Enchanting or Smithing?

[slickricknasty]

Which do you guys prefer for Adept difficulty?
I find that when I use both of them my character gets a little too OP
(And before people post "Just play Legendary difficulty" No. I won't ive done it before and its honestly not that fun.)

I feel like enchanting is fun since you can name your weapons and make custom weapons and armor that is super unique. The only negative I find with it is that by mid game theres no point in finding unique/deadric artifacts because your gear will already surpass them.

Smithing is cool in that you can craft and upgrade armor and make dragonbone/deadric/etc. But it leaves out the fun customization of enchanting and is a bit more of a grind in my opinion.

What do you guys prefer?

[alexander_dougherty]

Both, you need both and both are equally important for the right armour/weapons.

Craft the armour, then add the best enchants for you, and you can name it for multiple sets for different purposes.

[Mringasa]

Smithing is most important until you hit 60 so you can upgrade enchanted gear. Depends on your mods though, some perk overhauls will put this lower.

Enchanting is something that can be leveled "as you play your character" through learning enchantments and then once you have soul trap you will level this reasonably quickly by recharging your weapon.

You can also level them combined by enchanting every piece of gear you smith. This is solid power leveling of both skills and is only really hindered by how much time you want to spend selecting a gem, enchant, item and crafting it at the enchanter. Hitting the gold/silver mines around Skyrim will give you your best bang for your time spent since item value is directly related to skill increase and jewelery is the best way to level Smithing.

[Corporal Cow]

Smithing is easy to level, just slaughter every wolf you come across and mine a ♥♥♥♥ ton of iron and get cracking on making iron daggers. I say spend your time actively pursuing enchanting as it tends to be harder to later.

[John The Butcher]

In most games if I'm using one of the crafting skills, I'm using them all. It takes a lot of grinding, but it's worth it if you want to create a really powerful character.

Though if I wanted to choose between enchanting and smithing, I'd choose enchanting for a magic-orientated character, and smithing for a warrior character.

[Solomon Hawk]

As alexander_dougherty pointed out: Both.

[Avrie]

Yeah as said above ... both. I agree with you about the difficulty levels. I enjoy the challenge but it truly s@cks to have to waste 10 minutes to kill a d@mn skeever. It just isn't fun. I stopped enchanting weapons, and only enchant armour ... and I do it pretty early then just buff it at the workbench. I play the first levels at expert, then bump it up to master when I get a little too strong. Seems like a good balance.

[GrimCat]

For those of you that want a higher level of difficulty in battle I suggest Revenge of the Enemies and Higher Level Enemies mods. Enemies get new abilities and act smarter. Groups will try to flank and surround you, and you will get one-shotted occaisonally. Does it without the "damage sponge" problem.

[wrighty565]

Originally posted by Corporal Cow:

Smithing is easy to level, just slaughter every wolf you come across and mine a ♥♥♥♥ ton of iron and get cracking on making iron daggers. I say spend your time actively pursuing enchanting as it tends to be harder to later.

Its much easier than that just get left handed ring mod get married then you can keep changing wedding ring from left to right and back again no ingots required.

[wowszer]

Put another way, it's the negative factors of choosing one over the other. Choosing smithing means you lose out on 2nd enchantment on weapons and armor, unless you find the exact one for you at the right time. You may never get an item for prorection from lightning leaving you vulnerable and making it a grind. On the other hand, Enchanting will give you great magical defenses, as well as improving what may be great abilities already, but leave you vulnerable to power attacks from barbarians. As for levels advancement, increase difficulty slowly, when Adept becomes too easy, move one level only, repeat as each level becomes easier.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by Corporal Cow:

Smithing is easy to level, just slaughter every wolf you come across and mine a ♥♥♥♥ ton of iron and get cracking on making iron daggers.

People still waste their time making iron daggers?

[Mringasa]

Originally posted by The Rock God:

Originally posted by Corporal Cow:

Smithing is easy to level, just slaughter every wolf you come across and mine a ♥♥♥♥ ton of iron and get cracking on making iron daggers.

People still waste their time making iron daggers?

Yes. Apparently. This amuses me to no end. You can rack up Smithing in little time with jewelery. Then smelt it back down (some of it at least) and re-use the ingots.

Haven't used vanilla crafting in forever though. Complete Crafting Overhaul has been in my modlist since I saw a post about it here. So much more fun than vanilla.

[John The Butcher]

Originally posted by Mringasa:

Originally posted by The Rock God:

People still waste their time making iron daggers?

Yes. Apparently. This amuses me to no end. You can rack up Smithing in little time with jewelery. Then smelt it back down (some of it at least) and re-use the ingots.

Haven't used vanilla crafting in forever though. Complete Crafting Overhaul has been in my modlist since I saw a post about it here. So much more fun than vanilla.

What about dwarven bows?

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by George Costanza:

Originally posted by Mringasa:

Yes. Apparently. This amuses me to no end. You can rack up Smithing in little time with jewelery. Then smelt it back down (some of it at least) and re-use the ingots.

Haven't used vanilla crafting in forever though. Complete Crafting Overhaul has been in my modlist since I saw a post about it here. So much more fun than vanilla.

What about dwarven bows?

Dwarven bows are the way to go once you can make them, and improving them (once your skill is high enough) makes them even more efficient. After hitting 90 making/improving ebony bows takes over. Making iron daggers is always a terrible idea though.

[John The Butcher]

Originally posted by The Rock God:

Originally posted by George Costanza:

What about dwarven bows?

Dwarven bows are the way to go once you can make them, and improving them (once your skill is high enough) makes them even more efficient. After hitting 90 making/improving ebony bows takes over. Making iron daggers is always a terrible idea though.

I sometimes make iron daggers for one or two levels to make it to lvl 30 smithing after I've made all of the gold from Kolskeggr Mine into rings.

[DeathClaw]

You know, there is a mod by Tanis Half-elven that gives you 1000 of every item in the game. You can make lots of items and then enchant all of them. It levels you up very fast.