Table of Contents

I. Introduction

• 1. Version Information {INT002}

II. Character Creation

• 1. Argonian {RAC002}
  2. Breton {RAC003}
  3. Dark Elf (Dunmer) {RAC004}
  4. High Elf (Altmer) {RAC005}
  5. Imperial {RAC006}
  6. Khajiit {RAC007}
  7. Nord {RAC008}
  8. Orc (Orsimer) {RAC009}
  9. Redguard {RAC010}
  10. Wood Elf (Bosmer) {RAC011}

III. The General (LV. 61) Build

• 1. Leveling Up {GBD002}
  2. Health, Magicka, or Stamina? {GBD003}
  3. Perks {GBD004}
  4. The General Build – Perk Overview {GBD005}
  5. The General Build – Perk Picks {GBD006}
  6. Crafting Skills {GBD007}
  7. Offensive Skills {GBD008}
  8. Defensive Skills {GBD009}
  9. Expanding the Build {GBD010}

IV. Skills

• 1. Alchemy {SKL002}
  2. Alteration {SKL003}
  3. Archery {SKL004}
  4. Block {SKL005}
  5. Conjuration {SKL006}
  6. Destruction {SKL007}
  7. Enchanting {SKL008}
  8. Heavy Armor {SKL009}
  9. Illusion {SKL010}
  10. Light Armor {SKL011}
  11. Lockpicking {SKL012}
  12. One-Handed {SKL013}
  13. Pickpocket {SKL014}
  14. Restoration {SKL015}
  15. Smithing {SKL016}
  16. Sneak {SKL017}
  17. Speech {SKL018}
  18. Two-Handed {SKL019}

V. Epic (LV. 81) Builds

• 1. Haeravon’s Build {EBD002}
  2. IsaacFrost’s Build {EBD003}

VI. Getting Started in Skyrim

• 1. The Helgen Grind {SKY002}
  2. First Steps {SKY003}
  3. The Dragonborn Emerges {SKY004}
  4. Joining the Thieve’s Guild {SKY005}
  5. Restoring the Guild {SKY006}
  6. The Smithing Grind {SKY007}
  7. Joining the College of Winterhold {SKY008}
  8. The Enchanting Grind {SKY009}
  9. The Alchemy Grind {SKY010}
  10. Crafting Gear {SKY011}
  11. God-Making {SKY012}
  12. Summary {SKY013}

VII. Miscellaneous

• 1. Standing Stones {MSC001}

VIII. Lists

• 1. Starting Skills by Race {LST002}
  2. Some Common Valuable Potion Combinations {LST003}
  3. List of Alchemical Ingredients {LST004}
  4. List of Alteration Spells {LST005}
  5. List of Bow and Arrow Types {LST006}
  6. List of Conjuration Spells {LST007}
  7. List of Destruction Spells {LST008}
  8. List of Enchantments {LST009}
  9. List of Heavy Armor Types {LST010}
  10. List of Illusion Spells {LST011}
  11. List of Light Armor Types {LST012}
  12. List of One-Handed Weapons {LST013}
  13. List of Restoration Spells {LST014}
  14. List of Two-Handed Weapons {LST015}

IX. Updates/Thanks

• 1. Special Thanks {UPD001}

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Introduction {INT001}

This FAQ was created for one reason, and one reason only. Because I like talking about games, and I like attention.. and because this hobby of mine makes me feel like I’m being productive when I’m really not. Okay, so it was created for several reasons, and none of them good. I made this guide for my fellow power-gamers out there who love RPGs. More importantly, for those of you who love trying to create ‘perfect’ characters. This is a very subjective idea, of course, and I personally try to create a ‘jack of all trades’ whenever the idea is possible, rather than adhering to the ‘warrior, rogue, and mage’ archetypes. Crazy talk, I know. I suppose I like being able to do everything with one character. That being the case, I strive towards builds that give the most possible benefit in the most possible situations, and my suggestions will therefore aim to build such a character. In Skyrim, you can’t quite reach this ideal like you could in Oblivion. The inclusion of perks means we’ll just have to make some sacrifices-no generalized character can do everything as well as one who specializes. Still, with planning and smart choices, we can make a ‘jack of all trades’ who is a master of all skills, if not a grand-master at any. More importantly, it’ll be a character who can meet any challenge, complete all the guild quests, and stomp any monster on any difficulty.

Version Information {INT002}

This guide was written using the Xbox 360 version of Skyrim. Prior to being patched, it had a number of inconsistencies with other versions and bugs that I assume have been largely homogenized or fixed, respectively. For example, in the unpatched version of the game, base Enchanting values were often lower on many items (although most, if not all Enchantments could reach the same caps) in the Xbox 360 version than on the PS3/PC versions. Another interesting bug is the fact that in earlier versions the ‘Fortify Sneak’ enchantment actually made you more likely to be detected. Consider the version of the game and the platform before you email me about an inconsistency, especially if you’re playing with an unpatched Xbox 360 version of the game.

Race {RAC001}

All of the races from the previous Elder Scrolls games are back in Skyrim, although they’ve finally been tweaked to balance them out better. Now more than ever before, it doesn’t matter what race you play. They all have their perks, and none have any crippling negative aspects so damning that the race is all but useless. It was my position (although not really a possibility) that choice was the ultimate deciding factor in Oblivion.. this stance is more realized in Skyrim. Play what you want, and below I’ll discuss the various merits of each race. My only strong suggestion? Play a Nord. It’s Skyrim. Playing a Nord in Skyrim connects you to the story like playing a Dark Elf did in Morrowind. If you don’t care about story elements as much as you care about pure strength, then look elsewhere. In the end, no race has any abilities that can’t be replicated with enchanted gear, although if there was a power-gamer race it would have to be the Breton again. The 25% magic resistance is just a great, general bonus that will make it easier to build a well-rounded character.

Starting Skills by Race {LST002}

Below you’ll find the starting skills for all the races in the game. Leveling up is easier than ever, and the difference between the starting skills of one race and those of another couldn’t be more moot in this game.. but as a point of interest, here they are.

	Argonian	Breton	Dark Elf	High Elf	Imperial	Khajiit	Nord	Orc	Redguard	Wood Elf
Alchemy	15	20	20	15	15	20	15	15	15	20
Alteration	20	20	20	20	15	15	15	15	20	15
Archery	15	15	15	15	15	20	15	15	20	25
Block	15	15	15	15	20	15	20	20	20	15
Conjuration	15	25	15	20	15	15	15	15	15	15
Destruction	15	15	25	20	20	15	15	15	20	15
Enchanting	15	15	15	20	20	15	15	20	15	15
Heavy Armor	15	15	15	15	20	15	15	25	15	15
Illusion	15	20	20	25	15	15	15	15	15	15
Light Armor	20	15	20	15	15	15	20	15	15	20
Lockpicking	25	15	15	15	15	20	15	15	15	20
One-Handed	15	15	15	15	20	20	20	20	25	15
Pickpocket	20	15	15	15	15	20	15	15	15	20
Restoration	20	20	15	20	25	15	15	15	15	15
Smithing	15	15	15	15	15	15	20	20	20	15
Sneak	20	15	20	15	15	25	15	15	15	20
Speech	15	20	15	15	15	15	20	15	15	15
Two-Handed	15	15	15	15	15	15	25	20	15	15

Argonian {RAC002}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alteration +5
• Light Armor +5
• Lockpicking +10
• Pickpocket +5
• Restoration +5
• Sneak +5

Active Effect:

• Resist Disease: Your Argonian blood is 50% resistant to disease.
• Waterbreathing: Your Argonian lungs can breathe underwater.

Power:

Invoke the power of the Hist to recover health ten times faster for 60 seconds.

Comments:

I never seem to be able to say anything good about the Argonian, and this game will be no different. They don’t have any negative abilities, and they never did, but the abilities they do have can be ignored. Being 50% resistant to disease is no boon, since shrines litter the landscape that can freely cure disease at a touch. Their next ability—Waterbreathing—is another ability that can simply be replicated by any piece of enchanted jewelry in the game, and it’s certainly not something you’ll need to use all the time. Also, since you cannot fight underwater anymore, you’re never in a situation where donning a piece of waterbreathing equipment compromises your defense in any meaningful way. Lastly, their Histkin ability is by far their most useful power. Regenerating Health ten times faster is pretty nice, but simply casting a healing spell or drinking a potion can do the same thing. No bad abilities, but nothing to really recommend them, either.

Breton {RAC003}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alchemy +5
• Alteration +5
• Conjuration +10
• Illusion +5
• Restoration +5
• Speech +5

Active Effect:

• Magic Resistance: Breton blood grants a 25% resistance to magic.

Power:

• Dragonskin: Absorb 50% of the magicka from hostile spells for 60 seconds.

Comments:

Bretons are at it again, making another Elder Scrolls appearance as the dominant race. Although, fairly, the other races have been improved (or had their defects removed) so that the gap between Bretons and everybody else is nowhere near as prominent as it was in Oblivion.

Dark Elf (Dunmer) {RAC004}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alchemy +5
• Alteration +5
• Destruction +10
• Illusion +5
• Light Armor +5
• Sneak +5

Active Effect:

• Resist Fire: Your Dunmer blood gives you 50% resistance to fire.

Power:

• Ancestor’s Wrath: For 60 seconds, opponents that get too close take 8 points per second of fire damage.

Comments:

Essentially the deformed, brow-ridge heavy inversion of the Nord. Instead of being 50% resistant to frost, they’re 50% resistant to fire. The elements are more balanced in Skyrim than in the older Elder Scrolls games, so this trait has diminished a bit in usefulness. As for their ‘Ancestor’s Wrath’ ability, it mimics a mid-level Destruction spell, only not a good one. Eight damage per second is not going to win you any fights. Still, they play like a Nord, except you enchant their boots with Resist Frost and Resist Shock.

High Elf (Altmer) {RAC005}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alteration +5
• Conjuration +5
• Destruction +5
• Enchanting +5
• Illusion +10
• Restoration +5

Active Effect:

• Highborn: High Elves are born with 50 extra magicka.

Power:

• Highborn: Regenerate magicka faster for 60 seconds.

Comments:

The High Elves always had a flair for magic, but in previous Elder Scrolls games their beneficial aspects came at the unacceptable price of weakness towards every element. In Skyrim, they are much less of a mixed bag. That +50 bonus to Magicka is a great starting fund for any prospective mage, and their improved magicka regeneration gives them an even greater well of magicka for tough fights. On the other hand, Magicka is not nearly as important in this game as it was in the other games, as you can no longer craft your own spells. Given the political issues surrounding High Elves, it might be an interesting idea to play one in Skyrim, but if you’re looking for a pure power mage, again, look to the Breton. You’ll be better served by magic resistance than you will by extra Magicka.

Imperial {RAC006}

Skill Bonuses:

• Block +5
• Destruction +5
• Enchanting +5
• Heavy Armor +5
• One-Handed +5
• Restoration +10

Active Effect:

• Imperial Luck: Anywhere gold coins might be found, Imperials always seem to find a few more.

Power:

• Voice of the Emperor: Calms nearby people for 60 seconds.

Comments:

It’s another Elder Scrolls game, and another chance for me to let the world know how unimpressed I am with Imperials. Their ‘Voice of the Emperor’ ability is essentially still just a once-per-day Illusion spell. I’ll be honest, I never tested out the ‘Imperial Luck’ ability to know how much extra money they get from chests. But I will say this; after playing through the game with my Nord (around whom this guide was partially written), I had over 400,000 gold. Want to guess how much of that I got from raw coinage laying around? An inconsequential amount, compared to what selling potions got me. It doesn’t matter, anyway. Money is, like in Fallout 3, something you get as you play. Wasting perks to get more money is a waste of time, as it’s easy enough without any such expenditure to obtain more money than you’ll ever need. How did these guys conquer Tamriel? Oh wait, they didn’t, Nords did it for them.

Khajiit {RAC007}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alchemy +5
• Archery +5
• Lockpicking +5
• One-Handed +5
• Pickpocket +5
• Sneak +10

Active Effect:

• Claws: Khajiit claws do 15 points of damage.

Power:

• Night Eye: Improved night vision for 60 seconds.

