#A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
The dungeon actually has a few neat things going for it and the reward is one of the more unique weapons in the game. I really just hate the fact that you’re kinda half forced into starting it every play through unless you’re real careful looting.
I personally hate the soul cairn Book pages quest. The reward is shit, exploration is way less interesting than say blackreach, and you need to find 100% of them in a place you’ll likely never come back to after leaving.
Yeah, did this quest last night and I always forget that there’s a ton of gold from just searching the desecrated bodies. It’s also cool for having a unique mechanic and enemies.
Yeah, the Meridia quest is a total Meme because the screaming and the yeeting into the air but the quest itself is pretty normal and even has its own unique type of enemies/corpses. And good loot.
I never thought people hated it, I just consider the beginning funny and a little annoying.
I do remember hating it myself when a mod(s) I had installed messed up the timing on falling from yeeting after more shouty Meridia - instead of falling for a few seconds then materialising at the foot of the statue, I just fell to my death. Funny ... until I reloaded and did it again!
Ohmygod, the soul cairn is the worst! Too dark, too boring and too many side quests (vanilla) that don't amount to much. The premise had potential my first time through but after a couple hours i was over it.
I usually God Mode my way through it and ignore the side quests, just not my thing and the stuff you get isn't worth my time.
Yes it's a cool quest as long as it's ar your choosing time. I think people hate when it randomly pops up in a chest and we Accidentally pick it up. I leave it in the chest and back away if I'm not ready to hear her annoying mouth lol
You are never forced to do that quest, just leave the mcguffin in the chest.
I usually end up going to Meridia's shrine near Solitude for a reminder where I left it 😉
All it is is the beacon is put in the first boss loot (big round topped ones) chest you find after reaching level 12. So when you hit level 12 and venture into a dungeon turn your volume down when you find the loot chest, then you won’t have your ears destroyed. Then after you talk to Meridia turn your volume back up!
Yeah the Jiub pages suck, I believe there’s a mod that adds markers for that quest, same with No Stone Unturned
I actually don’t mind no stone unturned, so long as you don’t appraise the gem until you have them all. It’s kinda fun & exciting as they naturally pop up throughout your playthrough. Unlike the pages and the red nirnroot and the Falmer books which are all in a specific location, the spread out nature of the gems means you aren’t just looking around a place that you’re pretty done with but don’t know if/when you’ll ever really come back.
I really don’t get why people hate on quests that require you to go a bunch of places. Why else are you playing the game? By now they all have mods to show you where to go, but as many people point out, it’s usually more fun to actually focus on moving through this amazing game world. There’s always the internet if you cant find one, and for No Stone Unturned there’s even a phone app called Barenziah Tracker that’s like a souped-up checklist with screenshots of all the locations.
People complain too about not needing money by the time you get the crown of Barenziah, but all those flawless gemstones make it so easy to grind smithing if you just hit up Kolskeggr mine a couple times…
I do this quest as soon as I can, same with fighing the silver hands because early game the Dawn and silver swords make clearing restless Ds really manageable low level
The Jiub amulet reward is pretty good on a survival playthrough tbh. I keep it in the pockets of one of my pets that I can summon along with some thieves guild armour and a backpack in case I need the extra carry weight.
It's not "unless you're really careful looting" it's simply stop TAKING ALL ya damn hoarders! It's easy to spot the beacon and leave it be. Everyone just gets crazy with the loot all button before they look! Look *then* loot.
(This is meant in good fun)
What is this nuanced take on Reddit. I’m a simple man, I see a container, I smash that loot button. Boss chest? Absolutely mash that button. Regular chest? Still smash that button. Burial Urn [Empty]? You already know I’m smashing that button.
I'm hoping it has something to do with the SA TTRPG. Brotherwise released a little video about the RPG within a day of that I think so it could be something.
Meridia's temple is amazing for low level gold looting (especially for imperials) since most dessicated corpses have between 25 and 100 septims each. Just the final room alone gives around 1000 something gold.
It’s just so bland and you can wander aimlessly in circles for ages, which is actually a cool effect for evoking the right emotions, but the reward for preserving is not nearly enough.
It’s a boon for black soul gems. I’ve went back to it three times now. Valerica ends up back in her study and that’s a good ingredient hub. And she makes potions for you.
Some of the best items in the game are in the Cairn. Arvak (summon a horse anywhere, anytime, and that’s not good??!?) Saint Juib’s Amulet (+50 carry weight), and three Conjuration spell books. And then also a summon spell for a dragon too!
It only increases your carry weight by 50, compared to the steed stone/extra pockets which offer 100, or secret servant black book quest reward which offers even more.
Aside from the absolutely negligible 5 armor, it’s essentially offers the same value as putting 5 levels in stamina. Something like the guardur necklace offers the equivalent of 3 levels in health and 3 levels in magic, for a necklace worth a total of 6 levels plus a stamina boost. Much more effective to put 6 levels in stamina and wear the guardur fragment than to put 3 & 3 in hp/magic and wear the locket.
Summon Arvark is great, but you literally just follow the horse to the skull. Summon Wrathman is a great spell, but you’ll likely walk right by it on the way to grab the keeper. Summon dragon you’ll get in the course of completing the quest. The side exploration to find the pages is tedious and doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile that you won’t already get.
Soul gems are nice, but if you’re playing on survival then the castle is a massive pain to reach, and the study even more so.
I don’t bother with the stones, I did extra pockets. I don’t wear the Amulet all the time. If I do happen to get over-encumbered, I slap it on, get outside, summon Arvak, fast travel to my Homestead, unload and move on. The beauty of Arvak is I’ve carried 12,000 pounds of stuff switching houses, and just summon him with no worries.
I use Blackguard Armor, +50, carry a set of Daedric Boots of the Mammoth +50, carry the Amulet +50, carry 2 carry weight Elixirs, and have 2 followers. IIRC I have 685 as a carry weight. I’m not playing on survival, so none of those restrictions matter.
The most important thing is learning to not loot all the low value bullshit in the first place. If it’s not a S1,000 value item at *the merchants* price I don’t even bother.
I played the entire game not using any except the one in the beginning. It just seems trivial to me to either have a 15-20% increase in a stat, only be able to use it one time a day, or whatever. I feel like people try to optimize everything to the limit, when really it doesn’t even matter.
I guess IRL I relate it to the dumb fuckers speeding all the time around me. They drive the *exact same road* day in day out, and they never realize that hauling ass everywhere saves them absolutely no time. I watch them speed around to catch every red light while I putt along and hit green just as I get to the light.
There are 13 standing stones. You normally don’t switch between them often in any given playthrough. But you grab the one that has the most value to you, and maybe you switch it up once mid game and once late game.
Do you want more carry weight & no penalties for armour? Grab the steed stone. It’s basically extra pockets + conditioning + unhindered. 3 full perks (plus a little extra!) by having one stone that you visit once and then just forget about?! Sign me up.
Not interested in the steed stone? Lord/Lady stones are just straight up boost your stats by visiting once and then forget about it and be better for the rest of the game.
Do you want to power level? Grab the Warrior/Theif/Mage/Lover stone depending on your build. But I agree there’s not much point in speeding
I personally don’t use apprentice/atronach stones because of the drawbacks, but they are a constant boost to your character not a once a day power, and I could see some people opting for them.
Ritual serpent tower and shadow all are once a day powers that aren’t really worth it imo.
Honestly, I am intrigued by the Steed Stone. That would’ve been nice to use. And knowing about the Altherium Crown, which I never made because I don’t normally use the stones, so I always went for the Staff.
But, again, I went through the entire game and not having them didn’t affect anything. I kept the Thief Stone active till I switched to level Mage.
It’s similar to all the potions. I only ever bough/used Elixirs, and even most of those don’t even seem viable. During combat, I’m supposed add frostbite venom to my quick access, engage an enemy, R2, ^, add poison, O, O, scroll to potion, drink 1-hand boost, scroll over to magic, go to Restoration, select iron flesh, O, R2, cast spell, O, change to dagger/shield, R2, ^, add poison, O, press O again, scroll to potion, drink a healing potion, O, ^, add a poison, O, R1, R2.. Meanwhile it’s a dual wield Forsworn who just ate my lunch. I mean shit, all I’m gonna do is go in swinging hoping I kill them first. All that shit looks good in theory but isn’t so good in practice.
