#however. it's much harder nowadays imo to build a solid group

[eorzeashan]

my fc: i think i'll be done with ffxiv come 7.0

my fc: yeah it's no fun without a friend group

me: gah!

[m0rr1s0n]

I'm going to break down the loadout of mods and their configs along with some key features that stand out to me. Then I'm going to really try to give a description to explain why I made these choices and in the process of doing so, hopefully shed some light on how to break into it and what to expect when it all comes together. But it's on you to read mod descriptions to really fully understand all changes and feature each mod has as it's utterly pointless for me to try to describe a mod's features in more detail than the actual author. I'll, however, explain my own tweaked version of another mod. I'm (trying) to make a video to really home in on certain aspects of combat, especially the little things that add up, like avoiding getting hit.SKIP THIS IF YDGAFAll in all, I suppose an intro is due to try to sell my 'way to play'. Good combat, to describe it in a vague way we can all agree upon, depends on two skills, actively dealing damage and actively mitigating damage. Bad combat leaves little room to be good or bad at either of these outside the raw numbers being put in. Good combat is difficult but does not force the player into looking for cheese strategies (and hopefully restrains one's ability to indulge in them) nor is luck the majority determining factor in the outcome of a battle. Good combat is varied not only to prevent stagnation but to keep the challenge evolving in such a way that the player does not learn a single strategy or trick to win every battle. A game as massive as skyrim has it's limitations in consistency and mods assist in but don't always succeed in overcoming these limitations. For example, even with my mods, you may find these overpowered one-trick builds. However, remember if you feel you're becoming overpowered you can always increase spawns or if necessary enemy stats (NPC releveler) to restore challenge. I don't recommend tweaking difficulty. There's so many reasons that I don't care to list them all but essentially damage dealt/damage received is worse than so many imaginable alternatives which is part of why we're using mods in the first place.(Even simply jacking up healthpools, as cheesey as it sounds, is a much better method of increasing difficulty from a balance perspective. Take vigor for example, if enemies deal 3x damage and you deal .5, it doesn't matter what armor you wear, you're going to get 1 hit staggered by just about every enemy. Poise is then rendered useless, and heavier armor though slower and more stamina consuming, doesn't have any added benefit and we mine as well be using an 'every hit staggers' system on your end. Meanwhile, enemies will eat 2 handed powerattacks without staggering. You get the point.)Guide Starts HereFirstly, make sure you download SSEedit, the Creation Kit, and a BSA Extractor (http://ift.tt/2w4sjmz)Simple Must-Haves I won't comment on (for now at least):Alchemy Fixed (http://ift.tt/2uQiq9S?)Harder Lock Picking (http://ift.tt/2wF3yzF?)Scarcity (http://ift.tt/2uPZtUS?)Serio's Spells & Shouts Hotkeys (http://ift.tt/2wFCznL?)Harder Barter Settings (http://ift.tt/2vfGiVo?)Realistic AI Detection (http://ift.tt/2wFq5fY?)Enai's whole catalogue. I don't consider myself an Enai fanboy [as much as anyone that uses all of his mods can claim not to be] and I accept no mods are perfect however great their author. If I were a dick I could even point out some seemingly poor decisions made here and there (fucking technomancers) but I just don't see the point in playing without his perks, races, standing stones, spells, enchants, and so on. I don't know of any replacements that are as interesting and balanced. Essentially, everything he's added simply improves the vanilla experience. Make sure to get thief skills rebalance from the ordinator download page.For Ordinator, open it up in Creation Kit and find perks under 'actor' in the object window. While in perks, search 'vancian', double click the perk that pops up and in the window that pops up from there find conditions. The first condition says 'GetBaseActorValue', double click that and in the small window that pops up change the 'Value' (should be 30) to 70. Make sure you 'Okay' out rather than exit the windows, but close them. Now search 'Quadratic' do the same for that perk but make the Value 75. Finally search 'Dungeonmaster' do the same here but make the Value 80. If you grasp what I'm doing here then you can select your own values, otherwise stick to mine. There's good reasons for this, one being I highly (and I mean highly) recommend the ordinator version of this mod: http://ift.tt/2vgoGsy? More on that later.For Apocalypse, open it up in Creation Kit and find 'spells' in 'Magic' tab in the object window. Once selected, search longstride, open it up, in the inner window titled 'Effects' you should see two effects listed. Click the first one and set the magnitude to 80. Click the second and set to 160. I encourage you to play around with this to come up with a fair value, but the reason for this is Athletik Combat and (were you to not use it) Vigor reduce movement speed while casting which ends up making longstride not worth casting since you can just run that fast (or faster) without casting.For