Topic: Dragon Shouts

[Aysleph]

Most of us here have played Skyrim so we should all be familiar with the Thu'um, more commonly referred to as Dragon Shouts. Within Skyrim, there are a total of 27 shouts that the player can learn and use. You can call upon an Ancient Nordic Warrior from Soverngarde to aid you as you charge into battle, reach into the void as you take on an ethereal form that cannot be harmed, or perhaps slow down time to a blur so you can dance around your enemies, killing them before they even realize they're dead. Point being, there a plethora of shouts for you to use in many different scenarios, but which one is your favorite? Which shout do you find most useful and mandatory for every playthrough? And despite all the different shouts you can use, what do you find missing? What is one shout that you wish to add to the game?

 

My favorite shout would have to be a toss-up between Elemental Fury and Slow Time. Even though Slow Time is more versatile since you can use it with any playstyle and as an offensive and defensive shout, Elemental Fury is just too good to pass up. My most recent playthrough heavily relied on Elemental Fury and it saved me on many occasions. You can argue that Elemental Fury is purely offensive, but "the best defense is a good offense". They can't hit you if they're dead, right? Slow Time is fun to mess around with your enemies, but when I need someone dead, Elemental Fury would be my go to shout.

[Dire Shepherd]

Oh, I definitely have to say that my favorite was Become Ethereal and Whirlwind Sprint (for fun). The former being highly useful for fighting dragons, that's for sure, since the first word of the shout matched the duration of their frost/fire breath. :D 

Oddly enough the one that I found mandatory, for one of my playthroughs, was Aura Whisper. It has helped me a lot in determining whether or not I should avoid certain areas or just charge on in, steel flashing. 

A shout I wish they'd add to the game....hmm....

I wish there had been a shout that determined enemies' difficulties. Especially since Skyrim's difficulty system always felt...wonky? Like enemies would be shrouded, similar to Aura Whisper, however they'd be colored differently, dependent on their level of difficulty. Like...easier enemies (wolves and bandits) would be green, moderately difficult enemies would be shrouded in yellow and higher leveled enemies would be shrouded in red and....I don't know. I do know that later on that would probably be a shout completely useless once the character has leveled up monstrously, and then like, at level 82 all enemies would be green or something.... yeah it'd definitely would become a useless shout, probably only useful to those playing Skyrim for the very first time or playing an Elder Scrolls game for the very first time. 

[Aysleph]

Become Ethereal and Whirlwind sprint are definitely useful shouts, for all the reasons you stated. Become Ethereal is crucial in dragon fights, especially for squishy characters that would normally get obliterated in 1 shot. Whirlwind Spirit is useful for traveling, closing in on ranges enemies without taking too much damage, or reaching areas that would normally be impossible.

A shout that shows the difficulty of enemies would certainly be helpful. Sometimes enemies are listened under the same name, but vary in difficulty. I can’t remember exactly when it occurs, but I remember it happening to me on multiple occasions. I encounter an enemy, look at the name and expect an easy fight, but then my attacks do no damage while theirs do a lot. I think this feature could easily be implemented into aura whisper. As you said, easy enemies would be green, moderate would be yellow, and hard would be the usual red. Aura whisper is a very useful shout that I used religiously in one of my assassin playthroughs, but it definitely could’ve been expanded upon. For example, the difficulty meter as mentioned and different colors for different enemies. This would help a lot with identification, but then things may get too complicated perhaps.

[Curse]

A difficulty sensor would be a pretty sweet idea. I can't count how many random 'bandits' I've ran into that turned out to be tougher than their fellow 'chief bandit'

[Aysleph]

That would certainly make shouts more unique and situation dependent. I quite like how the current shouts work as they're very versatile, which could be seen as a pro and con I guess. It makes it so that it's easy to replace a bunch of shout with just 1 really good shout.

[Aysleph]

That would certainly make shouts more unique and situation dependent. I quite like how the current shouts work as they're very versatile, which could be seen as a pro and con I guess. It makes it so that it's easy to replace a bunch of shout with just 1 really good shout.

[Skooma Smuggler]

My favorite shout is whirlwind sprint even tho most people are probably right when they say it's useless

[Cannon]

Definitely useful for combat archers especially.

[Cannon]

Definitely useful for combat archers especially.

[Aysleph]

Whirlwind Sprint is a very useful shout. You can use it while you're traveling to speed things up, use it to close in on enemies without taking too much damage, or even get to places otherwise impossible (for example, getting back into the Thalmor Embassy after Diplomatic Immunity)

[Aysleph]

Whirlwind Sprint is a very useful shout. You can use it while you're traveling to speed things up, use it to close in on enemies without taking too much damage, or even get to places otherwise impossible (for example, getting back into the Thalmor Embassy after Diplomatic Immunity)

[Kaiser]

I gotta say, I have a soft spot for unrelenting force. After just running through Skuldafn ruins, I get to the top to find 4 Draugr Wight/Scourge. It's a character whose only healing is from health regen and the knocked me down pretty good. I ran them to the edge of the temple and killed all four by launching them off the cliff. It is effective with one word to stagger or to close in and effective with 3 words to either kill the enemy  (cliffs) or buy time to heal (or regen). Truly a versatile shout and it makes sense why it's the icon of the series.

[Cannon]

Agreed, I myself rarely use shouts other than Unrelenting Force.