not getting outscaled

[naru]

From what I've read about the game NPCs like monsters, bandits and guards scale with your level infinitely unlike in Skyrim where most of them stop at a certain level giving you the feeling of progression and that you are a nearly unstoppable demigod/manifestation of and actual GOD(ysmir).
So what should I watch out for building my character to not get terribly outscaled and rekt by the smallest angry bunny?
I may be blowing things out of proportion... I just had my fair share of having to start all over again games with 10-50h or more playtime because my character did not have the exact right build to keep up with the scaling of the enemies' power as they got higher leveled. Not a very pleasant thing to do and I absolute despise systems that just throw out to the trash all your hard work and reasonably built hero with just adding some enemies with mechanics that make them invincible or unbeatable with the given build because of these experiences.

I feel like I may have got the wrong idea about the game but all the footage I've seen so far was:
A: Player absolutely stomping the enemy.
B: Player getting owned by the tiniest little imp and having to constantly run like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and cover behind something to heal up.
(coincidentally both have been glorifying the greatness of the gameplay and combat system over Skyrim... while Oblivion is pretty much the same with being more static, less flashy and no "dual-wielded power to unmake the world at my fingertips")

[ManualMakron]

It completely depends on what kind of character you start out as. Even if you end up having a +3 on each attribute that you choose each time you level up, you'll probably end up not having a hard time at all. Oblivion's gameplay does urge the player to make use of whatever he can.
I'm having a really hard time with my latest run, since I've made a Bosmer Pilgrim born under the Shadow.. Probably one of the worst combinations. Not to mention that I play at the 75% difficulty slider.

Maybe there's something that you're doing wrong?

[The Rock God]

Unless you make terrible decisions, getting outleveled should not be an issue. You can be a god at any level in this game.

Basic things to do:
- Maximise your increases each level. You can increase three attributes by up to 5 points every time you level. Make sure you're getting all 5 points.
- Always increase Endurance until it's maxed. Your health increases by 10% of your End (in addition to having 2xend health). If you're going to be reaching a high level you want to increase End as quickly as possible. Otherwise you end up with low health for your level.
- Never use the Warrior class. In fact, most of the stock classes are bad. Make a custom class so you have the most control over leveling and what attributes will increase.

I've never had any real problems with enemies as I leveled. The only things that can get bad at high levels are:
- Enemies have a ton of health. This doesn't make the fights any tougher. They just take longer.
- NPC enemies get the perks from skills. Annoying. Get shot by an archer, get paralyzed. Sometimes you get disarmed. Or staggered really bad.

Just like in Skyrim, bad choices lead to bad characters. You're level 20 (random number I picked) because you maxed out sneak, lockpicking, armorer, athletics, acrobatics, mercantile, and speechcraft, but have a skill of 5 in every combat/magic skill? You're screwed.

Edit:

Not a very pleasant thing to do and I absolute despise systems that just throw out to the trash all your hard work and reasonably built hero with just adding some enemies with mechanics that make them invincible or unbeatable with the given build because of these experiences.

There are only 2 ways that can happen:
- You're fighting an enemy whose health regen is higher than your dps. That would really be your own fault, for not increasing your ability to deal damage. IIRC, the highest health regen is only 15/sec. If you're high enough level to be fighting enemies like that, you should be able to deal that much damage.
- You use the Atronach birthsign and don't take it into account, leading to you running out of magicka with no way to replenish it.

Otherwise you can kill any enemy in the game just by wearing them down. I've killed enemies at level 30 using an iron bow with a skill of 5 in marksmanship, or using the flame spell you start with. It just takes a while.

[naru]

I just got out from the catacomb-cave-catacomb-sewers tutorial mess and just wanted to know if I messed up anything or not.
I really hope the atmosphere of the game is better than that first place though because it was just such a torture to go through neverending tunnel after tunnel.... Maybe the ambience bgm is just not right or the dungeon's design was just bad? IDK...

[Kieldoozer]

honestly this game gets super hard when you level up, its insanely dificult if left on normal. i hear alot of people either powerlevel and lower the dificulty or they dont level at all so bandits and stuff stay weak.

if you play on normal you will notice at like lvl 15 bandits have much better gear than you, you literally break brand new swords on people LOL it takes that many swings. but you feel like a badass if you can do it.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

honestly this game gets super hard when you level up, its insanely dificult if left on normal. i hear alot of people either powerlevel and lower the dificulty or they dont level at all so bandits and stuff stay weak.