Wildcat, configure 0 cost for everything and disable bow draw stamina drain (we'll rely on vigor for this), Turn off the slowdown at low stamina (same reason), I prefer injuries off nowadays as I find everytime I'm injured I mine as well be dead, everything else on. I also (sorry again Enai) recommend you download SSEedit, load Wildcat, find 'fDiffMultHPToPCN' and 'fDiffMultHPByPCN' and set their values to 1.0 instead of 1.5. This is because one shotting is not conducive to balance on either end, in my opinion (You can still obviously potentially 1 shot enemies that are much weaker than you).http://ift.tt/2v6lkMO - First read and do this: http://ift.tt/2vpox57 is the first mod mentioned, you only need to do the ini edit for perks since we're not using it for spells. Next run it (Data/Skyproc Patchers/Asis) and only check perks. NPC perks is an excellent method of increasing their statistical power in a less artificial, more interesting manner than just tweaking damage dealt/damage received.http://ift.tt/2v6AvFB - I recommend my tweaked version, obviously, as I made it for my own use originally, but I'll link Alex9ndre's real version as well.First, the config. Again, I find injuries to be automatic death far too often (maybe it's just me). Turn off conditional damage in favor of Wildcat's.Vigor has a fatigue and stamina action system which I've altered and expanded on. Running (not sprinting) doesn't debuff stamina regeneration In my version as I believe you shouldn't be encouraged to stand still, however low stamina results in worse stamina debuffs [up to 60% slower] so that it becomes harder to avoid damage and reposition the lower your stamina. Also Low Magicka [Disorientation] results in slower movement speed as well, and casting costs a small amount of stamina 5-15 depending on how low your magicka is.Original - http://ift.tt/2v8Fplx Tweaked Version - http://ift.tt/2vpildv Overhauls Combined and MLU Simplified - The variety of enemies in Vanilla skyrim is appalling and you may not even realize it until starting a game with Encounter Overhauls Combined. Even enemies that differed, didn't differ like this. Their speed, their attack types, and abilities really inspire a more adaptive mindset. This, in my opinion, is why EOC is the core of this loadout. Not only is it incredibly well designed from a challenge viewpoint, it does so without "cheating" or breaking lore in any jarring ways given that you dont decide to load up all the SoT features alongside it. This is, in my opinion, the best addition to skyrim's combat. The author is so conscientous about balance issues and jarring lore-issues that emerge from combining (or using) some of these mods and works hard with frequent updates. See his page and every mod he mentions having a patch for MLU for download and install. USE MORROWLOOT ULTIMATE SIMPLIFIED. Then download all the mods his mod combines and tweaks which he also lists. His recommended loadout, even the extended one, are pretty solid and they work well with the rest of the mods in this guide.For configuration, activate OBIS and don't change anything. Sands of Time is where it gets tricky because the authors are insane.. seriously. Equip 'ring of danger', which summons the Sandman. Activate Mod. I have most experience with 'Ale Drinker' difficulty and it's not all that easy. Then ask the Sandman for the Revelation books. First, if you don't like seeing things that make no sense in Tamriel let alone Skyrim (and I hardly know shit about either's Lore), open up the Ruminari/Assassins book and disable the zombies alltogether. The SoT team have their own lore behind all three groups featured in this book but the zombie one has some jarring issues like "Hell Knights" and with everything going on they simply feel out of place but if you don't care, go for it. The EOC developer Tzu, is still working on balancing out the equipment of the two assassin groups which was their main issue especially early game. They're still absurd IMO but beatable especially in cities with guards, but if you are having trouble early on just disable them everywhere until your character strong enough to take them on. Just remember, sometimes running or getting help is okay. Go to toggles and turn off both of them. Open up the other Revelations book select Lore -> Lore Toggle and Disable Non-Lore Friendly. I now know this doesn't turn all the others off so just to every one like chests, armors, and burning inferno and turn them off as well, it's just too much and often imbalanced. Back out and go to Walking -> Spawns -> Half as Many, at least early game. In Misc toggles turn off outside spawns and dungeon spawns, at least early in the game. This reduces the chance you'll suddenly be mobbed by a horde of enemies you have no shot of overtaking. Again the SoT teammembers are as insane as they are talented.The SoT encounters are usually fantastic. They help even out a sometimes inconsistently challenging game. For example, that single Draugr boss in bleak falls that adding enemies around doesn't help improve because he only spawns after you get the first shout.. he pops out as you're approaching from the stairs. Little encounter tweaks that just make sense gameplay-wise are part of what makes SoT great when configured. I even recommend increasing the spawns as you become more powerful and the game (potentially) gets easier. Roguelike