Weapons wBound Weapon enchants and enchants in general

Post » Thu May 03, 2012 3:51 am

I can't see the point. I purchased the Demon Longbow, thinking it would be a good thing. The description says, Bound Bow "when used". I thought it would mean, that when you used the bow, it would summon a Bound Weapon for 60 sec. It does not. After getting frustrated, and using several arrows, I realized that you had to select the option in the magic menu. What's the point of that? For crying out loud...You might as well have a Bonemold Long Bow and summon the Bound Bow with a spell. Then at least you could enchant the Bonemold Long Bow with something else. What that would be...I don't know.

The same applies to the other weapons for sale. They are very expensive. IIRC the spell is only about 70 gold, or so, and the casting cost is only 6. That's a far cry from the thousands you pay at the weapon shop.With or without the cost, it doesn't seem practical to even have one. The other effects, like damage, can be "used on strike". That makes better sense, as it triggers on the point of impact without any animation from the char. But, even then, is it really that much better than the base weapon itself? In Oblivion, you have enchants that make a difference with the weapon. The choices in Morrowind seem rather limited to one or two, from a weapon standpoint.

I'm still in the early stages Morrowind, and I'm trying to get a feel for this whole enchanting thing. The other gear, like rings, belts and shields, are no problem. I get it with them. The weapons just don't seem to have that much of an impact, mainly due to the small enchant points. As I see it now, the best option, is just to have the summon spells from the get go. You end up with the most powerful weapons in the game, that are able to take out most enemies in 1-2 shots anyway. The 60 sec duration has been WAY more than enough time for things so far.

Sorry, if this seems like a rant. It's just a question why. I'm not the brightest lamp in the shop to start with. So, I feel like I might be missing something.

Thanks Guys.
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Leilene Nessel
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 9:16 pm

Enchanted items, and enchanting either yourself or through services is extremely pricey comparative to spell cost. But given Morrowind's "dice roll" methodology with skill use (and other things as well), not everyone is suited to the cast from mana. Fighters and stealth types benefit from enchantments because of their 0 fail rate as long as enchantment level with the item is sufficient. Perhaps it's just a balance issue between classes.

Hopefully this view made sense. When it comes to explaining the reasons "why" Bethesda does what it does, I'm not the brightest lamp in the shop as well. I guess that would make us, Twin Lamps? *rim shot*
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Vicki Gunn
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 5:41 pm

Enchanted items, and enchanting either yourself or through services is extremely pricey comparative to spell cost. But given Morrowind's "dice roll" methodology with skill use (and other things as well), not everyone is suited to the cast from mana. Fighters and stealth types benefit from enchantments because of their 0 fail rate as long as enchantment level with the item is sufficient. Perhaps it's just a balance issue between classes.

Hopefully this view made sense. When it comes to explaining the reasons "why" Bethesda does what it does, I'm not the brightest lamp in the shop as well. I guess that would make us, Twin Lamps? *rim shot*
I think you got it right. If your character is all about magic/self enchanting, then there is no point in buying an enchanted item/weapon with "bound bow" for example. If you play an archer though, the daedric bow has the best damage rating amongst bows (or second to best), but there are also only four of it in the entire game (morrowind+tribunal+bloodmoon). So spending a small fortune on this item may be a good deal after all, since you don't have to go around chasing for the ultimate bow. On top of that, the bound bow spell gives you a +10 in marksman, and that is very important in Morrowind, since your hit chance is tied to "dice roll".

edit: nice joke :)
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Holli Dillon
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 9:38 pm

@Miles
Ha! Twin Lamps it is. I can dig it! That's punny!


I think you got it right. If your character is all about magic/self enchanting, then there is no point in buying an enchanted item/weapon with "bound bow" for example. If you play an archer though, the daedric bow has the best damage rating amongst bows (or second to best), but there are also only four of it in the entire game (morrowind+tribunal+bloodmoon). So spending a small fortune on this item may be a good deal after all, since you don't have to go around chasing for the ultimate bow. On top of that, the bound bow spell gives you a +10 in marksman, and that is very important in Morrowind, since your hit chance is tied to "dice roll".

edit: nice joke :)

I think ( and yes it's painful for me to do that ) see what you guys are saying. It's about the 100% chance of success. I couldn't agree more about the Bound Daedric Weapons, and the +10 Skill. But, even if you're a non-magic type character, you're still going to have a magicka pool. That can be easily be replenished with pots. Chances are you will be at least investing in Security, and maybe Alchemy as well, plus your Conjuration will grow at the same time. The low point cost seems minor if your not skilled in the magics, and not leaning on a need for a large magicka pool to start with. I guess the argument to that could be, the ethics of an archer using Magic. :)

I guess what I'm trying to say is...If you have 11000g, would it be better and cheaper to go to an enchanter an have a constant effect "Bound Weapon" on a ring or something, than a weapon w/ a Bound Weapon effect?

Other than maybe Drain Health and Soul Trap, I'm still not sold on enchanting weapons any way. Especially, when the Bound weapons have the +10 Skill.

