I don't get it. Is the complaint that there is an ingame difficulty setting that is too difficult? Isn't that the purpose? If there were no difficulty setting that is too difficult, then the entire game would be too easy right? I am confused that the OP is complaining that the most difficult setting is too difficult for him.

I'll just ignore that because you can't read.

:facepalm:
Well it's called Master for a reason!
Ever thought that you are not a master maybe?
There are several difficulties to choose from, so if one doesn't fit you, find one which does.
Your argument is totally invalid and this thread is total waste of forum space.
Also, you can level up to ~80 levels from what I've heard, so there is still a chance for poor little you to catch up to Master difficulty.

I believe he can read.

"Master difficulty is too hard" < What you've said.
"Turn it down" < What everyone else has said.

Learn common sense, please.

You're just repeating what everyone else said.

Maybe I should write it with caps on. IT'S NOT TOO DIFFICULT IF YOU EXPLOIT SOME OF THE OVERPOWERED EQUIPMENT, SPELLS AND SKILLS. OVERPOWERED = UNBALANCED.

edit: AND LOWER YOU SCREEN RESOLUTION IF YOU CAN'T READ IT.

You can't read either, so why bother?

Its just not a good difficulty system.
You cant make the normal Speedbump enemys harder without making the ocassional appearing "Iam on steroids and 20X as strong as my buddies, fear the wrath of my Iron Dagger and unpenetrable Fur Underpants" dude harder as well.

Finally someone who have some sense! Well, I know it's hard to make such difficulty system, but it would help if they would throw at me higher level opponents with some of the best equipment so it would actually feel like I was killed by really powerfull enemy, not 34 lvl bandit with lame bow. If he's gonna kill me that easily then at least he should use very powerfull weapons and stuff.

EDIT: But with current system I can't imagine what kind of damage would enemies with actually better weapons do if the ones with iron and steel swords can two hit kill me.

I think what OP meant is that the leap in terms of damage output/resistance of mobs just seems off when compared with Expert or Adept, and I can respect that. At first, it bugged me too. I started on Adept, played about a week on it, then a bit of Expert and then tried Master. I mean, I expected a logic progression of difficulty, and the leap from Expert to Master just seemed silly at times.

But that's it right there OP: I don't think the highest level of difficulty was designed for balance, that's why I wouldn't use the word "broken" to describe it. In the end I think most games, at their hardest, abandon balance and logic to just offer an extreme challenge for players who get their kicks that way.

In other words, I think 'balance' takes on a different meaning, where a 'balanced game' on Master level would mean ramdom "unrealistic" one-shot kills from regular mobs for the sake of keeping the pace, the challenge and - maybe - the fun of playing like that.

Skyrim isn't a very difficult game, nor is it very skilled based.


Bring the right gear, the right companions, the right potions and the right trinkets and Master difficulty becomes the same as Adept.


Exploit AI stupidity even, and nothing can touch you.



It's all about the story/atmosphere, the combat mechanics are merely a bonus :>

That is one solution, it would work for me but id prefer more enemys at once, the min level slightly increased and the X20 dudes toned down to X5 or so.
A mixture of both would be even better though.

Stating the obvious:
If it's so hard you can't play the style you wish then turn the difficulty down.

Yes the game is unbalanced. Examples: thieves 1 shotting everything from stealth including dragons, bosses, bears (oh my!), dual weilding 1h 1 shotting just by running up to someone and holding down the L / R triggers, or finally -100% Destruction cost and spamming dual cast .

Unfortunately ES will never be balanced nor will the deficiancies EVER be fixed. They make tweek things here and there but seriously after 5 years of work there much more worried about spending their hard earned money and getting some well deserved RnR. Is this right? No. Would it really take that much effort to tweak it to some level of sanity? Yes. Will it happen definately not. Look at any large company, Blizzard for example, they make money by catering to people who enjoy being OP and in general taking as long as they can to get anything done and even then mess it up.

I for one don't play master. Problem solved.

yes... it's really much more realistic to die so quick....


but than the enemy should die in a few hits too to make it realistic or what?

Unless I'm mistaken I thought higher difficulties gave percentage increases on damage/hp etc... to monsters and NPC's and/or gave percentage decreases on the PC.

I do think it is wierd that a NPC 20 levels below you would 2 shot you. Would make much more sense if they were nearer your level.

I guess Master difficulty also assumes you would use tactics like sneaking etc....

Sounds line it's working as it should be then.
Hardest difficulty should be unreasonable hard to play.
The game should be balanced so that most people would play on medium difficulty. Most people should get their asses kicked on the hardest difficulty.
Otherwise they might as well just go with [ Normal ] -- [ Easy ] -- [ Very Easy ] -- [ Ages 2-4 ]

The fact that so many people say its too difficult and so many people say its too hard probably means its very close to nailing the difficulty level

Now there're some more mature comments. I know guys, i know it's like that in most games, just put some insane stats to enemy skills etc. It's just the thing it pisses me off when I get hit by some regular bows by low level enemies and die very fast. I don't get mad when troll kills me in two sec, because i know he's very powerfull and it was my fault if I let him to get close to me.

EDIT: Aside from that and some bugs and a little disapointed guild quests, the game is a lot of fun and sure one of the best out there.

Then try to master the master difficulty by not getting hit, ie. you need to employ some kind of tactics/different playstyle if you want to master the master difficulty. Or else what would be the point of having a master difficulty, if it was just the same as lower difficulties, it just takes a little longer for you to kill the enemies?

Its not cheap tactics...its freakin just tactics.

So you can't blindly charge in a faceroll a couple forsworn. I guess you need to perk up heavy armor and wear full deadric.

Because you can't handle master you fly to the forums to booohoo? Better put those training wheels back on.

So we have people complaining master is too hard and people complaining it is too easy......Right bethesda heres what you need to do. You need to create 1,000,000 different difficulty levels. I mean you should have spent all of your development time on creating these - why didnt you??

I personally would have been really happy to have a million difficulty levels and just Whitrun to play the difficulty levels in. The story could go: Escape dragon at start, enter Whiterun, kill Dragon (but don't make it fly cause it might go backwards), end. No opportunity to smith, enchant or get alchemy ingredients - Job done game isn't broken.....might be a little pants. But at least not broken.

At least then I wouldn't have to read thousands of posts about how X,Y and Z is broken. Get a grip people. I saw a backwards flying dragon today.....pretty funny stuff, but i'm off to make a thread about how that's broken (cause you know, that actually is)

Dosent really sound like that, no
Hardest difficulty is still easy most of the time if you dont put various other restrictions on yourself. Like no Smithing, Enchanting, not killing enemys while they cant reach you etc.
If you do that normal enemys become more interesting (still not hard though), but you will get killed by generic enemys that occasional pop up and are for what ever reason 20X as strong as their compadres.
So basically the difficulty suddenly rises and then decreases again by some hundred percent, no matter on which difficulty setting you actually are.

I dont agree with the OP, because the game on Master difficulty is too easy for me. Every tough guy dies after 2-3 swings of my steel sword with 130 damage and every other guy just with one power swing. And I havent even reached the 50 level. I dream of being killed by two arrows but, unfortunately, all of them get blocked away by my shield :verymad:

But I agree with this:


In conclusion - bethesda, make Master difficulty harder!

Depending on what you have in mind when thinking of cheap tactics. For me, it's kinda silly if enemy pass me while I'm crouching like one feet away from them and they can't see me.

Good for you, seems like you're playing as warrior class. I'm playing thief/assassin and kinda don't see how could heavy armor fit to my character.