Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Field Test: Morvunskar Melee

Tags: #Tips and Tricks Field Tests 
  • January 19, 2015

    Hello Tippers and Tricksters welcome to another Field Test. This week we have an interesting idea suggested by (co)lord of that group, you know Character Building, yeah it's Albino himself.

    The Goal: All the player has to do is kill all of the mages in and around Morvunskar without the aid of any magic/elemental resistance, spell absorption, or the Sanguine glitch (if the player's file is effected by it).

    But that's only the beginning dear readers,this is a melee challenge no Archery is allowed no stealth only in your face-fighting with any weapon except a Bow or Staff. As always, the higher the difficulty, the faster the time, and most importantly, the more creative the methods, the better your chances at winning. Once completed, participants must list their completion time, difficulty setting, methods used, equipment and Level.

    Rules: Just want to make sure everyone can see them and make sure they're clear

    1: No Archery, Stealth or poisons. (Stamina and Health Potions are fine)

    2: No Magic of any kind including Powers (Passives are unavoidable I guess, they're fine.)

    3: No Magical Protection (Resist Shock, Fire, Frost, Magic, Spell Absorption or Wards)

    4: No Werewolf or Vampire Lord Form

    5: None of your pesky Console Commands PC players

    6: The character doesn't have a level limit but lower-level characters will be more impressive.

    7: The Only Enchantments allowed are pre-enchanted weapons, nothing else.

    8: No Followers (Show your might Dragonborn)

  • Member
    January 20, 2015

    Hey Dragonborn I have a small question for you:

    What about enchantments? You say no magic of any kind but a enchantment is technically a passive if you enchant your gear with one (fortify health for example) because in my opinon this should be no enchantments allowed either :D

  • January 20, 2015
    Good Point on Enchantments, I'd say for sure that they should be disallowed so yeah no enchantments, I'll fix that up when I can, I'm on my iPad and can't select Bold as an option and it would aggravate me to no end if it was so out of place.
  • Member
    January 20, 2015
    I'd suggest going there as early as possible. With the listed limitations you don't want mages be of high enough level to use Ice Storm. What about followers?
  • January 20, 2015
    Hmm I'm unsure. Nope fine weapons can have found. enchant,nets on them (no player made) seems to be the fairest option here. No Shouts they're Magical in nature.
  • January 20, 2015
    Followers aren't allowed for a few reasons. 1) They can be essential (nope that's not happening) 2) They are very odd in how they approach ranged combat, you can try as hard as you want and some of the assholes just stay back. 3) It's a show of strength for the Dragonborn, them joining is a step away from bringing the entire legion with you.
  • January 20, 2015
    No enchanted armour, any armour is fine but no enchantments on them. Elemental Protection would break the Magical Protection rule (should have clarified what that meant but it means no Resist Shock, Magic, Frost or Fire. Bashing is fine, it's melee not swords only
  • January 26, 2015

    Alright guys, I noticed that although we had a bunch of questions nobody has participated yet again. I'm going to assume that this is because nobody has really been interested in the challenges we've proposed, and honestly I've sort of rushed the last two out without making sure we have very solid rules.

    So if you guys are interested in the idea but not the challenges feel free to submit some opinions/ideas in the Suggestion Box, Caesar or I will get around to it eventually and we do try and listen, we are fairly new to the whole hosting thing after all and any wisdom people can give is valued. 

  • Member
    April 21, 2015

    This field test is from some months ago and I don't know if there is a deadline, so I hope it's not inappropriate to reply here, but I thought this could be interesting so I give it a try and i've done it.
    Ok, first of all, I started trying this on Legendary and I managed to kill the mages outside plus a couple inside with some effort, but it was a little bit difficult to complete, I died too many times so I tried it on Master difficulty, it was way more easy.
    I choose an Orc, because I thought Bretons with their magic resistance passive were not allowed and also because Orcs looks badass.


    I also made a video and I hope I can upload it without waiting ages but anyway, I'm gonna explain what I did: as someone said, you want to go there as soon as possible to avoid the mages using some serious spells, so I went to Morvunskar at level 1, well. technically between level 1 and 3, because I went there at lvl 1 but I leveled up during combat, finishing at 3.

    If you don't want to read this wall of text that is my explanation, it's ok, I'll link the video, so skip to the end of the reply.


