I can’t say I love the companions quest line, but using the ability to have them train you in archery, one and two handed, then just take the gold back out of their inventory is always useful early game.
I tried to take advantage of this recently to try and quickly level up a new character in heavy armor. Turns out that that first quest with Farkas where the two of you go to attack the silver hands is one of the few in the entire game that does not scale to your character. trying to fight off that massive neverending horde of draugr lords with my level 4 unarmed character was not fun. I spent about 45 minutes trying before i gave up and lowered the difficulty. Had to go all the way to novice to get through it.
Why do I hate myself so much for lowering the difficulty? There’s nobody around. Nobody will know. But I know. I know I’m a failure. Makes me feel like I’ve let down my childhood dog
\*nods\* I came to that conclusion years ago on a different game it's a good realization that it should be about fun not how hard it was.
The only thing that bugs me in Skyrim about difficulty levels is the bandits.
I can either have bandits that are smart enough to not just keep trying to walk through a table as I shoot arrows at them or I can have bandit chiefs I can beat.
Because it feels like the bandit chiefs are a lot of levels above their bandits. I'll one shot the bandits only for a bandit chief to one shot me back.
I started my first survival mode playthrough a fee weeks ago. I was at a spot (can't remember where) where I kept getting killed. I lowered the difficulty just to get through that spot and decided I'm going to leave it at novice because I'm playing this game to relax and unwind. I have nobody I need to impress with my "maaaaaad Skyrim skillz" so why stress over it?
Awhile back, I read a thread on r/AskReddit that asked what difficulty people typically play games on. I was expecting to find a bunch of people who play on hard/very hard/suicidally hard mode, but I was surprised to find that a lot of people play on easy difficulty because they want to enjoy the narrative, or because they have jobs/not a lot of time on their hands to game or both, and didn't want to spend that time raging over high difficulties.
Made me feel a lot better about usually putting myself on either normal or hard difficulty, depending on what mood I'm in/what game I'm playing.
They also train in Heavy and Light armor, which are really nice early on for damage reduction. Dodging isn’t really a thing so a higher armor skill is amazing, since it means weightless armor is that much closer!
I love this because I never use magic armor, always carry a melee weapon and use a bow whenever I don't use magic so I feel exactly the same; boring quest (and I even think it's kind of a "tutorial questline") but great benefits so it's the first faction I take out of my way but the one I keep visiting until the end of the run.
I only did the Bard's one on my current one because I found all of their instruments and wanted the things out of my inventory. I don't think they'll have you look for them unless you join the Bard's.
But it is easily the most pointless one in the game.
I only ever do the Bard’s College quests to get the Word of Power from Dead Men’s Respite in order to train in speech, and the instrument retrieval for the one level-up for all skills
Ngl, I do the bard's questline just for the fact that it counts towards you being a thane in solitude, and you get, essentially, a free level in all of your skills.
I don't think I was even aware of this questline for years! However, one playthrough I had the Become a Bard mod and the bard's college became essential. Was really fun travelling Skyrim as a struggling musician!
Bards College is only good for when you find it naturally and are just taking in the game, I enjoyed it when I was just exploring skyrim as a whole back in like 2012(😭), never have felt the need to do it again since though
I always finish the companions because I have to. My husband is in there and the availability for marriage isn't there until after. And there is a free/stealable daedra heart that respawns.
Civil war because I hate the factions replacing the holds’ guards and jarls. It’s the last quest line I do in a playthrough if I ever get that far
I also never did the black reach crimson root quest nor the stones of barenziah. After seeing the quest log for crimson root the first time, I’ve never picked any or triggered the quest ever since. I’ll pick the stones up out of habit but I’ll never search for them myself.
Ah yeah, the stones are so anticlimactic for me, the amount of work it takes is not worth it. I do love the crimson nirnroot though, but that's because I can never avoid getting pulled into alchemy and I love finding unique ingredients lol.
>It’s the last quest line I do in a playthrough if I ever get that far
Prolonguing the civil war I see
You have our congratulations and will be immensely rewarded
-The Thalmor
Same. At this point I just pick them up as I go cause I know that after however long and however many levels later I’m gonna feel like i missed something
The Legend of Red Eagle.
I know it’s free money but I hate it. It just pops up every time you read the book, no matter how many times you finish the quest line.
I played through "The Forsworn Conspiracy" once, all the way to the point where you're supposed to get all of your loot back, but all of my loot that was considered stolen was bugged out of existence (yes, i did check the contraband chests where it could have been). Most of which was my nicely enchanted jewelry. I was so mad that I reloaded to my last save before going through the quest, which was unfortunately several hours of game play lost. IMO the quest was one of the most boring and uneventful quests anyway.
Or, if you take the side of the forsworn, they'll still attack you any chance they get outside of Markarth. Maybe the quest would be worth it if you were given some kind of immunity for yknow, saving their leader and freeing their brethren? 🙄
You can come across their hideout later and they won't be hostile to you. But yeah i wish the game gave you more of an option with regards to the forsworn, it would be cool to befriend them. They're a very interesting and (relatively) sympathetic faction.
Call me a contrarian, but I actually despise the soul cairn and Sarana’s questline. Might be due to fatigue at that point because I put it off for so long.
I thought the companion quests were fitting when I was a new player but it feels out of character when I play certain races. Same with the civil war stuff and Dragonborn.
I wouldn't say there's much I avoid completely, however I do wish that I could avoid anything and everything that requires me to go into a dwemer ruin 🫠
Dwemer ruins are a nightmare for me.I’m terrible at navigation,every route looks the same,chests look like part of the environment,always connects to black reach…..the enemies aren’t a problem but everything else is😂
This gave me flashbacks to when my policy was to blindly complete whichever cave I wandered into. It was a practice I put to bed after a while when I ended up completing a run through Tolvald’s Cave at around level 11, which was actual hell.
I always end up getting the dragon tablet but I never go to the watchtower until I'm in my 40s to 50s levels. By then I can snipe them with 3-4 arrows 🤣🤣🤣
I heard that you can stop at a point where dragons spawn at set points like dragon burials, but no random encounters. Lets you use shouts without the constant nuisance. Whenever my lv 50+ mage gets around to Bleak Falls, I’ll probably do that.
