Let's discuss your most powerful poisons.

I wonder if people here has made any builds around poisons.

I never have in the past, so it was sort of a new play style for me.

I came across this poison playstyle while playing in oblivion about two weeks ago. It was just the enemies were doing so much damage, that I had to come up with ways of killing them quickly. I had poisons but they were doing much damage so I didn't real bother
them, that is, until I learned about the weakness to poison spell in oblivion. I started doing some research about what that spell effected and from there I started formulating some experiments with alchemy. And I gotta say……..the results were WWWAAAYYYY better
than I ever imagined.

I was stacking as many damage buffing effects into one dose and made them stack on top of each other, and then the second dose was doing the damage and everything was dying, REALLY fast in Oblivion. Even with the difficulty slider at MAX, I was killing everything
with a single hit of the poison. and we all know how friggin hard that game can be with the slider up to max. The poisons were by FFFAARRR the most effective way of dispatching targets the easiest and quickest. You hit them with the poison and just try not
to get hit while the poison decayed their flesh.

What I was doing was using as many weakness to X in one spell, like weakness to fire/lightning/poison. And then I would make a poison that did x amount damage of fire/lightning/health over x amount of time. and the weakness to X element would increase the damage
of the element itself, and the weakness to poison would stack with the weakness of X element and further increase the debuffing effect, and then I would hit them with the poison and it was doing some crazy damage .

So I decided to play sky rim today and make a whole new character around what I've learned in oblivion about poisons. So I'm going down that alchemy tree heavy.

In oblivion, there were spells that did, weakness to X element, but in sky rim I see those are actual poisons now and those spells don't exist. So I'm trying to see if I can achieve the same level of success with using these poisons to debuff the enemies and
then, hit them with the damaging poisons and see what happens.

Anyone here got any poison experience or tips you would like to share, any great ingredient combos you think I should know???

I also see you can't no longer combine 4 ingredients like you could on oblivion, but now only three. This will make things…………….challenging.

:)

 

How is your "Reckoning" character or "any" other character built?

Really enjoying the Cabal. Nightshade Blades rock! I use Grenade Capacity V with her and have 7 mighty powerful blades at her disposal. Poison Strike is also pretty sweet. I like it better than Biotic Charge. Just when you think you didn't hit your target,
a few seconds later you'll see your Poison Strike kill. I like zooming through them, just to turn around and shoot them at the back of the head while poison is killing them.

 

Expert Alchemy is an Assassins best friend

[quote user="Mr REbZz"]

THATS AWESOM! WHAT LEVEL DO YOU NEED TO BE?

[/quote]

You can use alchemy recipes at any level. The higher your skill goes, the more powerful the potions and poisons become. At low levels, your "Slow + Poison" recipe might only reduce your target to 50% speed for 20 seconds and do 4 poison over 10 seconds
(40 total). But when you hit higher levels the slow effect might last for a full minute, and do 9 poison over 10 seconds (90 total). It works well since your enemies get stronger as you go, and so do the poisons.

That list of poisons I posted above contains some of the most useful combat potions I've discovered. Anything with the Slow effect is extremely useful, since it reduces the amount of DPS an enemy can do, while still poisoning it over time. Since mages can
be especially dangerous, it's best to hit them with a Paralysis + Poison to take them out of the fight for a few seconds, then follow up with the one that damages their magic regen. That way when they get up, they won't be able to spam you unmercifully with
spells.

 

My usual one two hit in Oblivion was a bow with 100% weakness to magic followed by a fireball. I have tried the weakness poisons in Skyrim but didn't notice any real use. Since the poison has to be applied each hit it disrupts my play to poison with a weakness,
stop, poison with something else. I never really experimented with using an aversion poison on a bow that does the same damage. I mean poison a fire bow with aversion to fire. It would not have worked in Oblivion but I have no idea if it will in Skyrim. On
the other hand, the one two I used in Oblivion would but there are no potions that give a total weakness. Sounds interesting so keep us posted.

 

"I have tried the weakness poisons in Skyrim but didn't notice any real use. Since the poison has to be applied each hit it disrupts my play to poison with a weakness, stop, poison with something else."

I see what you mean. That's where the lingering damage comes in handy at. You apply it once, and it does damage over time, instead of instantly, and having to apply another poison again and again. The lingering damage does more total damage than the damage
health poisons, but lingering damage takes a longer time to dish out the total damage, where as the damage health does the total damage instantly.

In oblivion and in skyrim, I always used the damage over time, and stacked as much of it as I could. SO I would hit them with the weakness and then, hit them with the damage over time poison, and continue to attack or defend while the poison does it's thing
over time. I got both set as hot keys so I don't have to go into any menus.

"I never really experimented with using an aversion poison on a bow that does the same damage. I mean poison a fire bow with aversion to fire. It would not have worked in Oblivion but I have no idea if it will in Skyrim."

Actually, it does work in oblivion and in skyrim. A bow that does fire damage and used fire aversion on it will, in fact, increase it's damage output. But the attack that applied the poison's effect does not get buffed with the effect, but all the attacks
after, will be buffed for as long as the effect time. I currently, have a frost sword from a dungeon, and I put a weakness to frost 55% on it and the first strike, didn't seem to do much damage, but the attacks after, seemed to do more damage as I saw bigger
chucks of health taken with each strike. This same thing applies in Oblivion. It works exactly the same.

"On the other hand, the one two I used in Oblivion would but there are no potions that give a total weakness. Sounds interesting so keep us posted."

