Oblivin Portals Suck

sinkoman

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Oblivion Portals Suck

I'm in an Oblivion portal ATM, trying to get a Sigil stone, and you know what? I'm getting RAPED. ANALLY.

My character is a thief, and it's nearly impossible for me to get anywhere with him in these portals. There's nearly nowhere to hide, as it's all open landscape, and when you DO get indoors, it's just corridoor size face to face battles.

It's seriously pissing me off. I can't even use my alchemy in these things, cause the game keeps telling me that there are too many enemies near by to concoct anything. I never got this problem outside of these portals, hell, I could stand right behind somebody and make a poison right there, but I guess these damn portals are just are too "full of evil" to get anything done in.

More like full of shit.

Not to mention all these enemies are high health and have uber senses. It's nothing like stalking and killing humans.

I'm starting to think Sigil stones aren't even WORTH this. I've been getting around just fine with real steel on my Thief, and enchanted items kinda just get in the way (what with all the distracting flashes of light, and having to constantly gather souls).

So, if anybody has any tips for getting through these things with a thief/assasin build, i'd be extremely grateful.
 
Nope. The easiest way is to a) run like ****, or b) cheat. I made myself an Unseen Ring in the Construction Set (100% chameleon on constant) specifically to run through Oblivion Gates as fast as possible. Easiest way.

Of course you could always get 5 pieces of enchanted armour/misc. jewellery with 20% chameleon to do the same effect, but obliv gates are total total bitches.
 
If you have an invisibility spell that cloaks you for 35 or so seconds, you should be able to sneak past most monsters without being detected if you have enough mana potions. Though I must say, Oblivion gates are *made* for warrior type classes - there's no shadows to easily hide in, no alcoves and so on. It's a shame, because I thoroughly enjoyed leveling my character using the Dark Brotherhood quests and the Thieves Guild quests, but when it came to the Main Quest, the Oblivion Gates were hard and as boring as hell for a thief type character ... :|
 
Jintor said:
Nope. The easiest way is to a) run like ****, or b) cheat. I made myself an Unseen Ring in the Construction Set (100% chameleon on constant) specifically to run through Oblivion Gates as fast as possible. Easiest way.

Of course you could always get 5 pieces of enchanted armour/misc. jewellery with 20% chameleon to do the same effect, but obliv gates are total total bitches.

Are you too a thief?

I was thinking of maybe buying a short and small Chameleon spell, and just turning it on whenever I see an enemy, then just go straight to the Sigil stone.

Finally made it to the tower in the portal I was in. My sword is going to die soon, and my DB robes are probably raped, and I only brought 3 repair hammers. Doubt the buggy SOB will let me activate the repair hammers though :/

These things are ghey. Guess the sigil stones would be worth it though.

Does anybody know if you can *spoiler ish* give one to martin as the Daedric item he requires to open Dagon/Mankor's Paradise? He asked for my skeleton key, and I promptly said "**** that".
 
Sigil Stones are only worth it if you don't particularly want to pay money to enchant stuff and/or you're not in the Arcane University. They're not that good, although i admit my Sigiled Elven Blade (10 fire damage on hit!) r0x0rs other entity's c0rpz0rs, as does my Sigiled Elven Bow (10 Lightning damage on hit!).

Yes, I am a thief. Much fun, but Oblivion designers evidently decided that everybody who played their game was almost definantly going to become a powerful tank of doom.
 
Ok ok, anybody know where I could purchase a low level Chameleon spell, as my Personality is shit low (could probably get 15 seconds at max :P)???

Maybe i'll buy one and "modify" it to work with my character :E
 
You should still be able to get one or two stealth shots on an enemy before they notice you, especially outside (often it's possible to kill an enemy without them having a clue where you are).

Inside is a little trickier, but you rarely have to fight more than two bad guys at a time. Sneak about, take your time, and make sure you get a sneak attack (preferably with poison) and kill one of them quickly. Saving a decent magic arrows/weapon/staff and some powerful scrolls for these encounters helps.
 
i'm a thief and i also just run through the Deadra tower when i get inside, i get pwnt otherwise.
 
jimbo118 said:
i'm a thief and i also just run through the Deadra tower when i get inside, i get pwnt otherwise.
Exactly my method: Save. Run. (Reload). Run. Etc...
 
