Played through on Master yet?

[MunchY]

Finally got around to starting a new character and seeing how I go on the main questline with the highest difficulty.
If you've done it share your tactics!

I'm doing it with mainly conjuration/destruction and it's actually pretty bloody challenging. I basically went straight into main quests and have only level'd/obtained items+gold through that. Trying to keep my only crafting skill as alchemy to avoid leveling up ridiculously through smithing like on my very first character.

So anyway, right now I just summon a fire atronach at all times, shoot fireballs as support and use a turn undead bow to try and scare some draugr off if it gets too crowded. I also autosave a LOT hahaha. I'm coming up on my first real dragon fight, the one at Kynesgrove I believe? and I'm guessing it may take me a couple of goes and a few potions >.<

Anyway, I'm bored. So share how you have, or plan on, going about smashing through the game on Master.

[Matty]

Actually I just started on master. Being very bored atm I decided to give it a run through with mods and turned up the difficulty. Honestly it just involves a lot of running away.

I'm cool with the whole "run away until you are strong enough to come back" thing, but it gets to a point where you HAVE to fight a bunch of enemies. The golden claw was a good example. I had to run away from the overlord only to have to go pretty much right back when I got to white run.

[Helelix]

I think I did that as a thief archer. Unlike Matty, I never actually ran away from any fights. If it was too difficult, I just retried it, over and over again until I worked out how to win. But as an archer, that's rather easy. Basically the strategy was, shoot an arrow-->run back-->repeat. The other strategy was to just find someplace that the AI couldn't reach me and pummel them with arrows from there. But even with strategy's like those there are still fights that actually prove really difficult and can take 30mins-1hr to win. For me this was due to lack of 'retreating' space, nothing to jump on or high level ranged opponents.

I remember 1 fight against a frost necromancer boss and a couple of spectral shades that probably took ~50 attempts. The shades would 2 shot me (in melee), and the necromancer would use a ridiculously OP frost spell which would slow me so much that i couldn't dodge the second one, which also happened to be the killing one. I couldn't kill the shades or necromancer with sneak archery attacks (even with poisons) so I ended up using a combination of my best buff potions, archery (to initiate the fight) and dual wielding poisoned swords while unleashing shouts with my companion tanking the shades as I continually staggered the necromancer after I Fus'Ro'Dah'ed him into a corner. I had a pretty good feeling when I eventually won.

Also Dragons are pretty easy, just hide behind a rock or tree when they flame you and pummel them with arrows.

[Matty]

Yeah, I found I died really quickly too. I ended up putting it on novice and pretended I was some sort of super mage

[Marius]

Game was pretty hard at start. But even on master difficulty got ridiculously easy near the end.

The main culprit is smithing. Crafted armors need to be toned down a notch I believe, as it's always better to put points into smithing than anything else. And you can't really ignore it, because then you miss out on an enjoyable part of the game (crafting matching armor sets that look good).

[MunchY]

@Helelix
I share your playing style. I'm persistent with a fight even if it takes me a ridiculous amount of time. The way I see it with the levelling system, there's (most of the time) some way I can win each battle. Whether it's smashing down a tonne of potions and using your companion as a meatshield or finding some sneaky spot to shoot arrows from.

@Marius
I rarely play in 3rd person so my appearance doesn't really bother me. Plus you can still look cool in an enchanted robe and hood. And what about those masks? They look better than any daedric armor imo. I just think smithing should take longer to level. I seem to make 5 daggers and gain a level, then I make 50 potions to gain 1 alchemy level . Na they're probably similar, smithing just seems so much easier.

Also Dragons are pretty easy, just hide behind a rock or tree when they flame you and pummel them with arrows.

Unfortunately my archery is more of a back up thing and not very good yet. I'll probably be better off with my destruction distant spells. Gonna give it a go now.

[Marius]

Alchemy levelling is dependent on the strength of the potion created. If you're taking 50 potions to level ,then you need to be making stronger potions.

Smithing doesn't seem to be effected by item strength, which is odd.

[Baskerville]

I started with Master but as many have said it still becomes real easy towards the end. I'd rather that instead of increasing hit points it would actually effect the A.I combat skills but meh.

I really rage hard sometimes when I run into mages with one shotting abilities lol.

[DarkMellie]

/casts raise dead


I've been playing on Expert and finding it a real challenge. The only reason I'm not doing Master is I don't fully understand how levels work... something along the lines of the higher my enchanting/smithing, the better the armour on foes I meet, and the higher my level the higher their level. Is it as simple as that? Also, is the entire world scaled to my level or are there some no-go areas (like in Fallout NV)?

Would I be too late to raise difficulty to Master? I'm level 19 (I think I have two level-ups pending) and am using archery/illusion with conjured bound swords for melee (although I avoid it where I can as I can't take a lot of damage).