Comments:

My teenage hatred of the ‘animal people’ has long since subsided, and frankly, the Khajiit and Argonian characters were some of the best-voiced and most personable characters in Oblivion. Of course, they’re terribly under-represented in Skyrim, and it makes sense—nobody but the Nords would be stupid enough to live here. But I digress, how do they stack up, ability-wise? The Khajiit really takes it hard in this game. Their permanent ability? They can do 15 damage with their Claws. This seems okay at a glance, until you realize that 15 damage sucks. Compare it to a 250+ damage Daedric Sword, and you’ll realize how silly and short-sighted this ability is. Also, why would you ever go around hitting things with your claws? It doesn’t even level up your One-Handed skill! It might do more damage at the beginning of the game than most weapons you can get your hands on, but it’s ultimately depriving yourself of opportunities to level offensive skills. Next, we have their ‘Night Eye’ ability. Since it’s no longer a spell, and Skyrim is moronically devoid of good ways to see in the dark, it’s a fair ability. Of course, it makes all light sources extra bright when you use it, so for the ability to be able to see in the dark, you’ll struggle to see things in bright areas. But at least it’s togglable at will. Still, the darkest darkness in Skyrim isn’t anywhere near the pitch-black dungeons in Oblivion, so a light source is usually an optional ability.

Nord {RAC008}

Skill Bonuses:

• Block +5
• Light Armor +5
• One-Handed +5
• Smithing +5
• Speech +5
• Two-Handed +10

Active Effect:

• Resist Frost: Your Nord blood gives you 50% resistance to Frost.

Power:

• Battle Cry: Targets flee for 30 seconds.

Comments:

The Nord is my favorite Skyrim race, and for no real gameplay reason. It just seems like you should be playing a Nord in Skyrim. But you don’t care for my sentimentalism, so how does the Nord stack up? They’re pretty average, really, all in all about the equivalent of a Dark Elf, but with frost resistance instead of fire resistance. Their ‘Battle Cry’ is lame, it’s just a once-per-day copy of an illusion spell. Still, at least they have one always-useful active effect, which is more than many races can claim.

Orc (Orsimer) {RAC009}

Skill Bonuses:

• Block +5
• Enchanting +5
• Heavy Armor +10
• One-Handed +5
• Smithing +5
• Two-Handed +5

Power:

• Berserker Rage: You take half damage and do double damage for 60 seconds.

Comments:

Orcs look cooler than ever in Skyrim—seriously, that Orc on the loading screen just looks badass, although it took me a while to realize it had a beard. Anyway, the Orc only has one ability, their trademark ‘Berserker Rage,’ and damn, is it strong. Half damage taken, and double damage dealt? It’s easily the best combat ability in the game, but it has one small limitation. A high-powered character following this build with good resistances, good armor, and an overpowered Daedric weapon already ignores most damage and kills most enemies in several hits. Is doubling that good? Certainly, but almost redundantly so. One thing the Orc can boast, however, is that they will have an easier time leveling up than most other races. During the weak period this build experiences (between level 30 to 50, depending on how you level), the Orc can always pop out with a rage to overcome most anything. If you’re trying to be ‘hardcore’ and play through the game on Master difficulty (which really isn’t very hard), you might consider playing an Orc. At least they will get some extra mileage out of their Berserker Rage.

Redguard {RAC010}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alteration +5
• Archery +5
• Block +5
• Destruction +5
• One-Handed +10
• Smithing +5

Active Effect:

• Resist Poison: Your Redguard blood gives you 50% resistance to poison.

Power:

• Adrenaline Rush: Stamina regenerates 10x faster for 60 seconds.

Comments:

The Redguards are supposed to be the best warriors in Tamriel, so let’s see how they work, eh? The 50% resistance to poison is decent. You won’t get poisoned all the time, and poison now strictly just reduces health over time, so it’s nowhere near as annoying as it could be in Oblivion. But some enemies (like Charus Reapers) deal enough poison damage for this to be a welcome ability, if not as good as magic or elemental resistances. As for their renowned racial ability, ‘Adrenaline Rush’ has seen better days. Now, having your Stamina regenerate ten times faster for sixty seconds isn’t useless—unlike with Magicka, you’ll actually use Stamina—but note that to regenerate Stamina you have to stop using Stamina, which means it’s not quite the same thing as unlimited Stamina for sixty seconds. Also, with my build, 300 Stamina is quite a hefty pool. I almost never ran out of Stamina at higher levels with my Nord unless I was just sprinting around. Honestly, nothing survived long enough for me to care about my Stamina. Still, with two mediocre racial abilities, the Redguard is a decent race.

Wood Elf (Bosmer) {RAC011}

Skill Bonuses:

• Alchemy +5
• Archery +10
• Light Armor +5
• Lockpicking +5
• Pickpocket +5
• Sneak +5

Active Effect:

• Resist Disease and Poison: Your Bosmer blood gives you a 50% resistance to poison and disease.

Power:

• Command Animal: Make an animal an ally for 60 seconds.

Comments:

Hailing from Valenwood, our cannibalistic Wood Elf friends are the most skilled archers in Tamriel, meaning they start out with an all but pointless +10 bonus to that skill. But as for the important things? Well, the 50% resistance to poison and disease is somewhat useful, and meh, respectively. As for their ability to command animals, who wants to rely on an animal to be nearby to charm? Not just that, by now you all should know how I respond to AI-controlled allies, especially ones you can’t simply conjure at will. This is probably the worst of the Illusion-type skills possessed by any race in the game. Really, I see very little to recommend the Bosmer.

The Level 61 ‘General’ Build {GBD001}

This guide is designed around a very modest level 61 build for a variety of reasons. First, I understand that not every gamer is as fond of mindlessly grinding and min-maxing as I am. My friend Joel told me that he was warned that ‘min-maxing would ruin this game’. My response was terse: “Unless min-maxing IS the game for you.” But since you can hit level 81, shooting for 61 is something every gamer can easily do without too much grinding. Although leveling up any of the crafting skills has the feel of grinding no matter how you go about it. That’s the only inescapable grind of the game, and if you don’t like it, look elsewhere for your build tips. Another reason is the fact that up until level 61, my suggestions for perk-picks are fairly well-considered. Getting the crafting perks you’ll need, as well as the defensive and offensive skill perks, these are all indispensable. But after this, your character will already be a phenom with perks to spare and as many as twenty more levels to go. After this point, my suggestions become more vague, as where you’ll place your remaining perks is more a matter of how you want to play the game. Want to be a badass stealthy, ninja, archer battlemage? Sick of being able to only sell a few items to any single merchant? Want to just carry an extra 100 pounds of loot? All these are considerations to be made AFTER you’ve become an invincible juggernaut. So there you have it. What most of this guide will discuss is the build up to level 61, that is, the invariable, highly suggested ‘General’ build. After this point, which we’ll call the ‘epic level builds’ (showing off my D&D pedigree here) will be the subject of the specific builds.

Leveling Up {GBD002}

You gain experience towards overall character level advancement by leveling up your skills. The higher your skill levels in comparison to your character level, the more experience you earn. For example, as a level one character you’ll gain a great deal of experience from improving a skill from 15 to 16. As a level 50 character, you’ll gain considerably less. Therefore the ‘jack of all trades’ who bring the most of their skills to the highest levels will be stronger than characters who ignore certain skills to chase after the archetypes. Every time you level up you’ll gain one perk to spend, and you’ll be able to choose to increase your Health, Magicka, or Stamina by ten points. Perks really determine how powerful your character is and what your character can ‘do’ more than your skill levels. You’ll probably find yourself leveling up skills you don’t care to use, so that you can level up and put perks into skills you prefer. It’s a little silly, but there you have it.

Health, Magicka, or Stamina? {GBD003}

Every time you level up you can (or rather, are forced to) select to improve either your Health, Magicka or Stamina. Whether you like it or not, this goes a long way towards shaping your character’s build. Thankfully, however, it’s much less complicated than it might seem.

Due to Enchanting, you can create gear that eliminates the Magicka costs of spells altogether, making Magicka outright useless. Although it might be helpful early on to have more Magicka if you’re the magey type, I prefer to just wait until I can create armor that a) increases my Magicka, or b) reduces the costs of casting my favored spells to nothing.

Health, however, is much more important. In fact, it’s easily the most important attribute. It’s no overstatement to say that one of our chief concerns is to create a character who won’t.. you know.. DIE.. all the time, yes? As it stands, the base 100 Health is not helpful to this goal. Everybody should get at least 200 Health to start with, and my generalized build has 500 Health by level 61.

Anybody who engages in melee or ranged combat should also consider getting Stamina. Slowing down time while aiming, blocking, running, and power attacks all consume Stamina, and power attacks are much improved in Skyrim. If you’re not using magic to kill everything, I’d suggest getting 300 Stamina by level 61. Afterwards, all my points are invested into Health.

Level 61 Generalized Build:

• Magicka: 100
• Health: 500+
• Stamina: 300

Perks {GBD004}

Perks are what really define what your skills—and hence what your character—can do. They’re finite, so you can’t max everything, but you can at least save them up for later consideration. These are the meat of character creation, and hence what most of this guide will be focused around. You gain one perk every time you level up.

The General Build – Perk Overview {GBD005}

We’ve briefly discussed how to allocate our attributes, and as for skills—the more we level, the better we’ll be. This part of the guide, the ‘build’ section, is therefore dedicated to perks—the most important considerations for our character. For organizational purposes and clarity, I’ll separate perks into various groupings depending upon their function for our character, rather than their archetype, as follows: Crafting skills, Offensive skills, Defensive skills, and Miscellaneous skills. We’re going from the most potent, highly recommended sets of skills, down through order of importance. Everybody should get the Crafting skills, there’s no character type that cannot gain—and gain in magnitudes—from investing in them. After this, where you get your offense and defense from is less important, although do not doubt that I have my own ideas on this, and that there are some ways to go about deciding that are not arbitrary. These generally being those skills that are more productive for their cost in perks. But I’m trying to be sensitive to everybody’s wishes to create their own character. If you want to simply create the strongest character, follow all my advice. If you want to deviate, deviate with the knowledge provided below.

Crafting Skills

Godliness comes from three skills in Skyrim. These three are known as Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing, collectively lumped together in the umbrella term as the ‘Crafting Skills’. They are absolutely essential towards building an uber-character, so much so that everything else is secondary. If you take nothing else from this guide, take the idea that you should boost your crafting skills. Smithing increases the potency of your weapons and armor, so that you’ll suffer very little in combat, and you, on the other hand, are inflicting absurd amounts of damage upon the enemy. Enchanting allows you to reduce the Magicka cost of spells (even down to nothing), increase the effectiveness of skills (even boosting Alchemy and smithing), increase the effectiveness of sneaking, picking pockets, boost damage with certain weapon types, improve your blocking prowess, as well as attend to vulnerabilities not improved by Smithing, such as elemental and magic resistances. As for Alchemy, it makes Enchanting and Smithing significantly more potent, hence making everything more potent.

Offensive Skills {GBD008}

No matter how you do it, you’re going to need a means by which to deal damage. And by ‘deal damage’, I’m looking for direct damage-dealing skills, not summons, not charm spells, not anything that requires the AI to do the dirty work for you. It’s my guide, it’s my bias. Besides, doing it yourself is quicker, easier, and in my opinion, just more rewarding. That leaves us with four options: Archery, Destruction, One-Handed Weapons, and Two-Handed Weapons. I will now alienate half of the gamers still reading by telling you that Two-Handed Weapons and Destruction aren’t up to snuff. I will explain more in the full descriptions of these skills, but let me summarize why this build will not use these two methods of direct damage-dealing. Two-Handed Weapons are too slow and clunky, and not nearly as versatile as One-Handed Weapons, and Destruction spells can never be improved with Smithing the way bows and melee weapons can, allowing physical damage to trump magical damage by a wide margin. Having both a ranged and melee option is a good idea (and Archery works very well for assassinations), so the general build will invest in both One-Handed Weapons and Archery as primary means of dealing damage.

