Legendary Difficulty: Your Experiences

[Snake Tortoise]

Anybody played from start to finish on legendary? How did you do it? What did you learn from it? Any good stories of overcoming the overwhelming odds against you?

I reached level 40 last night (first game on legendary) and having just hit the point where I can put double enchantments on everything I ran through the White Phial dungeon with Lydia and my conjured dremora lord absolutely annihilating everyone who stood in our path. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but double enchantments were a huge game changer.

My build is a sword and board, light armour wearing Breton conjuror, with perks in alchemy, enchanting, smithing and speech. I've been transmuting iron to gold for smithing and enchanting leveling, and for the most part letting my companions handle the fighting.

I started out almost dying in Helgen, which I didn't know was even possible before. I quickly learned how futile my one handed ability was but also how useful the conjure familiar spell is at low levels. At the very lowest levels that wolf really holds its own! All game I've been relying on bait and switch tactics, approaching the enemy then backing off to let my follower and summoned wolf/atronach/dremora engage. Then when the enemy's health was down I'd typically (and in cowardly fashion) run in and take the glory. The conjuration idea was that no matter how nerfed the dragonborn is, my minions are just as effective as usual. There aren't many situations that can't be solved by repeatedly spamming atronachs until the area is cleared.

I've still died plenty of times. It's a humbling experience to be one hit killed by a two handed axe wielding bandit thug, or relentless draugr. Often even the most basic draugr or bandits would require a healing potion or two to beat. Even wolves and mudcrabs have been serious opponents! The game changers have been the moment I found a banish weapon in a store, which allowed me to train every level regardless of the cost of training; the moment the dremora lord spell became available; and hitting 100 enchanting. I hit 70 smithing at about the same time so the leap between running around in elven armour with single enchantments and glass armour with high level double enchantments was massive. At present magic is doing almost insignificant damage to me and with a better shield and fortify block on my bracers I can stand in front of a bear tanking damage. The whole point of the build is to have summoned creatures and a follower as my offense, while I stand tanking damage with 570+ armour, high level blocking, the best magic and elemental resistance possible and restoration spells to top up health. I was wondering whether it would even work for a while, but it seems it's coming together now. For anybody tempted to take the legendary challenge it's a viable build if you know what you're doing, and you could certainly swap conjuration for the Sanguine Rose if you want to put conjuration perks elsewhere

Anyway, the game is ongoing- I'll have to kill Alduin before I can truly claim it as a success. I want to hear your stories! Glorious victory or crushing defeat? I want to know how the various builds stack up on the hardest difficulty

 

[DdraigGwyn]

The fact that followers scale up with the level of difficulty is the key. It means they are even more valuable at higher levels, as you get weaker. One thing I have not checked, but would be useful: is it harder to accidently kill your follower?

 

[Manmangler]

For me, I start first time legendary as heavy armor and two handed. Certain level I start dieng just too much. This was my first time to use stealh and archery. So I switch bow, send follower first as meat shield. Then I snipe in the darkness. I level fast stealth and archery. Even you must put too many arrows in my taste in enemies.

Later it helped as enchanting, alchemy and smithing. Sad to say, paralyze was my trick in that first time. Poison arrows to enemies me and follower take care rest. I still train twohanded so later game, it was good option too.

What I learn
- Follower must, they weapons do 100% damage as yours do 25%
- Alhemy, poisons poisons
- enhancting more damage
- smithing increase damage
- Magic seems to suck in my hands, I need try that later.
- Monster/enemies mods make it even more difficult (Castle where is 25 bandits in courtyard in legendary is suicide without follower).
- Run when there is TWO LEGENDARY dragons in same fight (Unless You have Jarrin root poison, make that shot count, you have ONLY one, or two with right perk)Actually I save jarrin root always to some dragons, like dawnguard bossdragon.
- Dual wield is very good option when other hand sword have paralyze ench. Unless enemies are resistant for that
- for me blocking is useless, I cant block everywhere (As said I have MORE ENEMIES EVERYWHERE), so taking some of them out with paralyze is better.
- Put perks archery, lightarmour, onehanded or what build you play, perks are needed in legendary.
- remember train every level something getting faster needed perk points. I usually train skills that I wont use, so used skill rise usually but I get levels faster. Some enemies are high level even player is low level.

 

[Adam Warlock]

One of the things that`s easy to forget is that many enemies like Bandits may already have damage multiplier perks in place before upping the difficulty !
Legendary is definitely fun but most fights not involving minions will stretch out for longer periods .
When going solo , I`ve found that Guardian Circle and a Potion that boosts regeneration of Health and Magicka(garlic/namiras rot/saltpile) can keep you in the fight while you whittle away at your foe.

As observed by the OP , I`ve also found that Conjuration helps immensely.
Since only your own direct damage is nerfed by legendary , all the other magic schools outside of destruction rise in utility especially Illusion and Restoration.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Legendary is beyond my skill level.