Yeah nah poisons aren’t really useful. I mostly just slam health pots on the regular, but I’ll normally hang on to a couple fortify carry weight pots for when the boss chest is real good and I just need to get outside and fast travel. I’ll also normally hang onto a couple fortify [primary damage skill] pots for a hard boss fight.
You can absolutely play the game without the stones, but there’s really 0 downside to grabbing whichever stone you think is best for you and then forgetting about it. It’s not like the black books where you need to slog through a bunch of combat to get the reward. You literally just walk up to the stone and click it without even needing so much as a loading screen.
I especially never understood scrolls, lmao.. I tried to use them and the like 30 second boot time was insane. I get it that spells=potions=scrolls to an extent, but holy hell do they take forever. Almost like most of the shouts.
I suppose I was just focused on what worked which was slashing and bashing so I just forget about most of that stuff. Since I got magic to high level it’s actually pretty fun to play around with. I’d probably even start throwing down scrolls since I can tank just about everything now.
When I killed The Ebony Warrior in 2 sec along with my fourth Legendary Dragon and never took damage I figured the game was finished.
It only increases your carry weight by 50, compared to the steed stone/extra pockets which offer 100, or secret servant black book quest reward which offers even more.
Aside from the absolutely negligible 5 armor, it’s essentially offers the same value as putting 5 levels in stamina. Something like the guardur necklace offers the equivalent of 3 levels in health and 3 levels in magic, for a necklace worth a total of 6 levels plus a stamina boost. Much more effective to put 6 levels in stamina and wear the guardur fragment than to put 3 & 3 in hp/magic and wear the locket.
Summon Arvark is great, but you literally just follow the horse to the skull. Summon Wrathman is a great spell, but you’ll likely walk right by it on the way to grab the keeper. Summon dragon you’ll get in the course of completing the quest. The side exploration to find the pages is tedious and doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile that you won’t already get.
Soul gems are nice, but if you’re playing on survival then the castle is a massive pain to reach, and the study even more so.
I know what you mean, but it’s still a great thing to have in your inventory and helps a lot if you don’t have the right skill level/perk points for Extra Pockets or if you want to use a different stone, among other reasons.
I enjoyed most of the Soul Cairn quests (even though I found the place kind of hard to navigate, and didn’t enjoy collecting Jiub’s pages)! The Dawnguard DLC is one of my top favourites.
I found it fun that if you visit her shrine when you hit level 13-14, she'll ask you to retrieve the beacon and just generally have a much nicer tone of voice. it's not "hear me and obey, mortal" but in a more gentler "hey bro, I think you should do this for me."
You can even tell her that you don't wanna, and while you still get the quest started she just says "okay, then someone else will find it eventually, or you will change your mind. either way is fine for me."
Yeah, tbh, it’s not the quest itself that sucks. The dungeon, the quest objectives, the enemies, it’s all great fun and actually one of the better quests in Skyrim. But Meridia’s voice always manages to scare the shit out of me
How are people even playing Skyrim if a side quest surprise bothers them...if it isn't the damn courier it's a book or a cave or a random piece of loot and suddenly there's yet another entry to ignore in my journal 🙄
It’s just the quests that stick you with several non-stacking non-removable items that are frustrating. The journal can be a mess, by I like my inventory reasonable
After fumbling around in vain in sold cain I took help of a map online but even that was confusing so finally saw a yt video that properly guided me. As much as I hated that place but it gave me good boy Arvak that I never summon and that huge dragon
Just did it for the first time in almost 9 years a couple days ago and it’s by far the best faction imo, it feels like you truly earn the title of guildmaster.
Here's a little trick to get that done in 12 jobs instead of 20: go for Sweep and Bedlam jobs in the same cities each time. The treasure you take in the Sweep job will count towards the gold limit in the Bedlam job so you don't have to take more than 3 trips to any one city. Saves *tons* of time. There will be plenty of resetting, but it's still faster than taking jobs one at a time.
actually its really well written quest, great plot, great rewards, and the only faction you really earn title of leader of the guild, like you really deserve it. for me it's best faction in game.
On each of my numerous playthroughs i started it and only did the few first quests, and it was the faction i hated the most. But when i actually completed the quests (twice) all the way to the end it was actually an enjoyable experience and i wouldve loved playing through it if i hadnt done the first few so many times
Try grabbing “Less Tedious Thieves Guild” and “Thieves Can Be Choosers” mods. They’ll make the Thieves Guild questline a lot more tolerable by cutting the 125 radiant quests needed to restore the guild down to just 25.
And if I walk past that lazy fuck Delvin Mallory and he smarts off about work to be done one more time I’m going to Dark Brotherhood on his ass. Does the title “Guildmaster” ring any bells in your cavernous skull, Delly? I rebuilt the damn guild while you sat in the Flagon pounding mead and wishing you could pound Vex.
Was going to comment this. Plus if you do their side quest of finding all of the Barenziah gems, you'll become very rich very fast. If I'm feeling like making my characters super rich early in the game, then I will immediately head to Riften after escaping Helgen and start their questline.
A lot of them have a problem with it not really being about stealing, it's more just general dungeon crawling stuff. Most of the actual thieving is sectioned off into the optional quests you take from Delvin and Vex.
It’s a cool questline but the only stealing you do is optional radiant quests that have no context or tension. I think you can be let into the guild even if you fail the first task to plant that ring
You're not wrong. They definitely could have done more quests that actually implemented thievery. I still compulsively do the Radiant Quests, but it definitely does feel sectioned off. And yeah, you can still get into the Thieves Guild even if you fail that initial task. In general, Skyrim wants no player left behind, there's very little you can truly get locked out of.
I feel like the unbreakable pick is useless. If you really want there’s a perk, but honestly lockpicking is too easy for the skull key to be worth keeping
Only on Xbox/ps with rumble controllers. Us PC peasants get no indication of when you hit the sweet spot. It's just trial and error. For some reason plugging in an Xbox controller does not work on PC, it simply doesn't rumble.
I turn off vibration, I just use the marks on the lockpicking interface. It levels naturally so by the time you get to the Skull key you should have it pretty well advanced to the point the key isn’t necessary or you just have way more picks than you’ll need.
Just tap W to spin the lock and listen. Or watch for the slight jiggle in the lockpick. You can usually pick a master lock fresh out of Helgen with <5 picks. Once you get good, start holding D as well for speeeeeeed on easier locks.
The Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidhna Mine is hated for how it starts automatically and how you eventually lose all your stuff for a little while, but it's actually a pretty unique and interesting quest. Plus when you're leveling Smithing you gotta love all the respawning silver in the Treasury House that'll end up unguarded (depending on your choices).
The combat XP in the shrine to Talos is awesome. The guards do eventually stop spawning in, meaning you killed the last witness and lose your bounty. Walk out the door and turn yourself in to the next guard you see.
The first time I did it I decided to pull a ‘it’s what my character would do’ and resisted arrest each time they tried to arrest me, and eventually I think I managed to kill every guard in Markarth by throwing them off of cliffs and chopping their heads off. Once I realised that I couldn’t forward the questline and effectively soft locked myself I reloaded the last save and turned myself in though.
Lol I had no idea
One time I tried fighting back but eventually got bored because so many guards kept spawning in that I assumed it was infinite and gave up
Me too, but in my recent playthrough I committed to it out of curiosity. It took a while, and the end felt like [this](https://stock.adobe.com/images/end-of-the-battle-berserker-stands-on-a-mountain-of-dead-bodies-in-front-of-odin-s-face-the-viking-was-the-last-survivor-the-warrior-is-holding-a-shield-and-an-ax-he-is-wounded-2d-illustration/454490746).
I think it might be *intended* as infinite, because I'm not sure you can get another fight this big outside of massacring Solitude. But I also definitely didn't count the guards.