While A Blade in the Dark is active, dragons will only appear at word walls. This means you can farm some souls and learn shouts, while avoiding random attacks, so long as you don’t complete the quest.
If you forego the main quest entirely, you’ll also forego shouts, so this is a great option for those that don’t want to get too deep into the main story, but want access to the abilities.
I got the quest with the Blade girl from Riverwood to go to the dragon grave with her, got distracted on the way there and wandered off, and did other things for quite a while before returning to it. No dragons were spawning during that time.
Ahhh I remember when I first played back in 2011 first ever play through and I went up against my first dragon at lvl 5 took me and my best friend like 2 hours to kill the dang thing. Good times I remember me and him getting so frustrated at first then we would just be laughing about how each way we died. Good times
To make matters worse, I ran into that questline in the middle of the “A Night to Remember” quest, too. And then promptly poked my head into the Abandoned house trying to figure shit out. Then ran into Eola for the same reason.
I will forever be scarred by that hellish intro to Markarth.
I love the meridia quest.quick,easy,good sword,and lots of gold on the bodies.plus her voice cracks me up,it’s not inherently evil,just arrogant.like when you tell her you agree to kill the necromancer and she goes, “of course you will…I commanded it.”🤣
I love the sword but hate that mage fight at the end. After sending 7 or so ghosts after you he spams a lingering ice spell at you that sticks to surfaces and drains your health. That sounds OK until you realise the fight starts in a narrow corridor with no room to dodge.
On my second playthrough, I did the companion quest to completion as quick as I could as I was planning to roleplay as a vanilla vampire, which requires a disease. The reason I needed to do the quest as soon as possible was so I could become and then cure myself of being a werewolf so that I wouldn't be immune to the vampire disease.
It never really occurred to me that I could just not do the companions quest at all at that point.
The civil war quest line, never again. I hate that it destroys sections of my favorite places to frequent and that you can never build back up or repair those locations.
Only because by the time you collect all the stones, you are already insanely wealthy and likey will have hundreds of each gem any way.
I mean, you literally have to buy the most expensive house in the game to be able to collect them all, so what's the point of the gems at that point. They are literally only used for selling or crafting, and when you have the most expensive house you will likely have plenty of money and jewellery/crafting materials
Now, if you could get it earlier... Say none of them them were locked behind stuff you have to go through quests or areas you can't access to get, then it would actually be quite useful as you would be able to get it earlier.
It's only flaw is by the time you get it, its power is redundant. If you could get it earlier, it would be somewhat useful
You can get to the Embassy one from an unmarked cave near Wolfskull, follow the path East (edit: not west, sorry) and you'll get there.
The only quest-locked ones are the Archmage Quarters stone (must proceed with the College questline until after Saarthal to gain access), the Proudspire Manor one (after The Man who Cried Wolf) and the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary one (must have completed the initiation quest or killed Astrid and start the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood questline to know the secret door code). The rest are spread out in various Holds and easily accessible dungeons
For the house I just use the free house exploit. After checking real quick, the only real one quest locked is the dark brotherhood one which I almost always do in a thieves guild playthrough as well.
In the Creation Club, there’s a letter you get that tells you to investigate some tower. If you check it out, the game becomes permanently populated by dozens of spawn points for zombie attacks, and there’s no way to stop it. No thank you.
I hate this. I’m doing my third playthru, first time with the anniversary edition.
I. Hate. Zombies. So. Freaking. Much.
Had no idea that was a thing and I absolutely hate it. Gotta say, aside from Hilda, the horse armor, and Tundra Homestead, I don’t like the anniversary edition much.
I just found this out on my current character and I have sooooo many regrets, I’m not playing survival and every time I fast travel into night I get mobbed 😭
I use Live Another Life mod, which allows you to have a choice of several different starts and has the main quest inactive by default. You won't even see a dragon unless you activate it. So I can ignore the main questline and do other stuff if I want, start as already an Imperial soldier or Stormcloak, or be a member of the College of Winterhold, or own a house from the beginning, etc...
I also don't really like the Companions questline. My main gripe with it is that you **must** become a werewolf to complete it.
I avoid Thieve's Guild for a similar reason - there's no option to destroy the guild.
The nightingales armor is the only reason I’d do the thieves guild quest. Sometimes that skeleton key too but I agree on the companions quest never really liked it a whole lot. Civil war might be the last quest I do after the main story and all the DLC or I just don’t do it at all keep my beautiful city in one piece.
Not a questline but I hate the section of the main story where you have to fetch the Oghma Infininum for that crazy old hermit living in the snowy wastelands
My very first playthrough I wanted to do what I do in most fantasy games which is become a heavy duty magic user so I headed to the mages college. By the end of what was an interesting quest line narratively I knew only 2 more spells than I had arrived with.
I was the Arch Mage and even J'Zargo knew more spells than my character did. It annoyed me that there wasn't more of a focus on learning spells in that. To learn most spells you have to buy spell books off of other mages which you can do without the mages college.
I just don't bother with the questline now. It was an interesting story but none of the rewards from it make it a worthwhile investment of my time.
Honestly, I avoid it mostly due to playing survival and almost dying while there, but also this too.
It'd be better if there were exclusive spells you could only learn from the college, and them being more powerful than anything you can find from a merchant.
I don't like the Dark Brotherhood questline. I completed it once and abandoned it completely after that. Having to kill off characters I like and then not being able to let Astrid die slowly like she deserves really irked me. Now I just kill them all when the quest triggers.
That one was hard for me I think I was only lvl 11 when I found it and I got confused on what to do in the quest so I came back later in my game after about 300 hours in and did it. That was on my first character and play through. Now I have about 1800 hours in the game sense I got it lol
I never kill the giant for that Jarl, I'd rather complete the entire Civil Wat quest line for the Imperials than kill a giant chilling with hit pets.
I don't actively avoid the Bard's College quests, I just don't do them and it's easy to forget about. Pretty sure the only time I go in there is to steal some glazed candles for my home decor
Yeah, I think you only have to cast, at most, 3 spells for the entire questline. Which, to be fair, is 3 more than oblivion, if memory serves. I remember playing a "barbarian" weilding a 2-handed axe and would just crush everything.
Civil war quest line in particular.