I haven't tried a thief class character, but you are right, I breeze through the Oblivion portals easily with my warrior type character. The only way I am ever really challenged in this game is when I am faced with 2 enemies - and still I don't even have to heal or use potions to finish them off. More than 2 enemies and I might have to use a potion and restoration.

One thing you can do is to learn the attack paterns of the monsters.

The spider deadra are easy if you have a long weapon, because they have short reach. You can keep stepping out of range and power-shot them with a 1 or 2 handed long blade. With the alligator deadra, be careful - when you get out of range they will always leap at you. Block the leap attack and counter and step back and counter. Step in and out of their range and get some hits in.
 
With the thief all I do in Oblivion portals is get the sneak attack on whoever im killing with the bow, run like a b**** then when they are following me and can't see me, I run into a shadow/round corner/outside and repeat.... or i just lure them outside and run backwards while shooting at them.

My mage is a different story however, I just wade in throwing my uber 110 damage lightning spells everywhere, blowing the pathetic dremora off their feet, while summoning hordes of Xilnath Dremora! Bwahahahahahahahaha...

Also, I find some of the loot from the portals a lot more worthwhile then the sigil stones. I find tonnes of 3000+ gold magic items in the portals, and get tons for them.
 
Hm... when I first started my mage character I expected it to be challenging, however it's been anything but that. When Bethesda turned Oblivion into an Action game they simplified the Mage class so much now that it's ridiculously overpowered compared to everything else. The last time I actually had to use potions was in the Arena fight vs 3 Argonians, and that was about 25 levels ago. Everything else I breeze through, multiple enemies end up spending all their time on my summons which are easily casted back and the summons themselves deal obscene amounts of damage.

But yeah, if you want to go through the Oblivion Portals I'd suggest stocking up on Invis potions (or learn the spells) and just sneak past everything. You won't need Chameleon unless you plan on attacking them, in which case you'll likely end up dying since you're having trouble against them anyway.
 
Awesome... *rolls mage class* Honestly I just wanted something that could kick a lot of ass.
 
Wow, I'm kind of surprised to read this thread. I thought my argonian thief was a total pussy, but he handles Oblivion portals fine and I could probably wipe out every single enemy around if I had the patience.

Having said that I'm only level 10/11 and haven't slept in ages. There is never anything tougher around than those Kynval or Churl things. Maybe you're trying these things at too high a level.

Stealth and enchanted weapons is the way to go. My unspectacular Bow of Cold can take most shit down in 2 or 3 sneak attacks. I also have a lousy iron warhammer which I enchanted with a Sigil stone to do +25 shock damage - now 'Mjollnir' is like the best weapon I have. If I charge it up enough before I go into the plane I can just wade in with that hammer, and I'm not even a tank.

Oblivions portals do suck...they take ages to close, they spoil the nice countryside and make the sky go all thundery. Pisses me off.
 
^^ The fact that your character hasn't slept for ages means your character is significantly more powerful than the rest of the enemies. The current system actually 'encourages' you to stay at the one level and never level up. That way the enemies won't scale with you, essentially making you beating up on the same monsters you werefighting 5-10 +levels earlier.
 
WOOT.

Oblivion portals aren't that bad after all i've learned. Once you get to the Tower (the hard part), it's pretty much smooth sailing from there, as there are almost NO monsters in the tower. The bad thing is, that the monsters in the tower have a ton of health.

But yeah, like I said, sneaking around the towers is actually surprisingly easy. You just have to play REALLY smart, and use a ton of saves.

I managed to make it through the portal in Chorrol, with only ONE monster actually sighting me till the Sigil Keep. The monster that caught me was a Clanfear in the plane (not the tower), which I promplty slayed.

The Sigil keeps are the parts that are impossible as thiefs though. Your only chance really, is to run as fast as you can to the stone, and activate all your shields and be ready to pump up on health potions. Skooma seems useful for the running part. Hell, I bet you could make it through a whole tower with a couple of ounces of Skooma.

But yeah, you just have to really think before you do anything, and be prepared to cast allot of Detect Life spells. If you can find out what's in a room before you enter it, you can then figure out whether you wanna start running for the sigil keep now, sneak around the baddies, or try and kill them.

The only way i've found so far to effectively kill anything without setting the whole tower on your ass, is with the traps. In the chorol gate, I saw a Flame Atronarch pacing up and down this hallway that was full of those falling blades. I was going to run up and fight it, but instead waited for maybe two or three minutes, watching as the traps did the dirty work for me :D

AND, I finally found my first actually GOOD sigil stone, also in the Chorrol gate. I quicksaved right before my dash to the stone in the sigil keep, and ended up with a cast Soul Trap on contact.