Defensive Skills {GBD009}

Now, while we’re fighting things, it’s an unfortunate fact of life that they will be doing their worst to injure us back. Having a hefty chunk of Health will help, but having a high armor score will really make good our resilience. Now, how to do this? We could always go with Alteration, which will do the same thing armor can do, but it’ll cost us Magicka (or rather, force us to equip gear to make it costless). It only lasts 30 seconds, and of course, has a casting time. This effort being an unnecessary pain in the ass, we’ll look elsewhere, for armor that does not require re-casting. The next obvious sources of defense are Heavy Armor and Light Armor, and both work fine. The only concern here (besides the all-important aesthetics) is the number of perks it’ll take for us to reduce the encumbrance of our armor, and what we’ll have to pick up along the way. Here, Light Armor seems to be the clear winner, as it only requires three perks (Agile Defender 1/5, Custom Fit, and Unhindered). Heavy Armor requires four (Juggernaut 1/5, Fists of Steel, Cushioned, and Conditioning). Note, though, that while you will pick up a +25% bonus to armor if you’re wearing all light armor with Custom Fit, you really don’t need it with Heavy Armor, as Daedric Armor when fully upgraded with the crafting skills hits the armor cap just fine. Also note that the one point extra required by Heavy Armor is negated by the fact that to wear the best Light Armor, you’ll need to get the extra perks ‘Dragon Smithing’ in the Smithing tree. So.. it’s entirely up to you whether to go with Heavy Armor or Light Armor. Then we have Block, which is somewhat optional to these high-powered builds. Since we are going with One-Handed, and since some enemies (Ancient Dragons, Forsworn Briarhearts, and Draugr Deathlords) can still hurt you with the maximum armor cap (567 Armor), having a shield will go the extra distance and make you invulnerable. Without a shield, you’ll have to watch your health every once in a while, but with a shield, nothing can touch you. And if the choices already presented weren’t enough, you can get by just fine without any of the armor perk plans listed above so long as you’re willing to be married to the Steed Stone, which reduces all encumbrance caused by armor as if you had the perks listed above, and gives you a bonus 100 carry weight, to boot. Depending on which armor you find the most appealing, putting a few perks into Agile Defender/Juggernaut may be required with the Steed Stone.

As for magic resistance, the only perks worth mentioning are the aptly named ‘Magic Resistance’ perks in the Alteration tree. It’ll take two wasted perks to reach, and three perks on the skill itself to gain 30% magic resistance. It’s a huge, huge boost to your overall magic resistance, and comes highly recommended for any character.

General Build – Perk Picks {GBD006}

At level 61 we’ll have 60 perks to spend, and if you only care about the build—and not the reasons why we’re picking them—then you need only look here. For the more discerning among you, read the ‘General Build’ sections above, and more importantly, read the description of the skills, themselves, to learn more about them in detail. The perk picks below will represent my version of the build—a Light Armor wearing Nord who fights with elementally-charged Daedric weapons.

Alchemy Notes

Some people dig poisons, I get it. Others (like myself) are content to sneak attack with super-powered bows. At the end of the day, the perk ‘Poisoner’ is just one perk away from what the build suggests, so if you want to use poisons, go grab it.

Archery/One-Handed Notes

I’m intentionally skimping on some of the perks for some of the skills listed in the build like One-Handed and Archery. Every character should be proficient in them, yes, but there’s a difference between being able to kill enemies on a whim (which is what this build will do) and pouring points into those two skills on ancillary perks like extra power attack damage and the ability to walk faster while aiming. I have, as far as possible, tried to include only the most necessary perks in the build to provide a foundation from which you can build.

Breton Notes

Bretons, with their base 25% Magic Resistance, are worthy of special note for how they can function build-wise. With the Agent of Mara and the Lord Stone, they effectively have 65% Magic Resistance with no gear whatsoever. If you simply invest one item to add to this, they’ve got more than they could ever need. This approach fully supports taking the shorter path up the Enchanting tree, and actually investing points to reach Unhindered or Conditioning in Light Armor or Heavy Armor trees.

Enchanting Notes

Also, there’s some tinkering we could do with the Enchanting Skill. You could simply ignore the elemental perks and take the ‘Enchanter’, ‘Insightful Enchanter’, and ‘Corpus Enchanter’ route to reach ‘Extra Effect’ and save yourself some perks. With such an approach, you could then enchant gear to have Magic Resistance instead of Elemental Resistances, and save a few perks. This approach is even more feasible with a Breton than with any other race. But keep in mind that Magic Resistance can only be applied on a few pieces of gear—the Shield, Rings, and Necklaces. To get a decent Magic Resistance amount, you must have obtained the Agent of Mara, be under the effect of the Lord Stone, and have some enchanted gear, thus competing with your ability to create gear that negates the Magicka costs of two spell schools. As a Nord (with 50% Frost Resistance) I am just as happy getting Fire Resistance and Shock Resistance on my boots, and allowing the Agent of Mara make up my deficiency. Take into consideration that by obtaining the elemental perks in the Enchanting tree, you can also boost elemental damage on your weapons further. A Dark Elf would follow the same model, but would obviously choose to get Frost Resistance and Shock Resistance on their boots.

Smithing Notes

No matter what armor you might want to wear, you are advised to take the Heavy Armor route through Smithing to obtain ‘Daedric Smithing’. This will allow you to create the strongest weapons in the game. If you want to wear Light Armor, get ‘Dragon Smithing’ to get the best Light Armor in the game. If not, stopping at Daedric Smithing is fine. Also, ‘Arcane Blacksmith’ is fairly optional, but if you ever want to improve artifacts, or to improve gear you’ve already enchanted, you’ll need this perk.

The Crafting Skills (24 perks) {GBD007}

Alchemy (7 perks)

• Alchemist (5/5)
• Physician
• Benefactor

Enchanting (8-10 perks)

• Enchanter (5/5)
• Insightful Enchanter
• *Fire Enchanter
• *Frost Enchanter
• *Shock Enchanter
• **Corpus Enchanter
• Extra Effect

*This path is for those who wish to boost their resistances directly, and perhaps use stronger elementally charged weapons.
**This path is for those who wish to boost their Magic Resistance, instead of their elements, and who do not care about elementally charged weapons.

Smithing (5-7 perks)

• Steel Smithing
• Dwarven Smithing
• Orcish Smithing
• Ebony Smithing
• Daedric Smithing
• *Dragon Smithing
• **Arcane Blacksmith

*Only if you wish to wear Light Armor rather than Heavy Armor.
**Only if you wish to enchant guild-related gear or Daedric Artifacts.

Offensive Skills (15 perks) {GBD008}

Archery (10 perks)

• Overdraw (5/5)
• Eagle Eye
• Steady Hand (2/2)
• Power Shot
• Quick Shot

One-Handed (5 perks)

• Armsman (5/5)

Defensive Skills (13 perks) {GBD009}

Alteration (5 perks)

• Novice Alteration
• Apprentice Alteration
• Magic Resistance (3/3)

Block (4 perks)

• Shield Wall (1/5)
• Deflect Arrows
• Elemental Protection
• Block Runner

Light Armor (3 perks)

• Agile Defender (1/5)
• Custom Fit
• Unhindered

Expanding the Build {GBD010}

At this point we’ve spent somewhere in the area of 48~ perks, out of our projected 60 perks by level 61. Where do the rest go? Well, that’s really up to you. If you want to add new functionality, you can do so. With a Light Armor build, we can sneak pretty well, but throwing some perks into Sneak can only help. And of course, since we’ve already started with Light Armor, One-Handed, and Archery, it’s an obvious move to boost them. Moving faster and dealing more critical damage with bows can eat up another five perks. Giving yourself weapon-specific boosts and better power attacks with One-Handed weapons can likewise take another five perks. And spending a mere two more perks into Light Armor gives you a +50% Stamina regeneration rate and a 10% chance to negate all damage from a physical attack, and more importantly, puts us near our 60-perk cap.

Skills {SKL001}

To introduce the skill section, let me just start out by saying that skills in Skyrim serve two purposes. First, they level us up, which gets us perks, and allows us to increase our attributes. Second, a skills’ level determines what perks you can buy in that skill, since perks have skill benchmarks that need to be attained. I do not build characters around that most antiquated and lame staple of RPGs—the class, although due to its universal acceptance and use, I will refer to various character archetypes as ‘warriors’, ‘rogues’ or ‘mages’, or perhaps even more specific classes that show my D&D background too clearly. Characters in the Elder Scrolls series can—and have always been able to—do everything. You can become the leader of every guild in the game, and I do not see any reason why we shouldn’t. Even if you don’t care to cast any spells, you should level up spell-skills for the overall improvement that it will yield. Long story short, don’t specialize around some ‘class’, character preference, or other archetype. This guide’s goal is power, and whatever skills best facilitate that are the one’s we’ll pursue.

Like I said earlier in the FAQ, perks are the substance of character creation. All skills are good in-so-much as they increase our overall level. In the following section I’ll discuss all the skills—what they do, how to level them, and most importantly of all, which perks I think are worthwhile (if any) and why. If I don’t mention a specific perk in the ‘Perk Picks’ sections, it’s not an oversight, it’s because I don’t consider the perk to be worth mentioning. And also keep in mind that just because I don’t think a skill is worth investing perks into doesn’t mean I don’t advocate that you use the skill. Restoration is a prime example of a skill that can be relied upon without necessarily having to spend any perks in it.

Alchemy {SKL002}

Ah, Alchemy, that old bit of fantasy logic where if you find some crap lying on a ground, or an interesting party of some beast, you should mix it up and consume it for some effect or another. In reality, you’d think that almost all such experiments would have a.. decidedly negative effect, and would at least taste like ass. But anyways, in Skyrim mixing most anything you find will have results, and they are largely positive. For our build, the importance of Alchemy is that it can be used to brew potions that improve our Smithing and Enchanting, which means we can increase our Enchanting to enchant gear to increase our Alchemy to increase the potions we make to improve our Smithing and Enchanting. It’s a wonderful cycle that will see your character all the stronger. Then there’s the fact that with the investment we put into Alchemy, we can create potions to do a host of other things that benefit us. Aside from potions of invisibility, however, I tend to only use potions to make vast amounts of money, and even then, only in the process of leveling it up. The proposition of creating poisons, however much I like to ignore it, should be considered, and of course, any time you wish you could perform a skill better, you’re faced with the choice to enchant a suit of gear to do it, or create a potion. Sometimes it’s just easier to make up a batch of potions than to carry and switch out alternate suits of gear.

Perk Picks

The primary function of Alchemy is to boost our Smithing and Enchanting. I don’t care what else you use it for, getting that extra 32% Enchanting and 129% Smithing far outstrips whatever meager gains you’ll get from poisoning foes. To that end, improving the base potency of your potions is a good thing, so all five ranks of Alchemist are a worthwhile investment. Improving your skills is a beneficial effect, so the Benefactor perk should also be purchased, while Physician is just along the way. Poisoner might interest some people, as well, but it doesn’t interest me one bit. Why? My weapons do enough damage, I see no reason to go through the bother of investing a perk into this skill so I can create poisons to coat my weapons. I can just enchant them for a much more constant effect, and even then, with the base damage I deal, I’m too lazy to scrape about for extra bits of offense. Many of the remaining perks are just for lazy folks. Experimenter only speeds up a process that can be achieved by experimentation, and since I’m providing a chart of the effects I’ve discovered, nobody has any real reason to get this perk. Green Thumb speeds up the ingredient collection rate, again, something we could do just as well by being patient and picking more plant. Snakeblood makes you more resistant to poison, but honestly, I’ve never found poison to be so overwhelmingly strong that I bothered to get any resistances for it. Concentrated Poison will make the process of using poisons simpler, but since I don’t tend to bother getting Poisoner, I have no reason to get this. Finally, Purity removes the negative effects from beneficial potions, and the positive effects from poisons. Using the right ingredients will do this in itself, and none of the essential potions (the ones that increase your Enchanting and Smithing, remember) really carry any downsides.

Leveling Tips

The best way to level up Alchemy is through creating potions. The more expensive the potion created, the more experience gained from the brewing. On that note, purchasing relevant perks while leveling up Alchemy will increase the speed at which you level, and also serve to line your purse. The only problem with Alchemy is that to level it, you’ll need hundreds of ingredients. You can go around the world buying ingredients from merchants, but this will negatively affect your purse, and isn’t all that fast. On the other hand, you’ll have to roam about, picking flowers, and killing beasties, the stuff that you’d rather be doing instead of sitting around grinding all day, right? In the end, just be vigilant for things to pick on your travels, and explore the map. You’ll find locations (which will make questing easier) and will undoubtedly stumble across a good bit of ingredients. What an asshole explanation, right? Just play the game? That’s not even advice! Just be prepared to spend more time playing the game to level up Alchemy, is all I’m saying. On that note, here’s the useful information you DO want; what ingredients make more expensive potions and thus level you up faster! It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are a few of the combos I’ve found that pay off.

