I don't use soul gems

[azuarc]

My name is azuarc and...I have to make a confession.

I don't use soul gems. Ever. Not for recharging my weapon, not for enchanting, not for anything. I just sell them.

I know enchanting is very powerful in this game, but frankly I can't be bothered to level it. I didn't care for it in Morrowind, you had to get into the mage's college to do it in Oblivion, and the user interface in Skyrim for it is annoying. Considering I'm usually perfectly happy using random drops, I don't see the point.

And recharging weapons is great and all, but I'm much more in favor of passive effects rather than things that need to be constantly attended to and give reminders of "Your weapon is out of charges." I generally don't believe in consumables because, let's face it, you use them and they're gone. While soul gems are a slightly different beast than, say, an Archery Potion, the idea is the same.

Plus, I can't be bothered to Soul Trap things. Do I really want to cast a spell on something right before it dies? Not only does that interrupt the flow of battle, but then if something happens and I don't kill it right then, the effort was wasted.


I'm sure soul gems are awesome, and I'm sure the benefits you get from them are great, but I've just never been able to trouble myself. I know, I know, I'm a terrible Elder Scrolls player. *cry*

[Spiney]

Same here bud. The whole recharging enchanted weapons was always too bothersome for me.

And now, since I found out you can't get NPC's to recharge gear, I can't be assed with enchantment now.

[Red Guardian]

Despite having Azura's Star I just can't be bothered to use it because of the same reasons with the Soul Trap thing you just wrote... Wish we had the Umbra sword in Skyim... I still haven't found a good weapon with Soul Trap in it. And I can't unlock the enchant either...

And I use Soul Gems to enchant items and sell. With weapons and armour that I use it's kinda of a let down.

For example, some enchants are only usable with the "proper" piece of armour. I can enchant a helm with fortify magicka but can't enchant a helm with resist fire, that spot goes to the shields and nothing more. Annoying....

[NLN]

I managed to fix my problem with "cast spell on dying creatures" with a kickass ebony bow smithed to flawless (can't smith ebony, my deepest regret on my "main" character) with soul trap for 1 secs. I don't think I have recharged it the last twenty levels or so, with my perks it kills very quickly.

But I agree, recharging is... annoying. They took out the damage to weapons/armor, but recharging items is worse than that imho. Maybe it could be modded to recharge with time and for balance you wouldn't be able to recharge them with gems?

[Kerr]

I made my own soul trap sword and have Azura's Star so recharging items isn't a problem for me.

[Chaos the N'wah]

Not a fan of the armor limitations and the extra effect perk just baffles me, they made a book around the subject (twin souls I think), but past games had little to know problem with multiple effects on weapons...

[Samaelthedestroyer]

I don't like having to recharge weapons, it's too much work. So I'm with you, I don't use soul gems unless I'm a mage.

[shu]

In Oblivion I sued soul trap a lot. Here I just buy filled gems to recharge. I don't find it too much of a bother.

[fetcherswit]

I used a two handed hammer with soul trap on for a bit, and it was fun to see the special effects of souls swooshing into my death bags for about five minutes before I switched to something else, but aside from that, I just buy grand soul gems from merchants for when I want to play around with enchanting (which is almost never), use enchanted weapons I find just for a change of pace till they get drained and then throw them away, and tend to just skip the rest of it.

I don't play on master difficulty, just "adept," and I don't feel like I really need anything except whatever junk I find as I go along for that, as an assassin a steel dagger and whatever you find for bows will take you through most of the game just fine, as a mage you gotta buy spells but that's about it, and my two handed heavy metal guys definitely don't need any help, I use my crappy smithing to put a "(Fine)" on everything I use just for fun, and to tell if its my trusty sword in my inventory or what I looted from somebody else (sentimental value haha), but I don't smith my weapons AT ALL on a dual wielder 'cause the hotkey disappearing bug is more annoying than having to hit things extra times.

'Bout the only thing I really like to have is some resist when I know I'm going to get flame-throwered or frosted a lot and some health potions for when I get caught out in a frying pan with my pants down (don't even use restoration on most of my recent characters).

Once you've beaten most of the game with a character and you want to make yourself some totally awesome stuff just to have the awesomest custom-made stuff its nice that they have all that junk though.

And if I played the game on master difficulty and everything took an annoying amount of time to kill and kicked the heck out of me I'd probably sing a different tune.

Game seems a lot funner for me if I skip all that stuff and just try to use whatever I find as I go along instead of buying junk from merchants and crafting myself perfect and all that, dungeon diving is fun again 'cause you might find something neat to use, etc.

[Syrkin]

Having a soul-draining weapon can be a pain in the hiney tho. Souls will go into an appropriate-sized gem, unless one isn't available, then going into a larger empty one.