    My equipment was a full set of leather armor, a Skyforge Steel Sword and a Skyforge Steel Dagger, plus some food and potions but I'll get into details later on.
    While escaping Helgen, you can find a Steel Dagger, you just need to kill the torturer in the torture room, so kill him (it's easier if you go with Ralof because the other will take care of the torturer), take it and you don't need to buy one later on, take some loot too for bartering but It's important that you stay away from fights, you don't want that experience and you don't want to level up for now, don't use the lockpick either. Oh, and remember to take the Minor Healing Potions and the 4 Rock Warbler Egg in the basket inside Helgen Keep!
    Once out you want the Lady Stone, so head there and activate it, it's near fortunatly, in the process take thoose pretty Blue Flowers on the road and all the Monarch butterfly that you can (if you find some Blue Dartwing while heading to the lady stone take them as well), ok now you can go to Riverwood, still trying to avoid combat in the wilderness and when you arrive there it's time to take some gear, sell the loot from Helgen and buy some leather (9 leather + 8 strips + the Bear pelt from the bear that you let Ralof kill are enough), craft a full set of leather armor and improve it a bit, buy also two Steel Ingot, one to improve the Steel Dagger that you should have and the other for your future Skyforge Steel Sword.
    You will need some potions, by now you should have 2 or 4 butterfly wing, 4 rock warbler egg, a bunch of blue flowers and the 6 potions from Helgen, buy all the potion that you can find in the store in Riverwood, than go to the Sleeping Giant Inn and by from Orgnar some other ingredients, Blisterwort, Wheat etc. to make some healing potions, in the end you should have about 12 crafted potions and about 10-12 minor healing potions, make also three Fortify Health (wheat+blue mountain flower). If you run out of gold and can't afford all that stuff, just pick a woodcutter axe, make some firewood and sell them to Hod to make the necessary amount, but the loot from Helgen is enough.
    When you have done all of that go around a little more to collect potatoes, cabbages, tomatoes (in the barrels, check also the barrels inside the inn) and leaks, you want to make some Vegetable Soup. You need only three vegetable soup, so three of each ingredient, but what you find in the barrels is random, so if you don't find any tomatoes don't worry, Orgnar may sell them or you can get them in whiterun.
    By now you possess all the necessary gear except from the Skyforge stuff and maybe some other potions, so let's talk about that. To take a Skyforge Steel things fast, you need to kill two companions, well, technically one companion and a servant, but still... here the improved leather armor can be useful, so head to Whiterun and prepare yourself, go to the companions headquarters (you can also steal some heling potions there, a regeneration potion and a skirmisher potion, useful to kill them) and when you enter you will see the brawling scene between Nadja and Athis, ignore them and go straight downstairs, as soon as you enter in the room below you'll probably find Nadja in her dorm room or in the corridor, it depends on the in-game hour but if she isn't there, just wait until she appears. If she is alone you will have no trouble killing her, the other companions didn't even care, use one fortify health potion, one vegetable soup and the skirmisher potion, go for the throath, take the Skyforge Steel Sword and search for the servant, Tilma (don't underestimate her, she is not so weak...), do the same thing, kill her while she is alone so the other won't help her and there you are, the equipment is complete. You can do this in any order, also you may want to save before try to kill them, in case you are spotted. You'll probably end up ahving enough experience to level up in the end, but hold on, don't do that for now. Remember to steal all the healing potion you can find and go out.
    Ok, now you just need some other few potions and you are ready, go to Dragonsreach, talk to Farengar and offer your help to deliver his frost salts to Arcadia, go in her store, give her the salts, and there we go, free stuff that includes some minor healing potions and few ingredients to craft your ones. By now you should have about 25 minor healing potions, and about 12-15 crafted, it depends on how many potions you have used fighting the companions, anyway 30 overall should do the trick.
    Improve the new found sword on the grindstone (cause you can't with the Skyforge dagger) and it's time to head to the stables and take a ride to windhelm. Once there the only thing that you need to do is to go in the Hall of the Dead and take Arkay blessing, for some extra health and you are fine.


    Morvunskar is not to far from the stables, so walk a bit and prepare for the fight, here some details: take the fortify health potion, eat the vegetable soup, and favourite the basic healing spell, the health pool should be enough but try to fight the mages one at a time, if you let them group togheter it's though; there are only novice mages out there so they can only cast novice spell the aren't big of a deal, don't focus the familiar casted, focus only the mages, break their concentration while they are using frostbite and flames with some power attacks and dual wield to death. Use potions only when you are in melee and you are attacking but the goal is to save potions as much as you can, in between a mage and another run away and heal with the healing spell, 100 magika are enough to replenish your health completely in combination with the lady stone and the vegetable soup.
    While you fight the mages outside you'll get enough experience to level up for sure if you haven't already got while fighting Nadja, do level up when your health is critical to save some potions and replenish it, if you do that, invest in health and take the one-handed perk. Be careful not to hold on too much on levelling up, because if you get enough experience during combat you'll do two level at once, that means, one full life replenish wasted.
    The exterior is clear, so go inside, the first two mages are in a room on the right, one is probably sit down and the other is talking, if you rush there you can ambush them and do the killing before they have time to react, so, another two down, time to go downstairs, but be sure to take another fortify health potion and eat another vegetable soup to make sure the effects are still active.
    Here begins the true challenge because it's a restricted environment with a bunch of novice mages and there is an adept mage that can kill you and he will if you give him the chance, be sure, so, you don't want to fight him right? right, go straight ahead, be careful with the traps and dawn the hall you will find a dorm room with a mage sleeping, kill him before he woke up, heal yourself if you need then go even further. You'll find other two mages, they can be challenging in two vs. one, but you should prevale, you probably get the second level up by this time, use it right there, invest in health and take one-handed damage again. In the meantime, the mages mages in the other room, will trigger the trap in the act of chasing you, so if they are still walking they are surely severely wounded, this will make the fight way more easier, and if you are lucky they will even die by the trap. If you have trouble getting rid of them, lure them on the trigger and let the trap do the work.
    The last thing you need to do is to head towards the last closed door, use some lockpicks that you should have form Helgen to open it and kill the last mage, it's rather easy since you can ambush him. That's it, they are all dead now, enjoy your loot.


    When the video is fully uploaded I will link it there so if you want you can see my tries, the result: one death, one win.
    If the constest is closed I don't care, I've just done that to have some fun and because maybe someone is interested in my analysis of the test, thanks for the attention, hope you'll enjoy.

  • Member
    April 21, 2015

    None of the field tests have deadlines, so you can attempt them whenever you want. :)

    Congrats on a successful run. I'd read the wall of text but I think I'd rather watch the video when it's uploaded instead. :P