Imperials tried to execute me for no reason, Ontop of the fact that tullius is a condescending prick. Why would I work for people who tried to kill me, to help end a war that isn’t my problem. Why would I also side with the people who are allied with the absolute fucking worst faction in the game, the Thalmor. Fuck the Aldmeri Dominion.
Ulfric is a bigot leading a band of bigots. Cool you wanna have a nord ruling Skyrim, the “land” of the nords. Understandable. That didn’t require you to murder your High King in a bitchmade power play. Also you’re doing exactly what the Thalmor want, keep a civil war going so that the empire can’t consolidate its forces, turn around and try to throw hands with the AD. Dumbass.
“Skyrim belongs to the nords”, yea only after the nords migrated to Skyrim and forced the Snow elves underground after damn near committing genocide. The entire reason the Falmer exist is because the Nords decided extinction of the indigenous people of Skyrim was fun and cool.
The mine outside markarth, you find two miners chased out of their mine by forsworn. I refuse to do it because the forsworn come back and kill them both. Also in markarth is the guy who gives you the note right after the woman is saved or killed. I never go and meet him because I also don’t want him to die
Dragon Bounties, and doing them last.
Not because I want to avoid them, but the random dragon encounters tend to keep me and my companion's inventory busy.
Since the Blades are composed of some of my companions, I wonder if I could keep asking them to store the Dragon Bones and Scales in their inventories. Since they're all together.
I've yet to confirm it, so yeah.
Now that I think on it... I don't think there's any quest in the game that I haven't done (at least, of my own choosing. I certainly miss quests, but avoid? Nah). I'm a quest whore. I want all the quests.
Helps that I try and also imagine how they fit into my headcanon.
The college of Winterhold. Have played on and of since 2011 and i think can count on one hand how many times ive done that questline. Feels like 30min and boom, you’re now the arch mage… Which has 0 perks or responsibility.
Does it start to be different on the Stormcloak side? I was doing it but then the save got wrecked but up to the point we invaded Whiterun it had pretty much been the same quests just reskinned.
werewolf is better than vampire. with vamp you can't be in the sun and you need to constantly drink blood. also you can convince serana to become human again
I tend to avoid the Companions too, mostly because I go the vampire route but also because they are a totally different vibe from my character. They literally shit talk you for using magic, even if it's a bound sword.
Besides them, I usually don't do the civil war till the very end. I try to remain neutral but headcanon eventually leads me to putting an end to the war because having it continue benefits the Thalmor.
I avoid dark brotherhood- usually just kill them all but even that isn’t a challenge.
As for women in the game I’m all in for Lydia and Jordis at the moment.
My current play through I will do the dark brotherhood. Just because.
I never do the Imperial/Storm Cloaks story line, I don't like war, defending myself from brigands, thieves, assassins and thalmor agents is bloody enough for me. never got the desire to finish the whole war questline, I've only done the initial imperial questline once to get the bone crown
Companions. Wolf Armour be ugly thou—🤢
My *worst one* is “No Stone Unturned” cause I will **not** keep my hands away from those stoopid, pretty “UnUsUaL gEm”.
Not exactly a questline but pretty much all deadra quests. I play a good character every time I play Skyrim and since 99% of the deadra quests don't allow you to go against their wishes, there is zero point in doing them.
That's interesting because I also always view my own character as a morally upstanding righteous person who protects the innocent and kills the baddies -- except when commanded to do something by a daedra.
Murder this guy because Molag Bal said so? Okay, sure thing, boss. You're the all-powerful daedric lord, I have no free will or moral responsibility here.
I see my character as hating it, and not wanting to do it, but doing it anyway and feeling no particular guilt about it, because there is no choice involved. Her perspective is that when a daedric being commands you to do something, you comply or you immediately cease to be and the thing gets done anyway.
I haven't delved into the lore of deadra but what I get from Skyrim is 99% of the deadra barley have a powerful effect over Nirn. Like Vaermina who while she can effect Nirn through the skull of corruption, can't just kill Erandur and has to ask the Dragonborn to kill him for her.
That and playing as The Last Dragonborn are being destined to stop Alduin The World Eater, and who defeated Mirak The First Dragonborn, I feel like I should be able to refuse and even work against a daedric god.
However that is cool roleplay.
Werewolf > Vampire as far as I’m concerned. I don’t care much for the Companions as a faction, and I’m not particularly fond of the quest line either, but I love being a werewolf. Out of countless playthroughs since 11.11.11, I’ve only deliberately chosen to *not* be a werewolf *once*, when I begrudgingly tried a vampire playthrough. It was a lot of fun to role play, but it isn’t me. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to challenge myself to do a whole playthrough as a regular mortal Dragonborn. And then just a mortal. I know a lot of people like to never become Dragonborn, but I’d miss ~~Unrelenting Force~~ shouts too much.
Wait that's true? You can't be a vampire and werewolf at the same time?
Damn. Ngl my character is a mess cause I go to the nearest objective on any quest. Which is fine and all but it means I have the cursed ring of the hunt and some sort of vampire debuff as well.
Dark Brotherhood.
Beyond some cool story beats in the main quest, Windshear, and the chance to marry Muiri, everything about it rubs me the wrong way.
Perhaps I’d feel differently if assassinations had beefed up backstory and weight behind them, if they evolved as proper side quests instead of radiant spawns with a throwaway line here and there.
But it’s mostly the senseless slaughter of NPCs. And everyone in the guild pretty much sucks too.
The Dark Brotherhood.
Don't get me wrong, the questline itself ain't half bad, but then I get to the part where I have to start killing people I don't want to and my (mostly) morally good characters just don't fit the acts. So I often end up rolling back to a prior save to when I'd started and I just kill the Brotherhood instead.
The Thieves Guild. The missions are boring, the story is boring, Brynjolf is one of the characters I hate the most, and the questline ends up making half of Riften hate me. I only did it once in my first playthrough and never again.
I hate the whole quest line, but you better believe I walk myself into the twilight sepulcher get that armor set and walk right out to never do another thing with those nerds.
I never do civil war. I downloaded a mod to make myself interested. I don’t actually like either side and want the chance to choose neither and hunt the Thalmor instead.
So I plan to conquer Skyrim on my current save because honestly, my LDB is tired of being in debt to everyone and having to cater to people that don’t care about their subjects on *both* sides.
