggering traps anymore hence it's not a bad investment.
Alchemy - with pickpocket, allows stealth kills in cities. Plant a poison and watch the guy drop dead. Dragons? Decay poison tipped bolt. Stamina potion is invaluable for free runs and occasional sprint.
Speechcraft - mostly useless aside from first point to get 20% sell rate. Add thieves hood for 30% and you're done. I got it to rank 60 after selling more than 50k worth of loot I think.
Conjuration at rank 75 is ridiculously good. Two summon limit, and Teleport Vital is instant kill on most humanoids, literally rip the heart out of the guy and add it to my inventory. LOL.
Marksmanship - too good to miss. People argue that Destruction can do just fine, but I like having non-magicka attack options while Stamina is covered nicely with gear and potions.
Restoration - Mostly useless. I regret taking it. But there's a decent rank 25 perk to maintain Magicka regen even while running, thereby freeing the equipment slot off Adept Hoods, Magicka ring etc. I went with Necromancer Amulet for 200 Magicka and a generic Ring of Restoration that grants 200% Magicka Regeneration rate.
Evasion - seems useless for defensive purposes, the only reason to take this is to counteract casting cost if you are a mage. I took it to 50 just for that perk.

Well, that sucks. I just put a perk in restoration for my build. Either way, I always like playing pure clerics in BG even if they do suck. I like the roleplaying aspect. Stealth does seem very overkill. My guy in heavy armor does some serious damage from stealth positions with the crossbow. I can't imagine someone focusing purely on stealth how much damage they do; although, some targets are immune. At some mine, I fought a bandit with full dwarven armor. I hit him with my crossbow in stealth and didn't do 1 damage to the fuck. My crossbow skills suck, though. It mainly one-shots or takes away half-health bandits with little to no armor.

I think I read that that alchemy and conjuring are seriously overpowered. Ehh... I like a challenge, though.

 

[RK47]

Alchemy is easily the best way to kill heavily armored targets if magic is not an option. Poison them from range. This works on dragon as well. Decay poisons are best saved for those.

Restoration is not bad when you want to destroy undead, otherwise it's not really useful.

Smithing is too good yes, I deliberately avoided it cause there's nothing I really want to use off crafted loot when I gained access to Nightingale Set. Sure, I can improve magical items...AFTER I got to high levels of Smithing. Alchemy's usage is more immediate. I still make time to craft Stamina pots to facilitate sustained sprints.

And with Conjuration teleport, Weight Limits become a non issue when I'm 'done' with a dungeon. I loot all, and teleport back to the fully stocked Thieves Guild in Riften where the fence, the three smithing vendors and one alchemist is ready to liquidate all of the loot.

 

[Jasede]

My Thieve's Guild isn't upgrading. I heard when I do side jobs it upgrades but I haven't noticed, even after 5 side jobs. Do I need to be a higher rank first? I have only done up to the Meadery quest.

 

[RK47]

My Thieve's Guild isn't upgrading. I heard when I do side jobs it upgrades but I haven't noticed, even after 5 side jobs. Do I need to be a higher rank first? I have only done up to the Meadery quest.

It only upgrades when Delvin gives you a special request quest. I finished 5x fishing side jobs. I switched after he gave me an assignment. I believe Tonila will have one as well to let Khajitt buy stolen goods.

 

[Jasede]

How do I trigger special requests? Every 5 side jobs, or advancement in the main line?

 

[RK47]

How do I trigger special requests? Every 5 side jobs, or advancement in the main line?

It's possibly tied to recovering the Skeleton Key.
I'm not sure, I only noticed the special requests coming in after I got it.
But of course since it gives so much advantage, I refused to return it.

 

[Drax]

You fucks tempted me into playing this cool game piece of shit again, also to try out the new requiem update.
I'm trying out a vague S&B Paladin but instead of focusing on restoration and all that crap, I went conjuration.
I'm about level 10ish and the progression so far is pretty good, you still got your run away screaming like a little girl moments and your take that, bitch moments.
On the more technical side, requiem's integration with other mods has certainly advanced since my last game. I have a shitload of mods installed and I have yet to find any bug or glitch (other than those inherent to skyrim)

 

[GarfunkeL]

Alchemy is easily the best way to kill heavily armored targets if magic is not an option. Poison them from range. This works on dragon as well. Decay poisons are best saved for those.

They have to be pretty damn strong. I've used the "mild" ones, that cause 20-60 points of damage without killing my target. I just make them now for skillups and then sell them. I'm already carrying too many potions with all the magicka, spellpower, spellflux, -shield and so on that I need. Especially since I've put all my levelups to Magicka and thus have carry weight still at 100.