First, anything with ‘regen’ in it does well. Whether it’s damaging the regeneration rate of something, or boosting it. Ingredients that cause status effects are also very good, like Fear, Invisibility, Frenzy and Paralysis. Also, the more effects you put into something, the better its market value. Note that these combos typically only include the best combinations that can be made with common ingredients. It’s not really helpful to your leveling if you have trouble finding a dozen of a certain ingredient. The giant exception? Giant’s Toes. They drastically improve the value of potions they’re in to such an extent that if you can find/buy/harvest even a few dozen, you’ve done yourself a great service. And of course, if you find any combinations that create valuable potions out of cheap ingredients, by all means, send them to me. I certainly haven’t done anything near an exhaustive search. Just remember, that the ingredient needs to be relatively common, and the pay-off needs to be big. We want as much money with as little effort as possible.

Some Common Valuable Potion Combinations {LST003}

Ingredient #1	Ingredient #2	Ingredient #3	Value
Blue Butterfly Wing	Nightshade		568
Blue Butterfly Wing	Blue Mountain Flower		730
Blue Butterfly Wing	Blue Mountain Flower	Blisterwort	881
Blue Butterfly Wing	Blue Mountain Flower	Hanging Moss	908
Blue Butterfly Wing	Blue Mountain Flower	Giant’s Toe*	2201
Blue Mountain Flower	Nightshade		568
Blue Mountain Flower	Juniper Berries	Wheat	576
Charus Eggs	Nirnroot		717
Charus Eggs	Luna Moth Wing		831
Charus Eggs	Luna Moth Wing	Lavender	1025
Creep Cluster	Giant’s Toe*		912
Creep Cluster	Giant’s Toe*	Blue Mountain Flower	2245
Creep Cluster	Giant’s Toe*	Glowing Mushroom	2245
Creep Cluster	Giant’s Toe*	Hanging Moss	2245
Creep Cluster	Giant’s Toe*	Wheat	2245
Deathbell	Salt Pile		530
Deathbell	Salt Pile	Thistle Branch	643
Deathbell	Salt Pile	Garlic	911
Deathbell	Salt Pile	Dwarven Oil	1021
Deathbell	Salt Pile	Jazbay Grapes	1021
Dragon’s Tongue	Fly Amanita		560
Dragon’s Tongue	Dwarven Oil	Garlic	746
Dragon’s Tongue	Fly Amanita	Falmer Ear*	791
Dragon’s Tongue	Fly Amanita	Troll Fat*	791
Dragon’s Tongue	Dwarven Oil	Jazbay Grapes	856
Dragon’s Tongue	Dwarven Oil	Salt Pile	856
Dwarven Oil	Jazbay Grapes		597
Dwarven Oil	Salt Pile		597
Jazbay Grapes	Salt Pile		597
Jazbay Grapes	Salt Pile	Red Mountain Flower	791
Jazbay Grapes	Salt Pile	Tundra Cotton	791
Jazbay Grapes	Salt Pile	Large Antlers*	1021
Jazbay Grapes	Salt Pile	River Betty*	1021
Swamp Fungal Pod	Imp Stool		668
Swamp Fungal Pod	Canis Root		668
Swamp Fungal Pod	Imp Stool	Purple Mountain Flower	822
Swamp Fungal Pod	Imp Stool	Torchbug Thorax	822
Swamp Fungal Pod	Imp Stool	Wheat	822
Swamp Fungal Pod	Giant’s Toe*	Wheat	1902
Wheat	Giant’s Toe*		1674

Note: The value of these potions was determined by a character with all five ranks in the Alchemist perk, the Physician Perk, and the Benefactor perk, just like this guide suggests. They also had an Alchemy skill level of 100, so these values should be seen as prospective.
* Denotes an uncommon ingredient. These are only used for referential purposes, and when such an item drastically increases the value of a potion.

Salt Piles can be commonly found in many barrels throughout the world. In Riften, along the waterfront, you can find many ‘Fish Barrels’ that contain several Salt Piles, as well as some of Skyrim’s more alchemically useful fish. Salt Piles are far more useful in Alchemy than their value and mundanity suggest.

In the hot springs area of Skyrim (south of Windhelm, and north of the mountains separating the Rift from Windhelm), you can find Jazbay Grapes, Creep Clusters, and Dragon’s Tongues growing in unmatched abundance. The former two of these three ingredients are very valuable when used in Alchemy, and a good scouring of the area can result in over a hundred of each ingredient. This translates to quite a few levels in Alchemy and thousands of gold in revenue.

In Skyrim’s marshes (east of Solitude, north of and including Morthal), you can find Deathbells and Swamp Fungal Pods. While a valuable area to explore, be wary of Charus Reapers.

Juniper Berries can be found in the Reach, the area in the southwestern corner of Skyrim. I would say near Markarth, but this is a very broad region, and there is no clear territorial concentration of Juniper Berries the way there is with Creep Clusters/Jazbay Grapes (the hot springs) and Deathbells/Swamp Fungal Pods (the marsh).

Wheat is found at various farms. It’s not as common as you’d think, but should be harvested whenever found.

Mountain Flowers of any variety can be found all over Skyrim. It’s abundant, but there’s no one area to farm it.

Butterflies, Luna Moths, and Torchbugs all inhabit certain areas. They’re not geographically bound like plants but typically occur at certain ‘spawn points’. Sometimes these are areas marked on your map, sometimes they’re just random ruins, ponds, or springs. Frequently, they occur in towns. Just remember where you find them, and harvest them when you see them. And if they’re being obnoxious by refusing to come to a reachable altitude, don’t be afraid to use Overwhelming Force to blast them out of the sky.

Giant’s Toes come from Giants, of course. Earlier in the game, you’ll need to buy them, as a low-level character cannot safely engage a Giant. Giant camps are noted on the map by mammoth-head icons, and they tend to be located in the plains west of Whiterun, in the hot springs south of Windhelm, and in the snowy areas north of Whiterun and Windhelm. They do not occur near Riften, Solitude, or Markarth.

List of Alchemical Ingredients {LST004}

Ingredient	Effect #1	Effect #2	Effect #3	Effect #4
Albecean Longfin	Weakness to Frost	Fortify Sneak	Weakness to Poison	Fortify Restoration
Bear Claws	Restore Stamina	Fortify Health	Fortify One-Handed	Damage Magicka Regen
Bee	Restore Stamina	Ravage Stamina	Regenerate Stamina	Weakness to Shock
Beehive Husk	Resist Poison	Fortify Light Armor	Fortify Sneak	Fortify Destruction
Bleeding Crown	Weakness to Fire	Fortify Block	Weakness to Poison	Resist Magic
Blisterwort	Damage Stamina	Frenzy	Restore Health	Fortify Smithing
Blue Butterfly Wing	Damage Stamina	Fortify Conjuration	Damage Magicka Regen	Fortify Enchanting
Blue Dartwing	Resist Shock	Fortify Pickpocket	Restore Health	Fear
Blue Mountain Flower	Restore Health	Fortify Conjuration	Fortify Health	Damage Magicka Regen
Bone Meal	Damage Stamina	Resist Fire	Fortify Conjuration	Ravage Stamina
Briar Heart	Restore Magicka	Fortify Block	Paralysis	Fortify Magicka
Butterfly Wing	Restore Health	Fortify Barter	Lingering Damage Stamina	Damage Magicka
Canis Root	Damage Stamina	Fortify One-Handed	Fortify Marksman	Paralysis
Charred Skeever Hide	Restore Stamina	Cure Disease	Resist Poison	Restore Health
Chaurus Egg	Weakness to Poison	Fortify Stamina	Damage Magicka	Invisibility
Chicken’s Egg	Resist Magic	Damage Magicka Regen	Waterbreathing	Lingering Damage Stamina
Creep Cluster	Restore Magicka	Damage Stamina Regen	Fortify Carry Weight	Weakness to Magic
Cyrodilic Spadetail	Damage Stamina	Fortify Restoration	Fear	Ravage Health
Daedra Heart	Restore Health	Damage Stamina Regen	Damage Magicka	Fear
Deathbell	Damage Health	Ravage Stamina	Slow	Weakness to Poison
Dragon’s Tongue	Resist Fire	Fortify Barter	Fortify Illusion	Fortify Two-Handed
Dwarven Oil	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Illusion	Regenerate Magicka	Restore Magicka
Ectoplasm	Restore Magicka	Fortify Destruction	Fortify Magicka	Damage Health
Elves Ear	Restore Magicka	Fortify Marksman	Weakness to Frost	Resist Fire
Eye of Sabre Cat	Restore Stamina	Ravage Health	Damage Magicka	Restore Health
Falmer Ear	Damage Health	Frenzy	Resist Poison	Fortify Lockpicking
Fire Salts	Weakness to Frost	Resist Fire	Restore Magicka	Regenerate Magicka
Fly Amanita	Resist Fire	Fortify Two-Handed	Frenzy	Regenerate Stamina
Frost Mirriam	Resist Frost	Fortify Sneak	Ravage Magicka	Damage Stamina Regen
Frost Salts	Weakness to Fire	Resist Frost	Restore Magicka	Fortify Conjuration
Garlic	Resist Poison	Fortify Stamina	Regenerate Magicka	Regenerate Health
Giant Lichen	Weakness to Shock	Ravage Health	Weakness to Poison	Restore Magicka
Giant’s Toe	Damage Stamina	Fortify Health	Fortify Carry Weight	Damage Stamina Regen
Glow Dust	Damage Magicka	Damage Magicka Regen	Fortify Destruction	Resist Shock
Glowing Mushroom	Resist Shock	Fortify Destruction	Fortify Smithing	Fortify Health
Grass Pod	Resist Poison	Ravage Magicka	Fortify Alteration	Restore Magicka
Hagraven Claw	Resist Magic	Lingering Damage Magicka	Fortify Enchanting	Fortify Barter
Hagraven Feathers	Damage Magicka	Fortify Conjuration	Frenzy	Weakness to Shock
Hanging Moss	Damage Magicka	Fortify Health	Damage Magicka Regen	Fortify One-Handed
Hawk Beak	Restore Stamina	Resist Frost	Fortify Carry Weight	Resist Shock
Hawk Feathers	Cure Disease	Fortify Light Armor	Fortify One-Handed	Fortify Sneak
Histcarp	Restore Stamina	Fortify Magicka	Damage Stamina Regen	Waterbreathing
Honeycomb	Restore Stamina	Fortify Block	Fortify Light Armor	Ravage Stamina
Human Flesh	Damage Health	Paralysis	Restore Magicka	Fortify Sneak
Human Heart	Damage Health	Damage Magicka	Damage Magicka Regen	Frenzy
Ice Wraith Teeth	Weakness to Frost	Fortify Heavy Armor	Invisibility	Weakness to Fire
Imp Stool	Damage Health	Lingering Damage Health	Paralysis	Restore Health
Jazbay Grapes	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Magicka	Regenerate Magicka	Ravage Health
Juniper Berries	Weakness to Fire	Fortify Marksman	Regenerate Health	Damage Stamina Regen
Large Antlers	Restore Stamina	Fortify Stamina	Slow	Damage Stamina Regen
Lavender	Resist Magic	Fortify Stamina	Ravage Magicka	Fortify Conjuration
Luna Moth Wing	Damage Magicka	Fortify Light Armor	Regenerate Health	Invisibility
Moon Sugar	Weakness to Fire	Resist Frost	Restore Magicka	Regenerate Magicka
Mora Tapinella	Restore Magicka	Lingering Damage Health	Regenerate Stamina	Fortify Illusion
Mudcrab Chitin	Restore Stamina	Cure Disease	Resist Poison	Resist Fire
Namira’s Rot	Damage Magicka	Fortify Lockpicking	Fear	Regenerate Health
Nightshade	Damage Health	Damage Magicka	Lingering Damage Stamina	Fortify Destruction
Nirnroot	Damage Health	Damage Stamina	Invisibility	Resist Magic
Nordic Barnacle	Damage Magicka	Waterbreathing	Regenerate Health	Fortify Pickpocket
Orange Dartwing	Restore Stamina	Fortify Pickpocket	Ravage Magicka	Lingering Damage Health
Pearl	Restore Stamina	Fortify Block	Restore Magicka	Resist Shock
Pine Thrush Egg	Restore Stamina	Fortify Lockpicking	Weakness to Poison	Resist Shock
Purple Mountain Flower	Restore Stamina	Fortify Sneak	Lingering Damage Magicka	Resist Frost
Red Mountain Flower	Restore Magicka	Ravage Magicka	Fortify Magicka	Damage Health
River Betty	Damage Health	Fortify Alteration	Slow	Fortify Carry Weight
Rock Warbler Egg	Restore Health	Fortify One-Handed	Damage Stamina	Weakness to Magic
Sabre Cat Tooth	Fortify Stamina	Fortify Heavy Armor	Fortify Smithing	Weakness to Poison
Salt Pile	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Restoration	Slow	Regenerate Magicka
Scaly Pholiata	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Illusion	Regenerate Stamina	Fortify Carry Weight
Silverside Perch	Restore Stamina	Damage Stamina Regen	Ravage Health	Resist Frost
Skeever Tail	Damage Stamina Regen	Ravage Health	Damage Health	Fortify Light Armor
Slaughterfish Egg	Resist Poison	Fortify Pickpocket	Lingering Damage Health	Fortify Stamina
Slaughterfish Scales	Resist Frost	Lingering Damage Health	Fortify Heavy Armor	Fortify Block
Small Antlers	Weakness to Poison	Fortify Restoration	Lingering Damage Stamina	Damage Health
Small Pearl	Restore Stamina	Fortify One-Handed	Fortify Restoration	Resist Frost
Snowberries	Resist Fire	Fortify Enchanting	Resist Frost	Resist Shock
Spider Egg	Damage Stamina	Damage Magicka Regen	Fortify Lockpicking	Fortify Marksman
Spriggan Sap	Damage Magicka Regen	Fortify Enchanting	Fortify Smithing	Fortify Alteration
Swamp Fungal Pod	Resist Shock	Lingering Damage Magicka	Paralysis	Restore Health
Taproot	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Illusion	Regenerate Magicka	Restore Magicka
Thistle Branch	Resist Frost	Ravage Stamina	Resist Poison	Fortify Heavy Armor
Torchbug Thorax	Restore Stamina	Lingering Damage Magicka	Weakness to Magic	Fortify Stamina
Troll Fat	Resist Poison	Fortify Two-Handed	Frenzy	Damage Health
Tundra Cotton	Resist Magic	Fortify Magicka	Fortify Block	Fortify Barter
Vampire Dust	Invisibility	Restore Magicka	Regenerate Health	Cure Disease
Void Salts	Weakness to Shock	Resist Magic	Damage Health	Fortify Magicka
Wheat	Restore Health	Fortify Health	Damage Stamina Regen	Lingering Damage Magicka
White Cap	Weakness to Frost	Fortify Heavy Armor	Restore Magicka	Ravage Magicka
Wisp Wrappings	Restore Stamina	Fortify Destruction	Fortify Carry Weight	Resist Magic