 

[raido KASAI]

Legendary is doable but you have to have a lot of patience or you will go mad. I tend to switch up to legendary somewhere around level 30 and that can be a challenge. I do however always have the higher level gameplay mod active which elevates the types of enemies you face so even at easy difficulty levels, there is a greater level of challenge to everything. It does stuff like changing a spot where you might encounter 5 draugr and 1 death lord and you might now have a 3 draugr and 3 deathlords

 

[Daelon DuLac]

I died jumping between the tower and the inn at Helgen (4 Times!) and never got any further.

Legendary is a dream for me, not a reality. Kinda like being adopted by Brangalina.

 

[Twiffle]

My experiences are as follows.

Die .. .. Reload
Die .. .. Reload
Die .. .. Reload
Die, , , oh fluff this im off down the pub .. .. ..

 

[Adam Warlock]

I must agree that I don`t like Legendary at the onset not only because you die too easily but it is also PAINFULLY SLOW to level 1H, 2H, Archery , and Destruction at that setting.

 

[Snake Tortoise]

My character is coming along nicely. When I get some more grand soul gems I'll be able to enchant all of Lydia's ebony armour. My conjuration is at 94 now and I did the ritual spell, so a few more levels and I can jump to 100 with the skill books I found. Then I'll be going out to find the tough fights and really put this build to the test. Legendary is doable but it's all about getting through the low and mid levels

I can't recommend conjuration enough. Either seriously get into the conjuration skill or get the Sanguine Rose as soon as possible (you can start the quest at level 14). If you decide to go for the SR I'd still consider using the conjure familiar spell up until then, it's very useful at low levels

I imagine a pure archer build would be viable on legendary, and a dagger assassin would work well too. In both cases you can avoid directly engaging the enemy so the difficulty just comes down to how long it takes to kill.

One of the things that`s easy to forget is that many enemies like Bandits may already have damage multiplier perks in place before upping the difficulty !
Legendary is definitely fun but most fights not involving minions will stretch out for longer periods .
When going solo , I`ve found that Guardian Circle and a Potion that boosts regeneration of Health and Magicka(garlic/namiras rot/saltpile) can keep you in the fight while you whittle away at your foe.

As observed by the OP , I`ve also found that Conjuration helps immensely.
Since only your own direct damage is nerfed by legendary , all the other magic schools outside of destruction rise in utility especially Illusion and Restoration.

Going solo sounds like suicide

Illusion sounds like a great idea! I may have been better off putting all of my conjuration perks into illusion, and going for the Sanguine Rose at level 14. I've only ever used illusion as a dagger assassin, but I can see how it would work for a sword and board character too. You'd be able to pick your battles, and sometimes calm opponents halfway through a fight that's going badly. Rage/frenzy would be great for big rooms of enemies.

I must agree that I don`t like Legendary at the onset not only because you die too easily but it is also PAINFULLY SLOW to level 1H, 2H, Archery , and Destruction at that setting.

I found my one handed went up really fast, even though I was letting my follower and summoned creatures do most of the fighting for me. It makes sense too, one handed levels up based on the base damage of your attacks, so on legendary you might hit an opponent 20 times instead of the 5 times you would have hit them on lower difficulties. It's the same reason a dagger assassin levels one handed so slowly. They deal lots of damage but for a kill they only get the base damage of the dagger they used. One swing with a dagger does almost nothing for leveling compared with 5 or 6 attacks with a sword, axe or mace

 

[Daelon DuLac]

If Legenday requires the use of followers, summoned critters and dremora, no wonder I never play on it.

Generally my characters are anti-social and greedy so they're not going to share anything (including adventuring) with anybody.

To me the all (with the exception of Dremora) just get in the way, babble on obnoxiously and generally annoy the heck out of me. If I hear Lydia say "Hey! A cave!" one more time, I'm going to kill her on purpose and not by accident.

 

[Adam Warlock]

My character is coming along nicely. When I get some more grand soul gems I'll be able to enchant all of Lydia's ebony armour. My conjuration is at 94 now and I did the ritual spell, so a few more levels and I can jump to 100 with the skill books I found. Then I'll be going out to find the tough fights and really put this build to the test. Legendary is doable but it's all about getting through the low and mid levels

I can't recommend conjuration enough. Either seriously get into the conjuration skill or get the Sanguine Rose as soon as possible (you can start the quest at level 14). If you decide to go for the SR I'd still consider using the conjure familiar spell up until then, it's very useful at low levels

I imagine a pure archer build would be viable on legendary, and a dagger assassin would work well too. In both cases you can avoid directly engaging the enemy so the difficulty just comes down to how long it takes to kill.

One of the things that`s easy to forget is that many enemies like Bandits may already have damage multiplier perks in place before upping the difficulty !
Legendary is definitely fun but most fights not involving minions will stretch out for longer periods .
When going solo , I`ve found that Guardian Circle and a Potion that boosts regeneration of Health and Magicka(garlic/namiras rot/saltpile) can keep you in the fight while you whittle away at your foe.

