Hello,

I'm playing as a lvl 21 Imperial with light armor and shield+sword. The thing that bothers me most is that the enemies seem to scale really weird in this game. I was running through a mine which was full of Draugr and they went down in about 3-5 hits but when I hit the boss at the end, he was near impossible to take down, he also had a pillar which was shooting fireballs at me. Luckily, I was with a mage companion so I did end up winning but just barely. My hits only scraqed him and I was out of stamina pretty quicky, even my critical hits didn't do much to him. I was wearing Elven armor + an elven sword with 31 damage.

Are some enemies in the same area supposed to be miles stronger than the regular minions or should I switch my playstyle, like using a two-hander rather than a sword+shield? I have always tried to keep my stamina and health on par when I level up but shield bashes drain so much stamina that it's not even funny.

Unofrtunatly the level scaling in Skyrim is somehwhat terrible.

It's not terrible. Do you really expect a, most likely, Draugr Deathlord to go down just as easy as a regular Draugr?

playing a lvl 21 nord, wearing elven armor and a elven two-handed sword, have about 80 dmg output, but no companion, and no bosses have given me any big problems, If you haven't used any perks you should try imo, works great for me.
but take stamina potions with you, goes a lot ^^

Isn't it actually loads of fun when a boss is hard? Compared to the normal draugr that is. You can't expect to kill everything in 2-3 hits.

its just plain old bad balancing i think... i know what youre talking about, where everything in the dungeon is cannon fodder and then suddenly one guy is leaps and bounds ahead of every other enemy... it really screws with the pacing of the game to never fight anything in the middle, its either one-shotting anything or downing potions every 3 seconds while you deliver the death of a thousand cuts.

Much better than in Oblivion.

Some areas are higher level than others. So if you aren't big enough come back or lower the difficulty. It's not scaled like oblivion. The Reach is tougher than the area around Whiterun. Dungeons seem to have set level ranges. I've found that at level 41 I run into dungeons in areas of the world I haven't even been near and find a mix of "lol fur armor" and "oh [censored] a real fight"

Imperials can use heavy armour. You could use that instead

Reminds me of older D&D computer games. I could go thru the game pretty easily until the end boss then I would have to drink every potion I had in my inventory and cast every buff spell just to survive.

At least you were able to defeat the end Draugr even though it was a challenge. Kind of makes it worth the fight if you make it by the skin of your teeth.

I think it's fine as it is. Bosses should be harder right?

OP: Do you use stealth/sneak much? If not then I'd say you should change to heavy armor.

In my opinion, neither. I think that's what makes this game really great for my play style. Some folks want to create a toe-to-toe fighter, a pure mage, an archer, etc.

Me, I decided on a mix of combat skills to be used as the situation presented itself. I love to sneak while exploring, get in a shot with my bow, and then see how the action progresses. Many times I find myself dead and then having to rethink my strategy for this particular battle. Too many foes to handle at once, I try to pick them off one at a time. With a mix of skills I can develop more than one strategy until I get the job done.

I really like the scaling. Not only does it determine your foe and its level, but, appears to affect the weather.

But, what the heck do I know?

My imperial is level 25 and I had similar questions. I am playing on expert, and it makes it a bit more balanced, in that the "trash" mobs dont go down in 2-3 hits and the bosses are even harder.

I just got a full ebony set of armor and weapon (legendary), and before this upgrade I was starting to get rolled in most places, now I can keep up, but I have to use all the tools at my disposal. Voice of the Emperor, shouts, scrolls/ magic items, dodging and positioning, interrupts, and lots of potions in boss fights. Basically when it is 10 guys against you and your companion, and they all seem to be as strong as you individually, you have to out fight them. This means making your power shots count, not standing in the way of blows that can be avoided, not getting cornered, and often strategizing with terrain and retreats so that you aren't fighting all of them at once and the ranged guys don't have LOS.