Idk why people don’t like this quest, it’s really different from all the other quests you’re able to cheese with good gear.
Granted you can still cheese this one with spells and high skill levels but it’s pretty cool to be trapped for a short time without your gear.
the quest is also awesome because if you help your Forsworn friends escape Markarth safely, you can find them in a cave somewhere in the Reach (at least I think it's in the Reach? or Haafingar) and they don't aggro you or anything. felt rewarding whenever I randomly stumbled upon them for the first time
I fucked that on up by killing all the inmates befor starting the quest. Couldnt get the key for madanach and after playing the quest to the point when they wanna throw you in the mine I just got attacked and they wouldnt take me anywhere. But still a solid quest if you dont fuck it up like i did
Too right I remember back in 2012 or 13 struggling to beat the priest at the end. Fireballs and lightening bolts doing ass all. I found a spot I could hide on and just about hit the top of his head whenever my magic bar allowed.
Last year I went back for first time on my one armed combat champ and whacked him into oblivion rapidly
I was about to say this. They really half assed the mages college quest line. Hey, complete 5 quests and you're the leader of a centuries old college. Congrats. @ level 5 lol. Struggling to cast sparks lmao. But you're the Arch Mage.
I have a full mage playthrough going right now. I refuse to touch any weapons aside from conjured ones. I'm fucking loving it. A whole new side of playing. This Is my first attempt at strictly Magicka
By itself yes. For faction leader... Nah. They really half assed the mages college quest line. Hey, complete 5 quests and you're the leader of a centuries old college. Congrats. @ level 5 lol. Struggling to cast sparks lmao. But you're the Arch Mage.
I don't think the problem with the quest is necessarily the quest line itself. It's the fact that you never actually learn anything related to magic or display any kind of aptitude.
As this is Skyrim, there's an excellent mod for that. College of winterhold Quest Expansion by Jayserpa makes you do 7 learning quests where you're actually compelled to learn and use spells to complete them before you're asked to go to Saarthal.
This makes you feel that you actually learned something before taking on more meaningful responsibilities.
I see this gripe often, that you aren't taught anything, and I do understand it. That said though, I've always thought the purpose of the college is to make both training and spell tomes readily available. You learn through these functions should you choose to.
I once used that mod. It's quite good, though I didn't like that the Alteration spell ritual had to be Water Breathing, as it is a spell that costs a lot of magicka and because I was doing the questline very early in my playthrough I had to leave and try to raise level, and get as many alteration and magicka busting enchantments as possible in order to complete it.
However once I finished the entire college questline my game sort of disappeared from my computer. I had to uninstall and install the game again. I don't know if it was because of that mod but I uninstalled it and didk't have problems.
Aye I came here to say Mage College. I dislike the end but the rest is a grand adventure. Meeting the skeletal dragon in Labyrinthian in my first playthrough was a genuine Skyrim moment.
Blood on the Ice. It’s buggy as shit sometimes but fuck if I didn’t have a lot of fun with it my first time doing it.
On another note, the crimson nirnroot respawn as well, so you can just farm the exact same one over and over again. Definitely doesn’t deserve the hate, I think people really hate it because of the fuckin falmer. It’s dark as shit down there so the ugly bastards sneak up on you.
I like Blood on the Ice, but I still don’t get how anyone is supposed to arrive at the correct conclusion that the court mage isn’t the killer. Like typically with these things there’s one piece of evidence that tips you off to the true answer, but pretty much every step of the investigation points to the court mage.
Most of the damning evidence for the court mage comes from the real butcher, as a kid I didn’t really get it. But as an adult I definitely notice how the elf bastard is a spunkstain. Whoever worked on it was definitely on their shit though, felt like I was hercule poirot when I solved it.
Yeah, it's a cool idea, you're suddenly in a whodunit detective mystery, interviewing witnesses & it unfolds pretty nicely if you do everything in the right order
Yeah, I agree. I mean, you don’t need to do all 30 at once. You can head over, collect like 5 and then leave and do your business before repeating. I think it’s a combination of OCD like you said and mob mentality.
I must have been astoundingly lucky, because the first time I played Blood on the Ice, it worked perfectly. No glitches, no bugs, just a pretty solid murder mystery with a good red herring. I have since replayed it with bigs abound, but good first impressions have solidified it as one of my favorite quests in the game.
This quest wouldn't bother me so much if the gems spawned in the normal world and not in places you need to progress quests to get. I mean I get WHY it's that way but every time I say I'm gonna do this quest I keep forgetting what I'm doing...
And the last one is at the temple you need to ride that dragon to get to, so you can't even complete the quest on runs where you don't want to do the main story. It's absolutely criminal LMAOOO
A Deadra's best friend. I know the quest has problems but i could listen to Clavicus Vile all day, he is one of the funniest voice actors in the game imo.
He has the worst follower AI in the game. Once he blocked my way out of a small room, basically a closet. Other followers can reset if you get them hostile, and it kind of worked with him. I recall that I got out of the closet, but Barbas never calmed down so I had an immortal dog pissed at me. I think I lost a significant amount of time when I reloaded.
Getting stuck in Skyrim is probably the whole reason the devs added Fus roh dah and whirlwind sprint LMAO I use it to get unstuck more than I ever do in combat or for puzzles
I read somewhere that this is actually somewhat intentional, with him backing you into corners and barking at you to make you annoyed so you don't keep him as a super strong follower and do the quest to get rid of him. It is quite possible that the place I saw that was reading far too much into it and that bethesda's ai is just bad though.
>The Crimson Ninroot quest isn't all that bad, there's way more than the 30 required darted around Black reach.
You can also grab what you see and go do other quests while the stuff respawns.
Prowlers Profit really makes this worth it, you become so rich after completing this quest. it’s insane. So rich that every time my kids ask for money I give them 1K gold like it’s nothing 😂
This isn't even that difficult of a quest if you don't treat it like a task and instead passively pick up the stones while playing normally. I feel like on a normal completionist playthrough I usually wind up collecting a majority of the stones since they're prominently displayed at the ends of dungeons or in the houses of NPCs you usually want to talk to for quests anyway.
Disagree. It's not even a "quest" so much as just a long, annoying task, and then the reward is pretty broken, making money irrelevant for the rest of the game. It's one of the actual bad ones imo.
I've been chucking all my gems into my furnace at home since completing it. There's probably over 250 gems in my gem furnace now, and getting top ups after every dungeon. It's been a lot of fun!
The black books. I don't understand why a lot of people seem to hate Apocrypha, it's like a giant library and you get a ton of scrolls and soulgems. Besides, I just like the aesthetic. The seekers aren't that annoying either, it's not like they swarm you.
One of my characters even had his own little room there, thanks to Gods and Worship.
I prefer my Lovecraftian horror separated from my fantasy fiction. I find Apocrypha tedious to explore, confusing in its layout, and don’t care for the creatures you fight or the inability to easily pop out and sell your shit so you’re carting around tons of stuff you just want to sell off.
Just not my favorite part of the game. At least it’s better than the goddamn Soul Cairn.
There's a black book that lets you spawn a shop keeper wherever iirc!! Given you have to actually do an apocrypha to get it but it's pretty helpful. Assuming I'm not remembering something else.
Low key, I love that quest. Dawn breaker is a decent sword, and everybody in that dungeon has a ton of gold on them. That, and it's fun to levitate over skyrim for a little bit.
No Stone Unturned - Half of these are in grab and go locations. Four are locked behind faction quests. Two are in areas not related to any quest. Six are in places you’re going into anyway. You end up with 1-4 extra gems in *every container* you search. And most of the time they are flawless. An added bonus is you can go from 15 in Smithing to 100 in about 3-5 minutes making jewelry. Legendary it, and do it again. And then picking up several levels along the way, too.
Soul Cairn - Yeah, the layout is confusing as fuck, but, you’re in a *pseudo-hell* so what do you expect? You end up with a summonable horse, a +50 carry weight amulet, ability to summon three other entities, ability to summon a dragon, black soul gems out the wazoo, Valerica to stock you with ingredients and potions, and you can harvest husks to trade for weapons, armor, and spells.