Sorry for being stupid. I was born naked and upside down.
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Laura Cartwright
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 8:59 pm

Chances are you will be at least investing in Security, and maybe Alchemy as well

I wouldn't say that was a given, different players have very different playing styles.

plus your Conjuration will grow at the same time. The low point cost seems minor if your not skilled in the magics, and not leaning on a need for a large magicka pool to start with. I guess the argument to that could be, the ethics of an archer using Magic. :)

The spell faliure rates are a pain for an Archer with 5 Conjuration, especially when you're trying to fight.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...If you have 11000g, would it be better and cheaper to go to an enchanter an have a constant effect "Bound Weapon" on a ring or something, than a weapon w/ a Bound Weapon effect?

I doubt it'll be cheaper, the player pays through the nose for custom Constant Effect items.

To be honest the cheapest would probably be to find a Daedric weapon and enchant it with +10 weapon skill.

Other than maybe Drain Health and Soul Trap, I'm still not sold on enchanting weapons any way. Especially, when the Bound weapons have the +10 Skill.

+10 is a nice bonus at the beginning when you have a low-end skill level like 20 to 30 but when your weapon skill is higher though the +10 becomes increasingly irrelevant. At around level 70 it makes little noticable difference.

Drain Health is not as effective as Damage Health. What Drain Health does is lower the maximum health of the target for the spell's duration. So Drain Health 10pts for 30 secs would make a NPC with 100 Health have only 90 Health for 30 secs.

Absorb Health is pretty sweet on a weapon. The cliched enchanted superweapon everyone used to gush about around here was a Daedric Dai-Katana enchanted with Absorb Health.

Elemental Damage is pretty reliable, doubly if your character has good resistances to it (in case of Reflecting enemies).

Damage Agility/Strength is surprisingly good against tough 'boss' type NPCs.
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Roberta Obrien
 
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Post » Thu May 03, 2012 1:40 am

I guess what I'm trying to say is...If you have 11000g, would it be better and cheaper to go to an enchanter an have a constant effect "Bound Weapon" on a ring or something, than a weapon w/ a Bound Weapon effect?

I'm pretty sure it would cost way more than that, and you'd also need a Golden Saint soul to make a constant effect enchantment which isn't that easy at early levels. The enchantment is useful because it's instant ant guaranteed to succeed. Sure it's possible to try it over and over again until you manage to cast it, but since bound weapons are for combat situations that isn't really viable.
And by the time you can make a constant effect enchantment of that type you'll probably have found real daedric weapons already. By that time the +10 to skill will probably be negligible (since it doesn't increase damage but only your chance to hit) so you'd be better of enchanting an actual daedric weapon with something useful.
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Robert Devlin
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 1:11 pm

Without a doubt, this topic has spawned many times over. It's amazing, that after 9 years people find different ways to ask the same questions. You guys are very informative, and brought new insights to a newb.

Thanks to you.
And a BIG THANKS to gamesas for a great game. I'm sure Morrowind will rank up there with my favs of all time. Hmmm...That would be mostly ( if not totally ) composed of other Beth games, now that I think about it. HA! Imagine that...

@4LOM: BTW I meant Absorb Health in the previous post. I just fell of the turnip truck, so I get mentally lost at times.
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Russell Davies
 
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Post » Thu May 03, 2012 3:11 am

I think the best magical damage in Morrowind is damage health. Not many creature can reflect it, whereas they can reflect elemental damages. If you add a weakness to magic and soul trap on top of it, you can create a killer weapon. That won't be cheap, but it'll be worth it. The "when used" option is great when you need to create something that must never fail, like recall or intervention. You can argue that you have scrolls for that, but some people don't like one-time use items. You can also create pretty powerful attack/defense spell with 100% chance of success.
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Conor Byrne
 
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Post » Thu May 03, 2012 1:38 am

Another thing I didn't see mentioned was the pure weight of actual Daedric weapons. Let's say you are playing a stealthy marksman type of character with short blade as your backup weapon choice. A Daedric Wakizashi weighs 30 units in the vanilla game....carry that, a Daedric longbow and your other general gear, and more than half of your carrying capacity may be taken up.

Now, those zero weight bound items are pretty nice.
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amhain
 
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Post » Wed May 02, 2012 2:32 pm

The only item that you should ever pay to enchant is a ring or shield with “Fortify Enchant Skill for 200+ levels (whatever it will take) for 2 seconds on self”. Next, use this to enchant two items to boost your enchant skill to about 1000. Now, you should be able to enchant anything.

Also, trapping the soul of a Golden Saint at first level without cheating is actually quite easy. You can buy Grand Soul Gems in Mournhold and buy the spell to Summon Golden Saints in Tel Branora. You’ll also need the Soul Trap spell itself and the ability to levitate for a long time, which you can get at the shrine SW of Vivec Temple. Go to a lava pool (one is inside the Vacant Tower NE of Dagon Fel). Move your character over the pool of lava while levitating and cast the Summon GS spell (from an item that you enchanted as above) so that the Golden Saint is standing in the pool. Aim the Soul trap spell so that the cross hairs are right on the helmet of the GS and cast the spell. The lava does all the work and about 10 seconds later the GS is dead and you have her soul. If you are quick, you can get her weapon and shield as well.

As to Bound weapons, I can enchant an expensive ring with Constant Effect Bound Weapon and carry a .1 pound item instead of an umpteen pound Daedric item around. You can also put CE Bound Helm/Gloves/Boots/Cuirass and your favorite weapon into an ebony tower shield (that you got at first level from a Golden Saint).
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Rebekah Rebekah Nicole
 
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