It all depends on how you level your character. The levelling system that's used sucks, and if you don't approach it the right way you could easily end up with an under-powered character. If you do it right though, there's nothing to fear from your enemies later on. Many people just used a modded levelling system and bypassed the vanilla version altogether.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Just remember that any major skills that start out over level 25 will take away from the maximum level your character can obtain without mods.That is only important if you want to max out your character. But it doesn't matter that much, as your character will be over-powered by then anyways.

Don't use athletics as a major skill. You will keep leveling up athletics from all the running you do and that can take away from being able to level up other major skills within the current level, which can cause more important major skills be become under leveled.

Try to focus on raising Endurance for maximum Health bonus at level up. Try to get +5 bonuses every level if possible.

If you feel your character is becoming too weak, turn down the difficulty and make sure you are getting +5 bonuses at level up to bring your character back up to par.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

honestly this game gets super hard when you level up, its insanely dificult if left on normal. i hear alot of people either powerlevel and lower the dificulty or they dont level at all so bandits and stuff stay weak.

I've never touched the difficulty slider. I've also never had any trouble killing enemies at level 51.

if you play on normal you will notice at like lvl 15 bandits have much better gear than you, you literally break brand new swords on people LOL it takes that many swings. but you feel like a badass if you can do it.

The only times I've broken a weapon are a) I forgot to repair it, and b) using an iron weapon at high level to level a weapon skill faster.
I have, however, seen plenty of enemies break weapons on me. Mostly daggers.

[Kieldoozer]

Originally posted by The Rock God:

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

honestly this game gets super hard when you level up, its insanely dificult if left on normal. i hear alot of people either powerlevel and lower the dificulty or they dont level at all so bandits and stuff stay weak.

I've never touched the difficulty slider. I've also never had any trouble killing enemies at level 51.

if you play on normal you will notice at like lvl 15 bandits have much better gear than you, you literally break brand new swords on people LOL it takes that many swings. but you feel like a badass if you can do it.

The only times I've broken a weapon are a) I forgot to repair it, and b) using an iron weapon at high level to level a weapon skill faster.
I have, however, seen plenty of enemies break weapons on me. Mostly daggers.

you must be running mods then, or the permanent enchant glitch.

[Belanos]

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

you must be running mods then, or the permanent enchant glitch.

No, I've never broken a weapon during a battle either, and I never had any mods that changed even a single aspect of weapon repair. If you were breaking them, then you probably just forgot to repair them when you had the chance.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

Originally posted by The Rock God:

I've never touched the difficulty slider. I've also never had any trouble killing enemies at level 51.



The only times I've broken a weapon are a) I forgot to repair it, and b) using an iron weapon at high level to level a weapon skill faster.
I have, however, seen plenty of enemies break weapons on me. Mostly daggers.

you must be running mods then, or the permanent enchant glitch.

No mods, no glitches. Just know how to play the game.

[Kieldoozer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdDZiw9qIxc

normal dificulty is essentially the same even though this is on the hardest dificulty as this guy is a high level with near perfect skills and with one of the most powerful swords in the game, the most powerful base damage wise for a longsword anyway. best armor aswell and its all enchanted, the weak black bears still hit like a mac truck. also something you need to know is higher level weapons have more hp so they dont break nearly as fast as say steel weapons and im sure his umbra came close anyway, yep look at that 37 percent health left on umbra after killing a spriggan, if you played the game you clearly only did for a short time.

[Kieldoozer]

Originally posted by The Rock God:

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

you must be running mods then, or the permanent enchant glitch.

No mods, no glitches. Just know how to play the game.

no need to insult, you clearly dont know. ive been playing this game 4 years before you even made your steam account.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by LT1DEATHMACHINE:

Originally posted by The Rock God:

No mods, no glitches. Just know how to play the game.

no need to insult, you clearly dont know. ive been playing this game 4 years before you even made your steam account.

And I've played it for over 1000 hours on Steam. And know the game better than you.

[Kieldoozer]

ive got maybe 4 times that much honestly, im not trying to argue with you, go read my comment above, i added some edits.

[The Rock God]

It's going to take forever to upload the huge uncompressed video I made with Afterburner (which was also causing the game to lag...), but I'll give a quick rundown of what's in it.

My level 51 character. Full Daedric, except Escutcheon of Chorrol shield. All custom enchants are +10 STR. Weapon is an iron sword. Not enchanted, not improved with armorer. My blade skill is only 81 or 82. Kill all five bandits in Sercen. Too lazy to block or do anything fancy. Just run up and spam attack. My weapon never breaks, only losing half it's health. Only lose a bit over half my health, despite never healing.
Five bandits, at level 51, with an iron sword.

For whenever it finishes uploading (in a few hours):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhHjYJV9hqw&feature=youtu.be

Pretty crappy video, I admit. Next time I'll use Shadowplay. Or Better settings in Afterburner.