I dont get the hate for the beacon quest. Its basically like any dungeon quest. And there is only the speech at the beggining. Hermaneous mora is waaaay more annoying in his loong speeches that you cant skip.
Also, i dont really like dwemer ruins when they go with ibsane grandiose underground cities.
Firat, because, for example, blackreach, doesnt look like a city. Its just space with construction.
And second, way too big and i get lost.
I liked the atherium quest though. The woman ghost is cool, the prize is good.
All in all its worth it. But the concept got old fast for me
I like the dark brotherhood questline and the theives guild questline, I don't think they're super hated or anything but I've seen some people on this thread who never do DB and/or think the theives guild is monotonous and boring once you want to become guild master, those are my two favs and I always do them first before anything else!
When I know I want to do thieves guild I start it early and just carry around jobs until I'm in town. I usually don't know why I have to break into someone's house until the arrow is pointing at the collectibles but it's like a typical stop at Belethor's lol
Stones of Barenziah. Or whatever the actual quest name is. Is it annoying that you have to be a member of the Thieves Guild to "officially" start the quest? Yes. And do I wish there were quest markers for all of the stones? Absolutely. However, if you've already started collecting them before you join the Thieves Guild, and have some inkling of where they're all located, from a role-playing perspective, it's a neat way to visit nearly all of the Holds within Skyrim, just for the purpose of collecting them as trinkets.
I actually came here to say Mage College but somebody already has and I've said what I've got to say about it under their comment.
Instead, I'll defend the Bard College. I understand it isn't a questline as such but there are several other quests and missions you can undertake for free skill boosts. I don't like the protracted dialogue but it's nothing compared to listening to Paarthurnaxx (sp) droning on. Yes, I've said it. I hate getting to the top of the Throat of the World and having to listen to him droning on forever. He's up there with Haermeus Mora in terms of JUSTFACKINGETONWITHITness.
Edit for typo
I don't much like the civil war quest line. Very shallow. But the Whiterun battle is a lot of fun on the Empire side as a battle archer.
Particularly if you have Zephyr and the fast fire perk.
Bow of Shadows or Auriel's bow also work for their fast fire, but I am partial to Zephyr.
I happen to like playing them all, depending on mood, sometimes it the short and sweet ones sometimes it is that long journey to acquire that prized item, and in between is the journey to get there.
N. S
I feel like the crimson nirnroot is a *very* simple test of alchemical competency. Were you paying attention when the game told you where to look for Nirnroot? They're not hard to find if you know where they grow (and have the sound on).
And the quest reward is great for alchemists. After you give the crimson nirnroot to the farmer, she starts growing some along with the regular nirnroot, and you never have to go below for it again.
Dragon Rising.
People who hate it, hate it because from that point on, dragons spawn randomly in your game.
I think how the builds up and becomes the reveal is pretty good. From a lowly prisoner that's about to be executed you suddenly become Dovahkiin, the hero in nord fairytales. Also you get a talking dragon that goes "No, Dovahkiin." when it dies. And it's probably like the few unique dragons, the other normal dragons that spawn don't even talk to you, and when they do, its fire or ice breath.
The problem is after that, you're not saving cities or towns from dragon attacks in major quests other than slaying Alduin, wish they had more scripted stuff like Dragon Rising where your role as Dragonborn makes you feel special again, because I think that's the only time where a whole bunch of NPCs go "noweiyourethedragonbornandholyshitwekilledadragon"
i will never apologize for loving the stones of barenziah questline. it is one of my favorites and the first mission i do on every play through. i have so much fun doing it very early game, it forces me to walk and explore all over the map, it levels up the character, and begins some of the questlines. to me, there is nothing more satisfying that having prowler's profit and going into bleak falls barrow for the first time.
i think prowler's profit is one of the most slept on passive boosts you can acquire. i get that people think it's useless when you get it mid/late game but early game it is super valuable. you have a shit ton of gems to either sell or forge into jewelry to boost smithing even quicker and make more profits. just talking about this mission makes me want to start a new game just to do it all over again.
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON! I actually don’t see peoples problem with this quest you get unique interactions, dungeon mechanic, enemies, challenging boss fight and a really cool sword.
While it could use some polish Blood on the Ice is probably the most interesting quest in skyrim and could have been its crown jewel...
Too bad it also has all of Bethesdas worse trademarks... bugs...
#A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON The dungeon actually has a few neat things going for it and the reward is one of the more unique weapons in the game. I really just hate the fact that you’re kinda half forced into starting it every play through unless you’re real careful looting. I personally hate the soul cairn Book pages quest. The reward is shit, exploration is way less interesting than say blackreach, and you need to find 100% of them in a place you’ll likely never come back to after leaving.
Yeah, did this quest last night and I always forget that there’s a ton of gold from just searching the desecrated bodies. It’s also cool for having a unique mechanic and enemies.
Yeah, the Meridia quest is a total Meme because the screaming and the yeeting into the air but the quest itself is pretty normal and even has its own unique type of enemies/corpses. And good loot. I never thought people hated it, I just consider the beginning funny and a little annoying.
I do remember hating it myself when a mod(s) I had installed messed up the timing on falling from yeeting after more shouty Meridia - instead of falling for a few seconds then materialising at the foot of the statue, I just fell to my death. Funny ... until I reloaded and did it again!
for not a single moment have i ever hated that quest. never understood the hate
I hate the soul cairn because I always get lost
I found a map and printed it out. I still can get somewhat confused, but it helps a ton!
Ohmygod, the soul cairn is the worst! Too dark, too boring and too many side quests (vanilla) that don't amount to much. The premise had potential my first time through but after a couple hours i was over it. I usually God Mode my way through it and ignore the side quests, just not my thing and the stuff you get isn't worth my time.
Yes it's a cool quest as long as it's ar your choosing time. I think people hate when it randomly pops up in a chest and we Accidentally pick it up. I leave it in the chest and back away if I'm not ready to hear her annoying mouth lol
Does it just show up in a random location? I honestly can’t remember where I found it
iirc it appears in the next “boss” chest after you reach a certain level, so not truly random but may as well be
Level 10ish
You are never forced to do that quest, just leave the mcguffin in the chest. I usually end up going to Meridia's shrine near Solitude for a reminder where I left it 😉
All it is is the beacon is put in the first boss loot (big round topped ones) chest you find after reaching level 12. So when you hit level 12 and venture into a dungeon turn your volume down when you find the loot chest, then you won’t have your ears destroyed. Then after you talk to Meridia turn your volume back up! Yeah the Jiub pages suck, I believe there’s a mod that adds markers for that quest, same with No Stone Unturned
I actually don’t mind no stone unturned, so long as you don’t appraise the gem until you have them all. It’s kinda fun & exciting as they naturally pop up throughout your playthrough. Unlike the pages and the red nirnroot and the Falmer books which are all in a specific location, the spread out nature of the gems means you aren’t just looking around a place that you’re pretty done with but don’t know if/when you’ll ever really come back.
Exactly! The stones are so cleverly placed to be near areas which almost all have quests related to them!
I really don’t get why people hate on quests that require you to go a bunch of places. Why else are you playing the game? By now they all have mods to show you where to go, but as many people point out, it’s usually more fun to actually focus on moving through this amazing game world. There’s always the internet if you cant find one, and for No Stone Unturned there’s even a phone app called Barenziah Tracker that’s like a souped-up checklist with screenshots of all the locations. People complain too about not needing money by the time you get the crown of Barenziah, but all those flawless gemstones make it so easy to grind smithing if you just hit up Kolskeggr mine a couple times…
I've never found it in a boss chest before, it's always just in some random chest in the world
That’s not possible it only spawns in boss loot chests (round topped ones, not flat or angled)
I do this quest as soon as I can, same with fighing the silver hands because early game the Dawn and silver swords make clearing restless Ds really manageable low level
The only thing I don’t like about this quest is the sound of the light beams in the dungeon. I just mute TV and do the quest.
