Always adept.

I want my mystic archer to strike like a dragon but crumple like a butterfly - a 'glass cannon'. Higher difficulties can make my elf 'glass', but they nerf her 'cannon'. So I play on default, boost her weapon damage a bit and give her a tiny red health bar to deal with. I've got things tweaked just the way I want for the level and nature of challenge I want.

Adept or normal. I don't play Beth games for the challenge.

I didn't vote because I play with Requiem, which disables the default slider and replaces it with two sliders that allow you to adjust damage dealt and taken independently. I leave those sliders at Requiem default difficulty, which increases both damage dealt and damage taken by about 6x over Vanilla.

I do too, except for when I enter one of these "competitions," which are a different sort of fun. At high difficulty, one has to play a particular way, and the early game becomes a grind, at a time when I'm most interested in establishing my character's "story."

I use the default setting, and when I want to make the game more challenging or interesting, I limit the skills that my characters use. The result is that my characters tend to be different from one another, and I create a lot of different "types" (what we used to call "classes.")

Having played at legendary, I know that one really has to build a kind of "generalist" character in order to survive. You need improved and enchanted gear, potions and poisons, high level perks, etc. One Legendary character tends to look much like another.

I usually like to play on adept, but of course my game is heavily modded to provide me with appropriate challenges. Sometimes though, things happen... I couldn't figure out why opponents were so tough with my new character, and I just discovered tonight that the difficulty was set to Master. With my mods cranked up, Master is definitely a bit hard...

Turija......curious.....Requiem


Six times more damage delt than vanilla in both directions.


Q.....Than Vanilla what..Adept?


If so......thats being hit by Double the damage of vanilla legendary

So dealing with Deathlords and Marauders means you can not take even one hit with legendary smithed armour on.

Sounds horrifying


But you hit them 6x harder right back......also huge, meaning practically every hit on a foe is one hit fatal. Sounds great!


Automatic extreme glass canon mod then!

It's about 6x adept, so about twice legendary. It's tough to compare death lords and marauders because of the way Requiem unleveles the world -- there are no death lords and marauders, just draugr and bandits of varying degree of difficulty -- and you have to figure out how tough they are by the way they look and what gear they are carrying. Armor, weapons, crafting skills, pretty much everything is rebalanced and overhauled so it's almost like a different game. Light armor and heavy armor are also very different and armor penetration is more pronounced. Most enemies in the game have been overhauled to make them tougher. Trolls, for instance regenerate health at a much faster rate--going from near death to full health in about three or four seconds. So do spriggans and dragon priests. There are many new types of enemies that are more deadly than most of what is in the vanilla game. Things like enchanted dwemer spheres that regenerate health very fast and ebony vampires that have all the power of a master vampire but wear ebony armor and hit with ebony weapons. So drawing comparisons to vanilla enemies is not that meaningful.


But to give you a comparison, two bites from a wolf will kill most first level characters, as will two hits from an ordinary bandit with a one handed weapon, unless it's a power attack, in which case it's one hit.


But yes, battles can be over quickly one way or the other. Blocking and or dodging is crucial in melee. Strategy and tactics are also important, especially when dealing with groups of enemies. Using fire against trolls to slow down their regeneration is mandatory unless you can kill them in two hits, which requires a lot of DPS, but can be done with 2H power attacks, provided you have enough skill, perks and a good enough weapon.

adept, but with mods that improves AI and makes combat more deadly, without creating sponges

this would be ideal

Thanks Turija my furry friend


So, does that mean also that you don't level up? Or do you still gain levels and perks but everything around you rises at the same rate, so nothing ever gets easier.

You level up as you would in any roleplaying game. But, as Turija pointed out, Requiem unlevels the game. You have a chance of meeting extremely high-level enemies at virtually any level, including level one. When you play Requiem you can no longer assume that you will meet level 15 enemies when your character is level 15.

I have played on legendary a bit and it was pretty fun but I would rather play on adept because I like to play a game like Skyrim for the story and environment

I play adept. I much enjoy telling a story rather than grinding a character against ridiculous odds.

Adept for me. Combat is not why I play TES games

Went into shimmermist cave at level 9 in non Requiem game.


Found out(more like remembered) last boss is a level 24 minimum construct.


Ow.


I want the difficulty sliders, not Requiem.

You level up normally, but the world doesn't. The world starts very high level and doesn't change, except dragons won't appear until you advance the main quest. But once dragons do appear, they are always a very high level variety that have thousands of health points, about 90% damage resistance, and do hundreds of points of damage with breath and melee attacks.


A low level character should start fighting wolves, mud crabs and common bandits, while practicing their skills. Hunting deer, chopping wood, mining, gathering ingredients, smithing with the pelts and ores you have collected, making potions, etc are all good low activities to build your character. Just running around in your armor will slowly give you experience in it and will advance your armor skill.


