I started Skyrim this weekend. With the guidance of one of my WoW guildies, I ventured into this world that had caused the processor on my old PC to explode. I watched my way through the first cut scene, and designed myself my first character in this game. Elsen the Breton was born. I went with Breton because I rolled with what I know – a magic using caster. Straight away I got thrown in to making decisions – do I follow the guard or the rebel? With the help of Nordis (the guildie) I selected the rebel, and followed him through. We killed a few guards, searched them – constantly fighting against my desire to collect ALL THE THINGS.
It took me a while but I currently have two skills bound to each mouse button. With my left mouse button I cast fire – which seems to work more like a continuous stream of fire rather than fireballs. With my right mouse button I heal myself – an excellent skill. One thing I am doing in this game is totally avoiding manuals, information, cheats, or guides. The only help I’m getting is off Nordis, who is usually AFK from Steam and doesn’t answer my questions ANYway. Actually this is only 99% true. On one of my first quests – working for the Jarl of Whiterun – I had to work through the Bleak Falls Barrow, and at one point I got stuck at a puzzle with 3 rotating pieces I had to slot in a particular order. Eventually I got bored of trying different ones and looked up the order. The concept I understood…just didn’t have the patience!!
Things I’m learning
- I’m really quite fragile. I need to learn that I can’t jump off really high cliffs without death, and that if I’m going to attempt something I think might end in death, I really should do a quick save beforehand.
- the “`” key is not autorun. Just because it’s autorun in WoW where I spend most of my time doesn’t mean it is everywhere else…learn to play soph, learn to play.
- I’m all about the visuals – it’s annoying me that I have to wear this “Novice Hood” to increase my magicka – because it covers up my face and my hair and there’s no “don’t show helm” setting. This is mildly irritating.
- The level progression isn’t very intuitive – Apparently I had “levelled up” but I actually hadn’t because I hadn’t chosen where to put my…perk? Which is presumably sort of like a talent point. But where I CAN put my points depends on how much I use a spell, so for example at the moment I’m currently locked out of going further in to the Destruction “tree” because I’m a couple of points too low. So I’ve put one in to Restoration.
- Key bindings…so far I’ve worked out I can map spells to my left and right mouse button, but modifiers don’t seem to work – can’t map to Shift + Left mouse for example. I know this game can be played on a console so maybe this is why, but I do have access to MORE spells than just “flames” and “heal” – so should I be using these? Should they be mapped to somewhere? This may need further investigation/fiddling around when I get home.
- Dragons in this game aren’t really very attractive. I also killed one, although it took me three tries and it was on the third try I remembered I had healing and started using that.
- Potions are ace…I do have Alchemy (I think?!) but I really should have a look at the interface a bit more and work out if I can craft some health and magicka potions, seeing as neither regenerate very quickly.
- I want a horse. I tried to steal one but it didn’t end well. I also need to find somewhere to offload all the STUFF I’ve been stealing. I’ve got a necklace somewhere that’s worth like, 1k gold but I can’t find anyone to sell it to. I have however managed to get myself up to nearly 2k gold, which is quite good. I think.
- Giants cannot be taken on by a level 4 mage who has no idea what she is doing. I found an encampment and they had all this STUFF to steal but there was a giant. I was like – hey hey hey, I’m level 4, I can TOTALLY take this out. I spat fire at him and he picked me up and flung me about 1000 feet in to the air, and then I fell to my death. It wasn’t pretty. So I just snuck in and stole their mammoth cheese and then ran away again.
- I got a guard to say “I was an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to the knee”. I don’t get it – it’s not that funny. I’m clearly missing some greater point here.
- I think I’m going to lose my life til this game. I am very much reminded of this, which made me giggle at the time and still gives me much amusement. In fact I just read it again and chortled to myself again.
So yea, overall, Skyrim is ace. I’m a slow burner with this sort of thing, and I expect it will last me a very long time, months after most people have blasted through the whole lot. But I’m enjoying it, and looking forward to playing it a whole lot more.
From one Skyrim player to another, yes, yes you will spend hours in this game.
But I just had to comment, and hopefully save you future frustration, that dragon claw puzzle is a recurring one, but you don’t need patience, you most likely missed the in-game hint from one of the books lying about that place, the hint was ‘the solution is in the palm of your hand’ (claw).
I myself play on the xbox, but I’m assuming that the mouse buttons equate to the triggers. But you should have a favourites list to allow you change between spells/weapons/gear/shouts/powers/etc as you wish. And opening the list pauses the game, and no this is not the main menu. There are a lot more spells in the game, you will find a fireball soon.
Some unique spells you will only find through quests. As to that combination of spells, for the beginning its good, at least till you get Impact, dual-wielding spells ftw. I would suggest you both look at the higher Destruction tree and the wording of fire, frost and lightning in general.
I would also advise to be careful of your perk point usage, you don’t have to use those points straight away, you can wait till you have those last few skill points. This will come in handy when you discover later that no you can’t re-spec.
But most of all have fun.
Thank you SO much for all this!
I think something might be wrong with my set up, I’ve bound some stuff to 1-9 but still quite often pressing the button does…nothing.
I also pretty much rage quit the other day when I died to that second dragon about…10 times? I’m not sure why I’m struggling quite as much as I am!!
Unfortunately I cannot help regards the binding issues, I’m now a confirmed console player.
But if it helps think of it like this, it’s left hand and right hand, ignoring powers for the moment, using the favourites list I highlight an option and choose the hand to use it with.
But as to the dragon eating your face, don’t worry, that is to be expected. You have to remember with that first dragon you had help or bait depending on your viewpoint. Expect to have trouble with dragons till you get either impact or learn some summon spells. The benefit of Impact is that it will stagger the victim, thus no breath attacks of doom. Be creative, giants are your friends, any other mob is in fact, dragons attack everything, if you come across a dragon pull it towards something else.
As you’re playing a mage, if you haven’t already, I would head towards Winterhold. As well as some quests that’ll help you, one of the students will ‘help’ you with that stolen loot of yours.
If you have any questions, ask, I like to be helpful.