Tuesday, April 22, 2008

OOO: More notes from the spoiler threads

1) Most Ayleid ruins contain meteoric weapons. But only the two weapons in Culotte are easily found, the rest are hidden in some fashion.

...

I'm probably going to re-roll again, not entirely happy with my major/minor skill picks:

Race: Wood Elf (Bosmer)
Birthsign: The Thief
Spec: Stealth
Favored Attributes: Strength, Endurance

Major Skills:

25 Blade (Strength)
25 Armorer (Endurance)
35 Light Armor (Speed) -> 25 Athletics (Speed)
30 Security (Agility)
40 Marksman (Agility) -> 25 Illusion (Personality)
25 Conjuration (Intelligence)
25 Restoration (Willpower)

I'll only have a starting Luck of 60, which means it will be level 40 until I hit 100 in Luck. I only have 495 points available for leveling (which means I'll top at level 50.

So I'm going to swap out Athletics (starts at 25) for Light Armor, and put Illusion (starts at 25) in the place of Marksman. Which gives 520 points for leveling (max level of 53). But that assumes that all of my skills won't yet be at 100 (which also prevents leveling).

That build has a starting strength/endurance of 35. Which is enough to carry a decent bit of equipment (175 lbs) and starts with a modest bit of health (52 HP).

Labels: 2008, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 7:33 AM (0 comments)

OOO: Fort Nikel, Fort Roebeck

Still working my way through the dungeons surrounding the Imperial City.

Fort Nikel - This is somewhat of a pushover at level 17 with good potions and a moderately enchanted bow. The bandits and the marauders still mostly slaughter each other off in the last section, but you'll still end up with 3-4 left overs that you'll have to snipe from above. So bring lots of poisons and arrows.

Fort Roebeck - This was a good bit more difficult at level 17. I packed along 100 silencing poisons, 150 arrows, health potions and there were still some rough spots. With OOO, you're going to find low-mid level daedra outside, along with conjurers. Inside, you'll likely find Frost Atronachs, Flame Antronachs, various types of metallic golems, conjurers, and at least 1 plane summoner. Fortunately, you can snipe most of the conjurers from walkways above their areas. The best loot that I got out of here (in addition to 3-4 enchanted pieces of clothing for selling) was a journeyman level piece of alchemy equipment.

I also want to take a look at Fort Black Boot, Sage Glen Hollow and any other goblin / bandit dungeons around the Imperial City. Basically working my way around the Red Ring Road as a starting point.

By running the two dungeons, I earned enough gold (and gathered a few more greater souls) to enchant a new pair of weapons. One is a Fine Steel Bow that I've enchanted to do +8 damage with fire / frost / shock (compared to +5 with the old bow). And I enchanted a shortsword with +11 damage for each of the three damage types. Both weapons also inflict a light spell on the opponent (magnitude 10 for about 20-30 seconds), which makes it easier to see my opponents after I hit them.

The most useful piece of dungeon gear that I have at the moment is a simple enchanted headpiece with Detect Life on it. Its range is 115 ft, which is quite good and a lot more then I can create at the enchanting altar. Since it is additive, I may equip a 2nd piece for more range (150-200 ft is what I prefer). It's extremely handy to have a permanent item with that enchant because I get tired of casting it all the time in dungeons.

Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 5:33 AM (0 comments)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

OOO: Sideways Cave - Lost Abagarlas, Ayleid Reliquary

So I went back to Sideways Cave at level 17 to get some revenge and finally clear out the last room with the gargoyles. Most of my kills were made using a single shot with the enchanted bow (+5 damage for each of the 3 damage types: fire / frost / shock). The regular imps die immediately due to the 3x sneak damage multiplier (10 pt arrows, 8 pt bow, 5 pts for each of the three enchants).

Only the mystical imps, trolls, or gargoyles required a bit more finesse. But because I have a sneaky mod installed (Attack and Hide), if I shoot from absolute darkness I can often get off 2-3 shots before they locate me.

The trick to the gargoyles is that you can't stay hidden. Otherwise after each time they take damage, they'll shield (reflect spell damage), fall over, and then regenerate. So you have to get their attention and let them shoot their drain spells at you. At which point, it's just a matter of shooting 5-6 arrows at them, each one with poison (I was using 4 pt over 17 seconds).

My last mystery is trying to figure out what the ayleid reliquary in the last room of Sideways Cave - Lost Abagarlas is for. It's a locked reliquary off to the right side in the caved in corridor in the last room.

(The answer is found on the OOO FAQ page. Basically if you have OOO 1.31 or later, you'll come across the key as part of the last mission of the Thieve's Guild.)

Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 11:04 PM (0 comments)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

OOO: Sardavar Leed, Yellow Tick Cave, Belda

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Sardavar_Leed - Tried this at level 15 as a sneaky type character with moderate skills. A "guardian of oblivion" toasted me inside the entrance way. Apparently it has been beefed up by OOO. I suspect I'll need to be level 25-30 before coming back and tackling this dungeon.

Yellow Tick Cave - Another attempt at tackling a conjurer cave at level 15. Now, either my level is too low, my sneak is too low, or conjurers are exceptionally aggressive - because my second pull resulted in a train of 6 or 8 conjurers along with pets. So I probably won't be able to tackle this until I have potions capable of silencing and killing conjurers.