Note: This list does not include some quest-related ingredients, like the Jarrin Root or Crimson Nirnroot.

Alteration {SKL003}

Alphabetically, Alteration is the first spell-skill we’ll encounter, so I’ll get my necessary spell-skill rant done here. Since you can create gear that reduces the cost of spells to nothing (up to two spell schools with one set of gear), you don’t ever really need to buy any perks that reduce your Magicka cost except as stepping stones to other, better perks. Alteration actually has a few good ones to look at. Ultimately, however, the skill is about defense. In the long run, since we’re investing into the crafting skills, and since armor is better, Alteration will have to stand up and provide better, cheaper, sources of defense than the aforementioned skills.

Perk Picks

Now, to dissect this skill, let’s look at the interesting perks while ignoring all Magicka-cost reducing perks. First, we have Magic Resistance, which ‘Blocks 10% of a spell’s effects’ per perk, up to 30% with an investment of three perks. 30% Magic Resistance is pretty awesome on its own, and if you decide to throw perks to get this passive effect, you’ll be very well defended against magic damage. Another noteworthy perk is the Atronach perk, which absorbs 30% of the magicka from any spells that hit you. Seems good, but remember, Magicka is the attribute that I expressly ignore with this build. In fact, the whole function of the build as far as Magicka is concerned is to not need any. When your spells cost nothing, it doesn’t matter how much Magicka you absorb, if any. As for the meat of the spell-school, Alteration’s main focus is to protect your character, and if you obtain the master spell ‘Dragonhide’, it can do this very well. But I have several reservations, of course. First, while 80% immunity to physical damage sounds great (and it is), it’s really just comparable to what having a high Armor rating will do. Big differences abound, however. First, if you’re wearing armor, you don’t have to recast it. You get that armor bonus as long as you wear the armor. Dragonskin, on the other hand, only lasts 30 seconds—45 seconds if you get the ‘Stability’ perk (minimum commitment of four perks for an extra 15 seconds, by the way). I want my good defense to be there all the time, with no Magicka cost, and no slow casting time, and really, without the bother of having to remember to cast it at all. Second, you’d have to find a way to power this Master-level spell, which will run you 248 Magicka per cast (with an Alteration score of 100 and the ‘Master Alteration’ perk). That means either investing a whole bunch of points into Magicka, or creating gear to cut down the cost. In the end, you’ll end up with a character who is just as well defended, less maintenance, with more Health, and the ability to just ignore Alteration and focus on two other spell schools if you invest a measly four or five points into an armor skill. The only perk to the Alteration skill? It allows you to go around looking like a mage while keeping you alive. Frankly, I’m just as happy to throw on some Daedric Armor/Dragon Scale and go the whole ‘infernal magus/dragon warlock’ approach.

On that note, the ‘Mass Paralysis’ spell is a real winner. Even though it suffers from a lot of problems that all master spells have (namely its stupidly-long casting time) it doesn’t require a single perk to reach optimum effectiveness. It’s a really good reason for a character like mine to wear armor that makes Alteration spells free. It might not have the range or duration of Illusion spells, but it doesn’t have the level cap or huge perk requirement, either.

Leveling Tips

Fortunately, Alteration is very easy to level. But before we get into the nuts and bolts, it’s time to talk about my leveling tactic which will affect all spells. See, how hard it is to level spells skills is directly related to your Magicka pool. We have none. So leveling up spells is something I only do in earnest once I can create gear that reduces my costs to nothing. Meaning that I only really bother min-maxing spell schools when I max my crafting skills. Create armor that reduces the cost of spells to nothing (I make several suits of enchanted armor for this purpose, named for the schools they affect: D/R Armor, A/I Armor, and C/D Armor, but that’s just how I do it). Once you have this armor, leveling up your spells is usually pretty easy, and here’s the routine. Find some enemies that don’t have a ranged attack, get on a cliff, ledge, or other higher ground they can’t reach, and cast spells while they’re hostile to you. I typically pick on Giants for this, since there are a number of sites where you can get higher ground where they can’t touch you. To level up Alteration, pick a fight, go where you can’t be hurt, and double-cast defensive spells (Oakflesh, Stoneflesh, Ebonyflesh, etc.). Another way to level up is to run into water and cast Waterbreathing in a combat scenario. You don’t have to actually be submerged while the spell is active, just touching water.

Notes

About 17 double-casts of Stoneflesh to go from level 99 to 100.

List of Alteration Spells {LST005}

Spell	Level	Magicka Cost**
Candlelight	Novice	12
Detect Dead	Expert	87 per second
Detect Life	Adept	59 per second
Dragonhide	Master	497
Ebonyflesh	Expert	202
Ironflesh	Adept	158
Magelight	Apprentice	50
Mass Paralysis	Master	556
Oakflesh	Novice	61
Paralyze	Expert	267
Stoneflesh	Apprentice	115
Telekinesis	Adept	100 per second
Waterbreathing	Adept	132

Note: This list does not include quest-related spells.
*Almost all spells except for Master-level spells can be purchased from various Mages in Skyrim. Note, however, that they will not start selling you higher level Mage spells until you approach the level of proficiency required to get the Magicka-cost reducing perk for that level of spell. For example, vendors will not start stocking Fireball spells until you’re nearing level 50 in Destruction, and they won’t sell Incinerate until you near level 75. Also note that you can’t begin Master-spell related quests until you have a score of 90 or higher in a spell skill.
**This is the Magicka cost for a character with a skill of 100, with no perks or gear that lowers Magicka costs.

Archery {SKL004}

Archery lets you shoot things better, and it’s the best ranged option in the game. That said, it’s a very, very expensive skill to bring to its full glory, but anybody who follows my advice and gets their crafting skills up to snuff will do so much base damage with a bow, that it’ll outclass all offensive spells without expending a single perk. Of course, if you actually want to play a ranger/archer type, it’s a no-brainer, and it’s a skill that makes assassinations considerably easier.

Perk Picks

First off, Overdraw is an obvious choice to greatly raise the killing power of this skill. Five ranks of it, and you’ll be doing some of the best damage possible with any mode of attack. There are still several drawbacks to Archery, however. It’s much slower than, say, Destruction spells, it has no area-of-effect, and it drastically slows down your movement speed. Almost all of these issues can be addressed if you’re willing to throw perks into the skill tree, however.

‘Eagle Eye’ is necessary for pulling off longer shots, and it’s a requisite for ‘Steady Hand’, which—with a two perks investment—will slow time when aiming by 50%. This really boosts range and accuracy and comes very highly recommended. The next absolutely necessary perk in the tree is ‘Quick Shot’, which requires you to purchase ‘Power Shot’, which is itself a fair perk. Speeding up the drawing speed by 30% is a very good thing.

For most characters, this is a good enough investment, and certainly if you don’t care about finesse. If you just want to deal oodles of damage at a range when the opportunity presents itself to pick enemies off, or when an annoying foe won’t come within melee range, you’re done. However, the perk ‘Ranger’ allows you to move much faster, but you’ll have to get ‘Critical Shot’ (good perks for a devoted archer) and ‘Hunter’s Discipline’, a true waste of a perk if I’ve ever seen one. If you’re willing to invest three more perks, the speed boost really helps tactically, especially for picking off enemies.

No perks are required to make some use of this skill, and even without any investment, bows can overpower Destruction spells. For a really good ranged option that will allow you to make good use of our deep Stamina pool and make Archery an insane damage-dealer, giving up ten perks to reach Quick Shot is not a terrible idea. Spending three more on Critical Shot will give you a nice secondary damage boost. The only perk that really isn’t interesting to me is Bullseye. A 15% chance to paralyze? Sure, sounds nice, but with the absurd damage you can be dealing with each shot, the fact that you’ll be killing almost every enemy in several shots makes paralysis seem like a paltry addition.

Leveling Tips

Unfortunately, Archery is just one of those skills that takes forever to level up. Training comes highly recommended, but even if you boost yourself up to a skill level of 50 with cheap training, the last 50 levels are a pain. To level it, you really just have to go around shooting things. A lot of them. Expect to expend over 3,000 arrows on this, and that’s a generous estimate. It unfortunately can’t be quickly and cheaply leveled in Helgen because you just don’t get many arrows before you leave. I only know of a single speed boost for this skill. South of Falkreath, you’ll find ‘Agni’s Shack’ in the mountains. If you go shoot targets with her, you’ll level up your skill very quickly as you meet her challenges. I suggest you hit level 90 or so in the Archery skill before going there, as it’s better to get some progress at these painfully slow, higher levels. It’s also suggested that you invest whatever perks you plan to invest before taking on some of Agni’s harder challenges. Being able to zoom in and slow down time will make this much, much easier.

Notes

N/A

List of Bows {LST006}

Bows	Damage*	Weight	Value
Daedric Bow	84	18	2500
Dwarven Bow	53	10	270
Ebony Bow	75	16	1440
Elven Bow	57	12	470
Glass Bow	66	14	820
Orcish Bow	44	9	150

Note: This list only includes the most common gear available—namely items that can be crafted.
*The values provided here were recorded with a character who had an Archery skill score of 100 and five ranks in ‘Overdraw’. The weapons are otherwise unimproved.

Block {SKL005}

Blocking allows you to block attacks, drastically reducing the damage you would have received. Once upgraded, you can effectively block spells and projectiles, slow down time to easily avoid power attacks, and improve your mobility while blocking. It should be noted that the ‘Block’ skill does not necessarily mean the ‘shield’ skill, as some of the perks do improve your ability to block without a shield equipped. The Block skill also contains perks that improve your ability to shield bash.