As observed by the OP , I`ve also found that Conjuration helps immensely.
Since only your own direct damage is nerfed by legendary , all the other magic schools outside of destruction rise in utility especially Illusion and Restoration.

Going solo sounds like suicide

Illusion sounds like a great idea! I may have been better off putting all of my conjuration perks into illusion, and going for the Sanguine Rose at level 14. I've only ever used illusion as a dagger assassin, but I can see how it would work for a sword and board character too. You'd be able to pick your battles, and sometimes calm opponents halfway through a fight that's going badly. Rage/frenzy would be great for big rooms of enemies.

I must agree that I don`t like Legendary at the onset not only because you die too easily but it is also PAINFULLY SLOW to level 1H, 2H, Archery , and Destruction at that setting.

I found my one handed went up really fast, even though I was letting my follower and summoned creatures do most of the fighting for me. It makes sense too, one handed levels up based on the base damage of your attacks, so on legendary you might hit an opponent 20 times instead of the 5 times you would have hit them on lower difficulties. It's the same reason a dagger assassin levels one handed so slowly. They deal lots of damage but for a kill they only get the base damage of the dagger they used. One swing with a dagger does almost nothing for leveling compared with 5 or 6 attacks with a sword, axe or mace

Ah , I see.
It does make sense that the max xp to be obtained from any given foe will remain the same regardless of setting.
My observed slow progress at legendary must have been due to the fact that my minions were finishing off foes before I could get many hits in of my own.
I was also using a dagger much of the time.
I`m going to take a couple of Daedric swords and/or warhammer for solo trips to easier to survive sites like Embershard , etc to gain some 1H/2H xp this way.
Thanks

 

[Pete]

Well you talked me into it. I'm gonna give it a try.

 

[trenzalore]

I didn't even know that you could change follower armor until I read this, let alone enchant it...

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[Snake Tortoise]

I didn't even know that you could change follower armor until I read this, let alone enchant it...

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Oh you can make your follower an absolute monster! I quite like having a follower with similar combat abilities to myself so I can give them my old armour, weapons and ring/necklace when I've made myself something better. It saves a lot of time making a unique set of armour and weapons for them.

Get to a high-ish level (around 45) when your smithing, enchanting and alchemy are maxed and your follower is wearing gear as good as yours, then (after saving) hit them until they fight you. You'll probaby find they're much tougher opponents than dragon priests and draugr deathlords. Having a follower like that on your side on legendary is huge!

 

[trenzalore]

How do you even equip them? Everytime i press the equip button, it just equips it on Mr

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[Dram]

Legendary?​

​

So I can get killed by fluffing rabbits?​

No thank you, sir.​

 

[Dovahkiir]

Interesting, i'm currently playing on Master as my level 56 character finds no challenge otherwise but I might give Legendary a try just to see how much harder it is, most enemies are pretty straightforward to despatch except mages/magic in general, a pair of master level necromancers pwned me pretty fast yesterday with ice spikes and some kind of blizzard spell (have an archer build)

(currently experimenting with resist magic and/or resist frost/fire enchantments)

 

[Snake Tortoise]

Interesting, i'm currently playing on Master as my level 56 character finds no challenge otherwise but I might give Legendary a try just to see how much harder it is, most enemies are pretty straightforward to despatch except mages/magic in general, a pair of master level necromancers pwned me pretty fast yesterday with ice spikes and some kind of blizzard spell (have an archer build)

(currently experimenting with resist magic and/or resist frost/fire enchantments)

I'd recommend it. Actually with a powerful build by the time you reach double enchantments on your armour legendary doesn't feel much different from master. It's the early part of the game that's a real struggle

I went for heavy magic resistance on my legendary character. He's a breton and I quickly went after the agent of Mara bonus to give myself 40% magic resistance; I found some armour pieces and jewelry with fire, frost and shock resistances as I was leveling; then when I hit 100 enchanting I had two items giving me 23% magic resistance (bringing me over the 85% cap) and put one of each elemental resistance enchantments on other bits of armour. Magic just washes over that character now, and I'm always glad when I come up against enemy mages because their spells are useless. In fact, I even went as far as to take that block perk that reduces incoming elemental spells by 50%, and after that I could stand in front of a draugr scourge using frostbite and actually be recovering health instead of losing it.

That said, I wouldn't recommend a Breton for legendary. 25% magic resistance is okay, but early in the game it doesn't make such a difference given how damaging the enemies' attacks are, and later you can hit the 85% magic resistance cap without it. The best race I've ever used was an argonian because that histskin ability is huge if you keep it back for the right battle. 10x health regeneration is massive and can be the difference between beating that final boss or losing every time and having to run all the way back through a dungeon and go back at a higher level.

 

[Pete]

I died jumping between the tower and the inn at Helgen (4 Times!) and never got any further.

Legendary is a dream for me, not a reality. Kinda like being adopted by Brangalina.

Thou shalt jump onto the post, not the floor.