I don't "hardcore grind" skills in these games, but when I find something easily exploitable, I have a hard time not exploiting it simply because "it's there, right in front of my eyes". Like... when you realise you can skyrocket the smithing skill with nothing but iron ingots and leather stripes, it's hard to not simply buy all those iron ingots and leather stripes whenever you see them for sale. It's especially hard when you reeeaaaally want that sexy, badass-looking Ebony Armour too. And once you have the Ebony set, you are only 10 levels away from Daedric - THE most badass armour in the game.
And enchanting actually levels up very fast if you use it often (without actually grinding). It only requires more "hard to get" material than any other skill to level up.
It's a lot more fun when you have to run like hell from those giants, than when you can simply walk straight up to one and smack it down in two hits with your enchanted Daedric Warhammer. But at the same time... who would use less powerful weapons and less powerful armour "just because"? I think pretty much everyone equips the most powerful things they come across, since they don't want to intentionally nerf their character ( unless you're doing some kind of challenge and set up rules for yourself that involves doing just that ).
This is the problem with smithing and enchanting - they are too easy to access, too easy to level up quickly and too easy to abuse once you figure out how.
In short: it's fun to make/find insanely powerful weapons, but it sucks to actually be a god. And yet, striving to become that "god" character is part of the fun of leveling up/searching for more powerful equipments etc.
Personally, my biggest issue with Skyrim (beside not being able to kill children) is that it's poorly balanced in too many aspects. Even if you don't abuse/power-level smithing and enchanting, you "will" become more overpowered than anything else could possibly make you once you do get them to 100 - whenever that may happen. If it never does, then fine. And in the same way smithing/enchanting is ridicolously OP, there are other skills that are very, very weak. I mean... why would you actually bother putting perks in Lockpicking for example? Hardly anything in the entire skilltree is worth the effort.
The x15 sneak-damage multiplier skill is also a bit too powerful too. At least when you equip those things that doubles it, meaning you get x30 damage from sneak-attacks.
Finally, my last issue is the magic skills:
Destruction: is awesome early, but all the cool spells get too weak almost right away. I love the idea of the magic traps, but they stop being useful just a few levels after you get them - and they never get better. Fireballs, icestorm and the elemental cloaks cost too much magicka at low levels but their damage becomes almost irrelevant when you are strong enough to cast them frequently. As a pure mage who relies on Destruction to kill foes, you will have to make sure you never get your levels too high, or the fun will be ruined since all the unique spells will become useless. And the magicka cost of the Expert and Master spells won't be worth the damage either, unless you once again abuse enchanting to reduce the casting cost to practically "nothing".
Really... they should have reduced the base casting costs and base damage for certain spells, then added individual multipliers for the spells "per point above 20 in the destruction skill" or something like that. For example; fireballs and such could have used a +1% or +2% multiplier per increase, while traps and cloaks could have used a +3% multiplier. Since opponents generally have higher HP but less attack power/defense than the player, spell damage is already dangerous for the player as it currently is though, so reduce enemy spells from being too overpowered, the enemies could have "half damage" penalty for spells.
Illusion: the spells - at every single level - do pretty much the same thing, save "Invisibility" and "Muffle". The lack of varity makes the skill pretty boring and it's hard to be motivated to put valuable perks in the skilltree. Illusion feels, to me, very much like the usual "same spell, but more powerful" thing that Oblivion had so much of. The master spells might be a bit more fun though, since they affect everyone around you. But it's still the very same effects.
Alteration: The passive effects in the skilltree are good and Paralyze + Master spells are very powerful and awesome. No problem there. But the first two entire levels - Novice and Apprentice - only contains 4 spells out of which 2 are basically "see better in the dark" and the other two "better defense rating for pure mages who wear no armour at all". So the only reason to ever get the "cast Novice and Apprentice for less magicka" perks, is to get access to the "cast Expert and Master for less magicka" perks. Really... more low-level spells needed!
...speaking of Athletics and Acrobatics, I think magic that increases running speed and such would have been a perfect addition to the Alteration set of low-level spells.Originally Posted by Sir Topham Hatt
...both Conjuration and Restoration are perfectly fine and pretty well balanced though.
/end of rant.
Those are pretty much my only issues with the game ( plus the lag that occurs on the PS3 version ). Also, despite "being unable to resist making a very good enchanted daedric armour", I still have trouble with Ancient Dragons and some other foes (like the Dragon Priests) on Master difficulty. So even with "god mode activated", you are not completely invincible.
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