So I reloaded and accidentally saved right as I picked up the stone. I got a tad scared, as I couldn't reload till I got something I wanted after this :(

Ended up with a +20 fire damage on contact :D
 
I just closed them all for good, my sigil stones are mostly all +25 elemental damage, which suits me fine since I am almost fully packed with daedrica armor and weapons.
 
Anybody know where I can find a list of all possible Sigil Stones?

I was kinda trying to get an invisibility one.
 
On the world leveling up with you thing, I find it kind of stupid that throughout your history of saving Tamriel, you nearly always get evenly matched with a bandit and some ametur necromancer has an army of Dread Zombies!!!! Gar...
 
Me? I go to sleep as soon as I level up, or after I finish the dungeon I am in when It tells me to sleep. I don't care, I am on my quest for power, If the enemies get more powerful as well than that is a good thing. It's like you are pitting your character design against the enemy's choices of character design - and if they 'found' a rare sword (or whatever), well if you can defeat them, then it's now your sword(or whatever item)

I can't stand when I kill something in one hit. It's like god mode and completely kills the fun. I engage an enemy, I want a good fight don't you? I don't want to just march through and swing one time. LOL

The challenge, thats the only thing that makes it fun. I can re-load or drink potions, and the computer can't ;) I don't think I have died once - except for the times when I fight 8 guards in town for fun, and die intentionally when I become bored. If I was really desperate, I could run. So, If the game got harder as I leveled up, I didn't really notice, so don't be scared to level up. You get better equipment. :)


The only complaint I have, is that there are certain level groups. For example, I never fought one of those imp things in the planes of oblivion. I didn't go to the portal until I was a high level. When my brother played and went through the portal, there were these imps. I never got to fight any. They have been removed from the game because I am too high a level. And this could take place with other creatures/humanoids as well, and I wouldn't ever get to fight them or anything.

I think there is a mod that changes this though. Next time I create a character I might use it.

BTW, I find lots of magic things in the planes of oblivion, and I have been upgrading my deadric armor with the sigil stones. I found like 4 magic swords, a necklace, a ring, and a sigil stone in my last trip there. It makes me enjoy the planes much more because of this.
 
Can't decide if I should use that +20 fire damage Sigil Stone on my Elven Shortsword before I pop into another portal.

I'm doing portal runs atm. Trying to not only clear the forests of oblivion baddies, but get some neato items.

Pickpocketing Daedra and Dremora FTMFW!!!
 
A sigil stone? Is that the same thing as the transcendence stone or whatever?

I don't know guys, It seems like you should save the sigil stones for the end-game armor and weapons. Thats what I did anyway. I've used the sigil stones on all but two of the pieces of armor. I still haven't found a deadric helmet yet, but I've got all the rest. I don't know what the end game light armor is though, glass?

I made the choice to do armor instead of my sword because the armor is constant effect, while the sword is on a charge/use basis.


I will enchant my sword If I find a stone that has a better offensive bonus. I found one that steals 25 strength on strike for 20 seconds or summit, but unfortunately no matter how many times you hit, or how many enemies you hit, it never boosts your strength more than 25, and it's on a charge, so I went with the +12 constant effect for my armor. It's cool because this can bring your strength over 100.

I like the stones man. :E
 
VirusType2 said:
I can't stand when I kill something in one hit. It's like god mode and completely kills the fun. I engage an enemy, I want a good fight don't you? I don't want to just march through and swing one time. LOL

Sure I don't think you should either, but what I said was that it was kind of stupid that some amatur necromancer, or just a random bandit on the road presents even a minor problem to a protagonist (aka yourself) Those kind of things should just get blown away, while when your actually somewhere where they said 'take care' you find that the people there are as difficult to kill as the said random bandit!
 
Darkwolf said:
Sure I don't think you should either, but what I said was that it was kind of stupid that some amatur necromancer, or just a random bandit on the road presents even a minor problem to a protagonist (aka yourself) Those kind of things should just get blown away, while when your actually somewhere where they said 'take care' you find that the people there are as difficult to kill as the said random bandit!

I agree.

It'd be nice if some creatures just stayed at a minion level. It makes sense to have dungeon monsters and guards level, but bandits and bears is just plain stupid.

Humans in general, besides guards and quest relateds, shouldn't level at all.