just adds a variety of different, mostly Lore-friendly enemies to the game and with the help of the author of EOC places them logically and they're usually very well balanced. I feel EOC cleans up some of the whackiness and balance mishaps much like it does for SoT.Advanced Adversary Encounters alters enemy types in a more conservative way to make combat more challenging and interesting without arbitrarily cranking stats up. EoC integrates changes and integrates them into the other encounter mods. Different enemies have different weaknesses and resistances. Has it's own compatibility patch page.MLU Simplified is just MLU stripped of features like deleveling. Loot is more important and placed logically. Grab patches from the MLU page not MLU Simplified page. I'll link both. I highly recommend using the slower skill leveling addon.For MLU Slower Leveling, go into Skyrim -> Data -> Plugins -> Sumwunn and open the ini file with notepad. See all those 0.5's next to skill names? Change those to 0.25's. Or use my preferred, even slower setup balanced with different rates between spellcasting, craft, and physical combat skills: http://ift.tt/2vqRzSc: http://ift.tt/2v8ypVP S: http://ift.tt/2vrnGRL (for Slower Leveling & Patches): http://ift.tt/2voRs9D & Watchtowers Reborn - Genesis was intended to be an addon to Sands of Time. When I first tried it, I didn't understand how it could differ from SoT's spawn system. Then I played with it for a bit and it felt much better on default settings compared to SoT's increased spawns. From what I understand now, Genesis literally randomly generates more well-placed spawns to every dungeon in the game so that going through the same dungeon again will be a different experience. Watchtowers does this for watchtowers. Genesis config: For spawns, keep the default settings but obviously remember you can increase or decrease these spawns depending on your experience. Change Spawn Always to (Yes). Disable the treasure module as this can throw off the gold economics of the playthrough. Genesis features a releveler if you feel the mobs it spawns get out of control BUT I recommend if you want to use something like this, use NPCs Releveled (I don't recommend using either until you try the game for a bit without as I believe there should be greater variability in stats and it can't account for some encounters where the stats of enemies are very intentionally unusual.): http://ift.tt/2wFNHAK? It uses a more logical scaling system that accounts for different enemy types. You can add exceptions to the releveling but the obvious ones are like followers are already exempt from the effect. I recommend, if you use it, to turn off the size scaling on minibosses. It can cause some issues in my experience.Genesis: http://ift.tt/2v90IUd Reborn: http://ift.tt/2v6fJGk Enemies & Athletik Combat - These two combine to ensure fair mechanics between you and the enemy but also improve the feel of melee combat in particular. Firstly, dodging is made much more possible through imperfect accuracy, increased strafe speed, and limited rotational range when swinging. This just feels right even as the one swinging. I didn't forsee how much this would impact the enjoyment of combat especially swinging a two handed mace around.Mortal Enemies: http://ift.tt/2vrj7Xo Combat: http://ift.tt/2vpmq1c Tweaks (Required by EOC & Skytest Harder Creatures - These two cover all non-humanoid enemies in the vanilla game. They alter stats and AI behavior but Harder Creatures also add new attacks animations. Make sure to grab compatibility patches from AAE's patch page.Animal Tweaks: http://ift.tt/2v8n1Jv Harder Creatures: http://ift.tt/2v5OQ5i Spawns (Only Boss x2) - Install increased Spawns, either version, but only keep the Increased Boss Spawns esp. This is interesting. For example, where there's usually that named bandit boss, there's that named bandit boss and a generic bandit boss and usually of a different race and setup. In dungeons, I've seen different boss types altogether along with EOC. This ensures those bosses that don't already have a couple grunts around them aren't as easily dispatched.http://ift.tt/2vp1Yxt Edition Followers & Amazing Follower Tweaks (AFT) - SE Followers doesn't sound like much but it really makes followers worth having for purposes other than loneliness. It adds uniqueness and value to followers. Shit, even Sven has some impactful tricks up his sleeve.Regarding AFT config, talk to a follower: tweak options -> settings -> NO COMBAT RECOVERY, no skill synergy, limit to 3 followers.Here's a potentially really important tweak you need to make if you're using followers. Open console click one them and enter this one by one: forceav attackdamagemult .33 You can adjust this to your liking but remember to do it to each new follower you acquire. This ensures that you can't just sit back and watch followers win fights for you, but rather they will rely on you. With specialized followers they'll have tricks and sometimes it's adding extra damage (like Faendal's magic arrows) but it's all supplementary to your performance. Not to say Lydia's "lay on hands" hasn't saved my ass 100,000 times but you can't just mindlessly mash attack while your followers do the heavy lifting. The reason I keep extra stats is so that they're not just cannon fodder that get leveled at the start of every fight, with their general AI, they