Belda - This one is doable at level 16 if you pack the right potions and equipment. You'll need about 50-75 silence poisons (Motherwort Sprig, Nightshade, White Seed Pod, and Sacred Lotus Seeds), another 50-100 regular poisons, lots of health potions, and some cure disease / poison / restore attribute potions. If you're a bow user, you'll need an enchanted bow that you create in the Arcane University. My first bow is typically a silver bow enchanted to do 5 points over 1 second of three damage types (fire, frost, shock). With a greater soul gem (1200 points), you'll be able to get about 80 shots from the bow before you need to recharge it. Lastly, you'll need a few soul gems and at least 100 arrows (200 would be better). I also carry a sword enchanted in a similar manner to the bow (4 points of damage over 2 seconds for fire, frost, and shock). There was still one "very hard" chest deep within the dungeon that I couldn't open yet (so I'll have to come back). And some of the traps on the chests can kill you instantly if you only have ~150 health. So save frequently.

One of the hardest areas is towards the end (but not the last room) where you may face a Plane Summoner, who is a tougher then normal conjurer. Not to mention all of the iron / gold / mithril / other golems that take 5-10 shots from the bow (silence poison is useful, otherwise don't bother) to put down. Make sure you have lots of room to back up when fighting those, because they hit hard.

Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 2:45 AM (0 comments)

Friday, April 18, 2008

ES4 Next steps with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul

This is a follow-up post for Getting started with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. After all, once you've done the things in that post, what next?

1) If you have Shivering Isles - go ahead and start the main quest. You'll obtain Dawnfang/Duskfang, which is a good low-level 1H sword that will work for you until you can get into the mage's guild to enchant one of your own. At lower levels, it only weighs 19-23 lbs, so it's reasonable to carry for something that will never run out of charges (it refreshes twice per day). The higher level versions are a lot heavier.

2) Your 2nd goal is to get the Ruin's Edge bow. This is an outstanding bow for a young character who likes to sneak around and open combat with a ranged attack. Your enemies will often attack their cohorts (Frenzy effect), or they'll be stuck standing in place (Burden), or they'll fall down (Paralyze), or simply run away (Demoralize). The bow is not leveled, so you'll want to obtain it sooner rather then later.

3) Your 3rd goal in Shivering Isles should be to obtain lots and lots of potion making ingredients. Especially Black Tar from the Dementia side of the isles.

4) You can do some of the Mage's Guild recommendation quests prior to level 10. Specifically Skingrad, Chorrol, Cheydinhal, Bravil and Bruma. The Leyawin quest will be difficult at level 12 (drink health potions early and use poisons freely). The Anvil quest tends to be another difficult one as well with a high-level opponent (but you do have allies in that quest). In order to get the Bravil recommendation quest, you may have to do the nightmare quest first where you fight two minotaurs. You'll probably have to turn the difficulty slider down a bit in order to pull it off.

5) Some of the fighter's guild quests are reported to be easy at the start. Later ones are much more difficult.

6) Start collecting souls (Lesser / Common / Greater). This will allow you (once you gain access to the Arcane University) the ability to create magical equipment.

7) Train your armorer skill. One way is to create a self-only "damage armor" spell in the Arcane University. Then you put on an old suit of junk armor and cast it on yourself. When the armor breaks, you repair it. The other way is to use armor damaging spells on your opponents, then loot and repair their armor. Once you get to level 50 in Armorer, you'll be able to repair magic gear.

8) One poster suggested Fort Ash, Fort Virtue or Fanacasecul. The goblin mine east of Skingrad along the road is rumored to be a good low-level dungeon as well.

9) One random note - having Mysticism as a starting skill is not a good idea if you use Gather Ye Rosebuds.

10) Another suggests starting with dungeons: Fort Urasek, Fort Ash, Fort Virtue, or Fanacasecul, Fatback Cave, Dzonot Cave (has amazons - so I disagree that you should go there much before L25),

11) Find the Winged Bow.

12) Loot the clams in the waters around the Imperial City. (Personally, I save the drops from those clams for use with Geomancy.)

13) Work on getting your security skill up to 60+ in order to pick the hardest chests (41+ for Hard Locks). Alternately, train up Alteration to 75 to cast the "open hard lock" skill and 100 for the "very hard" lock spell.

14) Buy at least (1) spell of every type so that you can create enchants with it later. Key spells are touch spells that do fire / frost / shock damage. Don't forget telekenisis, heal self, heal other, or resist / shield spells.

15) Beginner dungeons are scattered near Imperial City, with the ones on the west side of the city/lake probably easier then the ones on the east side. (The one exception that I know of is southwest of Chestnut Handy Stables - it contains amazons.)

Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 9:26 AM (0 comments)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

ES4O: Gargoyles!

I think I posted about Sideways Cave before and how it's a good place to come when you're a wee little adventurer? I think I also mentioned that in the "Lost Abagarlas" zone that there are a set of 3-4 iron gates that keep you away from the last area which contains (3) gargoyles and (1) mystical imp?

Well, I went back there at level 8, with a bit more power under my belt. Poisons that do 4 points of damage per second for 15 seconds, steel arrows, better marksmanship skills, etc.

Apparently, I haven't found what they're weak to, because the poison barely moves their health bar. Plus, when a gargoyle gets damaged, they shield themselves (becoming stone) fall over and regenerate. I'll come back after preparing a fire / cold poison and after getting a few more levels.

(Tested with Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul 1.33. Rumors indicate that they may be roughly level 20. I dragged an outdoor gargoyle through a pair of guards on the road outside of Skingrad and the gargoyle wiped them out. Hopefully it will despawn before I have to travel back through there.)

...

The other low-level dungeon near the Imperial City is Vilverin. It is guarded by a trio of bandits outside and a bunch of bandits in the first section. After that it switches over to skeletons and other undead.

Once again, the first 2-3 areas are doable at levels below 10 (I did well at level 8). But the final area contains a boss and spectral warriors / wolves that will give you trouble without the proper equipment. I figure I'll come back at around 12-15 when I have weapons that are enchanted with shock.

Labels: 2008, ES4Oblivion, OscurosOblivionOverhaul

posted by Wuphon's at 5:57 PM (0 comments)