Oh, went through another oblivion portal. This one was allot of fun :D

Picked up a shield and a sword off a daedra while I was in there. Was really hard to, as the sword kept dissapearing.

Getting to the tower was allot of fun. I decided to avoid the monster infested plains and just used my high acrobatics to leapfrog my way across the lava river, then up the mountainside.

Once inside, I ended up having to fight allot more often than with the other portals, as this one had fuller corridoors than the last few.

This time, I quicksaved before the final sprint to the Sigil Stone. Kept getting shitty things stones like Dispel and such, but I found two that intrigued me. One that, on a weapon, did 40 Destroy Weapon on contact, and another that dealt 80 burden on contact. For each of these two rolls I made a specific save, and was reloading quicksaves to reroll, but accidentally overwrote the quicksave after getting the 80 Burden stone.

Dumb Dude told me to go with the Disintigrate Weapon stone, so I loaded up the save and sprinted back to Skingrad.

Lotta fun when I got there. I had two Flame Atronachs in hot pursuit, and thought I had lost them when I got to the gates. I chatted it up with a guard for a while, and was going to go try to find a bed, when suddenly he sprinted off into the darkness. I followed and found him pelting the two flame atronachs with arrows, while they were trapped in the wood fence of a wine vineyard. He managed to kill one, which somehow got its head stuck between the fence rails, and the other started attacking him, so I stepped in and killed it.

Went to a small Inn (West Weald) and tried to sleep, but the bed kept saying that the area was too hot (as in too many enemies). I was wondering "wtf" as I had cleared the whole area before I stepped into Skingrad, and was starting to get pissed off. I popped into a room to chat it up with an orc, when suddenly, Elsa the god hater turned into a Daedra and started raping the shit outa me :O

Sprinted back outside to get some help from the guards, who took care of her.

I went back into the West Weald and saw this Elf Guy that I didn't really remember too well. Tried to talk to him and he told me to **** off. I was pickpocketing him, when I noticed that his dagger on his belt was glowing red. Curious to see its enchantment, I saved and sneaky killed him. The guards ran in and ran around his body in circles trying to find the glass dagger. Picked it up and creamed my pants. 11 damage, with 60 Disintigrate Weapon.

Loaded back up before him, and stole his key, so I can follow him home some day and murder him for the dagger :D

Went back into skingard, and was VERY anxious to see what the stone I had did. I made a save and then used the stone on the Elven Shortsword i've always been using. After enchanting, I attacked a guard, and saw that every time I hit him, his sword would spew flames everywhere. After maybe four hits, his sword exploded in a burst of flame (the 40 Disintigrate Weapon) and he had to default to his Bow. Four more hits and that was out too. That was so awesome, fighting him fist to fist!

Zomg, this stone pwns. If you get a stone that gives any sort of Disintigrate Weapon, KEEP IT!!! It's like, THE ultimate stone. You can pwn anybody with this thing really. Just a few hits to an orc, and his gi-normous glass mace is gone! This is the ultimate thief stone, as after you get the sneak attack and two or three more hits in, the guy is basically a sitting duck.

I REALLY can't decided if I should enchant my sword or save the stone for later. I mean, THAT THING IS AWESOME!!! Not to mention i've been having trouble with the Azura quest where you have to slay all the vampires in the mine, as those orcs are like rocks, and deal MASSIVE damage onto my thief.
 
It is well known that the defualt levelling system sucks. Go download a mod to solve all your problems.
 
Well, that's the site I get my oblivion mods from, it's very good so I just registered. :P
 
Darkwolf said:
Sure I don't think you should either, but what I said was that it was kind of stupid that some amatur necromancer, or just a random bandit on the road presents even a minor problem to a protagonist (aka yourself) Those kind of things should just get blown away, while when your actually somewhere where they said 'take care' you find that the people there are as difficult to kill as the said random bandit!
I mean - in real life, a bandit is a hardened criminal, so I would expect them to put up a tough fight! :)

I can kill a rat in one hit, a mountain lion in 2 power hits, a wolf, dog, or any of these in one power hit, a bear in 2-3 power hits. Bears! they are dangerous animals that can crush you. They should be able to take a few sword stabs, and when they hit you - even with armor - it hurts. It's right-on. I think it's pretty realistic.

But the bandits are tough customers, and they have WAAYYY better loot than a rat, bear, lion, etc., so they should be hard to kill. If you kill one you can get like a complete set of some of the best gear available. Why should they be as easy to kill as a mouse/rat? I think it's pretty cool that they are weapon dueling masters, just like you.

