The Balance
Own Face.
Most of us have probably suffered from Skyrim burnout somewhere over the past few months since its release. Personally, I didn't touch the game for most of the past two months, but picked it up recently in order to explore the final frontier (of sorts): The Master difficulty setting.
I've played through the game a good amount (probably ~100 hours), and have multiple characters over level 30 that range from stealth assassins to front-line melee brawlers and pure mages, so I've got the game play pretty 'mastered' for lack of a better word. I know how to abuse the AI into wandering aimlessly as I tear it apart, and I can keep myself relatively safe from enemies by utilizing crowd control spells (illusion) and dodging techniques. At least, that's what I thought going into it.
Master isn't so much of a game as it is an exercise in endurance and patience. I couldn't tell you the last time I died playing Skyrim prior to raising the difficulty. Even when I started playing the game for the first time, it wasn't very often (save a wandering giant or poor placement in a room of enemies). During my master play through, I died more in the first thirty minutes than I did throughout all of my other campaigns. I went back, loaded up the save files, and checked.
It's with these lessons learned that I provide this very general list of ten things that every player, regardless of their character's specialties, needs to know when playing on the highest difficulty Skyrim has to offer.
1 - Melee is a dance of timing. If you misstep, you die. Blocks need to be spot on, and dodging blows either by sprinting past an enemy, or sidestepping them, need to be clean and crisp. As with every lesson you'll learn, painfully, while playing on the Master setting - practice makes perfect.
2 - Enemies will regularly execute you if you remain in melee range at low health - no blocking, no dodging, no amazing armor to protect you. If you stick around with less than 30% of your health remaining, you're asking to get killed. I estimate enemies probably have a 25% chance to do this every swing when your health is low. I've looked for exact numbers to no avail - if you have or can provide me with a source of that info, I'll gladly post it here.
3 - Your current level is the most important tool you possess. That sounds kind of odd, but enemies grow in power SIGNIFICANTLY every time your character advances a level. Keep this in mind when selecting worthless perks and crafting.
4 - Don't even CONSIDER crafting, or any thing else that raises any skill not directly combat-oriented until level 25. I'm sure I'll get a comment/death threat from someone who thinks that just because they can power level smithing and enchanting to 100 means they should do it. Yeah, you'll have cool and useful gear - but no skills or perks to use it with. As a result, your enemies (which will also get access to your new gear since you leveled up so much) will one shot you since you concentrated on crafting for 20 levels, and they concentrated on combat.
5 - Damage is king. The ability to kill enemies quickly (quickly is a very loose term on the master setting, as everything has tremendous amounts of health) greatly outweighs your ability to sit there and take an extra hit in melee, or an extra spell from a mage. Concentrate your first 15 or so levels exclusively on dealing damage, and/or maintaining your ability to do damage throughout a fight.
Like what you've read so far? Click Here to continue onto The Balance and continue reading the remaining five points!
I've played through the game a good amount (probably ~100 hours), and have multiple characters over level 30 that range from stealth assassins to front-line melee brawlers and pure mages, so I've got the game play pretty 'mastered' for lack of a better word. I know how to abuse the AI into wandering aimlessly as I tear it apart, and I can keep myself relatively safe from enemies by utilizing crowd control spells (illusion) and dodging techniques. At least, that's what I thought going into it.
Master isn't so much of a game as it is an exercise in endurance and patience. I couldn't tell you the last time I died playing Skyrim prior to raising the difficulty. Even when I started playing the game for the first time, it wasn't very often (save a wandering giant or poor placement in a room of enemies). During my master play through, I died more in the first thirty minutes than I did throughout all of my other campaigns. I went back, loaded up the save files, and checked.
I was dead as soon as the game registered this hit.
(For the record, I rushed through the intro and went straight to bleak falls barrow).It's with these lessons learned that I provide this very general list of ten things that every player, regardless of their character's specialties, needs to know when playing on the highest difficulty Skyrim has to offer.
1 - Melee is a dance of timing. If you misstep, you die. Blocks need to be spot on, and dodging blows either by sprinting past an enemy, or sidestepping them, need to be clean and crisp. As with every lesson you'll learn, painfully, while playing on the Master setting - practice makes perfect.
2 - Enemies will regularly execute you if you remain in melee range at low health - no blocking, no dodging, no amazing armor to protect you. If you stick around with less than 30% of your health remaining, you're asking to get killed. I estimate enemies probably have a 25% chance to do this every swing when your health is low. I've looked for exact numbers to no avail - if you have or can provide me with a source of that info, I'll gladly post it here.
3 - Your current level is the most important tool you possess. That sounds kind of odd, but enemies grow in power SIGNIFICANTLY every time your character advances a level. Keep this in mind when selecting worthless perks and crafting.
4 - Don't even CONSIDER crafting, or any thing else that raises any skill not directly combat-oriented until level 25. I'm sure I'll get a comment/death threat from someone who thinks that just because they can power level smithing and enchanting to 100 means they should do it. Yeah, you'll have cool and useful gear - but no skills or perks to use it with. As a result, your enemies (which will also get access to your new gear since you leveled up so much) will one shot you since you concentrated on crafting for 20 levels, and they concentrated on combat.
5 - Damage is king. The ability to kill enemies quickly (quickly is a very loose term on the master setting, as everything has tremendous amounts of health) greatly outweighs your ability to sit there and take an extra hit in melee, or an extra spell from a mage. Concentrate your first 15 or so levels exclusively on dealing damage, and/or maintaining your ability to do damage throughout a fight.
Like what you've read so far? Click Here to continue onto The Balance and continue reading the remaining five points!
