Do you hear it? That howling on the wind?

It's them. They are here.

The sweetrolls are coming.

 

That awesome armour worn by the Breton in the Elder Scrolls Online cinematic trailer is coming to Skyrim on PC [link], courtesy of a couple of modders. I really hope they or someone else recreates the trailer's Nord armour, too. In fact, the main reason I'm looking forward to the Elder Scrolls Online is all the mods it will no doubt inspire for Skyrim. Even if I never play it, I'll still benefit from its release.

 

Steam has DragonBorn available for purchase to be unlocked on the February release date.

Finally.

 

...that just reminded me that Steam might not make the DLC available from Japan.

Oh god. Oh god.

...Oh good. It's available. Fucking pre-ordered, fucking pre-paycheck to boot. Because fuck you, I'm Dragonborn, bitch.

 

Are you? Are you really?

Because I don't see you wearing any Stalhrim or Carved Nordic.



Protip: Start saving up your Quicksilver if you're a blacksmith. It's the core ingredient of Carved, and lorically speaking, is what Nords did with the stuff when they found it (none of this pansy elven shit), but the game wasn't originally made with Quicksilver actually having a use besides helping you make some Elven and Glass. So, you know. There's not a lot of it around. There is exactly one mine, if I'm remembering correctly, and you can just barely get a full set of the armor by stripping the place. If you want the weapons too, and you will, because they look fucking amazing, you're going to have to either buy the rest or go hunting for veins. So you might as well start now.

It's good to have a project to work towards.

Kind of like how I wish you could use Hearthfire to repair Helgen and Winterhold and make them functional again. Talos knows they could use a few hundred thousand gold worth of materials and renovations, and it's not like most of us aren't sitting on that much.

 

Since a bunch of you are probably dusting Skyrim off and getting really excited, I'm going to go ahead and make a non-spoiler list of some things you might want to collect while you're out knocking cobwebs loose.

I'm not going to tell you why. I'm just going to tell you what you might want to start getting your hands on.

- Ebony
- Quicksilver
- Bonemeal
- Steel
- High level Soul Gems
- Iron
- Corundum

You are going to need a lot of all of the above. And not all of it is for reasons that I've stated here in the thread.

Have fun.

 

I have a question for you, Lord Raine.

Based on all the new content in Dragonborn, roughly what sort of character build would be ideal to get the maximum enjoyment out of a playthrough? Which sort of character would benefit most from all the new content?

I'm thinking of starting a Dunmer nightblade+battlemage (basically a mix of those two classes), with this selection of perks. Ultimately he'll be decked out all in ebony gear, notably including Boethiah's Ebony Mail. He'll be armed with Mephala's Ebony Blade (which, although a two-handed sword, uses one-handed perks). And he'll also carry Azura's Star in order to recharge the Ebony Blade when necessary. Although the Black Star is more useful, this character will be a devout Daedra worshipper of Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura, and will thus obey Azura's will to cleanse the Star instead of corrupting it. For role-playing purposes, Aranea Ienith will make a great follower for this character. Another companion will be the assassin Jenassa. His major motivation will be to become the penultimate Dark Elf, perfectly embodying all of their traditions and affinities.

Will a build like this be ideally suited for taking advantage of Dragonborn's new content, both in terms of gameplay features and role-playing?

 

Two of the new types of armor can be crafted as either Light or Heavy. That being said, of the two that cannot be, they are both Heavy. So while Light Armor users are covered and get cool stuff, Heavy Armor users get more cool stuff.

Also, while there are a few pretty bitching Two-Handed Artifacts knocking around for you to find, the majority of the new Unique and Artifact Weapons are One-Handed, so there's more for you to choose from, generally speaking.

A Dunmer Battlemage or War-Wizard is definitely the way to go. It allows you to use the new weapons and armors, while also mixing in the new spells. Bretons make the best Battlemages in my opinion, but you can't go wrong with Dunmer, either, and it's one of the two archetypes that fits the theme of the DLC (the other being "Skaal-style Nord warrior").

If you want to go with the craftable armors, go Heavy.

If you want to use the Artifact Sets of armor, go Light (two of the three sets of artifact armor are Light).

All of the new Dragon Priest Masks are Heavy (but there is overlap here, because one of the masks is associated with an Artifact Armor set).

Make sure you're a member of the Thieves Guild.

Also, some slightly spoilery advice:

Spoiler

Miraak's stuff is all Light, but his mask (not one of the above counted Dragon Priest masks, even though I suppose it technically is one) is either Light or Heavy, depending on which of yours is higher when you fight him at the end. If you want the set to match, you need to make sure that your Light Armor skill is higher than your Heavy Armor skill. Also, the mask has leveled abilities, so if you want the strongest version, you need to be 60+ for the final showdown.

And before you ask, I have no idea what the mask defaults to if both skills are at 100. Probably Light, because I think I remember Light having precedence over Heavy for situations like this, but please don't quote me on that.

Also, I wouldn't stress too hard about the specific allocation of your perks.

It's not necessary anymore.

 

Is there a level you would recommend starting at? And is there anything for an Archer build?