Requiem is an "old school" roleplay mod that seeks to provide rewards and challenges commensurate with the characters level. Being able to defeat dragons, vampires, dwemer spheres and other such creatures at low level isn't commensurate, so that type of thing is nearly impossible to do in Requiem. If your low level character sees a troll, a vampire or anything that looks tougher than a common bandit, they should probably run.


But, since the world doesn't change as your character levels, increasing any skill will make your character stronger. Unlike vanilla, where the world gets stronger as your character does, the world remains the same in Requiem. So there is no penalty for leveling non combat skills like speech, lock picking, pick pocketing, etc.


Eventually your character will be strong enough to take on trolls, vampires, dragons, and the like.

I like the sound of this....

Its what I try to achieve (badly) with Legendary vanilla

To start only wolves and basic bandits are possible to defeat

But with high levels and grinding up it gets possible to take on high level foes

So in that respect there is similarity.


Of course unlike requiem most vanilla dungeons are leveled to the player (that don't mean easy), but even so...some dungeons have a minimum level for their boss....like 20.....when your only level 3......this is similar to the requiem prinicple and makes some places out if bounds until you're good.


What sounds attractive about requiem is the idea that continued effort pays off with gradually increasing numbers of foes falling within the players capability.


When I get a PC I must try this out......thanks for the intel.

Regards

Rick

Apprentice for me. I work really hard in RL and when I play I need to mentally relax.

Mostly adept with occasional bumps lower. When I get leveled up significantly I'll go Expert or Master.

You might like Requiem. It definitely rewards preparation. Since the world does not change, more and more enemies fall within the players capability as the character gains experience and levels. But because of the way combat works (with such high damage output and armor piercing weapons), even lowly bandits can kill a fairly high level character if they are not careful. On the other hand, with enough preparation, it is possible (but by no means easy -- you need well-smithed daedric) to get your AR high enough (you need about 1,500 AR) to easily withstand even armor piercing attacks. At that point, you can start to safely take on dragons in melee. Characters who have light armor or lesser heavy armor can try to take dragons in melee, but an unblocked melee hit by a dragon is going to mean instant death for most characters with less than 1,200 to 1,500 AR, so your block skill will tested. Most characters opt to deal with dragons at range.

All of the high level enemies require a lot of preparation, and in some cases particular types of weaponry or magic to defeat. Spriggans, for instance can't be killed with unenchanted swords or hammers. You need axes, or a weapon enchanted with fire damage. A fire enchanted axe will cut through them like butter. An unenchanted axe will kill them but only if you can overcome their regeneration with enough DPS, so you need a really good axe and enough skill/perks in axes. Or you can hold a torch in one hand and alternate between bashing with the torch (to temporarily stop the regen) and swinging with the axe. There are probably many other ways to kill spriggans, but charging in and hitting them with an unenchanted sword or hammer is just going to get you killed even if you have a fairly high level character.

Earlier you asked about getting one shotted at high level. Once your character is powerful enough, there is very little that can one shot kill you (but giant slaughterfish can swallow you whole and kill you in one gulp no matter who you are -- so be careful swimming in deep dark places where those lurk -- or kill them from shore first).

Requiem has a slider in its MCM menu that lets you adjust the maximum percent of resistances for things like magic resistance or damage resistance. Default is 90% but you can move it up or down to suit your tastes. But at 90%, your best armor will give you twice the protection of the 80% vanilla damage resistance. So, even though the high level Requiem enemies are doing twice as much damage as vanilla Legendary, you can still survive being hit if you get your armor skill/perks and get good enough gear. But it takes a lot of work to get there, since pretty much the only way to get daedra hearts in Requiem is to kill dremora and they are rare and hard to kill. You also can't just learn daedric smithing by merely grinding your skill, you also need to find a particular book to learn the secrets and unlock that perk and the book is well guarded.

Since there is so much stuff in Requiem that can kill you so quickly, DiD play is very challenging. But not impossible. I have talked on line with people who play DiD with Requiem and it can be done. And one thing about the unleveled world is that you can eventually outlevel your enemies. The longer you survive the more powerful you become, and if you survive long enough, you can become very very powerful. With enough AR and magic resistance, nothing can one shot kill you. You might just really enjoy it, since we both like a style of play where your character has to work their way up in the world.

Thank you for all of that Turija, very illuminating. Your last line, above captures the enjoyment for me. No pain, no gain

I'd like to throw out there that bull mudcrabs are no joke on higher difficulties even in vanilla.


Low level character even blocking can be three shot on legendary. I've had to take to strafing a circle around it like I'm playing wow arenas.

Adept.

Sakiri,


Yes my girls have had nasty run ins with um' Bull Mudcrabs. Ulda (also always Legendary) had been killed more than once under level three by mixing it with the big snippers.


Our tactic now is just timing. Block Bash Can stagger them 'natch...but you soon run out of stamina, so I use bash only to create the initial opening then run in and give 'em a mace smack,then quickly back out.....they do the snip....and miss cos youre out of range....before they reset run back and do another smack.....rinse and repeat. They do keep you backing up until defeated so just always be aware how much free space is behind you....and of course where the other big crabs are

That's the system I use.