Level Scaling, 1-Hit Kill, Help!

Chippy · Post by **Chippy** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 10:10 am

Ok. I've already rage-quit this game twice, so thought I'd give it 1 last try. I have a problem with 2h weapon wielding enemies that kill me instantly.

I created a character tailored to avoid this happening:

Level 31
440 HP (ring +40 health)
Scaled flawless AC @ 390 rating
Adept Difficulty

I read that low health, low ac causes the 1 hit kill. But having just started the comapnions quest, walked into a dungeon I (once again) get 1-shot by a silver hand.

Edit: Forgot to mention Light armour at 80 with all perks except the last one.

I thought an enemy out of every group was tougher - like the Draugr deathlord with his ebony sword at the dungeon start (no scaling like Oblivion?)
but this 1 shot was by just another enemy marked Silver Hand?.

Unlike past Elder Scrolls games, I actually want to like this, but since nobody releases games anymore that actually tell the player how combat works, I was hoping someone would be kind enough to here.

Chippy · Post by **Chippy** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 12:23 pm

Q:I just got one hit from full health by a bandit, i'm wearing full daedric and i have over 200 health, your mod sucks!
A:The KillMove trigger doesn't count in the armor rating, so if they can hit you hard enough, you can potentially die from the weakest opponent.

Found the above from a mod called Killmove Plus at the nexus (which allows you to disable it on the player).

So my curent understanding of the rules is that:
Armour type, rating, perks, skill only effects damage reduction from normal hits, and if you are hit by any enemy with basic equipment (in my case a silver sword) you can be killed if they do enough damage.

Even if you have dumped all stats into health and are +40 points above with an item equipped.

I can't believe I got suckered into buying another Elder Scrolls game.

Thylein · Post by **Thylein** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 12:43 pm

I honestly never had that problem except with giants.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:13 pm

Thylein wrote:I honestly never had that problem except with giants.

Try playing on mastery, and you'll have Random Bandit McTwoHander kill you via a killmove.

Your best bet is to disable it with a mod. This, sadly, means that there will be NO killing blows AT ALL visible in the game.. But you'll not die in this most ridiculous of ways.

Nymie_the_Pooh · Post by **Nymie_the_Pooh** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 9:31 pm

I can't say for certain, but I believe the Q&A mentioned for killmove plus is specific to that particular mod. The mod became obsolete with the recent patch and work was stopped on it a couple of months ago. It was using a system that was only half implemented in the game at the time which was likely finished before the recent patch, or at least I hope that is the case. I don't know one way or the other if it was fixed or not, but that Q&A was to answer questions about the mod and at that time it was a limitation. Hopefully it was fixed before it was enabled by Bethesda.

It's possible to craft scaled armour to where you should be able to hit 618 rating without a shield with 100 in the light armour skill and only one point spent in both the Agile Defender and Custom Fit perks. The armour rating soft cap is 667. This provides just over 80% physical damage reduction and 80% is the cap available through armour. You can get a higher rating, but there is no benefit in doing so. There is a hidden 100 given for free if wearing four armour pieces (cloth in those slots don't count) so the target number is 567 if you plan on wearing armour in those four slots. In fact, all armour types can hit 567 if you can maximize your crafting abilities. Blocking is figured separately and the software caps block damage reduction at 85%. The highest available using in game means is 63% however. Working off of this a successful block with full armour and the max available without mods (that 80% and 63%) you can block 92.6% of physical damage.

An armour rating of 390 gives 46.8% physical damage reduction by comparison. Figure in another 12% if you are wearing armour in all four slots for 58.8%.

[url="http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1342463-complete-character-design-freedom-damage-resist-caps-and-ridiculous-damage-thread-10/"]Here's a thread if you are interested in the details and information on how to get crafting up to meet these numbers.[/url]

Long post made shorter, if I had to guess you would see a big boost by working on your smithing and enchanting. It's hard to tell without knowing your build but it sounds you may be a bit heavy on the armour perks.

Chippy · Post by **Chippy** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:47 am

Thanks for the replies and such an informed post/read

The problem (I'll just call it that) was with the latest patch with two handed swords.

I had built my character with:

Light armour only and sneak maxed.
Nothing in smithing/enchanting, ignore all books, locked treasure chests.
And had just started to build archery & one handed (to 50).

From that excellent link I've discovered that enemies don't have perks assigned, so I've basically given up on the vanilla interpretation of combat.

My last attempt at this game will be with the killmove mod (animations do seem to be working, have them on first dragon in melee and only on humans in first person - will update if I get a third person animation) and another mod I found "Skyrim Scaling Stopper" which so far looks great.

Thanks again.