Restoration is fucking awesome especially when you get Sunfire. I came across Meridian's orb and since the fucker weights 10, I had to clear the quest immediately and not lose 10% of my carry weight for too long. The temple, absolutely packed with ghosts, was a cakewalk - one sunfire to the face, one ghost returned to Oblivion. The necromancer himself was a pretty damn tough fight though, his drain life spell took me from hundred to zero in under five seconds.

Got the tree sap for Danica in Whiterun too - the spriggans don't attack you until you got it, at which point you can jump in the stream and go through the waterfalls to get to the entrance and run out.

Conjuration is powerful but not an "I-win" button. The zombies you raise don't often go through doors, so I usually don't have a meatshield at the beginning of a cave or a dungeon. If I get lucky, I can raise a heavy armour wearing two-hander wielder who wreaks utter havoc. If I'm unlucky, I raise a clothie with a dagger who can't cast spells and gets put down in one hit.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Requiem question: aren't trolls supposed to not regenerate for a short time after being set on fire? I use flame spells in bursts until I'm out of mana and their health bar never even budges. Then any random faggot with a stick walks by and kills it in two hits. "Trolls", indeed.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I don't know if that's supposed to happen or not but it's not really happening. Your destruction needs to be around 25 at least to do any meaningful damage to them.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Yeah, it's around 23 at the moment. Didn't know I had to scale to their level. Thought the fire flat stopped their regeneration and I could just kite them for 5 minutes, nibbling their health one hp at a time.
Playing a Destruction mage was already a grind - now I'm not sure if I have the patience to suck this much for 10 more hours. May as well go back to kicking ass and chewing bubblegum with my two-handed heavy-armor tank that laughs at the same enemies while being the same level.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Quoting myself from last page:

Tip for fighting werewolves: go balls to the walls offensive on them as they regenerate. I guess it's the same with trolls. Killing that werewolf dude for Hircine was impossible as long as I just summoned pets to fight him and burned him here and there. Finally I decided to go all brawn and zero brains about it and burned my 300 mana away with firesparks on him while hacking him with Nettlebane. Dude fell over and died. Imagine my surprise. So kiting is not a viable strategy against anything that regenerates - which probably means trolls, werewolves and vampires at least.

I tried kiting trolls with firesparks and it just wouldn't work - you don't deal enough damage to offset their regeneration and even if you do, as soon as you need to regain magicka, they regen life back. But I'm now able to kill a troll in one go - put a Fire Rune, have troll run over it and then throw 3-4 flame arrows at its face as rapidly as possible. That was as soon as I hit Destruction 25 and got those spells - I went to that little cave just east of Whiterun, under the Ritual Stone, and cleared it. Then I cleared the big troll cave next to the waterfall just east of the Valtheim towers.

I'm trying to find a good replacer for the Savior's Hide that works with UNP Blessed. Quick search at Nexus turned up nothing - there's only CBBE and vanilla body support and the one mod pack that supports UNP has an extremely ridiculous bikini version which I don't want to use. I want to use that armour to get 100% poison resistance since I'm sick of those fucking spriggans ruining my day with their poison ray.

 

[RK47]

Second campaign dragon, Saloknir posed some challenge for me.
The decay potions helped, as well as Conjuring Storm Atronarch, but there's one caveat - it has a Dragonshout that kills you over time. And no, even Surpassing Healing Potion can barely help. It damages everything, Magicka, Stamina and Health.
The only cure? Potion of Vitality.
Keep a few about to clear the shout when afflicted and save a shout for the Whirlwind Sprint to dodge any oncoming attacks. The invulnerable shout did came to mind as well.
Six Storm Atronachs later, the dragon is grounded and it just waits to be killed by regular bolt to the face.
And no, I don't think a melee warrior can survive that atrocious shout unless they have 100% Magicka Resistance.
Now I'm seriously considering a massive investment on Alchemy for more powerful Decay potions to quicken these dragons' death.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

I tried kiting trolls with firesparks and it just wouldn't work - you don't deal enough damage to offset their regeneration

Ah, so fire isn't supposed to stop regeneration - it simply does extra damage to them? Alright then. I thought I was caught in a glitch or something.
Too bad, though - I liked the idea of critters having specific strengths and weaknesses - added a certain depth. Pure numbers game is just lazy design and meh.

 

[RK47]

Ah, so fire isn't supposed to stop regeneration - it simply does extra damage to them? Alright then. I thought I was caught in a glitch or something.
Too bad, though - I liked the idea of critters having specific strengths and weaknesses - added a certain depth. Pure numbers game is just lazy design and meh.

The only way to trigger such a thing is with Skill 75 perk that sets enemy on fire and triggers a 'Fear' effect.
Cremation (75, Pyromancy I perk) -
Your Adept, Expert and Master fire spells burn so ferociously that foes are set ablaze, often causing them to run away in gruesome agony as their very skin becomes molten.
Extremely powerful Fear effect on Adept+ spells that checks for this perk; varies with spell and improves alongside damage.