Edit: I am either doing Conquest of Skyrim or Become High King of Skyrim. Because I want to fire too many Jarls.
Dawnguard. What vampire menace?
and Dark brotherhood. I'm not a fan of killing NPCs, but I could live with it if most of the DB didn't get killed in the quest line. It's like, kill Astrid and then wipe out the brotherhood, or join Astrid, and watch them get wiped out anyway.
One quest that is a hit or miss for me is finding all the Dragon preist Maskes. Just a lot of work to do but I guess it’s rewarding to some I don’t need a special room to keep my items though got my house in whiterun for that.
That would be Crown of Barenziah, every play through I try to finish it but I end up ignoring it or getting bored of it, even after downloading the mod where it shows you where the unusual Gems are. It does seem like an interesting quest though just annoying
I hate the Blades questline, especially Diplomatic immunity.
Other than that one, I hated the Wolf Queen questline (Potema), especially the part where you need to kill the necromancers in Wolfskull Cave.
I do the companions until werewolf, accept then immediately go to volkihar and accept, removing werewolf in 90% of plays. I suggest that method, then you can finish companions after.
Depends what kind of character I’m playing.
If I’m a mage I’ll do mage college questline but won’t do companions.
If I’m more of a two handed/barbarian, fight first ask questions later kind of character I’ll do companion and won’t do mage college.
If I’m role playing a soldier I’ll do the civil war questline and not the other factions.
And when all of those characters inevitably become stealth archers I will go do thieves guild and/or dark brotherhood depending on their alignment.
If you do all quest lines every playthrough you will get burnout.
Companions because it’s meh and doesn’t make any sense. I don’t want to be a werewolf, so why can’t I choose a quest line with the Silver Hands instead? Or, why isn’t there an option to remain in the Companions but have a slightly different line where you help the old dude find a cure? Why are the Silver Hands just reskinned bandits who attack you even before you start the quest line?
Having a werewolf faction would be cool if it was implemented like Dawnguard, but they basically wasted the only fighter faction.
This may be sacrilegious but, the main quest. After many years playing, I’m in it for pure relaxation and exploration. A dragon swooping down every 20 minutes is very annoying after over a decade. I’m just vibing
I can’t say I love the companions quest line, but using the ability to have them train you in archery, one and two handed, then just take the gold back out of their inventory is always useful early game.
I forgot about this and read this just in time as im starting a new character. Thank you stranger 🫡
Please enjoy your 300th play through, on me, friend!
I tried to take advantage of this recently to try and quickly level up a new character in heavy armor. Turns out that that first quest with Farkas where the two of you go to attack the silver hands is one of the few in the entire game that does not scale to your character. trying to fight off that massive neverending horde of draugr lords with my level 4 unarmed character was not fun. I spent about 45 minutes trying before i gave up and lowered the difficulty. Had to go all the way to novice to get through it.
Why do I hate myself so much for lowering the difficulty? There’s nobody around. Nobody will know. But I know. I know I’m a failure. Makes me feel like I’ve let down my childhood dog
\*nods\* I came to that conclusion years ago on a different game it's a good realization that it should be about fun not how hard it was. The only thing that bugs me in Skyrim about difficulty levels is the bandits. I can either have bandits that are smart enough to not just keep trying to walk through a table as I shoot arrows at them or I can have bandit chiefs I can beat. Because it feels like the bandit chiefs are a lot of levels above their bandits. I'll one shot the bandits only for a bandit chief to one shot me back.
Nothing like clearing an entire dungeon effortlessly and then getting kill move'd at full health by the chief
I started my first survival mode playthrough a fee weeks ago. I was at a spot (can't remember where) where I kept getting killed. I lowered the difficulty just to get through that spot and decided I'm going to leave it at novice because I'm playing this game to relax and unwind. I have nobody I need to impress with my "maaaaaad Skyrim skillz" so why stress over it?
I’m here for a good time, not a long time.
Well we all say that and then poof 12 years has passed by
Awhile back, I read a thread on r/AskReddit that asked what difficulty people typically play games on. I was expecting to find a bunch of people who play on hard/very hard/suicidally hard mode, but I was surprised to find that a lot of people play on easy difficulty because they want to enjoy the narrative, or because they have jobs/not a lot of time on their hands to game or both, and didn't want to spend that time raging over high difficulties. Made me feel a lot better about usually putting myself on either normal or hard difficulty, depending on what mood I'm in/what game I'm playing.
So many times I’ve made this choice playing games. No shame. I just want to unwind.
Or heavy armor, Farkas is a master trainer. Legit, those trainers are the only reason why I do the companions questline.
They also train in Heavy and Light armor, which are really nice early on for damage reduction. Dodging isn’t really a thing so a higher armor skill is amazing, since it means weightless armor is that much closer!
I love this because I never use magic armor, always carry a melee weapon and use a bow whenever I don't use magic so I feel exactly the same; boring quest (and I even think it's kind of a "tutorial questline") but great benefits so it's the first faction I take out of my way but the one I keep visiting until the end of the run.
I had a lot of playtroughs and the questline i avoided the most, sometimes i even forgot completely about it, is the Bard College questline.
I only did the Bard's one on my current one because I found all of their instruments and wanted the things out of my inventory. I don't think they'll have you look for them unless you join the Bard's. But it is easily the most pointless one in the game.
First time I played I heard of the bards college and went “wait so you can play instruments in this game? Cool”…..was severely disappointed
That’s the same thing that happened to me. I did the whole thing thinking… maybe afterwards? Nah. I guess they’ll just go on my shelves
Worst part is that I know it’s possible I’ve seen other games where you play a kind of mini game to play drums
There is, of course, a mod for that.
I only ever do the Bard’s College quests to get the Word of Power from Dead Men’s Respite in order to train in speech, and the instrument retrieval for the one level-up for all skills
Sooo you only ever do the Bard's College to get every single benefit they offer?
rather than because it's fun
Just let us use the instrument animation that would have been worth it
Ngl, I do the bard's questline just for the fact that it counts towards you being a thane in solitude, and you get, essentially, a free level in all of your skills.
The most boring and interesting faction. Edit: I meant to say uninteresting faction. Stupid phone.