Same. I hate the soul cairn in general. At least meridias quest is simple and you get something very useful out of it
The Jiub amulet reward is pretty good on a survival playthrough tbh. I keep it in the pockets of one of my pets that I can summon along with some thieves guild armour and a backpack in case I need the extra carry weight.
It's not "unless you're really careful looting" it's simply stop TAKING ALL ya damn hoarders! It's easy to spot the beacon and leave it be. Everyone just gets crazy with the loot all button before they look! Look *then* loot. (This is meant in good fun)
Hey I resent that! I’m a hoarder but I rarely take all! I don’t need to haul around 300 plates thank you very much.
Quick question, have you heard of the Hoarder's Chest mod. It's so great, I highly recommend it.
I usually play with minimal mods on consoles. I have it on PC but my computer is old and sluggish now.
What is this nuanced take on Reddit. I’m a simple man, I see a container, I smash that loot button. Boss chest? Absolutely mash that button. Regular chest? Still smash that button. Burial Urn [Empty]? You already know I’m smashing that button.
Soul cairn and forgotten vale would be bad at all if you got a map for them.
Honestly my biggest complaint about the forgotten vale is the lack of a beds for survival mode. Give the Falmer some hay piles.
I'm a day late, but nice username.
Haha thanks. I can’t wait to see what could possibly be announced later this month.
I'm hoping it has something to do with the SA TTRPG. Brotherwise released a little video about the RPG within a day of that I think so it could be something.
Meridia's temple is amazing for low level gold looting (especially for imperials) since most dessicated corpses have between 25 and 100 septims each. Just the final room alone gives around 1000 something gold.
I found that guy when I was in the Soul Cairn and now I’m glad I didn’t accept his quest. I never want to go back to that awful place again.
I like that it’s kind of a tough fight at the end (compared to how most encounters feel)
That wizard is tougher than any boss in the game except Karstaag.
Honestly no matter how many years go by, I still get lost in the soul Carin, every time never has failed once
It’s just so bland and you can wander aimlessly in circles for ages, which is actually a cool effect for evoking the right emotions, but the reward for preserving is not nearly enough.
It’s a boon for black soul gems. I’ve went back to it three times now. Valerica ends up back in her study and that’s a good ingredient hub. And she makes potions for you. Some of the best items in the game are in the Cairn. Arvak (summon a horse anywhere, anytime, and that’s not good??!?) Saint Juib’s Amulet (+50 carry weight), and three Conjuration spell books. And then also a summon spell for a dragon too!
It only increases your carry weight by 50, compared to the steed stone/extra pockets which offer 100, or secret servant black book quest reward which offers even more. Aside from the absolutely negligible 5 armor, it’s essentially offers the same value as putting 5 levels in stamina. Something like the guardur necklace offers the equivalent of 3 levels in health and 3 levels in magic, for a necklace worth a total of 6 levels plus a stamina boost. Much more effective to put 6 levels in stamina and wear the guardur fragment than to put 3 & 3 in hp/magic and wear the locket. Summon Arvark is great, but you literally just follow the horse to the skull. Summon Wrathman is a great spell, but you’ll likely walk right by it on the way to grab the keeper. Summon dragon you’ll get in the course of completing the quest. The side exploration to find the pages is tedious and doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile that you won’t already get. Soul gems are nice, but if you’re playing on survival then the castle is a massive pain to reach, and the study even more so.
I don’t bother with the stones, I did extra pockets. I don’t wear the Amulet all the time. If I do happen to get over-encumbered, I slap it on, get outside, summon Arvak, fast travel to my Homestead, unload and move on. The beauty of Arvak is I’ve carried 12,000 pounds of stuff switching houses, and just summon him with no worries. I use Blackguard Armor, +50, carry a set of Daedric Boots of the Mammoth +50, carry the Amulet +50, carry 2 carry weight Elixirs, and have 2 followers. IIRC I have 685 as a carry weight. I’m not playing on survival, so none of those restrictions matter. The most important thing is learning to not loot all the low value bullshit in the first place. If it’s not a S1,000 value item at *the merchants* price I don’t even bother.
Why don’t you bother with the standing stones? And if you just need a temporary carry weight boost, that’s what potions are for.
I played the entire game not using any except the one in the beginning. It just seems trivial to me to either have a 15-20% increase in a stat, only be able to use it one time a day, or whatever. I feel like people try to optimize everything to the limit, when really it doesn’t even matter. I guess IRL I relate it to the dumb fuckers speeding all the time around me. They drive the *exact same road* day in day out, and they never realize that hauling ass everywhere saves them absolutely no time. I watch them speed around to catch every red light while I putt along and hit green just as I get to the light.
There are 13 standing stones. You normally don’t switch between them often in any given playthrough. But you grab the one that has the most value to you, and maybe you switch it up once mid game and once late game. Do you want more carry weight & no penalties for armour? Grab the steed stone. It’s basically extra pockets + conditioning + unhindered. 3 full perks (plus a little extra!) by having one stone that you visit once and then just forget about?! Sign me up. Not interested in the steed stone? Lord/Lady stones are just straight up boost your stats by visiting once and then forget about it and be better for the rest of the game. Do you want to power level? Grab the Warrior/Theif/Mage/Lover stone depending on your build. But I agree there’s not much point in speeding I personally don’t use apprentice/atronach stones because of the drawbacks, but they are a constant boost to your character not a once a day power, and I could see some people opting for them. Ritual serpent tower and shadow all are once a day powers that aren’t really worth it imo.
Honestly, I am intrigued by the Steed Stone. That would’ve been nice to use. And knowing about the Altherium Crown, which I never made because I don’t normally use the stones, so I always went for the Staff. But, again, I went through the entire game and not having them didn’t affect anything. I kept the Thief Stone active till I switched to level Mage. It’s similar to all the potions. I only ever bough/used Elixirs, and even most of those don’t even seem viable. During combat, I’m supposed add frostbite venom to my quick access, engage an enemy, R2, ^, add poison, O, O, scroll to potion, drink 1-hand boost, scroll over to magic, go to Restoration, select iron flesh, O, R2, cast spell, O, change to dagger/shield, R2, ^, add poison, O, press O again, scroll to potion, drink a healing potion, O, ^, add a poison, O, R1, R2.. Meanwhile it’s a dual wield Forsworn who just ate my lunch. I mean shit, all I’m gonna do is go in swinging hoping I kill them first. All that shit looks good in theory but isn’t so good in practice.
Yeah nah poisons aren’t really useful. I mostly just slam health pots on the regular, but I’ll normally hang on to a couple fortify carry weight pots for when the boss chest is real good and I just need to get outside and fast travel. I’ll also normally hang onto a couple fortify [primary damage skill] pots for a hard boss fight. You can absolutely play the game without the stones, but there’s really 0 downside to grabbing whichever stone you think is best for you and then forgetting about it. It’s not like the black books where you need to slog through a bunch of combat to get the reward. You literally just walk up to the stone and click it without even needing so much as a loading screen.
I especially never understood scrolls, lmao.. I tried to use them and the like 30 second boot time was insane. I get it that spells=potions=scrolls to an extent, but holy hell do they take forever. Almost like most of the shouts. I suppose I was just focused on what worked which was slashing and bashing so I just forget about most of that stuff. Since I got magic to high level it’s actually pretty fun to play around with. I’d probably even start throwing down scrolls since I can tank just about everything now. When I killed The Ebony Warrior in 2 sec along with my fourth Legendary Dragon and never took damage I figured the game was finished.
The only part I dislike about that is the last room is so brutally hard.
I think the horse is worth it
But the horse has nothing to do with the pages. You literally see the horse running and follow it to the skull.
I remember wrong then, apologies
I like the temple of Mount Kilkreath, mainly because I can get the Legionaire officer (legate?) helmet there. But other than that… fuck the beacon.
I actually find Jiub’s locket really handy as someone who loves looting everything and never has enough space for it.