need that defensive boost (ironically though, one of Jenassa's ability can make her pretty resilient). I personally don't assign combat AI through AFT because I'm not sure how it could interfere with Specialized Followers. I recommend you don't either.Special Edition Followers: http://ift.tt/2vreDQs Follower Tweaks: http://ift.tt/2v5RNTz - We don't have a dodge mod in SE. This takes some getting used to but it's a pretty decent placeholder. Again you can avoid damage through good movement, but it doesn't hurt to have a short burst of speed for some stamina. Works best when moving side to side as with this loadout backing up is usually too slow to make swooshing backwards a reliable method of avoiding damage. Choose the faster option. http://ift.tt/2vp7tMZ require Perks (Ordinator) - Just as the name describes. No more, casting master level spells as a novice mage. No more warrior that hasn't used a spell all playthrough buying an advanced spellbook and learning to make meteors rain from the sky. I chose the default version but many of you will probably prefer the No Novice version which allows anyone to cast novice spells without perks.All Trainers & Unlimited Training - We're using a tough barter mod, we've reduced skill leveling to a quarter of vanilla, and we've restricted spells' use through perks . Wondering why (Barter is multipurposed)? Because Skyrim's system isn't deliberate enough to REALLY BUILD characters with strengths AND weaknesses. What do I mean? I mean, I'm this wandering 2handed scimitar wielding, contingency buffed elf mage shooting fireballs from my sword and that's fine but when does it stop? I don't have potions, how do I get health back between fights. If I'm injured and I get away, how do I heal up. You buy flash heal and before you know it your restoration skill is tailing just behind your destruction and enchanting skill because you use this spell so often not even just in combat, but for time-saving convenience. Pretty much every mage ends up a cleric. Now, I have to grab the novice perk (not if you use No Novice) and take Healing instead of Flash Heal. and now my Restoration skill level won't skyrocket.So we install Unlimited Training. Now we can spend our precious gold on skill levels all we want. With all these mods in place, you can still level skills up by using them and will, but training becomes a staple for leveling your primary skills. So you're actually deliberately choosing what's going to level up the most and with economic consideration. But now I have to travel 800 miles this way and 400 miles that way everytime I want to train? Not with All Trainers. With this Oldrim mod there's a trainer for every skill in Whiterun. All you have to do is extract the folders/files from the BSA and drop them in your data folder along with the ESP. There's one little issue. "The Guaridan" (Block trainer). Open the mod up in CK, go to actors tab and search the Guaridan. Correct the typo. Save.All Trainers: http://ift.tt/2v8zDQU Training: http://ift.tt/2v5BENI Act Like Shields & Better Wards - Wards are particularly weak, even with this loadout, with a lot more magic being casted against you. These 2 mods make them actually useful. With these a wards and shields are similar yet with their own pros and cons: shield is faster, has timed block, doesn't cost mana, can bash; but a ward protects against spells, random chance of stagger, and also allows you to attack or cast with the other hand while being maintained.I use many other mods but these are the one's that affect gameplay. I also use Nexus Skyrim Overhaul, which believe it or not is compatible with all of these, and every single weapon/armor mod EOC provides a VIS patch for.Shields Act Like Shields: http://ift.tt/2vrzcMN Wards: http://ift.tt/2vp6fkA StylesTip: I found 3rd person much better for learning dodging without swoosh and getting behind enemies for backstabs (Wildcat). Try it out even on mage/archer, just zoom out when enemies close in. I happen to use 3rd Person fake dodge which makes it fun and engaging: http://ift.tt/2v87CZz this loadout, even typical grunts can give you trouble if you're careless. Of course there're always trash fights where you can sit back and spam to win, but I'd argue these are a necessary gameplay feature. What really matters is if the game is frequently challenging and varied enough to stimulate you.However, as far as Combat Styles go, the two heavy hitters are vigor and Wildcat. Firstly, enemies will block pretty much any frontal attack if they have the stamina to do so. They'll bash stagger you if you let them work in and without good attention to positioning this will lead to you being pummeled by other enemies which may then result in a poise stagger; a potentially fatal combo. On top of this, enemies are just much more persistent and consistent. They react more believably but are smart to the point where it can leave you wondering, initially, what can I even do here? This is good. It's good because not immediately recognizing how to defeat basic enemies when the odds are against you stats and numbers-wise is the basis of solid combat so long as the challenge is surmountable and without relying on luck. The second main ingredient, as mentioned previously, is variation because otherwise once you truly master defeating a single type of threat, the game becomes a cakewalk. By adding different