Same goes for necromancer, they have some of the best loot in the game, and they are seriously wicked ****ers that summon the dead and gone. How is that "weak?" THEY SUMMON THE DEAD! They might not be masters, but ThatS Dangerous in my book. LOL :laugh:

<3
 
My only problem with the leveling system is the inconsistency.

I mean, i'll like, get nearly killed by a bandit bowman, and get him in the last swipe, then come back after a few levels to pwn him, and get killed in one hit.

You'd expect that leveling would actually make you stronger than your enemies, to some degree. I think they made it too even. It'd be nice if things like bandits and marauders were just a few levels below you at all times. It'd still give challenge, but would give more of an advantage to the guy who spends his time leveling.
 
. I think they made it too even. It'd be nice if things like bandits and marauders were just a few levels below you at all times. It'd still give challenge, but would give more of an advantage to the guy who spends his time leveling. I mean, i'll like, get nearly killed by a bandit bowman, and get him in the last swipe, then come back after a few levels to pwn him, and get killed in one hit.
You want a little advantage? Turn down the difficulty dude - it's that simple. Seriously. What other game do you play where you complain it is too hard but you play it on a hard setting. This is one of the very rare games that lets you change the difficulty on the fly. (At any time while playing.) Try it at least.



BTW If you are getting killed in one hit, I think you fuxxored your character stats. LOL I think endurance is in dire need. My Endurance is 99/100 (damn it) Thats your health bar. LOL. I find this particular stat of utmost importance personally.

*Disclaimer - may or may not be true:
I can stand there and get pummeled for a minute by 3 dremoras
 
Hmm, I don't think i'll be having ANY problems with oblivion portals any more.

Used a Sigil stone to enchant an amulet with 30% Chameleon.

Got my hands on this pretty kickass sword that does like, 10 or so frost damage, but after each hit, weakens your opponents frost resistance, so each hit does subsequently MORE damage.

Got my hands on Azura's Star.

And to top it all off, I got access to the Arcane University, and for staff, chose a 7 seconds Paralysis staff.

Hhehehe.
 
I got a ring of 12% shield and a shield of 12% shield. My defense is 80 now... I can take a huge pummeling now.
 
CookieCuttah said:
I got a ring of 12% shield and a shield of 12% shield. My defense is 80 now... I can take a huge pummeling now.
I've got 37% reflect magic (which I think has a chance of refecting magic damage back at the caster, 20% shield and 13% normal weapons resistance (whatever that specifically means - lower's their damage I assume)

Where do you find your defense amount?
 
VirusType2 said:
BTW If you are getting killed in one hit, I think you fuxxored your character stats. LOL I think endurance is in dire need. My Endurance is 99/100 (damn it) Thats your health bar. LOL. I find this particular stat of utmost importance personally.

*Disclaimer - may or may not be true:
I can stand there and get pummeled for a minute by 3 dremoras

I've noticed that the more you play the game, the less the leveling system seems so bad. I mean, at first, I thought it was complete bullshit that everything was just as strong as me, but it doesn't seem so bad now. The monsters only seem stronger than you at the "pubescent" levels, around 14-16, because you're still not getting any good items at those levels.

Once you hit 17 or so, the enchanted swords and shit start to pile up, and you start pummeling bandits and Deadra in a matter of seconds :D

And no, my endurance isn't in "dire need of attention". I left it at base, because that's the type of character I play. The way I play, if i'm spotted, i'm toast. As you've probably read, I play a thief/assasin character. Slip into the shadows, get three or four sneak blade hits on a guy, and he's done.

I spend my points when I level, one on blade, one on either Agility or Speed (whichever gets the higher + per point), and one on whatever my character seems to be leaning towards (right now, intelligence or willpower).

I don't need endurance cause half the time, they don't even see me :D
 
The idea is to rest after each battle. That way, you are fully replenished for the next battle. Armourer skill is one of the best things to have as a major skill as well as well, especially if you are portal hopping
 
DEATH eVADER said:
The idea is to rest after each battle. That way, you are fully replenished for the next battle. Armourer skill is one of the best things to have as a major skill as well as well, especially if you are portal hopping

That's where Restoration comes in :D
 
I got that choroll shield today that reflect 35% damage and has good defense, along with an endurance boost. I am loving it.
 
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