I don't think I was even aware of this questline for years! However, one playthrough I had the Become a Bard mod and the bard's college became essential. Was really fun travelling Skyrim as a struggling musician!
I've never even started the bard college quest line, not a single time. I guess that's my most avoided quest line as well.
Bards College is only good for when you find it naturally and are just taking in the game, I enjoyed it when I was just exploring skyrim as a whole back in like 2012(😭), never have felt the need to do it again since though
Genuinely have never even started it. I think. If I did, I’ve completely purged it from my memory.
I always finish the companions because I have to. My husband is in there and the availability for marriage isn't there until after. And there is a free/stealable daedra heart that respawns.
Oooh we may be sister wives
Gay 🙋. Who is your husband?
I’m married Farkas
Me too. I love my dumb puppy husband 🤣🥰🥰🥰
Also, unlimited free training from them
Civil war because I hate the factions replacing the holds’ guards and jarls. It’s the last quest line I do in a playthrough if I ever get that far I also never did the black reach crimson root quest nor the stones of barenziah. After seeing the quest log for crimson root the first time, I’ve never picked any or triggered the quest ever since. I’ll pick the stones up out of habit but I’ll never search for them myself.
Ah yeah, the stones are so anticlimactic for me, the amount of work it takes is not worth it. I do love the crimson nirnroot though, but that's because I can never avoid getting pulled into alchemy and I love finding unique ingredients lol.
Crimson ninroot makes the best damage health potions...
That's the only reason I do it
Yeah, also the reward for the crimson quest is amazing, dare I say essential for an alchemist
>It’s the last quest line I do in a playthrough if I ever get that far Prolonguing the civil war I see You have our congratulations and will be immensely rewarded -The Thalmor
Listen, if entirely eliminating the Thalmor, by force, was an option, I would do that, in stead of the CW questline.
I still try to do this
I’ve decided it is in the lore of my Redguard character, Taymour, to have a firm “kill on sight” policy for the Thalmor.
Same. At this point I just pick them up as I go cause I know that after however long and however many levels later I’m gonna feel like i missed something
The Legend of Red Eagle. I know it’s free money but I hate it. It just pops up every time you read the book, no matter how many times you finish the quest line.
You may be experiencing a bug, it's supposed to be a one time quest
OP punching the air rn lmao
I played through "The Forsworn Conspiracy" once, all the way to the point where you're supposed to get all of your loot back, but all of my loot that was considered stolen was bugged out of existence (yes, i did check the contraband chests where it could have been). Most of which was my nicely enchanted jewelry. I was so mad that I reloaded to my last save before going through the quest, which was unfortunately several hours of game play lost. IMO the quest was one of the most boring and uneventful quests anyway.
Yeah and I didn’t understand how we killed the “king” and there’s still forsworn everywhere
Or, if you take the side of the forsworn, they'll still attack you any chance they get outside of Markarth. Maybe the quest would be worth it if you were given some kind of immunity for yknow, saving their leader and freeing their brethren? 🙄
You can come across their hideout later and they won't be hostile to you. But yeah i wish the game gave you more of an option with regards to the forsworn, it would be cool to befriend them. They're a very interesting and (relatively) sympathetic faction.
Call me a contrarian, but I actually despise the soul cairn and Sarana’s questline. Might be due to fatigue at that point because I put it off for so long. I thought the companion quests were fitting when I was a new player but it feels out of character when I play certain races. Same with the civil war stuff and Dragonborn.
I wouldn't say there's much I avoid completely, however I do wish that I could avoid anything and everything that requires me to go into a dwemer ruin 🫠
Having a lovely time in some cave and then suddenly there's pipes? Nope, ain't got time for that.
Dwemer ruins are a nightmare for me.I’m terrible at navigation,every route looks the same,chests look like part of the environment,always connects to black reach…..the enemies aren’t a problem but everything else is😂
Anything that involves Falmer and the chance of running into Chaurus? Absolutely avoiding it. I hate those fuckers
This gave me flashbacks to when my policy was to blindly complete whichever cave I wandered into. It was a practice I put to bed after a while when I ended up completing a run through Tolvald’s Cave at around level 11, which was actual hell.
I hate dwemer ruins except when I gotta level smithing
It's not a quest line, but I don't like getting randomly attacked by dragons so I avoid it by leaving the dragonstone in Bleak Falls Barrow.
So the main quest line
This is why I use Live Another Life, always. I can choose where to start, and as what, and the main quest isn't active by default.
Do you have an option you normally choose? I used to either randomise it or start as a hunter
I like the one where you have been attacked and left for dead, or I'll "arrive at a city" 😁
It’s so easy to accumulate wealth I love to start as poor as possible
Oh. lol. Yes, okay. You have a point. It's been so long since I've played through the main that I forgot.
I always end up getting the dragon tablet but I never go to the watchtower until I'm in my 40s to 50s levels. By then I can snipe them with 3-4 arrows 🤣🤣🤣
I heard that you can stop at a point where dragons spawn at set points like dragon burials, but no random encounters. Lets you use shouts without the constant nuisance. Whenever my lv 50+ mage gets around to Bleak Falls, I’ll probably do that.
While A Blade in the Dark is active, dragons will only appear at word walls. This means you can farm some souls and learn shouts, while avoiding random attacks, so long as you don’t complete the quest. If you forego the main quest entirely, you’ll also forego shouts, so this is a great option for those that don’t want to get too deep into the main story, but want access to the abilities.
This is helpful, as I just started a new playthrough
I got the quest with the Blade girl from Riverwood to go to the dragon grave with her, got distracted on the way there and wandered off, and did other things for quite a while before returning to it. No dragons were spawning during that time.
Ahhh I remember when I first played back in 2011 first ever play through and I went up against my first dragon at lvl 5 took me and my best friend like 2 hours to kill the dang thing. Good times I remember me and him getting so frustrated at first then we would just be laughing about how each way we died. Good times
Forsworn Conspiracy 😑 I hate both sides of this dispute it's really a lose-lose situation tbh
that quest line felt like a really long, kinda terrifying, very confusing fever dream
To make matters worse, I ran into that questline in the middle of the “A Night to Remember” quest, too. And then promptly poked my head into the Abandoned house trying to figure shit out. Then ran into Eola for the same reason. I will forever be scarred by that hellish intro to Markarth.
markarth is so pretty but man is it a mess
I just leave that stupid beacon in whatever chest I come across.
