Final Thoughts on Delga’s Skyrim Run

As I did for previous playthroughs, here’s a roundup post of final thoughts on how Delga’s run went overall, what I liked about it, and what I didn’t.

This will be long, so I’ll have a More tag on this just on that general principle.

Favorite Follower

Since Delga’s big new things for her run were the Companions and fighting the war on the side of the Imperial, my inclinations for best new followers have to go in those directions.

I’d say Hadvar, except for the part where he wasn’t actually my follower per se for any of the Imperial war quests, he was just a significant presence on hand to participate in the action. Still though, quite liked him. <3

In terms of actual followers, it’s a hard call between Aela, Vilkas, and Farkas. I’m partial to all three of them for various reasons. Ultimately, though, I think I gotta go with Aela. Just because she is the one I wound up marrying, and who made best sense for Delga’s narrative!

And I’ll give an honorable mention to Calder, since I hadn’t had him as a housecarl before, and I did have him on active follower duty through most of the run on Solstheim. I just wish he had a more lively personality, otherwise I would have considered keeping him on active follower duty. And would also have considered him as a potential spouse.

Favorite City

Swinging back to Whiterun this time through, I think. Just because the emotional impact of seeing that city under attack by the Stormcloaks is considerable.

I’ll give an honorable mention to Windhelm, though. Just because it did become a much nicer place to be in once the war was over, and so many of the Dunmer and Argonians were happier.

Favorite Daedric Quest

That’s an easy call for Delga, because Cursed Tribe! Volendrung all the way, baby. \0/

Favorite Non-Daedric Main Game Plot

I think I’ll go with the Imperial side of the war here. Just because that served me some of the most intense action I’ve dealt with in the game to date, between the attack on Whiterun and the final battle in Windhelm, leading to the death of Ulfric Stormcloak.

Favorite Armor

Given that I finished up Delga’s run in the Heavy Stalhrim Armor, I have my first place finisher right there. Honorable mention goes to the Blades armor, though!

And I’ll also give a shoutout to the Imperial Light Armor as well. Imperial armor is shit but it does get the job done at lower levels!

Favorite Weapon

Many of the same contenders as in previous games: Dragonbane, dragonbone and stalhrim weapons, Dawnbreaker.

But this time through since I was specializing in two-handed weapons for the most part, I’ll go with the stalhrim greatsword that was my go-to weapon for most of Solstheim.

Favorite Named Dragon

Durnehviir, no contest. Summoned him more this time, and got to see him scare the hell out of an entire camp of Forsworn.

Things I Actively Disliked

Some parts of running the war plot

As much as I enjoyed running the war plot, I was somewhat disappointed that in several ways, it was a bit of a mess.

I really wish it would have been rather more of a big deal in the game than it was. Given how the game talks up how much the land is in turmoil because of this war going on, it seems to have very little actual impact on things once you win.

Brunwulf Free-Winter taking over Windhelm in theory makes things better for the Dunmer and Argonians there. But he doesn’t let the Argonians into the city, and there’s no apparent effort to improve the conditions in the Gray Quarter, either. Plus, Brunwulf is having a relationship with the bitchy and bigoted innkeeper at Candlehearth Hall, so I do have to kind of call his judgment into question here.

Likewise, the death of Ulfric Stormcloak seems to have very little actual impact on the game. The one exception to this is that I had the smiths in Windhelm be actively bitchy to me for the remainder of the playthrough—and nobody else, anywhere in the game, but especially in Windhelm. Hell, at the very least, I’d have expected an occasional remaining desperate Stormcloak supporter trying to attack me on the road?

Outside of Windhelm, nobody’s dialogue choices change as a result of the war being over, as near as I can tell. A lot of NPCs still have dialogue prompts that make them come across as thinking the war is still happening. This makes for a confusing play experience.

Also, there was an entire Stormcloak camp with one lone frozen Stormcloak commander stuck in it, right by the Honningbrew Meadery, once the attack on Whiterun was over. It stayed there for the rest of the game. Really should have been cleaned up.

