question about leveling up/getting strong

[Geek Ultra]

1. does the world difficulty scale with your current level? if so, does that eliminate the need to grind to level up perks/skills for boss battles?

2. does simply leveling up skills like archery, one-handed, 2-handed (not putting any perks on them) increase weapon damage? coz i noticed that my bow got an increase on damage after leveling it up to 30+, but i havent placed any point on its perk tree.

3. where do i see merchants selling decent weapons/armors? im at lvl30, ive been in cities like dawnstar, windhelm, winterhold but they all sell the same trash (elven, dwarven, steel, iron armor sets). is my overall progression gonna be the one that kind of instructs the merchants which items to sell to me?

[ĿIFE oƒ ƤIE]

1. Most enemies and dungeons match your current level when you encounter them.

2. Weapon skills increase damage with weapons by 0.5% per tick, same with magic skills but reducing magicka cost instead.

3. The best vendors are in more harder to reach locations.

[th]

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

1. does the world difficulty scale with your current level? if so, does that eliminate the need to grind to level up perks/skills for boss battles?

It does to some extent. It does eliminate that need but yet again - only to some extent.

It's not like it was in Oblivion where the auto scale system was almost omnipotent. Skyrim has somewhat "middle ground" auto scaling system. Something in between Oblivion and Morrowind where there is almost none of auto scaling. Skyrim's auto scaling system thus is the most balanced of these 3 ES games.

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

2. does simply leveling up skills like archery, one-handed, 2-handed (not putting any perks on them) increase weapon damage? coz i noticed that my bow got an increase on damage after leveling it up to 30+, but i havent placed any point on its perk tree.

It does.

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

3. where do i see merchants selling decent weapons/armors? im at lvl30, ive been in cities like dawnstar, windhelm, winterhold but they all sell the same trash (elven, dwarven, steel, iron armor sets). is my overall progression gonna be the one that kind of instructs the merchants which items to sell to me?

Merchants' selection of goods scales with your level too. It gets better with your level. I think when you get to level 50 they will be selling you best they can. At least in the cities of the main Skyrim land. Not sure about Solstheim.

[Sairek Ceareste]

1. Yes and no. Some enemies don't scale at all and are static, like giants.
Some static enemies may have new types may be introduced as well, for example, skeletons.
Some enemies scale, but only up to a certain point and have a level cap. Dragons, bandits and draugr fit this.
Some enemies scale indefinitely. Things like assassins who try to kill you, thieves who try to steal from you fit this criteria. Not many enemies do this though, most are either static or have a fixed cap.
It should be noted that not everything scales at the same rate, some enemies may only have a 0.8 scaling to your level, while other enemies can have 1.2 scaling to your level.



2. Yes at 0.5% per level, except for magic which is 0.5% less magicka cost per level. Unfortunately, this does make magic very bad for scaling in the mid/late game as magicka is only an issue early game.



3. Merchants scale with your level but not each merchant is weighted the same. For example, the "Radiant Ramiant" store in Solitude has a massive selection of clothes and items that are enchanted, while a similar merchant type in Riften who sells at a stall has a far less variable selection and a lot of them are probably not going to be enchanted.
That said, it's completely random. Even at level 218, there are days where merchants are just selling me regular 'ol iron gear or leather/hide armor.

[FauxFurry]

1. One the only enemy types that scales infinitely is the Magic Anomaly. Worse, they are always slightly higher level than the player character so if one waits too long to complete the Mage's College quest line, they can easily kill any NPC trying to help fight them off.
Everything else can be out leveled or outclassed by building up skills and perks.

2. Yes, simply gaining skills improves weapon damage but not nearly as much as assigning perk points do.

3. Taking the Investor perk will allow one to raise vendor level though that only improves stock to a certain extent.

[Skumboni]

Best gear is either made or found. Enchanting and smithing skill can make some impressive gear.

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

1. does the world difficulty scale with your current level? if so, does that eliminate the need to grind to level up perks/skills for boss battles?

Yes, for the most part, however, some boss level enemies are level locked and to not get stronger, ot weaker depedning in your level. One example is Dragon Priests, they are always level 50. One differebce is dungeons, it will be locked at the level you enter it. If you enter a location at a low level, then come back later, the enemies (and loot) will still be low level.

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

2. does simply leveling up skills like archery, one-handed, 2-handed (not putting any perks on them) increase weapon damage? coz i noticed that my bow got an increase on damage after leveling it up to 30+, but i havent placed any point on its perk tree.

Yes slightly, but all the real power comes from perks.

Originally posted by Geek Ultra:

3. where do i see merchants selling decent weapons/armors? im at lvl30, ive been in cities like dawnstar, windhelm, winterhold but they all sell the same trash (elven, dwarven, steel, iron armor sets). is my overall progression gonna be the one that kind of instructs the merchants which items to sell to me?

Higher levels will equal better gear, but some merchants are better than others. Khajiit Caravans usually have better stuff than your average merchant. However, the player can create better items than anything you'll find, much sooner too.

[jancawa55]

Part of the traveling around is to learn where the good stuff is. I've been roaming the roads for ten years, and always finding something new, but always starting with leveling up. start at Enchanting and work to the right Block, Armor, two hand, one and archery. Throw in some sneak too, a good leveled up dagger comes in Handy with it's multiplication effect on archery and backstab..