It's been quite sometime since I last posted an update.
Diablo 3 got released, and took my focus away from this game for a bit.
I plunged back into Skyrim over the last few weeks and managed to level Valeria up to level 27.
I'm convienced that this game could be permadeathed. She was unlucky to die fighting some Foresworn in a mine.
A Briarheart hit her with that frost spell. The mine was thin, and the spell run ice up the length of the tunnel. She survived the initial blow, but the pulse damage from the ice surrounding her dropped her before she could take some health potions.
Nice move by the Briarheart. An awesome way to use that spell.
I replayed the fight and of course was able to defeat the Foresworn without dying, so it was a wasted death. A winnable fight, just unlucky to get caught be such a good move by the Briarheart.
Once I hit level 20, the next 7 levels were all on crafting. It's a shame, as they made me quite a lot stronger, and this was my first real fight since about level 20. I'd missed the chance to do a lot of armour upgrades. It probably wouldn't have helped.
I believe if you can get to level 35 without dying, then it would take something pretty special to kill you off, or be very unlucky. The hardest difficulty level is really hardest on the first 35 levels. Once you can enchant armour properly, smith up good weapons, and create strong potions, you can certainly take on harder boss's.
I'm playing on a non-permadeath character and rarely die at level 49. The main reasons I die is simply due to me rushing through. I'm slack with crafting armour, and don't have the best gear. I'm sure a proper fitted permadeath character would be fine at the higher level stuff. I'm soloing Ancient Dragons on the hardest difficulty. I've taken out some big fights pretty comfortably solo.
In the future, I'll reroll another permadeath character. Probably after the new expansion pack is launched and a patch or two is put onto it. I found the latest 1.6 patch to be pretty buggy as well and it did impact some of my play in combat which was risky. Did not impact my death though.
RIP Valeria. It was good while it lasted.