Some parts of running the Companions plot

I said it before and I’ll say it again here: why in gods’ names is there no place in Jorrvaskr to hang Wuuthrad once Eorlund Gray-Mane reforges it? It makes zero sense to me that there’s no way to hang it in Jorrvaskr, if you choose to bring it with you back from Ysgramor’s tomb. I should think that that would be the absolute correct place to put it, given that the Companions made such a big deal about displaying the fragments of the axe.

Also, I still do not buy that the Silver Hand could have so easily made it into Whiterun and all the way to Jorrvaskr to kill Kodlak. The whole damn hall is supposed to be filled with the best warriors Skyrim has to offer. And not a one of them could have stopped their Harbinger from being killed?

And why the fuck did the Whiterun guards also not get in on the battle?

Last but not least, distinctly underwhelmed by the entire idea of how the game implemented being a werewolf. What advantages you get from it didn’t seem worth it to me compared to the much broader array of skills and powers you get in your usual form, especially your Shouts.

Largashbur was robbed

As with Merawen’s playthrough, I continue to be horrified about how easy it is for Largashbur to lose the rest of its NPCs once you complete the quest here. If you go anywhere near the place, it seems to trigger more giant attacks. I managed to rescue Ogol from the stronghold to get him to be steward at Lakeview, but I lost Lob before I could go get him for Heljarchen.

Things I Wish I’d Done Differently

Feeling pretty good, actually, about how this run went overall. Not trying to run multiple plots at once helped make for a smoother play experience.

I think my choices as to when I made skills Legendary needed some adjustment, particularly at the end game where I sabotaged my own ability to deal damage with my sword when I needed it the most. But that’s a fairly nitpicky thing, and it didn’t stop me from finishing Skuldafn and Sovngarde in a single night’s play!

And Now, Some Stats

• As of the last save I did for Delga’s game last night, she had over 82,000 gold–not her max, as I dropped a lot of gold on higher-tier training
• She was thane of all nine holds
• She had the following properties: Breezehome in Whiterun, Proudspire Manor in Solitude, Honeyside in Riften, Vlindrel Hall in Markarth, Lakeside Manor in Falkreath, Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch, Heljarchen Hall in the Pale, Hjerim in Windhelm, and Severin Manor in Raven Rock on Solstheim
• She was a member of the Bard’s College in Solitude
• She was Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold
• She was Harbinger of the Companions
• She was a Legate in the Imperial Legions
• She fought for the Empire in the war

Here’s the video I took of Delga’s final skill trees. She was a lot less globally balanced than Merawen was, with more lopsided magic and a lot less emphasis on stealth. She had much better emphasis on combat skills, though her final skill trees are misleading for this since I’d just recently reset Two-Handed and One-Handed to Legendary and had lost the perks on those. They were a lot more relevant all throughout the course of Delga’s game, though, particularly Two-Handed, as that was critical for swinging Volendrung around.

Three playthroughs in, I’m able to say with authority at this point that I definitely prefer the One-Handed weapons approach, as that lets me have a hand free to cast spells. As I’ve written before, this is kind of critical just to have that Candlelight spell queued up. Or a torch. Because as noted before, dungeons on the Switch build run dark!

But I do like my Archery. And not even Delga was immune to that, even though she was intended to be a Two-Handed tank. Archery is just too goddamn useful. And sneak attacks with Archery, more so.

All of which does basically mean, yeah, I do prefer the sneakier, ranged-based characters!

And here’s the video I took of Delga’s general stats. Noteworthy here: the Days as a Werewolf stat kept incrementing even after I de-wolfed myself, so that number is totally not accurate.

I didn’t make it to the point of investing in stores. Not out of lack of interest, but lack of opportunity, really? And because spending perks on Speech felt less of a priority with this character.

The Houses Owned stat interests me just because it says six here, so it’s clearly got to be counting Severin Manor, but not the built properties.

I’m pretty surprised I made it through this whole run without a single bounty. HA. This is in no small part because Delga was a very straight-arrow kind of character and did nothing that would have gotten her arrested, at least not in sight of anybody! But also, I got through Dawnguard without doing the Hide and Seek quest that annoys me.

No time jailed, either, because I didn’t bother to do the Forsworn Conspiracy plot, so I never got sent to Cidhna Mine.

Next time

This concludes Delga’s posts! Onward to Ysani Demers!