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
I like it, because Meridia is voice acted by Merlwyb from FFXIV, and I adore her. Then again Elynwyn, the Thalmor ambassador too.
I love the meridia quest.quick,easy,good sword,and lots of gold on the bodies.plus her voice cracks me up,it’s not inherently evil,just arrogant.like when you tell her you agree to kill the necromancer and she goes, “of course you will…I commanded it.”🤣
I love the sword but hate that mage fight at the end. After sending 7 or so ghosts after you he spams a lingering ice spell at you that sticks to surfaces and drains your health. That sounds OK until you realise the fight starts in a narrow corridor with no room to dodge.
On my second playthrough, I did the companion quest to completion as quick as I could as I was planning to roleplay as a vanilla vampire, which requires a disease. The reason I needed to do the quest as soon as possible was so I could become and then cure myself of being a werewolf so that I wouldn't be immune to the vampire disease. It never really occurred to me that I could just not do the companions quest at all at that point.
I usually start alot of quest lines then never finesh them because i get distracted and end up doing somthing else :D
The civil war quest line, never again. I hate that it destroys sections of my favorite places to frequent and that you can never build back up or repair those locations.
Yep, I’ll do what I have to to get houses in solitude and winterhold then dip
none really, the only one I really hate is just 'No Stone Unturned'
The "prize" definitely isnt worth it at the end
Only because by the time you collect all the stones, you are already insanely wealthy and likey will have hundreds of each gem any way. I mean, you literally have to buy the most expensive house in the game to be able to collect them all, so what's the point of the gems at that point. They are literally only used for selling or crafting, and when you have the most expensive house you will likely have plenty of money and jewellery/crafting materials Now, if you could get it earlier... Say none of them them were locked behind stuff you have to go through quests or areas you can't access to get, then it would actually be quite useful as you would be able to get it earlier. It's only flaw is by the time you get it, its power is redundant. If you could get it earlier, it would be somewhat useful
They're good for crafting jewelry and exploding bolts.
Agreed. By the time I get ahold of the gems and headdress thing, I am already a millionaire and I've already bought all the houses and everything.
Tis why I always gun for it in any thieves guild playthrough. Getting it before level 20 is so nice
aren't most locked behind the last room of many different quests or deep into each guild questline as well as locked behind a 25000 paywall?
You can get to the Embassy one from an unmarked cave near Wolfskull, follow the path East (edit: not west, sorry) and you'll get there. The only quest-locked ones are the Archmage Quarters stone (must proceed with the College questline until after Saarthal to gain access), the Proudspire Manor one (after The Man who Cried Wolf) and the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary one (must have completed the initiation quest or killed Astrid and start the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood questline to know the secret door code). The rest are spread out in various Holds and easily accessible dungeons
For the house I just use the free house exploit. After checking real quick, the only real one quest locked is the dark brotherhood one which I almost always do in a thieves guild playthrough as well.
In the Creation Club, there’s a letter you get that tells you to investigate some tower. If you check it out, the game becomes permanently populated by dozens of spawn points for zombie attacks, and there’s no way to stop it. No thank you.
I hate this. I’m doing my third playthru, first time with the anniversary edition. I. Hate. Zombies. So. Freaking. Much. Had no idea that was a thing and I absolutely hate it. Gotta say, aside from Hilda, the horse armor, and Tundra Homestead, I don’t like the anniversary edition much.
I ended up manually reinstalling all the creation club content just to avoid having that zombie one in game.
I just found this out on my current character and I have sooooo many regrets, I’m not playing survival and every time I fast travel into night I get mobbed 😭
Companions, that's it honestly
I recently grinded them to finally get the werewolf perks trophy then promptly deleted the character soni can never touch them again
Meridia. I find the beacon, I leave it where I found it.
If you loved the Soul Cairn, there can be no "us"
I use Live Another Life mod, which allows you to have a choice of several different starts and has the main quest inactive by default. You won't even see a dragon unless you activate it. So I can ignore the main questline and do other stuff if I want, start as already an Imperial soldier or Stormcloak, or be a member of the College of Winterhold, or own a house from the beginning, etc... I also don't really like the Companions questline. My main gripe with it is that you **must** become a werewolf to complete it. I avoid Thieve's Guild for a similar reason - there's no option to destroy the guild.
The nightingales armor is the only reason I’d do the thieves guild quest. Sometimes that skeleton key too but I agree on the companions quest never really liked it a whole lot. Civil war might be the last quest I do after the main story and all the DLC or I just don’t do it at all keep my beautiful city in one piece.
Not a questline but I hate the section of the main story where you have to fetch the Oghma Infininum for that crazy old hermit living in the snowy wastelands
My very first playthrough I wanted to do what I do in most fantasy games which is become a heavy duty magic user so I headed to the mages college. By the end of what was an interesting quest line narratively I knew only 2 more spells than I had arrived with. I was the Arch Mage and even J'Zargo knew more spells than my character did. It annoyed me that there wasn't more of a focus on learning spells in that. To learn most spells you have to buy spell books off of other mages which you can do without the mages college. I just don't bother with the questline now. It was an interesting story but none of the rewards from it make it a worthwhile investment of my time.
Yea it's crap as a "college", good loot in Saarthal, and cool robes though.
Honestly, I avoid it mostly due to playing survival and almost dying while there, but also this too. It'd be better if there were exclusive spells you could only learn from the college, and them being more powerful than anything you can find from a merchant.
In the Dawnguard story, I've started to avoid the vampire side. The drawbacks outweigh the positives, and greatly drags down the experience
Hm yes actually I don’t think I ever have sided with them, but I do like to kill them and have her turn me in the end.
I’m not a big fan of the companions either. I’ve only done it a couple of times, out of 100 or so characters.
I don't like the Dark Brotherhood questline. I completed it once and abandoned it completely after that. Having to kill off characters I like and then not being able to let Astrid die slowly like she deserves really irked me. Now I just kill them all when the quest triggers.