By the time you are level 20-25 you will have a collection of magic items, usually you can find something that will help you out.

I started playing the game just left clicking everything on the normal setting. The combination of playing on expert, and leveling up has required me to play better.

Yes, I actually do enjoy a challenge. I wanted to go more of a tactical approach, that's why the shield+sword but in the end I still do the hit-and-run tactic with almost everyone because the speed that I run out of stamina is just crazy. Shield bashes use so much of your stamina and when you're out of stamina, you can't do any shield bashes so I have to hit-and-run. That's why I think that the shield is a bit useless so I might as well do hit-and-run tactic with a two-hander.



Isn't heavy armor more taxing on your stamina use and movement speed? I know that there is a perk that reduces the movement speed penalty but it's quite far in the talent tree.

Bosses are supposed to be tough. I think Skyrim's scaling is really good. At near level 40 I still run into a challenge here and there, but my ownage has increased steadily the whole game, it's quite nice.

Invest in your one handed perk, the one that increases damage 20% per perk, you can't beat 100% damage. Enchant with fire, Smith some good gear, and get your light armor perked a bit.

I use sword and shield quite a bit, but shield bash is kind of a dumb waste of stamina. If I really want to kill a boss though I just go in both glass swords blazing and dual wield anything to death quickly, but you need to have decent health and armor to do it. A good strategy is to go in both swords blazing, then switch to a shield for D and then shout ice form and slash away with normal attacks until he rises while your stamina recharges, then power attack him some more. Pretty much destroys nearly anything. Toss in some poisons if your really worried.

How so? A new armour type spawns every 8 levels, a new weapon type spawns every 10 levels, different and harder enemies spawned every 5 or 10 levels, hows that bad level scaling?

You just described Skyrims system, without all the bad stuff from Oblivion..

I think that's common for any dungeons, basically you get minions that down in 1-2 hits and then you get mini bosses at the very end protecting quest item or main chest and THESE (depending on difficulty level) can 1-2 hit you... I'm not saying that it's a good thing, I prefer if there has to be mini bosses in every dungeon then at least make them more intelligent and can use perks of their own but not overwhelmingly strong that they can one hit you...

have no issues with the scaling. Also as mentioned by the devs there are higher leveled areas and such.
But ive mastered most craft skills and gotten myself a sweet armor and great sword. Most enemies dont do much harm, but mages and their magic still test my skills and love that.

I know the guy! He's in the Sinkhole Mine isn't he?

I haven't managed to kill him on Master yet, the first time I got there I must've been level 8 or something and didn't stand a chance, I tried and tried but eventually took a potion of invisibility and crept passed him.

I went back at level 18 with Lydia but she was too stupid to jump down the hole at the beginning of the Dungeon so was left alone to fight him anyway... still didn't manage it, was easier but still bloody hard. That fireball launching tower in the corner doesn't help either.

You won didnt you? Pretty epic fight by the sound of it

about the stamina, once the CK is released someone will definately modify the drain to make shields more appealing. If you're on console...then I guess maybe try the two-handed route or dual-wielding route and see how that works for ya. Then get a PC copy

You are spot on! I run around with a mage companion so she deals heavy damage.

But another thing, I have decided to skip the shield and probably use a two hander since dual-wielding is a bit too messy for my liking. Should I also switch to heavy armor?



Well, I tried to glitch the boss as much as I could, lol

Are shields bad? I can stop dragons breathing fire on my face by bashing them, or mages from casting their super powerful spells. Not to mention the quick reflex perk allows me to dodge/stop most of enemys power attacks. If it wasn't taxing on stamina it would be totally overpowered. Now I actually have to invest in stamina.

Actually there isnt higher lvl areas per se. Just that certain mobs have higher scaling options. IE, some mobs can be up to 15 lvls higher than your and some can only be 5 lvls higher. And every single mob scales up whenever you lvl up. Up to the lvl 50 though. After that mobs dont lvl up at all.