So, Skyrim's out 11/11/11

[kandrathe]

Initially, the mage felt godly, mowing down the hordes in dungeons with impunity. However, as time continued, her power began to wane. When she hit about level 10, I found that her spells just weren't cutting it anymore.

Some of that might also be a function of the games mechanics. One of the things about TES games, at least from Morrowind on, are that the Leveled NPC's gain power at defined character levels. If you are 1-5 you get X, when you are 5-10, you get Y, 10-15, you get Z. The staggering can make 10 feel too hard, when 15 seems somehow easier. Then, 16 gets hard again as you face a new level of NPC competencies. I felt the same way at around level 10-15, having charged in and cleared a bridge of bandits easily early in the game, but when I came back and found a new batch of bandits had taken over, the same tactic had me reloading the encounter. I'm still pretty fearful of bandit bosses wielding two handed hammers.

My first character is now a level 30, Battle Mage. Like Roland, I've invested the most in smithing as a primary skill, along with with heavy armor, block, conjuration, and one handed weapons. But, I've given a perk to lock picking, and some in enchanting, alchemy, restoration, and destruction as needed. I've enchanted my exquisite plate armor to increase Magicka restoration by 40%. Dual healing is my main toggle, combined with the ethereal shout allows me to go from low health to full health, draining only about 20% of my Magicka pool. The bigger worry then is whether Lydia will survive, while I step out for a breather. I've begun more and more having her stay back while I engage, or drag some mobs back to her to help with. But, I've got hardly any skills in sneaking or using a bow. I've given Lydia the best enchanted elven bow, and the deadliest arrows. I use my bow and iron arrows just to get someone attention.

I find facing multiple ranged casters difficult as they are utilizing staves, and spells. The shouts help immensely, giving me special abilities every 30 seconds to a minute. I chose Nord for my first race, just to fit in better, but the 50% immunity to cold is invaluable. I had no resistances to shock or fire until into level 20, but I've come upon a 40% resist fire helm, some limited shock resistance. I keep a few resist potions around too as a last resort for boss battles. I'm not a great alchemist (low 30's), but every little bit helps. I've got my eye on a perk in the block tree that imparts some spell blocking to shields.

Then, I use kiting with Lydia, or a summoned familiar to draw off one or a few and the freeze shout quite a bit to immobilize one or more opponents and gain numerical superiority. My tactic of last resort has been a beast form blitz krieg. But, I feel the game really rewards me for being diverse in tactics, and challenges me to have multiple strategies to deal with the different immunities/specialties of my opponents. I haven't acquired many summoning spells, although my summoning skill has climbed to the 80's just by running around with dual summoned swords almost continually (unless there are civilians present). Summoned atronachs, might provide another punch to my arsenal.

In my last encounter, fighting a very high level necromancer boss with a fire ball stave turned out hilarious, as I was able to disarm him and Lydia deftly picked up the staff and used it to obliterated him and the three other casters in the room.