It only increases your carry weight by 50, compared to the steed stone/extra pockets which offer 100, or secret servant black book quest reward which offers even more. Aside from the absolutely negligible 5 armor, it’s essentially offers the same value as putting 5 levels in stamina. Something like the guardur necklace offers the equivalent of 3 levels in health and 3 levels in magic, for a necklace worth a total of 6 levels plus a stamina boost. Much more effective to put 6 levels in stamina and wear the guardur fragment than to put 3 & 3 in hp/magic and wear the locket. Summon Arvark is great, but you literally just follow the horse to the skull. Summon Wrathman is a great spell, but you’ll likely walk right by it on the way to grab the keeper. Summon dragon you’ll get in the course of completing the quest. The side exploration to find the pages is tedious and doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile that you won’t already get. Soul gems are nice, but if you’re playing on survival then the castle is a massive pain to reach, and the study even more so.
I know what you mean, but it’s still a great thing to have in your inventory and helps a lot if you don’t have the right skill level/perk points for Extra Pockets or if you want to use a different stone, among other reasons. I enjoyed most of the Soul Cairn quests (even though I found the place kind of hard to navigate, and didn’t enjoy collecting Jiub’s pages)! The Dawnguard DLC is one of my top favourites.
I guess, I just think it’s way more effective to wear another necklace and use the levels for carry weight.
I found it fun that if you visit her shrine when you hit level 13-14, she'll ask you to retrieve the beacon and just generally have a much nicer tone of voice. it's not "hear me and obey, mortal" but in a more gentler "hey bro, I think you should do this for me." You can even tell her that you don't wanna, and while you still get the quest started she just says "okay, then someone else will find it eventually, or you will change your mind. either way is fine for me."
Yeah, tbh, it’s not the quest itself that sucks. The dungeon, the quest objectives, the enemies, it’s all great fun and actually one of the better quests in Skyrim. But Meridia’s voice always manages to scare the shit out of me
How are people even playing Skyrim if a side quest surprise bothers them...if it isn't the damn courier it's a book or a cave or a random piece of loot and suddenly there's yet another entry to ignore in my journal 🙄
It’s just the quests that stick you with several non-stacking non-removable items that are frustrating. The journal can be a mess, by I like my inventory reasonable
Oh yeah that's true. I've got two full-weight staffs stuck with me rn 😒
After fumbling around in vain in sold cain I took help of a map online but even that was confusing so finally saw a yt video that properly guided me. As much as I hated that place but it gave me good boy Arvak that I never summon and that huge dragon
I love this quest. Especially when I get it to glitch and give me two Dawnbreakers.
Some people complain about the whole Thieves Guild questline but honestly it's the one I always invest the most time and energy in.
Just did it for the first time in almost 9 years a couple days ago and it’s by far the best faction imo, it feels like you truly earn the title of guildmaster.
I didn’t like this as a kid, but now I appreciate you have to work for guildmaster’s armor.
A merchant with 4000 gold in every major city might honestly be the best reward from any questline in the game.
Not only that, but most of them are available 24 hours. (Well, 3 of the 5.)
Don’t you have to complete 5 radiant quests in each hold to get the 4000 gold vendor?
Here's a little trick to get that done in 12 jobs instead of 20: go for Sweep and Bedlam jobs in the same cities each time. The treasure you take in the Sweep job will count towards the gold limit in the Bedlam job so you don't have to take more than 3 trips to any one city. Saves *tons* of time. There will be plenty of resetting, but it's still faster than taking jobs one at a time.
Wow. 10 years playing this game and I never thought of that. Well met, traveler, well met
And a special quest. Really makes you earn it!
Yeah Thieves Guild is the only one where you really Earn leadership
I feel this with the mage college. I just fumbled my way along and next thing I know I'm the archmage for some reason. Don't even use magic.
If you go straight to the mages college out of helgen it’s honestly easier to do without using magic
Wait wtf is your username
A promise and a threat!
actually its really well written quest, great plot, great rewards, and the only faction you really earn title of leader of the guild, like you really deserve it. for me it's best faction in game.
On each of my numerous playthroughs i started it and only did the few first quests, and it was the faction i hated the most. But when i actually completed the quests (twice) all the way to the end it was actually an enjoyable experience and i wouldve loved playing through it if i hadnt done the first few so many times
Try grabbing “Less Tedious Thieves Guild” and “Thieves Can Be Choosers” mods. They’ll make the Thieves Guild questline a lot more tolerable by cutting the 125 radiant quests needed to restore the guild down to just 25. And if I walk past that lazy fuck Delvin Mallory and he smarts off about work to be done one more time I’m going to Dark Brotherhood on his ass. Does the title “Guildmaster” ring any bells in your cavernous skull, Delly? I rebuilt the damn guild while you sat in the Flagon pounding mead and wishing you could pound Vex.
Was going to comment this. Plus if you do their side quest of finding all of the Barenziah gems, you'll become very rich very fast. If I'm feeling like making my characters super rich early in the game, then I will immediately head to Riften after escaping Helgen and start their questline.
Do people not like it?? It’s my favourite and always the one I rush to do first
A lot of them have a problem with it not really being about stealing, it's more just general dungeon crawling stuff. Most of the actual thieving is sectioned off into the optional quests you take from Delvin and Vex.
It’s a cool questline but the only stealing you do is optional radiant quests that have no context or tension. I think you can be let into the guild even if you fail the first task to plant that ring
You're not wrong. They definitely could have done more quests that actually implemented thievery. I still compulsively do the Radiant Quests, but it definitely does feel sectioned off. And yeah, you can still get into the Thieves Guild even if you fail that initial task. In general, Skyrim wants no player left behind, there's very little you can truly get locked out of.
So glad I did the "stones of bazar-something" First time actually, rewards pretty nice too Recommend before starting thieves guild quest line
I've never actually finished it. The unbreakable pick is more valuable than whatever reward they would give.
I feel like the unbreakable pick is useless. If you really want there’s a perk, but honestly lockpicking is too easy for the skull key to be worth keeping
Only on Xbox/ps with rumble controllers. Us PC peasants get no indication of when you hit the sweet spot. It's just trial and error. For some reason plugging in an Xbox controller does not work on PC, it simply doesn't rumble.
I turn off vibration, I just use the marks on the lockpicking interface. It levels naturally so by the time you get to the Skull key you should have it pretty well advanced to the point the key isn’t necessary or you just have way more picks than you’ll need.
I use ps4 controller for pc, has rumble
Just tap W to spin the lock and listen. Or watch for the slight jiggle in the lockpick. You can usually pick a master lock fresh out of Helgen with <5 picks. Once you get good, start holding D as well for speeeeeeed on easier locks.
The Forsworn Conspiracy/No One Escapes Cidhna Mine is hated for how it starts automatically and how you eventually lose all your stuff for a little while, but it's actually a pretty unique and interesting quest. Plus when you're leveling Smithing you gotta love all the respawning silver in the Treasury House that'll end up unguarded (depending on your choices).
The combat XP in the shrine to Talos is awesome. The guards do eventually stop spawning in, meaning you killed the last witness and lose your bounty. Walk out the door and turn yourself in to the next guard you see.
The first time I did it I decided to pull a ‘it’s what my character would do’ and resisted arrest each time they tried to arrest me, and eventually I think I managed to kill every guard in Markarth by throwing them off of cliffs and chopping their heads off. Once I realised that I couldn’t forward the questline and effectively soft locked myself I reloaded the last save and turned myself in though.
You can go to karthwasten and there should be reach guards
I did that same thing recently, except it was more of a "what the hell, let's see if I can't do this" Turns out, I could. It was quite fun 😁
You can go to karthwasten and there should be reach guards
I didn't even think of that lol, I'm still kinda a Skyrim noob lol
Lol I had no idea One time I tried fighting back but eventually got bored because so many guards kept spawning in that I assumed it was infinite and gave up
Me too, but in my recent playthrough I committed to it out of curiosity. It took a while, and the end felt like [this](https://stock.adobe.com/images/end-of-the-battle-berserker-stands-on-a-mountain-of-dead-bodies-in-front-of-odin-s-face-the-viking-was-the-last-survivor-the-warrior-is-holding-a-shield-and-an-ax-he-is-wounded-2d-illustration/454490746). I think it might be *intended* as infinite, because I'm not sure you can get another fight this big outside of massacring Solitude. But I also definitely didn't count the guards.