Perk Picks

I have been conflicted about Block at various points of character creation. There’s no doubt that it’s an awesome defensive skill, and it’s not terribly costly in terms of perks to get it up to snuff. Still, the character we can create will be strong enough by virtue of their Smithing-and-Enchanting improved armor alone to ignore Block. If you make a One-Handed weapon user, putting four perks into Block will certainly improve your character, and allow you to do more things with that shield in your off-hand. Like with armor, the goal is to remove its impediments and reach the ‘Block Runner’ perk. Once obtained, you can engage freely and quickly in combat with your shield raised. It’s very effective against mages, who like to run away. En route, you’ll have to grab ‘Elemental Protection’, which with a bit of help will go a long way towards keeping you alive when facing Destruction magic or Dragon’s breath. ‘Deflect Arrows’ is the least interesting perk along the path, but archers will often be doing some of the greatest damage to you, and having a chance to ignore their shots is… well, it’s something. ‘Shield Wall’, unlike most equipment-boosting perks, is only worth one point. After the first point, its returns plummet from 25% per perk to a measly 5%—not worth the investment.

As for bashing, shields are great weapons to bash with. Want to stop an enemy mage from running about casting crap? Whack them in the face with your shield. That Dragon about to breathe on you? Again, a good face-smack with a shield will stop a Dragon mid-breath. On that note, the base bash is good enough that I don’t really see a point in getting ‘Power Bash’. Sure, ‘Power Bash’ is stronger and more effective at staggering foes, and that’s a good thing, but when I want to bash, a short, quick bash does just fine. When I want to power attack, I’ll use my One-Handed weapon. It does a lot more damage. As for ‘Deadly Bash’, I see no need to turn my shield into a full-fledged weapon, and as for ‘Disarming Bash’, if I wanted to Disarm an enemy, I have shouts for that. But usually, I’m content to just kill the enemy and move on. No need for tricks when brute force shines so brightly.

Leveling Tips

Block is relatively easy to level, since it stops so much damage. You can level it like any armor skill. Rubber-band your trigger button or weigh down your keyboard/mouse button and let an enemy swing at you. Preferably, you’ll be backed into a corner so they can’t get around your shield or knock you around the level. This is so simple, in fact, that you can do this pretty much as soon as you get out of Helgen, if you’re so inclined. Like most skills, it does seem damage-dependent, so leveling on a weak Bandit might be easy, but it’ll take much longer than if you were blocking bigger game.

Notes

N/A

Conjuration {SKL006}

Conjuration allows you to… well… conjure things. This is classically where you’ll find your summoning spells and your ‘bound’ items—summoned weapons. I’ll admit, I’m not a fan. You’ll make much better weapons than you’ll conjure up, and while summoning allies to distract the baddies can be fun, it’s really not my cup of tea. Neither is tea, now that I think about it. I don’t like AI things messing with my game, especially in Bethesda games where such interactions are… touchy. NPCs getting in the way, falling off cliffs, getting lost… it’s just a hassle. Notice how you won’t find an NPC section in this FAQ? I’d rather rely on my own button-pressing to kill things, rather than use a proxy. In a 3rd person, isometric perspective game, sure, give me summons, give me allies. But this isn’t Baldur’s Gate.

Perk Picks

Typical spell-school stuff here. Magicka reducing perks we don’t need, perks that improve your bound weapons that still can’t compare to crafted ones, and most interestingly, perks that beef up your summons. There are two classes here—Atronachs and Undead, but Daedra seem to count as Atronachs. Since it’s rather redundant to have to kill powerful enemies so you can raise them to allow you to kill powerful enemies, let’s look at the real summons. Conjure Storm Atronach just sucks, I found them completely incapable of killing anything that was remotely threatening. On the other hand, being able to summon a pair of Dremora Lords was pretty cool, and they were able to seriously damage a pair of Giants in a straight fight. Of course, I was killing the same Giants in two or three hits. For a measly five perks, you can have some fairly potent summons. Of course, if you’re doing anything this guide suggests, you won’t need them. Save your perks, no matter how cool it might be to walk around with a pair of permanently-summoned Atronachs.

Leveling Tips

Get armor that reduces Magicka costs to zero, provoke some enemies, get on higher ground where you can’t be harmed, and repeatedly summon a pair of Bound Swords. Sheath them, and repeat. It’s a pretty quick way to level this skill.

Notes

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List of Conjuration Spells {LST007}

Spell	Level	Magicka Cost**
Banish Daedra	Adept	116
Bound Battleaxe	Apprentice	100
Bound Bow	Adept	123
Bound Sword	Novice	55
Command Daedra	Expert	144
Conjure Dremora Lord	Expert	213
Conjure Familiar	Novice	63
Conjure Flame Atronach	Apprentice	89
Conjure Frost Atronach	Adept	127
Conjure Storm Atronach	Expert	191
Dead Thrall	Master	593
Dread Zombie	Expert	179
Expel Daedra	Expert	128
Flame Thrall	Master	534
Frost Thrall	Master	653
Raise Zombie	Novice	61
Reanimate Corpse	Apprentice	85
Revenant	Adept	109
Soul Trap	Apprentice	63
Storm Thrall	Master	712

Note: This list does not include quest-related spells.

Almost all spells except for Master-level spells can be purchased from various Mages in Skyrim. Note, however, that they will not start selling you higher-level Mage spells until you approach the level of proficiency required to get the Magicka-cost reducing perk for that level of spell. For example, vendors will not start stocking Fireball spells until you’re nearing level 50 in Destruction, and they won’t sell Incinerate until you near level 75. Also, note that you can’t begin Master-spell-related quests until you have a score of 90 or higher in a spell skill.

This is the Magicka cost for a character with a skill of 100, with no perks or gear that lowers Magicka costs.

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Destruction {SKL007}

Destruction is the go-to spell school for hurting things, and at this, it really excels. Sure, there’s some bogus cloak and rune spells I don’t bother with (you don’t need tactics if you’re an irresistible force and an immovable object!) But how does it stack up in its ability to just deal damage? In some ways, it’s better than Archery, although One-Handed weapons are really the best way to kill anything when you have the luxury of engaging in melee combat. It’s faster, for one, and many spells have an area-of-effect, meaning you need not be as accurate. At the end of the day, however, the max sixty damage of Fireball and ninety damage of Incinerate doesn’t quite match the 200+ damage you can deal with a high-powered Daedric Bow. Not to mention the fact that you don’t need Magicka-cost reducing gear with a bow, and the ability to zoom and slow time that perks in Archery can get you.

Perk Picks

I’ll try to be concise with this skill, and not belabor the point too much. The master-level Destruction spells—’Blizzard’, ‘Lightning Storm’, and ‘Fire Storm’—just aren’t up to snuff. They all lock you in place during their lengthy casting animation (which can be interrupted if you take anything resembling a decent hit) and do paltry damage compared to what Archery—and even other Destruction spells—can do over the same time period. Blizzard and Firestorm have a huge area-of-effect, but I find it infinitely more useful to kill one enemy quickly than to kill several enemies slowly. Also, while they have a good area-of-effect, none of them have a terribly effective range, and that’s what we really need a school like Destruction to be—an effective, accurate, long-range option.

Therefore, for comparative purposes, I’ll use my favorite Destruction spell, Fireball, which does so many of the things that I need a ranged skill to do. It’s fast-moving, has a decent area of effect, and at sixty damage (with perks), it’s a moderately powerful attack. Also, it’s faster than Archery, and I need to repeat this: unlike Firestorm, it’s actually a long-range attack. If things are close enough to hit with Firestorm, I’m probably better off just hitting them with a melee weapon. Destruction just can’t stand up to the sheer damage output of Archery, and the ease-of-use afforded by perks like ‘Eagle Eye’ and ‘Steady Hand’ patch up some of its inherent problems. Another possible annoyance, arrow weight, has been thankfully left out by Bethesda this time around. Meaning, at the end of the day, you’ll get a faster, area-of-effect spell like Fireball dealing sixty damage, versus a slower but easier to aim and hit due to slowdown effects 200+ damage dealer with Archery. The only possible plus for Destruction is the fact that it really only requires five perks to get maximum returns, whereas Archery really benefits from at least ten. Even when double-casting ‘Incinerate’ spells with two ranks in ‘Augmented Flames’, a strong Archery skill with a good bow typically did twice the damage per hit. If you do invest in Destruction, getting the ‘Augmented [Element]’ perks is obviously the thing to do. However many you’ll want depends on your play style, but you should consider getting at least two elements. Some enemies may be resistant or immune to one, after all. Also pick ‘Destruction Dual Casting’ and ‘Impact’ for added effect—dual casting two of the same spell is really the way to go. ‘Novice Destruction’ is a necessary evil, but ‘Deep Freeze’, ‘Disintegrate’, and ‘Intense Flames’ are quite ancillary and shouldn’t be picked unless you really just plan to use Destruction as your offensive tool of choice.

Some interesting side-notes

First, Shock spells sap the enemy’s Magicka, and Frost spells diminish their Stamina. On the other hand, most enemies will be dead with half a dozen arrows fired by a well-perked, uber-bow-wielding archer. I’d go for dead. Frost spells also slow foes down, but there is a trade-off. Typically spells not named ‘Fireball’ either sacrifice speed (and hence accuracy and effective range) or area-of-effect. Also, more elements mean more perks, which greatly undermines Destruction’s great feature—relative cheapness. Another note, getting the damage boosts in the Destruction tree will affect the damage your elemental enchantments do when you put them on weapons. It’s a nice bonus if you got the elemental enchanting boosts in the Enchanting tree, and if you fancy elementally-charged weapons.

Leveling Tips

Like Archery, Destruction can take time, as you just need to get out there and kill things with spells to improve the skill. Ranged skills are pains like that, and although it’s technically possible to max this skill at Helgen, you’d have to have an insane amount of dedication and time on your hands to do so. On the plus side, using more potent spells quickens the process, so I suggest you switch up to higher spells whenever possible to keep the leveling process from stagnating.

Notes

For some reason, Shock spells do not agree with my Xbox. Perhaps it’s a technical problem that’s unique to me, but who knows? At the end of the day, the constant threat of the game locking up makes me ill-disposed towards the element, and very, very thankful Bethesda decided not to put Dragons in the game with lightning breath weapons.

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List of Destruction Spells {LST008}

Spell	Level	Magicka Cost**
Blizzard	Master	657
Chain Lightning	Adept	92
Fire Rune	Apprentice	139
Fire Storm	Master	847
Fireball	Adept	79
Firebolt	Apprentice	24
Flame Cloak	Adept	171
Flames	Novice	8 per second
Frost Cloak	Adept	187
Frost Rune	Apprentice	174
Frostbite	Novice	9 per second
Ice Spike	Apprentice	28
Ice Storm	Adept	85
Icy Spear	Expert	190
Incinerate	Expert	177
Lightning Bolt	Apprentice	30
Lightning Cloak	Adept	220
Lightning Rune	Apprentice	191
Lightning Storm	Master	82 per second
Sparks	Novice	11 per second
Thunderbolt	Expert	203
Wall of Flames	Expert	70 per second
Wall of Frost	Expert	81 per second
Wall of Storms	Expert	86 per second

Note: This list does not include quest-related spells.

Almost all spells except for Master-level spells can be purchased from various Mages in Skyrim. Note, however, that they will not start selling you higher level Mage spells until you approach the level of proficiency required to get the Magicka-cost reducing perk for that level of spell. For example, vendors will not start stocking Fireball spells until you’re nearing level 50 in Destruction, and they won’t sell Incinerate until you near level 75. Also note that you can’t begin Master-spell related quests until you have a score of 90 or higher in a spell skill.

This is the Magicka cost for a character with a skill of 100, with no perks or gear that lowers Magicka costs.

Enchanting {SKL008}

As one of the three crafting skills, Enchanting is absolutely essential to any decent character build. Smithing increases the defense and damage of armor and weapons (respectively) and Alchemy can be used to bolster both Smithing and Enchanting, but Enchanting covers two areas that the other two skills cannot.

First and most importantly, Enchanting gear will allow you to create the fine-tuned uber gear your character deserves. All that highly upgraded armor still can’t protect you from magic, and this is a chink in our armor that Enchanting fixes. But, I hear you ask, couldn’t I just buy accessories that improve my resistances? Yes, you can. You can even buy accessories that give bonuses beyond what Enchanting can provide. But Enchanting can do something that you’ll never be able to find or buy—it allows you to obtain items with two enchantments on them. Only unique items like Daedric artifacts can boast similar enchantments, and they’re not nearly as specific as the gear you can make for yourself. Want to make some uber thief armor? Or some gear that improves your Blocking, Archery, One-Handed, and resistances while making two spell schools cost nothing? Enchanting is your answer. Of course, without Smithing, your gear won’t really be worth enchanting, and without Alchemy, you won’t get quite as high attributes from your enchantments.. see why the three crafting skills play off each other to make godliness? Yeah, yeah, now I’m just being preachy.

