Anyone ever entered an Oblivion gate at level 30+??

Archonius · Post by **Archonius** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:03 am

I was level 20 and playing the game fine. Im abit of a jack of all trades to be fair. A Battlemage with level 100 sneak (+20 in 2 rings of treachery). Finished the thiefs missions, dark bro's missions, arena, and quite high up the mages guild (Wizard). Still barely touched the main quests.

I decided to do abit of training on my magic and now after a long session im level 30 with level 100 destruction, conjuration, alteration, mystisism, illusion and level 90 blade and level 63 heavy armour and working on my Restoration while typing this (2 comps).

Where handling the closure of Oblivion gates used to be no problem, I am now getting my ass well and truely whooped. Daedric spiders, Dremora Markuyx (or whatever they're called), Xivilai, Storm Atronach not too mention some ridiculously damaging Clanfears. Even standard dungeons are riddled with Liches and Gloom Wraiths.

My offensive spells are both my own inventions, one ranged called Legendary Magic Degrader that lowers the targets magic resistence by 100% for 30 seconds and the other one named elemental touch which hits the target for a combined total of 300 damage over 2 seconds. both use up around 50 magicka. In normal cases these spells serve me well but against Xivilai and dremora battlemages (there are many types of these) and liches i just cant seem to win. They have such a high resistence to magic and almost instant dispel themselves if i cast my magic degrader.

What can i do? My armour is mostly Daedric bar a few ebony items and completly unenchanted as is my weapon, Elven Longsword. I have Azuras star and can trap unlimited of my own summoned Grand souls, and my armourer is about 70 so i can repair these items too. But i just dont know what to enchant them with? I dont want to waste them as getting hold of replacements isnt too easy.

Any suggestions on how i can boost up my character are much appreciated. I find myself saving and reloading all the time now if my sneak attacks get detected before my target dies. NOT the way to play this game.

Thanks in advance.

Archonius, The Battlemage who trained herself out of her league!

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:23 am

Use a mod that restricts the levels of enemies, and reload before you enter? That's my advice. Balance in Oblivion is severely problematic.

Archonius · Post by **Archonius** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:58 am

I dont like the idea of changing the game just because i cant keep up. Or changing the difficulty (it stays smack in the middle).

I still believe i can return the balance with some enchantments or some sort of mystisism spells or something. I just cant think how.

Dyre Straits · Post by **Dyre Straits** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:05 pm

One of the tactics I learned in Morrowind was the Levitate. It's was quite nice and would get me out of tremendously difficult situations. That Wizard Staff was GREAT!

Well, without Levitate in Oblivion, I've resorted to using my great Athetics and Acrobatics skill to get to places where the enemies can't reach me. Of course, their cast spells often can so I have to try to dodge those if at all possible.

Once I'm safely positioned, I use my Summons to do battle. I have some pretty great ones at present. Used in conjunction with my 95% Camoflauge, I've been doing pretty well.

Not sure if this will help you or not, but, might be worth giving some thought to it.

Archonius · Post by **Archonius** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:12 pm

Perhaps, its worth a try. My acrobatics is only 63, its not easy to train.

Any clue as to how to enchant my character up? At the moment none of my gear is enchanted.

Daedric Cuirass
Daedric Greaves
Daedric Boots
Daedric Gloves
Ebony Helm
Ebony Shield
Elven Longsword + Ebony 2nd Claymore.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

jdougan1 · Post by **jdougan1** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:01 pm

Funny, my experience was the opposite. I was getting pasted at around level 15, to the extent I had to turn my difficulty slider down a bit. I turned it back up to the default after a few levels, and had no trouble thereafter. I finished the main quest at about level 44, and frankly the gates were way too easy.

I even found that I could run fast enough to just run to the sigil stone and not even fight anything. This was really useful in one of the later parts of the MQ.

I was playing a nightblade, and either at or over maximum on all stats/major skills by the time I finished the MQ.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Sat May 13, 2006 1:12 pm

**spoilers**

[QUOTE=Archonius]Perhaps, its worth a try. My acrobatics is only 63, its not easy to train.

Any clue as to how to enchant my character up? At the moment none of my gear is enchanted.

Daedric Cuirass
Daedric Greaves
Daedric Boots
Daedric Gloves
Ebony Helm
Ebony Shield
Elven Longsword + Ebony 2nd Claymore.

Any ideas would be appreciated.[/QUOTE]
(Highlight to read)
How in the name of Dickens can you be Level 30 and have no enchanted armor? I've been full enchanted armor since level 5. At level 19 I just switched to unenchanted simply because I want to work up my Armorer, Blade, and Block skills, and my character can kill far too easily with my regular workaday gear. She's not too bad with a plain blade, either.
Anyhow, barking at the moon aside, I believe you are working as a full-on mage in most capacities - little or no weapon skills, etc. You might want to pick that up. With sneak 100, you get serious bonuses on attack when undetected, which is very handy for high-order undead, or pretty much anything else.
For enchanting your armor, I would suggest (All Constant Effect) Fortify Attribute on Intelligence, Wisdom, Speed and Strength, Reflect Damage, and Absorb Magica. That will give you a bit of a leg up on all of your mage capacities, as well as dodging, fighting, and carrying.
Next up, your weapons. Lose the Claymore and get a shield and a dagger instead. Claymores do awesome damage but are heavy, clumsy, and slow. One-handed with shield is faster and more effective, and daggers are faster yet as a backup weapon to your longsword should it become unserviceable. Get a bow and some arrows as well. Iron arrows are fine, but get a good glass or daedric bow and enchant it for strike. The arrows will carry the enchantment (intent follows the bullet). Oh, and get some silver arrows for the things that are impervious to normal weaponry.
Now, with a shield, you have one more defensive enchantment to choose. Maybe Absorb Health on Touch. That should boost your health whenever you block. The shield will also transfer defensive damage to something that is not your offensive weapon, which means your sword degrades slower.
For the blades and bow, there are numerous possibilities. Absorb Fatigue on Strike is handy, or you could make the blade vampiric (Absorb Health). If you have a problem with magic-user creatures, Absorb Magica is good. Generally, put Absorb Magica on the Bow, and the other two on the other two blades, typically Absorb Fatigue on the dagger and Absorb Health on the longsword. Oh, and if you don't have it yet, get a SoulTrap spell and an arm-pit-full of soul-gems, or get used to paying to have your armor and weapons recharged.
Also, if you're not doing it yet, you're allowed 2 rings and an amulet. Get some enchanted ones for things like Detect Life, See in the Dark, Breathe Water, Walk on Water, and a few other things that you can switch in and out in certain situations to give you an advantage.
This is a common mistake in any game of this kind: Go heavy on the assumption that a tank is tougher than a motorcycle. That's true, but misleading. A tank could never hit a motorcycle, but a motorcycle can run rings around a tank. You don't have to withstand the hit if they can't hit you. Go light and fast, not heavy and slow.