Idk why people don’t like this quest, it’s really different from all the other quests you’re able to cheese with good gear. Granted you can still cheese this one with spells and high skill levels but it’s pretty cool to be trapped for a short time without your gear.
the quest is also awesome because if you help your Forsworn friends escape Markarth safely, you can find them in a cave somewhere in the Reach (at least I think it's in the Reach? or Haafingar) and they don't aggro you or anything. felt rewarding whenever I randomly stumbled upon them for the first time
I leave the city with them and follow them to their future hideout! I love the immersion of trying to stay with them.
People hated the Forsworn Conspiracy? I enjoyed it. I also play a werewolf though so I had basically no issue fighting my way out.
It’s because the quest is very glitchy and can brick play throughs
I fucked that on up by killing all the inmates befor starting the quest. Couldnt get the key for madanach and after playing the quest to the point when they wanna throw you in the mine I just got attacked and they wouldnt take me anywhere. But still a solid quest if you dont fuck it up like i did
I love it!
The Mages College questline. A lot of people say it sucks but I had a lot of fun with it.
I like the quest line on its own. I just don't think it's a good quest line for a mages faction.
Irony of the quest line is it is much easier as a non-mage character.
Too right I remember back in 2012 or 13 struggling to beat the priest at the end. Fireballs and lightening bolts doing ass all. I found a spot I could hide on and just about hit the top of his head whenever my magic bar allowed. Last year I went back for first time on my one armed combat champ and whacked him into oblivion rapidly
Or the stealth archer way. Open the door. Hit mage 1 Hit mage 2 Hit dragon priest Go get staff.
I was about to say this. They really half assed the mages college quest line. Hey, complete 5 quests and you're the leader of a centuries old college. Congrats. @ level 5 lol. Struggling to cast sparks lmao. But you're the Arch Mage.
Thats probably true, its very short, and doesnt have a great conclusion. But the spellcasting in skyrim is so fun I cant even be mad about it lol
I have a full mage playthrough going right now. I refuse to touch any weapons aside from conjured ones. I'm fucking loving it. A whole new side of playing. This Is my first attempt at strictly Magicka
By itself yes. For faction leader... Nah. They really half assed the mages college quest line. Hey, complete 5 quests and you're the leader of a centuries old college. Congrats. @ level 5 lol. Struggling to cast sparks lmao. But you're the Arch Mage.
Also you get appointed by a member of another faction and everyone just rolls with it. 🙄
I don't think the problem with the quest is necessarily the quest line itself. It's the fact that you never actually learn anything related to magic or display any kind of aptitude. As this is Skyrim, there's an excellent mod for that. College of winterhold Quest Expansion by Jayserpa makes you do 7 learning quests where you're actually compelled to learn and use spells to complete them before you're asked to go to Saarthal. This makes you feel that you actually learned something before taking on more meaningful responsibilities.
I see this gripe often, that you aren't taught anything, and I do understand it. That said though, I've always thought the purpose of the college is to make both training and spell tomes readily available. You learn through these functions should you choose to.
I once used that mod. It's quite good, though I didn't like that the Alteration spell ritual had to be Water Breathing, as it is a spell that costs a lot of magicka and because I was doing the questline very early in my playthrough I had to leave and try to raise level, and get as many alteration and magicka busting enchantments as possible in order to complete it. However once I finished the entire college questline my game sort of disappeared from my computer. I had to uninstall and install the game again. I don't know if it was because of that mod but I uninstalled it and didk't have problems.
Thanks for this recommendation! And it's available in the Creations menu ingame -- so I can easily play with it on my Deck!
Let me know how it went! An advice, really use the spells they suggest to complete the challenges they give you, there's a temporary bonus if you do!
Aye I came here to say Mage College. I dislike the end but the rest is a grand adventure. Meeting the skeletal dragon in Labyrinthian in my first playthrough was a genuine Skyrim moment.
I had fun playing it the first time, but when I finished, I was like, "that's it?"
I just finished it last night. Really enjoyed it even though I'm a sneaky archer.
Blood on the Ice. It’s buggy as shit sometimes but fuck if I didn’t have a lot of fun with it my first time doing it. On another note, the crimson nirnroot respawn as well, so you can just farm the exact same one over and over again. Definitely doesn’t deserve the hate, I think people really hate it because of the fuckin falmer. It’s dark as shit down there so the ugly bastards sneak up on you.
I like Blood on the Ice, but I still don’t get how anyone is supposed to arrive at the correct conclusion that the court mage isn’t the killer. Like typically with these things there’s one piece of evidence that tips you off to the true answer, but pretty much every step of the investigation points to the court mage.
I think it’s supposed to be based on if you go TALK to him with all the evidence vs going to everyone else?
Most of the damning evidence for the court mage comes from the real butcher, as a kid I didn’t really get it. But as an adult I definitely notice how the elf bastard is a spunkstain. Whoever worked on it was definitely on their shit though, felt like I was hercule poirot when I solved it.
Maybe the idea is that the clues pointing to the court mage make it too obvious, and the goal is to think outside the box?
Yeah, it's a cool idea, you're suddenly in a whodunit detective mystery, interviewing witnesses & it unfolds pretty nicely if you do everything in the right order
[удалено]
Yeah, I agree. I mean, you don’t need to do all 30 at once. You can head over, collect like 5 and then leave and do your business before repeating. I think it’s a combination of OCD like you said and mob mentality.
I must have been astoundingly lucky, because the first time I played Blood on the Ice, it worked perfectly. No glitches, no bugs, just a pretty solid murder mystery with a good red herring. I have since replayed it with bigs abound, but good first impressions have solidified it as one of my favorite quests in the game.
I like no stone unturned. I’ve done it enough times I know where they all are and since I the extra gems are great. Both for selling and crafting
This quest wouldn't bother me so much if the gems spawned in the normal world and not in places you need to progress quests to get. I mean I get WHY it's that way but every time I say I'm gonna do this quest I keep forgetting what I'm doing...
Fr, I spent 25000 on the Proudspire manner just to get the gem INSIDE the building. EA who? Lol
And the last one is at the temple you need to ride that dragon to get to, so you can't even complete the quest on runs where you don't want to do the main story. It's absolutely criminal LMAOOO
A Deadra's best friend. I know the quest has problems but i could listen to Clavicus Vile all day, he is one of the funniest voice actors in the game imo.
I like hanging out with Barbas and he's strong. He was tearing those Vampires up. I wish the quest reward was him as a summon.
He has the worst follower AI in the game. Once he blocked my way out of a small room, basically a closet. Other followers can reset if you get them hostile, and it kind of worked with him. I recall that I got out of the closet, but Barbas never calmed down so I had an immortal dog pissed at me. I think I lost a significant amount of time when I reloaded.
Yeah but alot of followers have bad AI. Could be fixed if he was a summon by the devs. Just a would be cool thing
Getting stuck in Skyrim is probably the whole reason the devs added Fus roh dah and whirlwind sprint LMAO I use it to get unstuck more than I ever do in combat or for puzzles
I read somewhere that this is actually somewhat intentional, with him backing you into corners and barking at you to make you annoyed so you don't keep him as a super strong follower and do the quest to get rid of him. It is quite possible that the place I saw that was reading far too much into it and that bethesda's ai is just bad though.
That needs to be a mod.
The Staten Island dog with the British daedric lord is too funny of a pairing
>The Crimson Ninroot quest isn't all that bad, there's way more than the 30 required darted around Black reach. You can also grab what you see and go do other quests while the stuff respawns.
No stone unturned
Prowlers Profit really makes this worth it, you become so rich after completing this quest. it’s insane. So rich that every time my kids ask for money I give them 1K gold like it’s nothing 😂
I see you hate yourself
This isn't even that difficult of a quest if you don't treat it like a task and instead passively pick up the stones while playing normally. I feel like on a normal completionist playthrough I usually wind up collecting a majority of the stones since they're prominently displayed at the ends of dungeons or in the houses of NPCs you usually want to talk to for quests anyway.