About the poisons that gives no total weakness, I've personally seen potions that gives 100% weakness from store venders in the later game. But the REAL results comes from making them on your own, as you can make weakness potions that goes beyond 100% weakness.
THIS is where the poisons really shine. Making weakness poisons go over 200% weakness will wreck havoc on enemies.

Crafting enchanted gear that has improved alchemy can really help with that along with a high alchemy level and perks.

The thing I am quite interested in, is weakness effecting the enemies that has a natural immunity to poisons, like draugr. In oblivion, using a 100% weakness spell, made fire atronachs weak to fire……..let that sink in………….so yea, Im wondering if that same principle
works in skyrim. But since it's not a spell, and it's a poison, and they are immune to poison, one would think that it wouldn't work. But what about weakness to fire aversion used on draugr??? since it's a poison, would it still work, or would it say, it's
immune to poisons.

questions questions questions I need answers to.

I need to make me some more weakness poisons, and use it on a draugr and see what happens.

 

The nice thing about a weakness to magic is that it affects everyone and anything you put on it. So it is the best poison one would think but I have used it on high level mages and they laughed in my face. Remember that a draghr is resistant to poison not
immune so a poison still may work. I find frost still works just fine on Nords because the stamina damage still works as well as a lowered but still there damage from the ice.

Likewise, to get nearly 100% resistance to fire/ice/shock you need to have those three on your gear plus a resistance to magic. They stack so you end up with about 97% resistance to the three elements.

 

I like using frenzy poisons, especially on a group of bandits delivered with a lower damage bow. Purely for the entertainment factor of course, those idiots need little encouragement to spill their cohorts guts on the floor. I rarely use other poisons except
to sell, my usual bow kills most any biped with one shot, and a good many dragons who are not aware of my presence. Tipping that one with poison is just overkill.

 

I've never used the frenzy potions, but my assassin's build character mainly focuses on illusion magic and i used the frenzy spell…….A LOT. And also calm too. When I get out numbered, I start spamming calm like a machine gun from both hands, and then, run
and hide somewhere and then fire frenzy at them to make them fight each other.

Illusion spells make a lot of the brotherhood missions very easy. Why would I kill em, when the whole town can do it for me???

 

I've never used the frenzy potions, but my assassin's build character mainly focuses on illusion magic and i used the frenzy spell…….A LOT. And also calm too. When I get out numbered, I start spamming calm like a machine gun from both hands, and then, run
and hide somewhere and then fire frenzy at them to make them fight each other.

Illusion spells make a lot of the brotherhood missions very easy. Why would I kill em, when the whole town can do it for me???

 

I use the frenzy spell also Dre. It's cleaner than the poison, and I don't get involved as soon, or often completely escape while the dimwits scrap. If I stick one with an arrow, I'm usually found. I think I'm going to try the spell again before I hit my
rack tonight! Great topic!

 

I've never really got into poisons and alchemy but guess I should eventually. I always keep my enchantments active and play around with them a lot though.

 

I've been busy overhauling the level 47 Imperial that really only did the main quest with a bow and some magic. She had a pile of perks she never used so I'm working her up to do mage armor and conjuration and was thinking of using illusion but wondered
if frenzy and calm really work at high levels. I brought her illusion to 50 so I could get silent casting. I was thinking of using a bow with poison, conjured dremora and invisibility potions but was unsure about it. I haven't yet found a conjured anything
that was as strong as me and they usually die and leave the baddie looking for something to kill. The perk tree on illusion just says spells work on higher levels but not how high. I was going to throw in potions but that just extends duration not strength.

I went and got Windstad so I can move everything from Honeyside and Breezehome into one location. Then I can get to work crafting gear to give me free magic, all the resistances and all those buff and poison potions. I made a bunch of Dragonbone arrows last
night but need to go see where the rest of my dragon pieces/parts are. It is so much easier to stay organized and focused with the Hearthfire houses! In the early days I just dumped stuff whereever and my enchanted gear looks like it was crafted by a kid with
ADD. I learned so much as I went along. This Imperial is the only one of my main 5 characters who never got pulled out again after Heathfire was introduced.

 

Poisons were a must in Oblivion at the harder difficulty settings. But I generally don't use them in Skyrim because so many of the top-level baddies are resistant. Nothing's worse than using your last really powerful poison against an enemy and seeing
that it resisted the poison. I'll sometimes use Slow or a Slow/Damage Health on Bandits at lower levels, but mostly poisons are just for making money.

 

I hear that. I used a really strong drain magic potion on the draugr Deathlord in Soljund's Sinkhole to try to soften him up some and he resisted the poison. There I was hung out to dry because I was in a position to be sure to hit him not protect myself.
There are some decent poisons available but I usually don't remember to use them in the heat of battle. Especially when my bow is strong enough by itself.

I was looking on the wiki at Illusion spells and bandit levels and saw that there is no expert level frenzy except as a rune. That kind of sucks since the bosses are at level 25 the adept level spell will most likely bounce even with the bonus perks. Even
an expert level only works up to level 20 and so still needs the perks. Bosses are usually alone so you can't just frenzy their minions and let them do for the boss. Every time I think I might work up a conjuration/illusion mage I back off because I just don't
see it working. Mage armor on cloth is another area where going the magic route is inferior to just wearing some armor. That really bugs me since I prefer to wear cloth and don't like most of the available armors, especially the helmets. Magic in Skyrim really
makes you work for your success.

Does anyone know why e-mail replies are turned on automatically if we use rich text? I don't need my email filled with more stuff that hides the things I should see.

 

I've never cared much for Illusion. Conjuration is viable if you pair it with Alteration and Sneak. It's, like, SUPER hard, though. It takes a long time to get a character that can handle itself in the wilds of Skyrim with no direct offensive skills.