UncleScratchy · Post by **UncleScratchy** » Sun May 14, 2006 8:26 am

My battle strategy (Spoilers)

Have you tried buffs like Superior or Greater Fortify Strength/Speed/Luck/etc? I always use these buffs before going through a door into an unknown situation. I also always enter in Sneak mode with a poisoned arrow nocked in my bow. If I get the first shot off I can get a X3 multiplier on the attack. Works well with a melee weapon also for a X6 damage modifier if you can get up undetected behind your prey. I embibe lots of homemade potions to grant me nighteye, various shields, healing, etc. Make yourself some restore health and fatique potions that work for something like 10 points for 70 or more seconds or some such. You can take these just before joining battle so they are already working on you. Use conjured critters for diversions and retreat like hell if you have to. I also rely on acrobatics to get me to safe ledges or make fantastic leaps across chasms. I use the Boots of Springheel Jack to give me +50 extra points to may normal 100 points of acrobatics. Also I wear a lot of enchanted rings/amulets to reflect damage or magic as the case may be. I can wear two rings and a shield that reflect something like 70% of any damage I take - meaning that I can simply block many opponents attacks and let them kill themselves. Use healing spells or potions to keep topped off. Keep in mind you can only have 4 potions going at a time so choose wisely. Hope this helps.

Archonius · Post by **Archonius** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:34 am

Thanks, alot of that helped.

Im handling things alot better now. For reference to anyone else having the same problem ive posted my solution below

I kept my heavy Daedric and enchanted all of it with bonus to intelligence boosting my magicka by quite alot. I switched to a Magicka Draining short Elven Sword with a backup longsword. I kept heavy because i like to play as a true battlemage, fighting with a sword when magicka is low.

I made some new spells. Finding that Daedra are all weak against shock I created a spell absorbing 75 magicka, 450 shock damage and 100 weakness to magicka, all of 5 seconds for about 250 magicka cost. This one hits all Daedra. I also made a ranged equivilent which costs more magicka to cast.

As my Restoration is now 100 I made some magicka boosting spells. One fortifying my magicka by 100 for 60 secs, one fortifying my intelligence by 100for 60 secs and one fortifying my willpower by 100 for 60 secs. If the willpower one is cast first magicka flows constantly and so long as they are recasted prior to when needed it works nicely.

Finally i created a stronger healing spell for emergencies.

moltovir · Post by **moltovir** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:46 am

If your restoration skill is high enough, you can also try creating a spell like Restore Health x points for 15/30/60 seconds. Casting that before battle will give you a big life boost while fighting, and with high enough willpower you'll get the magicka back in no time.

XxBlitzkriegxX · Post by **XxBlitzkriegxX** » Tue May 16, 2006 10:13 pm

To anyone else having this same problem, I offer one simple suggestion:

Storm Atronach

Get your conjuration maxed and summon a Storm Atronach. It is possibly the best punching bag you can get (better than daedroth) and mixes Magic and Melee well. It's just as effective at level 40 as it is level 10.

phxhawk · Post by **phxhawk** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:57 am

I had the same experience summoning a Faded Wraith. I was level 33 and kicking major butt in the Oblivion Gates. Master of Heavy Armor with blade and blunt in the 80's.

buknekkid · Post by **buknekkid** » Wed May 17, 2006 4:25 pm

Using Potions

I made alchemy one of my major skills thinking i could raise it quickly, and therefore level quickly. This was before i realized that almost everything was leveled in the game, but it still worked out quite well. I was a master of alchemy right away and so i can make a potion out of one ingredient. In the planes of oblivion there are three main ingredients: Spiddal stick, harradra root, and daedra hearts. The spiddal sticks and harradra make poisons draining like 7 health for 35 secs or so, and the hearts give you replenish life. So i usually just poison an arrow hit the mfrom a distance and let them come to me. By the time they get there they;re pretty much dead. If i cant get a ranged attack in I poison my sword, use a restore health and start slashing away. The ingredients i get there keep restocking my potions, so it works out all right. Also one of the spider ingredients paralyzes if there are a group of guys. I have no enchantments on anything except what i picked up, which i dont recharge, which is the thornblade right now. It seems to be working pretty good for me.

DevilsVAmpire · Post by **DevilsVAmpire** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 4:11 pm

Armor

Without a doubt the best armor enchantment to have is just shield. With grand sould gems it will increase your armor around 13 points per enchanted item.
My light armor skill is only around 60 and with a full set or glass armor enchanted with shield my armor rating is in the 80s then add the grand ring of aegis im around 100