threats to keep the game from becoming too predictable, challenge is maintained.Here's a couple tips for fighting basic enemies. Firstly, Mortal Enemies and Athletik Combat make dodging possible even without Swoosh and it's rewarding. Always try to bait an attack in one direction while circling to avoid once the animation begins. Then, of course, you have to keep an eye on where you're moving in relation to the other enemies, if there are any, which there very often are. Stay moving against large packs of enemies, and check your blind spots when you know your safe from the front for a second. Swoosh takes some getting used to. Just remember one rule, don't backpedal with it or you'll just waste stamina. Secondly, given the opportunity pepper blocks with attacks that don't overcommit you (directional power attacks) unless you know the power attack will break the block. Also, anticipate dodging when power attacking and you'd be surprised what some FPS snapping can get you. A good power attack trick in a situation where it won't get you surrounded is to forward power attack from absolute max distance. This can catch enemies offguard and keeps space between you and them. Timed blocking and bashing are obvious gotos BUT it's best not to play purely reactively, unless, potentially, your build works with that style. Often playing aggressive with good positioning and movement is more effective especially when the odds are against you and you need to thin the enemy ranks quickly as possible.I recommend bumping SoT to Spartan when you become familiar with mechanics like dodging without swoosh or if you're simply finding it too easy, otherwise you might see it as impossible BSCharacter BuildingWhen it comes to Character Building, fun comes first. You can always tweak mod configs to increase or decrease the challenge. Adding restrictions like perk requirements for spells may sound deceptively like favoring balance in place of fun but imagine you're playing a pure warrior character and you get a full set of daedric gear before you even kill your first dragon. Spells are now something not only to build for, but to look forward to as a spellcaster. The reason Vancian Mage and it's successive perks are made to require high alteration is because of how vastly powerful they become with this setup. Vancian mage means you can cast any spell in the game without required perks, but only 20 times before resting (however 5 more skill levels in Alteration and you can grab Quadratic Wizard and start building those uses). This is actually a cool concept for Alteration mages that take this path. They obviously can't use these spells to the same effect as mages with many perks in the spells' school but they suddenly acquire immense utility. Rather than allow an Alteration based character to get this in Embershard or Bleak Falls, they now have to experience the restrictive system for a while and will really feel the worth of Vancian. I'm not even sure 70 is fair tbh, but I've come to be less obsessively nitpicky so 70 is good enough for me.. for now.My experience so far with this setup is spread your perks too thin and you may struggle, yet there's always periods where an investment in a side tree can be more beneficial than continuing to climb.Primary Characters I've Been Testing WithFirstly, the game does not start out super difficult. While, there were a couple sticking points for me early on, I actually contemplated employing increased spawns for non-boss enemies. Now, on my level 26 I realize that would've been a pretty terrible idea. Even if the game managed to simply never challenge me enough, I'd increase difficulty through configuration the mods I already have. I have a level 26 Destruction(high)/2handed(high)/enchanting(mid-high)/alteration(mid) mage and while he's incredibly strong against single enemies, even bosses, his perks are spread too thin and he lacks the longevity to fight big groups or prolonged battles without struggling. I'm still fully able to progress but I have to REALLY play, and die a lot. With that said I die a lot on every character.I have a Conjurer around level 20 and even with a really optimized build, I'm at the border right now of increasing the difficulty. Ustengrav happens to be a pretty easy dungeon beyond the first two fights or so and I did die in the second fight against all those undead and I wasn't playing carelessly. Turning SoT spawns on the lowest possible setting or cranking up Genesis' spawns would probably put the difficulty in a very nice spot for me. So far, I've a poorly optimized build with some overpowered perks (Spellscribe and its successors may need a requirement bump, but its so fun I haven't gotten around to it yet) that usually has tough time but can demolish single enemies and a well optimized build that isn't exactly rolling over everything but could use a little difficulty bump to spice things up AND it's easy enough to do that. The simplest solution is enabling/increasing SoT/Genesis spawns. I plan to keep tweaking as I see necessary and should keep this updated as well.I'm not sure reddit is the best place for it (it may be out of sight within a day or two) but reddit is what I know so for now it's here.Any input or questions? just leave a commentSorry, I'm continuing to fix format and typos. I know it was horrid at first. Just cleaned Enai's mods section. via /r/skyrimmods