Perk Picks

Picking perks for Enchanting is easy. As far as I’m concerned, there are two routes to go, depending on where you want to get your elemental defenses from. If you want to get Magic Resistance, go straight up (Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect). If you want to get the elemental resistances, you’ll need to spend more perks by ignoring Corpus Enchanter and getting everything else.

I generally prefer the later route, and settle for 50% Frost Resistance (racial), 54% Fire Resistance (on my boots), and 54% Shock Resistance (also on my boots) and let the Block skill ‘Elemental Protection’ make up the rest of my resistance when I really need it. Also, having the ‘Agent of Mara’ Active Effect giving me a base 15% Magic Resistance and potentially the Lord Stone adding another 25% makes me as well protected as I’ll need to be.

It’s also worth noting that if you fancy Destruction, the perks that boost the damage of elemental effects will apply to your weapon enchantments, too. Again, this is only worth doing if you boost your elemental enchantments with perks in the Enchanting tree, but getting a weapon enhanced with 54 points of extra elemental damage is worth considering if you go the elemental route in Enchanting, and if you’re willing to invest at least three perks into Destruction.

One last note, Magic Resistance is an incredibly picky modifier. It can only go on Shields, Rings, and Amulets. If you wish to go that route, keep that in mind. You’ll either need to lug around a shield to get your resistances maxed, or you’ll need to put some Magic Resistance on an accessory.. meaning you can’t eliminate the cost of two schools of magic, only one. Of course, if you’re a Breton with the ‘Agent of Mara’ Active Effect and the Lord Stone, you might as well just get ‘Elemental Protection’ in Block, since you’ll need to carry around a shield anyways.

Leveling Tips

Leveling up Enchanting isn’t as cheap or quick as Smithing.. mostly because the lame menu system you have to go through to enchant things.. but it is much, much more profitable. After you’ve leveled up smithing, you’ll find yourself overflowing with Iron Daggers. What to do with all of them, though? Well, you could sell them for a pittance, or you could get the Banish enchantment, and enchant daggers. These things sell for hundreds of gold each, and easily make back whatever you’ll have to spend on buying pre-charged soul gems.. so long as you buy Common, Lesser, and Petty gems. Go to the College of Winterhold, join up, and buy soul gems from the half-dozen or so college members who sell crap there.

You will, of course, get experience for disenchanting items to learn their enchantments. However, since this involves either buying said magical items at a premium, or finding them as treasure, it’s not something I do much of until I’m done leveling Enchanting.

Notes

• Enchant 8 items to go from level 99 to 100.
• A Falmer Helmet can be worn over a circlet, allowing you to wear two items on one inventory slot. This is noteworthy because it allows you to simultaneously wear two ‘Fortify Alchemy’ helmets and create stronger potions.. ideally of Fortify Enchantment and Fortify Smithing.

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List of Enchantments {LST009}

Enchantment*	Value
Absorb Health (w)	664
Absorb 20 points of health.
——————————————	——-
Absorb Magicka (w)	560
Absorb 25 points of magicka.
——————————————	——-
Absorb Stamina (w)	568
Absorb 25 points of stamina.
——————————————	——-
Banish (w)	1632
Summoned Daedra up to level 25 are sent back to Oblivion.
——————————————	——-
Fear (w)	512
Creatures and people up to level 25 flee from combat for 30 seconds.
——————————————	——-
Fire Damage (w)	456
Burns the target for 31 points. Targets on fire take extra damage.
——————————————	——-
Frost Damage (w)	480
Target takes 31 points of frost damage to Health and Stamina.
——————————————	——-
Magicka Damage (w)	504
Does 37 points of Magicka damage.
——————————————	——-
Paralyze (w)	696
Chance to paralyze the target for 5 seconds.
——————————————	——-
Shock Damage (w)	488
Target takes 31 points of shock damage, and half as much Magicka damage.
——————————————	——-
Soul Trap (w)	440
If target dies within 10 seconds, fills a soul gem.
——————————————	——-
Stamina Damage (w)	648
Does 46 points of Stamina damage.
——————————————	——-
Turn Undead (w)	696
Undead up to level 25 flee for 30 seconds.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Alchemy (h), (g), (j)	245
Created potions are 25% more powerful.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Alteration (a), (h), (j)	309
Alteration spells cost 25% less to cast.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Alteration & Magicka Regen (a)	259
Alteration spells cost 15% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Archery (h), (g), (j)	557
Bows do 40% more damage.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Barter (j) [Necklaces only]	611
Prices are 25% better.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Block (s), (g), (j)	356
Block 40% more damage with your shield.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Carry Weight (b), (g), (j)	628
Carrying Capacity increased by 37 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Conjuration (a), (h), (j)	375
Conjuration spells cost 25% less to cast.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Conjuration & Magicka Regen (a)	297
Conjuration spells cost 15% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Destruction (a), (h), (j)	391
Destruction spells cost 25% less to cast.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Destruction & Magicka Regen (a)	307
Destruction spells cost 15% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Healing Rate (a), (j)	384
Health regenerates 31% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Health (a), (s), (j)	302
Increases your health by 62 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Heavy Armor (a), (g), (j)	229
Increases Heavy Armor skill by 25 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Illusion (a), (h), (j)	342
Illusion spells cost 25% less to cast.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Illusion & Magicka Regen (a)	269
Illusion spells cost 15% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Light Armor (a), (g), (j)	198
Increases Light Armor skill by 25 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Lockpicking (h), (g), (j)	246
Lockpicking is 40% easier.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Magicka (h), (g), (j)	280
Increases your Magicka by 62 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Magicka Regen (a), (h), (j) [Rings only]	70
Magicka regenerates 62% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify One-Handed (g), (b), (j)	586
One-Handed Attacks do 40% more damage.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Pickpocket (g), (b), (j)	273
Pickpocket success is 40% better.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Restoration (a), (h), (j)	350
Restoration spells cost 25% less to cast.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Restoration & Magicka Regen (a)	288
Restoration spells cost 15% less to cast. Magicka regenerates 10% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Smithing (a), (g), (j)	358
Weapon and armor can be improved 25% better.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Sneak (g), (b), (j)	1132
Sneaking is 40% better.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Stamina (a), (b), (j)	236
Increases your stamina by 62 points.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Stamina Regen (a), (b), (j) [Necklace only]	179
Stamina regenerates 31% faster.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Two-Handed (g), (b), (j)	586
Two-Handed Attacks do 40% more damage.
——————————————	——-
Fortify Unarmed (g), (j) [Ring only]	586
Unarmed Strikes do 12 additional damage.
——————————————	——-
Muffle (b)	146
Wearer is muffled and moves silently.
——————————————	——-
Resist Disease (a), (s), (j)	72
Increases Disease Resistance by 62%.
——————————————	——-
Resist Fire (s), (b), (j)	260
Increases Fire Resistance by 46%.
——————————————	——-
Resist Frost (s), (b), (j)	276
Increases Frost Resistance by 46%.
——————————————	——-
Resist Magic (s), (j)	277
Increases Magic Resistance by 20%.
——————————————	——-
Resist Shock (s), (b), (j)	293
Increases Shock Resistance by 46%.
——————————————	——-
Waterbreathing (h), (j)	139
Can swim underwater without drowning.

This list only includes enchantments that can be obtained from non-unique items.

These values were obtained with 100 Enchanting skill, and all perks in the Enchanting tree. They are the maximum value attainable without Alchemy.

w,a,h,s,g,b,j: Denotes what items this enchantment can be enchanted upon. (w)eapons, (a)rmor, (h)elmets, (s)hields, (g)loves, (b)oots, (j)ewelry-rings and amulets, circlets count as helmets.

Heavy Armor {SKL009}

Heavy Armor is one of the best ways to improve your defense passively, and really make the enemy value each point of Health more in physical combat. With the armor skills, the goal is really to reach the perk that reduces your encumbrance, either ‘Conditioning’ or ‘Unhindered’, for Heavy Armor and Light Armor, respectively. This makes your armor less of a pain to drag around, and really, strapping on armor just works well with the crafting skill triangle scheme that this entire guide uses as the backbone of character creation. After all, why invest a comparable number of perks into Alteration to get defensive spells that have a duration, when you can just strap on some weightless, unencumbering armor that protects you just as well? Heavy Armor has the benefit of being the most protective armor in the game.. with the attached downside of being much, much heavier. Not a good trade for a sneaky character. Also, Light Armor has nothing but good perks on the way to ‘Unhindered’, whereas Heavy Armor has to waste a perk on ‘Fists of Steel’.

Perk Picks

Two things to keep in mind. Unless you’re marrying the Steed Stone, you will want to reach ‘Conditioning’, which means getting at least one rank of ‘Juggernaut’, ‘Fists of Steel’ and ‘Cushioned’, the latter of which are.. really kind of a waste. Second, keep the magic number 567 in mind. It’s the maximum effective value of Armor rating. If you haven’t reached this amount after getting to ‘Conditioning’ while wearing the armor of your choice (upgraded with Alchemy and Smithing, of course), you’ll need to either pick up the Lord Stone for another 50 points, or put some more ranks into ‘Juggernaut’. In all honesty, the Heavy Armor skill tree is not as impressive as the Light Armor tree is. If only Daedric Armor didn’t look so awesome.. ‘Well Fitted’, ‘Tower of Strength’ and ‘Matching Set’ just aren’t priorities for me. Stagger is annoying, but I never found it so detrimental that I actively wished it to be gone, and really, ‘Reflect Blows’ in wholly unimpressive. Most enemies will not be doing nearly enough damage to you to make this worthwhile, and certainly not compared to what you’ll be doing to them. Just get ‘Conditioning’ and whatever ranks of ‘Juggernaut’ you need to hit the magic number of 567 Armor rating.

Leveling Tips

Getting hit levels up your armor skills.. the bigger the damage, the more experience you gain. Of course, if you’re leveling your armor, you’re probably not really as well-off defensively as you’d like to be, right? Armor skills are another set of skills I save for after leveling up my crafting skills.. aside from incidental leveling gained from leveling. I quick-level armor at the same time as I quick-level Restoration. I typically find a Mammoth while wearing a suit of armor that makes Restoration spells cost zero Magicka. Find a nice corner to prevent you from getting knocked around too far, double-cast ‘Healing’, and let the Mammoth knock you around. You’ll ultimately end up getting hit a lot, and fairly hard (adjust the difficulty sliders to keep your Health recovery positive), but you’ll level armor skills quickly. Tape down your trigger buttons, or whatever key you use to cast spells, and wait a bit.

Notes

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List of Heavy Armors {LST010}

Heavy Armors	Armor*	Weight	Value
Banded Iron Armor	80	35	200
Banded Iron Shield	31	12	100
Daedric Armor	138	50	3200
Daedric Boots	52	10	625
Daedric Gauntlets	52	6	625
Daedric Helmet	66	15	1600
Daedric Shield	51	15	1600
Dragonplate Armor	130	40	2125
Dragonplate Boots	48	8	425
Dragonplate Gauntlets	48	8	425
Dragonplate Helmet	62	8	1050
Dragonplate Shield	48	15	1050
Dwarven Armor	96	45	400
Dwarven Boots	38	10	85
Dwarven Gauntlets	38	8	85
Dwarven Helmet	52	12	200
Dwarven Shield	37	12	225
Ebony Armor	122	38	1500
Ebony Boots	46	7	275
Ebony Gauntlets	46	7	275
Ebony Helmet	60	10	750
Ebony Shield	45	14	750
Imperial Armor	70	35	100
Imperial Boots	28	8	20
Imperial Bracers	28	4	15
Imperial Helmet	42	5	50
Imperial Shield	28	12	50
Iron Armor	70	30	125
Iron Boots	28	6	25
Iron Gauntlets	28	5	25
Iron Helmet	42	5	60
Iron Shield	28	12	60
Orcish Armor	112	35	1000
Orcish Boots	42	7	200
Orcish Gauntlets	42	7	200
Orcish Helmet	56	8	500
Orcish Shield	42	14	500
Steel Armor	88	35	275
Steel Armor (variant)	88	35	275
Steel Cuffed Boots	34	8	55
Steel Helmet	48	5	125
Steel Horned Helmet	48	5	125
Steel Imperial Gauntlets	34	4	55
Steel Nordic Gauntlets	34	4	55
Steel Plate Armor	112	38	625
Steel Plate Boots	40	9	125
Steel Plate Gauntlets	40	6	125
Steel Plate Helmet	54	6	300
Steel Shield	34	12	150
Steel Shin Boots	34	8	55

Note: This list only includes the most common gear available.. namely items that can be crafted.