 

[Mexi]

So... part of the build I saw on Reddit recommends alteration. Anyone use alteration? As I said, I quit this game pretty quickly. The last quest I did before quitting was the Nettlebane one. I didn't even get that much perks in restoration prior to quitting. Vanilla Skyrim is a shit game, and Duel doesn't do much to help the situation out.

I'm just wondering if alteration is even worth it. I might just focus on restoration and my base combat stats if that's the case.

Update: I had to restart because for some reason something was fucking with my game. I went to buy a horse and it only cost 1,000 gold. That wasn't right, so I went to the Nexus for help. The guy couldn't do much other than tell me to look up the TESVedit. Well, it didn't help at all as everything wasn't in conflict. I had a huge mod list, and I cut-down on several mods. Restarted and ran it again and now everything works great. Only issue is that my imperial started with ~120 base carrying weight. Is that right? I thought everyone started with 100 carry weight, but I noticed that imperials have extra stamina perk. Maybe that perk raises the starting carrying capacity?

 

[Jasede]

I encountered a big problem. I did the Mace of Molag Bal quest and now my 40 One-Handed cat man werewolf is an unstoppable killing machine. Oh, sure, he still dies in 1 hit to anything dangerous - a dragon attack, a falmer arrow - but it still feels weird going from barely scratching people in armor to knocking dudes out in one overhead swing.

 

[Mexi]

I encountered a big problem. I did the Mace of Molag Bal quest and now my 40 One-Handed cat man werewolf is an unstoppable killing machine. Oh, sure, he still dies in 1 hit to anything dangerous - a dragon attack, a falmer arrow - but it still feels weird going from barely scratching people in armor to knocking dudes out in one overhead swing.

I read those Deadric relics are severely powerful. Supposedly, it's supposed to be that way, though.

 

[Drax]

Yeah, they are supposed to be OP by definition.
The problem is that, in a good howard fashion, you can get all of them by mid-game.
That is, you can win the favor of many of the most powerful beings in the wheelverse and wield their chosen godly weapon while being not more than a fairly decent adventurer...

Edit: Haven't advanced that far in my Requiem playthrough so I don't know if it makes it more sensible.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Theeere we go. Destruction 25, took Fire/Ice runes, and I can suddenly clear bandit camps without a scratch. Archer problem is eliminated entirely: just wait for them to run out of ammo, and they whip out their iron daggers and come running, ignoring the pile of bodies of their heavily armored fellows. Much AI, very wow.

Which is both a satisfaction from taking revenge and a disappointment due to lack of natural progression.
<25 = 2+ wolves mean "OMG, I'm gonna die!"
>25 = steamrolling.
...is not a good design. Either early spells need a serious buff or runes are OP.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Nah, they drain your mana fairly quickly (but you can pop potions), you can only have 1 rune at a time and there are still opponents that will crush you. Bandits are the first type of enemy that you "steamroll". Go clear Fort Amol, packed as it is with mages.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

there are still opponents that will crush you

I'm definitely avoiding sabrekitties and bears like a total wuss, that's for sure, but anything slower than my bathrobed dude is still vulnerable to the "lost line of sight = runs into a rune" tactic. Already got a hood that lets me regen mana normally when running, as well.

Go clear Fort Amol, packed as it is with mages.

Hold my beer, I'm going in.

 

[RK47]

So... part of the build I saw on Reddit recommends alteration. Anyone use alteration?

Aside from the passive resistances to magic perk and spell absorption to improve survival chance vs mages, Alteration's spell repertoire isn't that great overall.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The Mage Armour doesn't give sufficient protection at early game to save you in melee and you have to keep casting it every 3-4 minutes. Spell Ward is useless because you cannot cast offensive spells while it's on and it's not instant cast. It might compliment a light armour user at higher Alteration skill level, when you can add around 100 armour rating to what you're wearing.

I figured out the exact trigger for the first dragon event. You CAN clear the Riverwood barrows so you can return the Golden Claw and get the dragonstone - but you cannot even enter the Whiterun hall after that because the next event triggers as soon as you enter, regardless whether you talk to the court wizard or not. Meaning that the dragon will attack the watch tower and so on. While you can still avoid the tower fight, it makes movement around Whiterun tricky, so best to just avoid Dragonsreach (sp?) until you're comfortable with progressing the main quest.

I'm thinking that I'll probably do most of the other major quests first before setting on that one. In Saarthaal right now at level 26. The draugr here are pretty strong, they take 5-6 Sunfires to put down but at least I have enough Magicka to both soultrap and then kill one before needing to drink a manapot.