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Which was the first Elder Scrolls game you played?

Monday 31 October 2011

Why you should choose the path of: Melee


We've been back and forth, done magic and stealth, but here is the last, and I expect, least sought out path: Melee. Now I can understand why you'd want to be a deadly assassin, moving through the landscape unseen and unheard, as you make your way to your target, successfully making his death look like an accident.
I can also see why you'd might want to be a powerful mage, watching your inferior enemies tremble in fear as you begin to set everything around you on fire, as well as enjoying their failed attempt to run away after you've iced them.
But people! We're forgetting the oldest kind of hero! The Knight! (The oldest actually is demigod, but nevermind that!) The big, strong, presumably handsome man, whose ability in close combat outmatches the brute force of any adversary, be that a brute orc commander or a fierce dragon that roars with fiery death! One who's not afraid to get up close and battle it out - And you know why? 'Cause that son of a bitch can take it! Every single punch, kick and swing you take at him, he just brushes it off and kicks ass. Sort of like Batman. Now, who wouldn't want to be him?

Bring it, bitches!
Unlike the two other paths, the tools (weapons) of the warrior are not limited to specifics, but he has a wide array, which brings me closer to the point - It'll just be a minute. The thing that keeps the warrior alive is the hardcore armor and the crazy amount of health, giving them the ability to absorb heaps of damage before finally falling over whilst dying a necessarily bloody death, preferably by dragon, so that there is a good excuse. This all means that he can get in close and make use of one of the more enjoyable aspects of melee combat in Skyrim: Finishing moves.

This is where the ability to mix and match all sorts of weapons, comes in play. It works like this: Dovahkiin has a different finishing move for every weapon and every enemy in the game - Surely you've seen the mace dual-wielding hero in some of the recent footage, whom slays a troll in the most awesome of ways. Now it is even cooler than... Batman!

No need to be careful
Why walk around with a shield spell in hand - Or crouched in the darkness, when it ain't necessary? You could be awesome instead! One of the great perks of rolling warrior style, is that when we scout through the dark cave, or through the trees of the autumn forest, we don't have to watch out, 'cause if anything jumps on us, we don't give a shit. We. Just. Kill. It.

... Or tame it, if it's a bear!!

Crafting skill: Smithing
This is just rad. Unlike Oblivion's armorer skill, this isn't about repairing our disintegrated fur boots with a hammer - Our equipment doesn't disintegrate anymore, so there's not really much to repair, now is there, Timmy? Didn't think so! No, instead we create, upgrade and sharpen stuff to make our armor tough and our blades deadly! Once we master this fine skill, we'll be able to create stuff out of even Dragonbone! But keep in mind that these bones are insanely heavy, so you may have to kill a couple of dragons in order to get enough bones back to the forge town.

Guild
The Companions - soon to be your companions, my brute friend! This is the warrior guild, equal to the fighters' guild in Oblivion, consisting of melee fighting mercenaries. They are primarily seated in Whiterun, but they have several sub-divisions elsewhere - I personally know of two: The Shield Brothers and The Circle. As you travel through the wilderness of Skyrim, you may come upon a farmstead, where a bunch of Companions are fighting a giant. Should you help them, their leader will thank you; Should you not, she'll be displeased with you - either way she invites you to go to Whiterun to join the companions.
Whether you have to prove your merit in Whiterun, or taking down a giant is enough, is unknown.

7 comments:

  1. Nice!
    I will join the companions in no-time!
    I must say, I will be a melee "class" but I will also use bow and arrow!

    I will ofcourse use the dragonshouts, but I will use melee and bow more than magic and the like.

    I am very sure I will choose a Nord as my first character!
    And his name will be Rand Al'Thor. (if I give him redish hair)
    Or, Perrin Aybara (If he get a brownish hair)

    so.. now it's off to school, I washed my car for an hour ago and now I will head to school to learn! Hurray.... well.. it will be more interesting than fun i guess.

    - Mike

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  2. Mike, I should think you would save the Perrin character for the werewolf DLC. And any character named after Rand should be a sword wielding mage.

    My first character will probably be a "good" melee specialist. I tend towards moral neutrality, so my first character will probably be my only look at what happens with a well-liked character.

    Brad

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  3. Hahah, so the 2nd will lean more on the darker sides of you mind.
    I kind of think like that too.
    But then I think I need to make a dunmer or an orc.
    High elf would also work, because of their way of beeing, "better than all the other races" or "above other races".
    They have a attitude like that, and it's perfect for an evil mage.
    Dunmer could be an evil mage/necromancer or an assasin.
    But names.. names that is not from books in my case are easy.
    Just find a weird word, or look up some old latin.
    Or maybe native languages from America...

    But I've come to grow fond of the Wheel Of Time series, done with book 2. Starting on book 3 when the library get it transferred from another city... They don't have it... -.-'

    - Mike

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  4. I personally like to use all the classes/skills!! Leave no stone unturned!! Or skill unleveled!!
    -Victor-

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  5. Vic, from what I can gather, the master-of-all-trades character isn't really an option in Skyrim. You can probably build a Mario (average across the board), but I doubt you can manage much better.

    Mike, I actually read about 5 or 6 of the WoT books over the last year. As a 24 year old, that's probably a little late/weird, but whatever. I probably won't go back to it for awhile now if ever, the plot seems to be trapped in a never ending loop. If you like Jordan, you'll probably love George RR Martin's series, A Song of Ice an Fire. I've taken quite a bit of flack for insisting it is better than Tolkien.

    If I were to name a character after someone else's idea (I wouldn't), it would be Gregor Clegane, The Mountain That Rides. Actually, those stories have a lot of really perfect characters for TES.

    As for naming characters, I dabble in bad fiction (the ideas are awesome, the writing isn't) and tend to name my characters after the offspring of my mind. And of course, I play as they would. My TES characters tend toward moral neutrality because my written characters invariably mix good qualities with those less savory.

    Brad

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  6. Love songs of ice and fire as well as WoT. I think Ice and Fire doesn't answer enough questions! WoT gets out of a rut at some point in the series. Regardless, I was writing a screenplay based very loosely on Norse mythology, and the Norse names are wicked for a warrior nord. They are fitting for the warrior race of the north, and a lot of them have cool meanings. I had a character in Morrowind named "Asbjorn" which means bear in Norse. Definitely going to be influencing the naming of my first character.

    -Anundar

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