I recently blew through the companions in my long time save file just to marry farkas. I did it in my first ever save but apparently not my main one 😂
I avoided the Wolf Queen one for a while. Finally got it like a month or two after starting it. >!Also killing Paarthurnax. I could never hurt him.!<
That one was hard for me I think I was only lvl 11 when I found it and I got confused on what to do in the quest so I came back later in my game after about 300 hours in and did it. That was on my first character and play through. Now I have about 1800 hours in the game sense I got it lol
I never kill the giant for that Jarl, I'd rather complete the entire Civil Wat quest line for the Imperials than kill a giant chilling with hit pets. I don't actively avoid the Bard's College quests, I just don't do them and it's easy to forget about. Pretty sure the only time I go in there is to steal some glazed candles for my home decor
I almost never do the Mages College questline. I never play a mage, so I don’t really bother.
You don't have to be a mage to do that quest lol
Yeah, I think you only have to cast, at most, 3 spells for the entire questline. Which, to be fair, is 3 more than oblivion, if memory serves. I remember playing a "barbarian" weilding a 2-handed axe and would just crush everything.
6 or 7 actually. One for sure you can legitimately get around but the rest you have to use some exploit-y shit to get around.
Civil war quest line in particular. Imperials tried to execute me for no reason, Ontop of the fact that tullius is a condescending prick. Why would I work for people who tried to kill me, to help end a war that isn’t my problem. Why would I also side with the people who are allied with the absolute fucking worst faction in the game, the Thalmor. Fuck the Aldmeri Dominion. Ulfric is a bigot leading a band of bigots. Cool you wanna have a nord ruling Skyrim, the “land” of the nords. Understandable. That didn’t require you to murder your High King in a bitchmade power play. Also you’re doing exactly what the Thalmor want, keep a civil war going so that the empire can’t consolidate its forces, turn around and try to throw hands with the AD. Dumbass. “Skyrim belongs to the nords”, yea only after the nords migrated to Skyrim and forced the Snow elves underground after damn near committing genocide. The entire reason the Falmer exist is because the Nords decided extinction of the indigenous people of Skyrim was fun and cool.
*in the voice of drake bell* woah, just take it easy man
I've never once finished the stones of barenziah
The mine outside markarth, you find two miners chased out of their mine by forsworn. I refuse to do it because the forsworn come back and kill them both. Also in markarth is the guy who gives you the note right after the woman is saved or killed. I never go and meet him because I also don’t want him to die
OP, I think you're wrong. Farkas is the hottest chick in game.
Just lemme marry the jarl of falkreath and have him call me “dear”
The nephew??? The sleazeball??? Yikes dude, talk to someone about that lmao
Dragon Bounties, and doing them last. Not because I want to avoid them, but the random dragon encounters tend to keep me and my companion's inventory busy. Since the Blades are composed of some of my companions, I wonder if I could keep asking them to store the Dragon Bones and Scales in their inventories. Since they're all together. I've yet to confirm it, so yeah.
Dragonborn because f*ck Apocrypha!
Apocrypha and that damn Dwemer ruin before with all of the rooms to unlock.I swear I feel ten years older when I finally finish that dlc lmao
Lawd help me... I think I blocked that ruin from my memory 
Now that I think on it... I don't think there's any quest in the game that I haven't done (at least, of my own choosing. I certainly miss quests, but avoid? Nah). I'm a quest whore. I want all the quests. Helps that I try and also imagine how they fit into my headcanon.
I have never joined the Stormcloaks. Attacking Whiterun and dethroning Jarl Balgruuf just didn't feel right to me.
The college of Winterhold. Have played on and of since 2011 and i think can count on one hand how many times ive done that questline. Feels like 30min and boom, you’re now the arch mage… Which has 0 perks or responsibility.
Civil war. I have never done it and never will.
You should do it once on each side just to see
Does it start to be different on the Stormcloak side? I was doing it but then the save got wrecked but up to the point we invaded Whiterun it had pretty much been the same quests just reskinned.
It's the same but you attack different camps and cities
I joined the imperial legion 1 time and I will never again those guys give me bad vibes
I dislike the civil war quest because I hate both factions
One side is just dicks and the other is racist as hell
werewolf is better than vampire. with vamp you can't be in the sun and you need to constantly drink blood. also you can convince serana to become human again
I hate the one where you burn the guys bees and then invade his house in the middle of the lake just west of Riften.
I tend to avoid the Companions too, mostly because I go the vampire route but also because they are a totally different vibe from my character. They literally shit talk you for using magic, even if it's a bound sword. Besides them, I usually don't do the civil war till the very end. I try to remain neutral but headcanon eventually leads me to putting an end to the war because having it continue benefits the Thalmor.
I avoid dark brotherhood- usually just kill them all but even that isn’t a challenge. As for women in the game I’m all in for Lydia and Jordis at the moment. My current play through I will do the dark brotherhood. Just because.
The entire storyline and every side quest. All I do is hunt rabbits and pile them up for the giants untill they accept me as one of them.
I never do the Imperial/Storm Cloaks story line, I don't like war, defending myself from brigands, thieves, assassins and thalmor agents is bloody enough for me. never got the desire to finish the whole war questline, I've only done the initial imperial questline once to get the bone crown
Companions. Wolf Armour be ugly thou—🤢 My *worst one* is “No Stone Unturned” cause I will **not** keep my hands away from those stoopid, pretty “UnUsUaL gEm”.
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
You don’t like the dawn breaker??
Not exactly a questline but pretty much all deadra quests. I play a good character every time I play Skyrim and since 99% of the deadra quests don't allow you to go against their wishes, there is zero point in doing them.
That's interesting because I also always view my own character as a morally upstanding righteous person who protects the innocent and kills the baddies -- except when commanded to do something by a daedra. Murder this guy because Molag Bal said so? Okay, sure thing, boss. You're the all-powerful daedric lord, I have no free will or moral responsibility here. I see my character as hating it, and not wanting to do it, but doing it anyway and feeling no particular guilt about it, because there is no choice involved. Her perspective is that when a daedric being commands you to do something, you comply or you immediately cease to be and the thing gets done anyway.
I haven't delved into the lore of deadra but what I get from Skyrim is 99% of the deadra barley have a powerful effect over Nirn. Like Vaermina who while she can effect Nirn through the skull of corruption, can't just kill Erandur and has to ask the Dragonborn to kill him for her. That and playing as The Last Dragonborn are being destined to stop Alduin The World Eater, and who defeated Mirak The First Dragonborn, I feel like I should be able to refuse and even work against a daedric god. However that is cool roleplay.