So while going around raping and pillaging the general bandit populace, I realized that I had 14 Common Soul Gems with Petty souls, 3 Grand Gems with Common Souls, and worst of all, a Black Soul gem with a petty soul. The recharge value to a weapon is based on the soul inside, not the size of the gem itself. I have many wasted gems.

/facepalm

I created some pure damage weapons, and only pull out the soul-suckers when I need them.

[Lord Cattow]

I have an assassin with a soul trap dagger. Very reliable when it comes to filling soul gems, as I always know what souls will be trapped in which soul gems and I don't fill larger gems on accident, as it isn't my primary weapon.

[NLN]

...it isn't my primary weapon.

This is why I did not like Umbra, it WAS my primary weapon. But this is essential in gem-filling, to make an off-weapon for it. A good one too, so that you don't have to hack away for all eternity with it to kill.

[Moirae]

I go through soulgems like Ritalin at an ADD convention. But it belts that my soultrap enchant has Fire damage built into it, and so I can essentially add a third enchant on the item.

So my main weapon is a bow with Soul Trap, Fire Damage, and Shock Damage. I have way more filled gems for recharging than I can use, and I never shoot anything unless the bow has at least 1 charge in it.

[Theificka]

If you're smart and play your perks right, Soul Siphon and Soul Squeezer generally makes charging happen less often.

I myself think that the soul trap business will help me with remembering things (Which I often do forget)

[Eltee]

Meh. I just usually find enough filled common soul gems as loot to keep my soul-thirsty enchanted axe sated. i can't be bothered to fill them on my own, but, once again, I just find more than enough just lying around for my needs.

[Crepe the Ashlander]

On my first playthrough, I used duel wielding Mace of Molag Bal and the Nightingale Blade Iboth were re-filled with the soul trap from the mace), it also helped that the mace also had drain stamina, not just soul trap, so I guess the best weapon for the soul trapping is the Mace of Molag Bal, well at least that's what I found.

[Ranga360]

On my first playthrough, I used duel wielding Mace of Molag Bal and the Nightingale Blade Iboth were re-filled with the soul trap from the mace), it also helped that the mace also had drain stamina, not just soul trap, so I guess the best weapon for the soul trapping is the Mace of Molag Bal, well at least that's what I found.

I'm doing the exact same thing, works great

[BrothaDesmund]

Meh, it gets kinda annoying sometimes. Usually I just enchant all my armor, and my weapon echantments stay ran out until I'm fighting something tough and remember "oh herp it'd be really helpful if I had my weapon charged". It's not too bad though, what I've ended up doing is giving my companion a soul charge weapon, then a bunch of soul gems that aren't grand which I use for recharging, then they fill all of them over time and I take them back without ever having to soul trap anything.

[Yomnom]

I've never use soul trap, recharge or enchant items in Skyrim or Morrowind, but I made full use of Umbra and Azura's Star in Oblivion.

[legoless]

I use filled soul gems to train up my Enchanting skill and to recharge my sword. But soul trapping is a pain in the butt, and doesn't even offer the collection aspect that it had in Morrowind (or, from what I hear, Daggerfall).

[Red Guardian]

Ok, scratch what I wrote before. Finally found a spellbook with Soul Trap (damn mages weren't selling it before, could be a glitch).

Still, the whole soul-trapping issue (at least with the spell) is still boring. Kills that fighting mood, you know...

[BrothaDesmund]

Ok, scratch what I wrote before. Finally found a spellbook with Soul Trap (damn mages weren't selling it before, could be a glitch).

Still, the whole soul-trapping issue (at least with the spell) is still boring. Kills that fighting mood, you know...

Ha, on my mage (who can't tank a single giant hit because he has like no HP), I like to cast frenzy on mammoths and then sneaking behind them and casting soul trap right before the giant they just attacked kills them, then I just kill the giant with a single fireball cause his health is like all gone. It's kind of hilarious.

[Puggles]

Didn't bother at first, but now I'm obsessed with enchanting.

I use it all the time. All I need is a good soul trapping weapon (I particularly enjoyed using a bow for this) and I'm set - never seem to run out of soul gems either as they're everywhere.

It's gotten to point now that when I'm stalking an enemy all I'm thinking about is getting that nice big fat juicy soul of theirs.

[Feanor]

Bound weapons get soul trap spell automatically with the right perks.

[Avron the S'wit]

Oh, thank the heavens I'm not the only one who does this. I get those stupid soul gems and just look at them curiously, wondering how quickly I can pawn them off. I hardly ever bother with any soul tap magics and, if I do have an enchanted weapon (I tend to just enchant jewelry and clothing/armor with long term effects that don't need reconsideration), I just apply any with souls right away. But I don't hold onto them.

Hmm. Maybe I can start a horde in my basement...