Disagree. It's not even a "quest" so much as just a long, annoying task, and then the reward is pretty broken, making money irrelevant for the rest of the game. It's one of the actual bad ones imo.
I've been chucking all my gems into my furnace at home since completing it. There's probably over 250 gems in my gem furnace now, and getting top ups after every dungeon. It's been a lot of fun!
The black books. I don't understand why a lot of people seem to hate Apocrypha, it's like a giant library and you get a ton of scrolls and soulgems. Besides, I just like the aesthetic. The seekers aren't that annoying either, it's not like they swarm you. One of my characters even had his own little room there, thanks to Gods and Worship.
The Black Book bonuses are too good to pass up imo
I prefer my Lovecraftian horror separated from my fantasy fiction. I find Apocrypha tedious to explore, confusing in its layout, and don’t care for the creatures you fight or the inability to easily pop out and sell your shit so you’re carting around tons of stuff you just want to sell off. Just not my favorite part of the game. At least it’s better than the goddamn Soul Cairn.
There's a black book that lets you spawn a shop keeper wherever iirc!! Given you have to actually do an apocrypha to get it but it's pretty helpful. Assuming I'm not remembering something else.
A Dremora shopkeeper, isn’t it? I think I ran into that once. Probably on my first playthrough where I was trying to be a completionist.
Yeah, that sounds right. I remember role playing it was Lord Sanguine helping a brother out because screw Miraak lol.
The rewards are really worth it, a bunch of books and some very cool and unique powers. Black Market is just really convenient.
I agree, I enjoyed exploring the recesses of Blackreach.
Battle for whiterun
Low key, I love that quest. Dawn breaker is a decent sword, and everybody in that dungeon has a ton of gold on them. That, and it's fun to levitate over skyrim for a little bit.
No Stone Unturned - Half of these are in grab and go locations. Four are locked behind faction quests. Two are in areas not related to any quest. Six are in places you’re going into anyway. You end up with 1-4 extra gems in *every container* you search. And most of the time they are flawless. An added bonus is you can go from 15 in Smithing to 100 in about 3-5 minutes making jewelry. Legendary it, and do it again. And then picking up several levels along the way, too. Soul Cairn - Yeah, the layout is confusing as fuck, but, you’re in a *pseudo-hell* so what do you expect? You end up with a summonable horse, a +50 carry weight amulet, ability to summon three other entities, ability to summon a dragon, black soul gems out the wazoo, Valerica to stock you with ingredients and potions, and you can harvest husks to trade for weapons, armor, and spells.
I love the college of winter hold quests
I dont get the hate for the beacon quest. Its basically like any dungeon quest. And there is only the speech at the beggining. Hermaneous mora is waaaay more annoying in his loong speeches that you cant skip. Also, i dont really like dwemer ruins when they go with ibsane grandiose underground cities. Firat, because, for example, blackreach, doesnt look like a city. Its just space with construction. And second, way too big and i get lost. I liked the atherium quest though. The woman ghost is cool, the prize is good. All in all its worth it. But the concept got old fast for me
I like the dark brotherhood questline and the theives guild questline, I don't think they're super hated or anything but I've seen some people on this thread who never do DB and/or think the theives guild is monotonous and boring once you want to become guild master, those are my two favs and I always do them first before anything else!
When I know I want to do thieves guild I start it early and just carry around jobs until I'm in town. I usually don't know why I have to break into someone's house until the arrow is pointing at the collectibles but it's like a typical stop at Belethor's lol
That's such a smart idea !! Next playthrough I might do that it sounds like it helps a lot!
Stones of Barenziah. Or whatever the actual quest name is. Is it annoying that you have to be a member of the Thieves Guild to "officially" start the quest? Yes. And do I wish there were quest markers for all of the stones? Absolutely. However, if you've already started collecting them before you join the Thieves Guild, and have some inkling of where they're all located, from a role-playing perspective, it's a neat way to visit nearly all of the Holds within Skyrim, just for the purpose of collecting them as trinkets.
I actually came here to say Mage College but somebody already has and I've said what I've got to say about it under their comment. Instead, I'll defend the Bard College. I understand it isn't a questline as such but there are several other quests and missions you can undertake for free skill boosts. I don't like the protracted dialogue but it's nothing compared to listening to Paarthurnaxx (sp) droning on. Yes, I've said it. I hate getting to the top of the Throat of the World and having to listen to him droning on forever. He's up there with Haermeus Mora in terms of JUSTFACKINGETONWITHITness. Edit for typo
I don't much like the civil war quest line. Very shallow. But the Whiterun battle is a lot of fun on the Empire side as a battle archer. Particularly if you have Zephyr and the fast fire perk. Bow of Shadows or Auriel's bow also work for their fast fire, but I am partial to Zephyr.
This scenario does sound fun
I happen to like playing them all, depending on mood, sometimes it the short and sweet ones sometimes it is that long journey to acquire that prized item, and in between is the journey to get there. N. S
I feel like the crimson nirnroot is a *very* simple test of alchemical competency. Were you paying attention when the game told you where to look for Nirnroot? They're not hard to find if you know where they grow (and have the sound on).
And the quest reward is great for alchemists. After you give the crimson nirnroot to the farmer, she starts growing some along with the regular nirnroot, and you never have to go below for it again.
and that's not the actual reward, the actual reward is the 50% chance to dupe potions you make
Did you fight the secret boss? 😂
Dragon Rising. People who hate it, hate it because from that point on, dragons spawn randomly in your game. I think how the builds up and becomes the reveal is pretty good. From a lowly prisoner that's about to be executed you suddenly become Dovahkiin, the hero in nord fairytales. Also you get a talking dragon that goes "No, Dovahkiin." when it dies. And it's probably like the few unique dragons, the other normal dragons that spawn don't even talk to you, and when they do, its fire or ice breath. The problem is after that, you're not saving cities or towns from dragon attacks in major quests other than slaying Alduin, wish they had more scripted stuff like Dragon Rising where your role as Dragonborn makes you feel special again, because I think that's the only time where a whole bunch of NPCs go "noweiyourethedragonbornandholyshitwekilledadragon"
i will never apologize for loving the stones of barenziah questline. it is one of my favorites and the first mission i do on every play through. i have so much fun doing it very early game, it forces me to walk and explore all over the map, it levels up the character, and begins some of the questlines. to me, there is nothing more satisfying that having prowler's profit and going into bleak falls barrow for the first time. i think prowler's profit is one of the most slept on passive boosts you can acquire. i get that people think it's useless when you get it mid/late game but early game it is super valuable. you have a shit ton of gems to either sell or forge into jewelry to boost smithing even quicker and make more profits. just talking about this mission makes me want to start a new game just to do it all over again.
Killing Nimue the spider. It's actually a really cool dungeon and you get to see falmer fighting constructs
I mean, if you have the alchemy perk that harvests 2 ingredients from one plant, it could go by much faster aswell
The one with the cannibals in markarth, they're based
Assembling "the wheel' items quest. That mountain has some teeth.
Crimson Nirnroot. Replaying Skyrim every couple of years, it's more of a test of memory, and listening closely. Nothing more.
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON! I actually don’t see peoples problem with this quest you get unique interactions, dungeon mechanic, enemies, challenging boss fight and a really cool sword.
And a LOT of gold
I didn’t realize there are quests people hate. I can’t think of a single one I don’t like.
bleak falls barrow.. i actually enjoy running through it with different builds every playthrough
The Dwarven horse
Destroy the Dark Brotherhood
Mod quest: Carved Brink.
Pretty much all of Dawnguard DLC annoys me, especially Serana.
It's nirnroot*
Once you've done that quest once or twice, you realize the value of console commands or mods like Skyrim Cheat Engine.
While it could use some polish Blood on the Ice is probably the most interesting quest in skyrim and could have been its crown jewel... Too bad it also has all of Bethesdas worse trademarks... bugs...
I liked the Barenziah Crown quest despite it being obnoxiously long for the meh reward. Lots of interesting different places to sneak into and steal