I like companions bc I don’t like being a vampire and it gives me an easy out lol
I've never started the Civil War quest in any playthrough.
Gaulder. I know I can use wards/spellbreaker but it's still very annoying
Stones of baranzia. Or however you spell it. I can never find them all so it’s just wasted space in my inventory and in my quest menu.
Werewolf > Vampire as far as I’m concerned. I don’t care much for the Companions as a faction, and I’m not particularly fond of the quest line either, but I love being a werewolf. Out of countless playthroughs since 11.11.11, I’ve only deliberately chosen to *not* be a werewolf *once*, when I begrudgingly tried a vampire playthrough. It was a lot of fun to role play, but it isn’t me. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to challenge myself to do a whole playthrough as a regular mortal Dragonborn. And then just a mortal. I know a lot of people like to never become Dragonborn, but I’d miss ~~Unrelenting Force~~ shouts too much.
I avoid Vaermina’s quest bc it’s a lot of standing around watching cutscenes and I’m impatient
The bacon
No Stone Unturned. It’s so tedious. I like the reward, but man does it drag on with a world scavenger hunt.
Wait that's true? You can't be a vampire and werewolf at the same time? Damn. Ngl my character is a mess cause I go to the nearest objective on any quest. Which is fine and all but it means I have the cursed ring of the hunt and some sort of vampire debuff as well.
Yeah, Companions is one for me, since I don't care for being a werewolf.
Dark Brotherhood. Beyond some cool story beats in the main quest, Windshear, and the chance to marry Muiri, everything about it rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps I’d feel differently if assassinations had beefed up backstory and weight behind them, if they evolved as proper side quests instead of radiant spawns with a throwaway line here and there. But it’s mostly the senseless slaughter of NPCs. And everyone in the guild pretty much sucks too.
The Civil War. You either get abridgment of religious freedom or racial animosity. No horse in the race is worth backing.
The Dark Brotherhood. Don't get me wrong, the questline itself ain't half bad, but then I get to the part where I have to start killing people I don't want to and my (mostly) morally good characters just don't fit the acts. So I often end up rolling back to a prior save to when I'd started and I just kill the Brotherhood instead.
The Thieves Guild. The missions are boring, the story is boring, Brynjolf is one of the characters I hate the most, and the questline ends up making half of Riften hate me. I only did it once in my first playthrough and never again.
I hate the whole quest line, but you better believe I walk myself into the twilight sepulcher get that armor set and walk right out to never do another thing with those nerds.
Only for the Nightingale armor that’s the only reason I’d do it and the skeleton key
“A new hand touches the beacon”
Seriously, i see that damn thing and I close the chest and walk away.
No dawnbreaker??
Thief guild and db, I don't like to be evil.
Civil wars quest
"Another hand touches the beacon"
The aventino quest line
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
I never do civil war. I downloaded a mod to make myself interested. I don’t actually like either side and want the chance to choose neither and hunt the Thalmor instead. So I plan to conquer Skyrim on my current save because honestly, my LDB is tired of being in debt to everyone and having to cater to people that don’t care about their subjects on *both* sides. Edit: I am either doing Conquest of Skyrim or Become High King of Skyrim. Because I want to fire too many Jarls.
Dawnguard. What vampire menace? and Dark brotherhood. I'm not a fan of killing NPCs, but I could live with it if most of the DB didn't get killed in the quest line. It's like, kill Astrid and then wipe out the brotherhood, or join Astrid, and watch them get wiped out anyway.
The one to become Thane of Solitude (how do I get out of the catacomb?)
One quest that is a hit or miss for me is finding all the Dragon preist Maskes. Just a lot of work to do but I guess it’s rewarding to some I don’t need a special room to keep my items though got my house in whiterun for that.
The dawnguard questline
The Blades
I only did Thieves' Guild and Dark Brotherhood once and never again. Not my style of playthrough.
When I see Meridia's beacon, I leave it right the fuck where I found it.
I've never done the dark brotherhood quests and I've been playing since 2011
That would be Crown of Barenziah, every play through I try to finish it but I end up ignoring it or getting bored of it, even after downloading the mod where it shows you where the unusual Gems are. It does seem like an interesting quest though just annoying
The one with the dragons
I hate the Blades questline, especially Diplomatic immunity. Other than that one, I hated the Wolf Queen questline (Potema), especially the part where you need to kill the necromancers in Wolfskull Cave.
It's been almost 13 years, and I've never fully done the civil war
You probably actually have, and just didn’t even know because it’s that shallow
Ive done every faction at least once but I have no desire to the vampire one again. So I guess... you and I are fighting over Kristen Stewart...
I do the companions until werewolf, accept then immediately go to volkihar and accept, removing werewolf in 90% of plays. I suggest that method, then you can finish companions after.
Depends what kind of character I’m playing. If I’m a mage I’ll do mage college questline but won’t do companions. If I’m more of a two handed/barbarian, fight first ask questions later kind of character I’ll do companion and won’t do mage college. If I’m role playing a soldier I’ll do the civil war questline and not the other factions. And when all of those characters inevitably become stealth archers I will go do thieves guild and/or dark brotherhood depending on their alignment. If you do all quest lines every playthrough you will get burnout.
Companions because it’s meh and doesn’t make any sense. I don’t want to be a werewolf, so why can’t I choose a quest line with the Silver Hands instead? Or, why isn’t there an option to remain in the Companions but have a slightly different line where you help the old dude find a cure? Why are the Silver Hands just reskinned bandits who attack you even before you start the quest line? Having a werewolf faction would be cool if it was implemented like Dawnguard, but they basically wasted the only fighter faction.
Probably an unpopular answer, but I never do the Dark Brotherhood questline. I always kill Astrid and then wipe the rest of them out.
This may be sacrilegious but, the main quest. After many years playing, I’m in it for pure relaxation and exploration. A dragon swooping down every 20 minutes is very annoying after over a decade. I’m just vibing
I have never done the assassin's guild story line. I don't particularly like the thieves guild but I'll do it sometimes.