 

You can run Dragonborn at any level, but a lot of the unique stuff levels as high as 60+. So I'd say the higher the better. Plus, there's spoilery stuff in the DLC that can only conceivably be a thing with a character at or near the level cap.

In terms of crafting, the best new material is Stalhrim. It's roughly Ebony tier, so an endgame character will probably have better armor, but it can easily be improved to the armor cap, so that's mostly a moot point. There's something else interesting about it, but I'll leave that to you to discover on your own.

In regards to archers?

Yes.

 

EXAMS?

OVER.

ESSAYS?

SUBMITTED.

TIME REMAINING?

SEVEN HOURS AND COUNTING.

DROP. DROP. DROP.

 

I'm not going to be a dick and start playing it while you're waiting.

But that's because I have to go to work.

Have fun.

 

The Ebony Warrior is awesome.

 

...So I've been running around Skyrim for a few hours. When the fuck are the cultists going to attack? :/

I've already defeated Alduin, so...

 

Holy malfunctioning mods, Batman!

I'm getting way too many compatibility issues. I think I have to start over on a fresh install, which is annoying. But eh, it'll be worth it.

Cultists attacked me right off the bat after fast travelling into Riverwood once. But ever since then I've been getting weird glitches and spontaneous crashes. That'll teach me to install upwards of 150 mods.

 

You've already defeated Alduin, so the only prerequisite to bumping into them has already been met (you must be officially recognized by the Greybeards as Dragonborn before they can appear).

It could just be bad luck. If you're having trouble, try actually walking along the roads, instead of just going off into the wilderness. Every time I've encountered them, it was on a road, and the first time I played the DLC, I decided to just 'walk' from Whiterun to Windhelm along the roads, and I met them before I was halfway there.

If that doesn't work, there's still a way to go. A friend of mine is playing a "Dragonborn in Denial" playthrough, where the Dragonborn refuses to believe he is Dragonborn and ignores all of this dragon nonsense. So he basically just fucked off as soon as the game let him. Since he hasn't even killed Milmulnir, wild dragons don't even spawn, so it's a dragonless Skyrim, and Helgen was clearly a one-off thing or possibly a hallucination of some sort.

This is a long way of saying that the guy in Windhelm will still take you to Solstheim even if you don't have the note that the Cultists drop. I know this for a fact, because we were deliberately trying to find out what he can and cannot do in this sort of run, and if the game is actually programmed to anticipate it.* I think it was I who originally suggested just trying to go straight to Windhelm and take the boat, and cut out the cultist middle-man. And as it turns out, the answer is yes, you can still get a ride over without the note. The boatman even has different dialogue for such an occasion. You just can't do the main Dragonborn quest or anything associated with it until you have that note. The sidequests are all fair game, though.

So worst comes to worst and the cultists refuse to attack for some reason, you can still go to the island. You just can't do the main quest there.


*Spoiler alert: it totally fucking does, to an almost insane degree. You wouldn't believe how much stuff actually changes by doing this. Somebody at Bethesda actually considered that a PC might show up to the Forgotten Vale without ever having killed Milmulnir. Those two lake dragons that are scripted to spawn? They don't show up for a Dragonborn in Denial. And he hasn't actively been looking for word walls, but the few that he has visited in the overworld don't have dragons guarding them. Someone thought of that, too.

 

Turns out it was SKSE preventing the DLC from being recognized by my system - I'd been using the SKSE launcher via NMM to start up my game. Launched via the default Skyrim launcher, and the second I stepped into Whiterun, bam. Cockney-sounding cultists.

Yeah. I lol'd. Dunmer accents are just. Yeah.

EDIT: Oh my god. The Morrowind soundtrack. Oh my god. Oh my god.

EDIT 2: It's cathartic just fucking walking around Raven Rock. Dear god. Yes.

 

How much combat is involved in just getting to the new DLC area and exploring? I've recently had to start a new character to the tints in the new version of SKSE and the race menu mod to work so am quite a low level.

I'm also glad to hear that those of us who have foregone the main quest can still play this DLC, some good foresight by Bethesda there.

 

The soundtrack is practically a nostalgia orgasm. And it gets better, too. There's more than just one song from Morrowind on the rotation. Just wander around in the wilderness for a bit, and you'll see what I mean. Half the Morrowind soundtrack is in here, including all of the good songs and most of the sound effects and ambiance.

And yeah, it's nice to know that Raven Rock didn't die. It's prospects were looking kind of bad there for awhile.

If you're trying to do the cultist thing, one fight with a few magic-capable Dunmer leveled to you. If you don't care about that, none. You can buy passage to Windhelm to skip any on the road encounters, and then go to the docks and buy passage to Solstheim. I think it's like 500 gold or something each ride there and yon, but since traveling there puts it on your fast travel map, it's more of a one-time payment.

In terms of exploring, about as much as you'd get with any "poke a stick in random holes" endeavor.

Stay away from the Werebears, though. They'll fucking wreck you.

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So where are you guys at now? Sound off. Inquiring eldritch abominations want to know.