A Champion’s Experiences… [part one]
The Oblivion posts on Menori.com have been quite popular so I thought I'd do a short series of posts gathering some of my experiences during nearly 200 hours of play and becoming the Champion of Cyrodiil.
The candle flame flickered as Hadaster sat at his laboratory bench. A varied assortment of herbs, flora and animal parts lay in neat piles on the bench top and the Arch-mage grabbed the pestle infront of him. "Samples first, I think" he muttered to himself. Hadaster took a bite out of a Clanfear claw. "Grim", he frowned.
I found that 'sampling' ingredients is a slow but good way of getting increases to your Alchemy skill. Alchemy was good to get increases in because it was one way if getting Intelligence increases upon level up. And Intelligence is the prime stat for Magicka. Always concentrate on getting your secondary stats up during the time between levelling. As a Monk, Hadaster got his Agility up very quickly but neglected things like Intelligence due to the Monk having a high proportion of Agility related stats as primaries.
Two hours had passed by the time Hadaster had finished his alchemical studies. An entire crate full of Restore Endurance potions was the output of his labour. "They'll sell for a reasonable price", he chuckled and smiled.
Repitition is rife in Oblivion if you want to progress. I spent ages making Restore Endurance potions because they're quick and easy to make. You can find an abundance of Potatoes, Onions, Corn, Flour etc. and comining two of them to make a Restore Endurance potion proved to be a good way of churning out potions to get my Alchemy up. At higher levels my Endurance never dipped below about 95% unless I was hacking at creatures constantly [the battle with Mankar Camoran comes to mind, he was hard to kill]. So I sold the potions and managed to get a little Mercantile skill along the way.
Remember to keep casting spells too. The spells actually need to do something in order to qualify for an increase in their stat. Cast low level spells over and over such as light, bound dagger (cast the spell get the dagger then put the weapon away - rinse, repeat) to get increases. I used to do this while on the move. Later in the game when my speed was greater I used to run everywhere rather than ride in order to qualify for the Althletics increase. Oh, and jump everywhere too. The further you fall the better, I seemed to get better increases to Acrobatics if I hurt myself when landing. The throne rooms of most castles is a good place - jump off the balcony run back up the stairs and jump off the balcony again.
Hadaster rumaged through a chest looking for his Master Alembie. "Now where in the name of the Nine did that go?" he exclaimed. He pointed at another chest and muttered a few words of the arcane tongue. Instantly the chest lid flew open. "Ah.. not that one" he said gazing upon his old armour. The blood red of the motif on the daedric armour caused him to think back to the recent battles. Only a few months ago Cyrodiil had been under the threat of complete domination from Mehrunes Dagon, the daedric prince. Only through Hadaster's courage and skill and the sacrifice of his friend Martin Septim, the Emperor, had complete destruction been avoided.
Armour. 'By the Nine' it's important. As a Monk, Hadaster had Light Armour as a primary skill but it only became really useful when he became a Master. The additional 50% bonus to amrour class when reaching Master really makes a difference. Once Light Armour had been mastered I had Hadaster move to Heavy Armour. By that point of the game most Marauders wore daedric armour so it was relatively easy to get the key parts such as body, greaves and boots. Despite the weight the armour class is much better and more importantly it degrades slower than light armour. Getting several suits is important as you can tailor for differing tasks. I always wore a suit that was enchanted with 'ease burden' spells when going into Oblivion as it meant I could typically carry a lot of loot out with me. That and having as many 'pack mule' style scrolls as I could get and afford.
When going back to light armour - the Mehrunes' Dagger add-on provides a good opportunity to get some really nice assassin armour (both in terms of looks and bonuses) - I found that it degrades too fast and before I know it the armour protection is pathetic. That plus the fact that the best shields in the game are heavy armour. By the final battles I had daedric armour and shields that provided 80% damage reflection. It took a serious amount of daedra to hurt me, even when prone and knocked onto the floor.
"No, that stays in there" Hadaster said and closed the lid of the chest. Those days are behind me, he thought. The land is safe. "Now where did I put that Nirnroot?" he said outloud.
[that concludes part one. This isn't a wakthrough. There are plenty of them on the Web. It's more of genuine experience and how I changed my play throughout the game and some tactics for fighting so stay alive. Watch out for part two soon.]
Thanks man, thats a lot of good advice there. And you did a very good job with the story in the middle of it.
Do other NCPs and Enemies actually have a certaint amount of items that they can carry like you? Because if they don’t have a limit, then what use is the spells that make their stuff heavier?
Thanks William, much appreciated.
I actually never used any of the burden spells on enemies. Although I got burdened myself a good few times mainly by Liches with staves.
So I’m assuming that it works much the same as being on the receiving end. When you burden your foe the spell would need to be strong enough to slow them down and ultimately to root them.
Perhaps Hadaster will dust off his equipment and go try.
I’ve been through a few dungeons, and I’ve found plenty of Welkynd stones. I didn’t know what the heck to use them for, but I thought they made awfully nice decorations for my tower. Then I heard they were used in magic, but how do you use them? And what do they exactly do?
Welkynd Stones act like Restore Magicka potions but they pretty much restore all your magicka, so they;re useful when you’re very low. They frequent Ayleid ruins and provide a light source in the dark parts of the dungeons. Most are found in sconces that hold them up and are typically reachable if you just look upward. Others aren’t so easy to get hold of but you can shoot them with an arrow to dislodge them from their sconces. Be careful though because they tend to fall down the back of whatever they’re standing on and you might not be able to get the stone at all. You can also find them lying on the floor too.
There are other stones called Varla Stones, which are whiter in colour and slightly larger than Welkynd stones. These are harder still to find and normally are covered by a large metal sheath that can only be opened by activating a large button somewhere close by in the Ayleid Ruin. Varla stones are especially nice because when used they recharge every magic item in your inventory. They’re rare though. I only found about 10 of them in the whole game.
the varla stones are quest items most of them, and there are a total
of ten stones in that quest. There is a collector in the Imperial City
who will pay a good price for them. They are peculiar as they tend to
drop through the case if you place them in a display case, whithout
doing or before doing the quest. If you steal them back from the
collector later, this “curse” has been removed, and they will act
like any other item, and stay put.
The power wells near most ayleid ruins act the same way as the welkynd
stones. There is a power spell “ayleid well”, which does the same and
has a zero cost. Mostly useful for those born under the Atronach.
They aren’t Varla Stones, they’re Ayleid Statues. In the quest, I mean.
I find that magic does not suit me that well. I have some enchanted items such as Modreyn Bearclaw’s Helm wich I find is very stylish. I use alchemy rarely but I am starting to use it more as it is useful for certain things. Creating a greater poison of paralysis is one of these things and is very useful for taking care of foes that you cannot kill in one hit. I find the best ingredients are hidden in forts, caves and various other monster-infested places.
Yours sincerely The Gray Fox
About what you said about the light armor. Of course it degrades faster, it isn’t made for up-close fighters. It’s lighter and degrades faster because the wearer should not expect to be hit often, so it is best if only used by archers and assasins. Mages can use it but I would expect them to use enchanted robes.