*The values provided here were recorded with a character who had a Heavy Armor skill score of 100, and five ranks in ‘Juggernaut’. The armors are otherwise unimproved.

---

Illusion {SKL010}

Illusion spells influence the minds of others, typically allowing you to cause them to go berserk, become passive, or to induce fear or bravery. Normally, I’d write these spells off simply because of their limitations—namely that Illusion spells have level caps. But the master level spells can actually be quite effective. There’s also several spells that help with skulduggery, like Muffle and Invisibility. An invisible character who has invested a few perks into the Sneak tree is unlikely to be detected, so long as you don’t run into an enemy.

Perk Picks

I’ll admit, Illusion does have some appeal. If you invest around eight perks or so into the skill, you can get the master-level Illusion spells to work on some pretty strong enemies.. anything short of Draugr Death Overlords, higher-level NPCs, and Dragons. Pick the required throw-away perk ‘Novice Illusion’ to get to ‘Hypnotic Gaze’, ‘Aspect of Terror’, ‘Rage’, ‘Animage’, ‘Kindred Mage’, ‘Quiet Casting’, and of course, ‘Master of the Mind’. Honestly, I dislike fear spells, I want to kill the enemy, or stop them from attacking, I don’t want to have to chase them through a level, but it’s a necessary evil to get to ‘Rage’. If you are aching to make a ‘controller’ spell-caster build, Illusion has some of the most effective spells in the game, and one of the highest perk requirements to bring any tree up to snuff. I do have some issues, however. Again, I admit that the spells are potent, and it’s a totally understandable investment, but it’s not for me, and it’s my FAQ, so I feel compelled to point out issues. First, all Master spells take a long time to cast, which means it’s very likely that they’ll get interrupted. The solution, as IssacFrost pointed out, is to sneak, and in this Illusion has a helping-hand in the ‘Quiet Casting’ perk. But it’s not foolproof, and I just have to ask the question.. if you’re already sneaking, why not start out with a sneak attack? Which brings me to my next point; Illusion spells don’t deal any damage. The Mayhem spell can, when used against a mass of foes, cause some casualties, but a high-powered weapon will be killing almost any enemy in just a few hits. Since you’ll still want a good damage-dealing option to make good on any Illusion spells, and since weapons kill enemies so quickly, casting Illusion spells just seems like adding another step before the quick and painless slaughter begins. Also, Alteration’s ‘Mass Paralysis’ spell is a very good controller with absolutely no perk requirement what-so-ever.

Leveling Tips

Take our typical spell-leveling practice of creating armor that reduces your Magicka costs to nothing, then find a weak critter like a Mudcrab. Cast mind-affecting spells on it until you hit level 100, or you get bored. It’s simple to level up, but Illusion isn’t quite as quick as Conjuration or Alteration.

Notes

---

List of Illusion Spells {LST011}

Spell	Level	Magicka Cost**
Call to Arms	Master	389
Calm	Apprentice	86
Clairvoyance	Novice	14 per second
Courage	Novice	23
Fear	Apprentice	91
Frenzy	Adept	124
Fury	Novice	40
Harmony	Master	624
Hysteria	Master	514
Invisibility	Expert	198
Mayhem	Master	588
Muffle	Apprentice	85
Pacify	Expert	172
Rally	Adept	67
Rout	Expert	187

Note: This list does not include quest-related spells.

*Almost all spells except for Master-level spells can be purchased from various Mages in Skyrim. Note, however, that they will not start selling you higher level Mage spells until you approach the level of proficiency required to get the Magicka-cost reducing perk for that level of spell. For example, vendors will not start stocking Fireball spells until you’re nearing level 50 in Destruction, and they won’t sell Incinerate until you near level 75. Also note that you can’t begin Master-spell related quests until you have a score of 90 or higher in a spell skill.

**This is the Magicka cost for a character with a skill of 100, with no perks or gear that lowers Magicka costs.

Light Armor {SKL011}

Light Armor is one of the best ways to improve your defense passively, and really make the enemy value each point of Health more in physical combat. With the armor skills, the goal is really to reach the perk that reduces your encumbrance, either ‘Conditioning’ or ‘Unhindered’, for Heavy Armor and Light Armor, respectively. This makes your armor less of a pain to drag around, and really, strapping on armor just works well with the crafting skill triangle scheme that this entire guide uses as the backbone of character creation. After all, why invest a comparable number of perks into Alteration to get defensive spells that have a duration, when you can just strap on some weightless, unencumbering armor that protects you just as well? Light Armor has some attractive features when compared to Heavy Armor. First, it weighs a lot less. If you feel like you ever might get bit by the sneaky-assassin bug, you might want to just go with Light Armor. The only downside? You’ll have to get the ‘Dragon Smithing’ perk in the Smithing tree to get the best Light Armor in the game. But, it only takes three perks to reach ‘Unhindered’, whereas Heavy Armor takes four to reach ‘Conditioning’, balancing out the extra perk problem. Another boon for Light Armor is that you’ll get the perk ‘Custom Fit’ enroute to ‘Unhindered’, boosting your Armor rating with Light Armor by 25%, pretty much negating any defensive differences for the same investment of perks.

Perk Picks

Two things to keep in mind. Unless you’re marrying the Steed Stone, you will want to reach ‘Unhindered’, which means getting at least one rank of ‘Agile Defender’ and ‘Custom Fit’, purely beneficial. Second, keep the magic number 567 in mind. It’s the maximum effective value of Armor rating. If you haven’t reached this amount after getting to ‘Unhindered’ while wearing the armor of your choice (upgraded with Alchemy and Smithing, of course), you’ll need to either pick up the Lord Stone for another 50 points, or put some more ranks into ‘Agile Defender’. After that, one more perk will get you ‘Wind Walker’ which provides a nice +50% passive Stamina Regeneration rate while you wear the armor you love. One more will negate all the damage from 10% of attacks. That’s a very nice slew of abilities for five perks, with a recommended investment of three. ‘Matching Set’ is nice if you plan to wear an entire suit of the same type of armor, but you probably won’t need it to reach the cap. There are really no bad perks in this tree, you just probably won’t need them all to hit the armor cap.

Leveling Tips

Getting hit levels up your armor skills. The bigger the damage, the more experience you gain. Of course, if you’re leveling your armor, you’re probably not really as well-off defensively as you’d like to be, right? Armor skills are another set of skills I save for after leveling up my crafting skills, aside from incidental leveling gained from leveling. I quick-level armor at the same time as I quick-level Restoration. I typically find a Mammoth while wearing a suit of armor that makes Restoration spells cost zero Magicka. Find a nice corner to prevent you from getting knocked around too far, double-cast ‘Healing’, and let the Mammoth knock you around. You’ll ultimately end up getting hit a lot, and fairly hard (adjust the difficulty sliders to keep your Health recovery positive), but you’ll level armor skills quickly. Tape down your trigger buttons, or whatever key you use to cast spells, and wait a bit.

Notes

---

List of Light Armors {LST012}

Light Armors	Armor*	Weight	Value
Dragonscale Armor	116	10	1500
Dragonscale Boots	34	3	300
Dragonscale Gauntlets	34	3	300
Dragonscale Helmet	48	4	750
Dragonscale Shield	41	6	750
Elven Armor	82	4	225
Elven Boots	24	1	45
Elven Gauntlets	24	1	45
Elven Gilded Armor	98	4	550
Elven Helmet	38	1	110
Elven Shield	30	4	115
Glass Armor	108	7	900
Glass Boots	32	2	190
Glass Gauntlets	32	2	190
Glass Helmet	46	2	450
Glass Shield	38	6	450
Hide Armor	56	5	50
Hide Boots	14	1	10
Hide Bracers	14	1	10
Hide Helmet	28	2	25
Hide Shield	21	4	25
Leather Armor	74	6	125
Leather Boots	20	2	25
Leather Bracers	20	2	25
Leather Helmet	34	2	60
Scaled Armor	90	6	350
Scaled Boots	26	2	70
Scaled Bracers	26	2	70
Scaled Helmet	40	2	175
Studded Armor	66	6	75

Note: This list only includes the most common gear available, namely items that can be crafted.

*The values provided here were recorded with a character who had a Light Armor skill score of 100, and five ranks in ‘Agile Defender’. The armors are otherwise unimproved.

---

Lockpicking {SKL012}

There’s only so much one can say about Lockpicking. Most of the skills help you pick locks easier, obviously, with a few loot-building perks thrown in, presumably because the developers understandably couldn’t think of real innovations to deal with Lockpicking. If you played Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, you know what you’re in for. The fine folks at Bethesda wisely took their better lock-picking mini-game and transplanted it into Skyrim. Since I’ve played the hell out of both those Fallout titles (see also my FAQs for them, shameless self-promotion) I have little trouble with this activity. Just make sure you don’t get caught doing it, guards don’t take kindly to innocent mechanical inquiries.

Perk Picks

Honestly, what can I say? If you really, really, suck at the lockpicking mini-game, well, get better. Honestly, these perks suck, and it’s silly that they even put them in the game. Who is going to get these? Sure, there’s no way to force the locks in this game, but the sheer fact that you need to use this skill just means you’ll get good at it. ‘Quick Hands’ merely makes Lockpicking unprosecutable, but with a high Sneak score or an Invisibility spell, you can do that already. Wax Key would be convenient during the Thieve’s Guild missions, as having a key to some locks would mean that you didn’t have to pick them again, but there are plenty of jobs to do that don’t require any lockpicking at all. ‘Golden Touch’ and ‘Treasure Hunter’ are just useless loot-boosters, and by leveling the crafting skills, trust me when I say you won’t need money. ‘Unbreakable’ essentially makes lockpicking foolproof, but really, six perks isn’t worth it. Lockpicks have a base value of six gold. You can afford to buy them and break them. There are no perks in this tree that I really even consider.

Leveling Tips

Lockpicking occurs naturally as you explore. You find a locked door or some treasure that you misplaced in somebody else’s chest, and you’ll need to pick the lock to get it. And this isn’t Oblivion, when you successfully pick a lock, you’ll get a fairly sizable experience reward for doing so. This skill isn’t really a chore to level, you’ll get it up to a moderate level fairly quickly just by playing the game. And there’s no barrier to entry. You don’t need to reach any skill plateau to pick any locks in this game, it’s just that trying to pick a Master lock with a low skill with make the mini-game pixel-precise, and fairly annoying, but such locks can be overcome even if your skill level is in the 20’s, or just ignored until later. There are two main ways to train this skill without using a trainer. First, pick locks. To get initial boosts, go around the towns in the game at night and pick locks. Any locks. Just keep in mind that repeat-picks don’t seem to count. At the beginning of the game, picking a handful of locks will level you up, so it’s not too tedious of a chore. However, my playstyle results in a somewhat simpler method. I tend to get Sneak up to level 100 at Helgen (see the ‘Leveling Tips’ under the Sneak skill), meaning I have no trouble joining the Thieve’s Guild in Riften. At the start of the game, I’m doing jobs for the Thieve’s Guild, many of which involve picking locks, but that’s not how I passively level this skill. Jobs mean money, and money means I’m leveling up my crafting skills, and that means I’m creating enchanted daggers and potions to sell, which means I’m using the guild fence, Tonilia, to sell my loot. While selling off the by-products of my crafting skill leveling, I make certain to buy Lockpicks from Tonilia, who generously sells two-to-three dozen at a time. After a lot of selling my leveling debris, I not only have a huge fortune (typically over 200,000 gold), but in excess of a thousand Lockpicks. With such a horde of picks, I can safely pick any and every lock in the game while never worrying about running out, but since I’m lazy, I go find a Master lock and weigh the appropriate keyboard key/use a rubberband on my controller to apply pressure to the pick the wrong spot, quickly breaking my Lockpick. Since you get experience for every pick you break, I simply attend to other business while I automatically level up my lock-picking and burn through my supply of Lockpicks. It’s an option, especially if you don’t mind a little passive leveling.

Notes

About 1500 Lockpicks broken to go from level 62 to 92.

---

One-Handed {SKL013}

One-Handed weapons are the best way to deal damage in the entire game. Justify ‘the best’, you say? Okay, you can deal the most damage in the lowest amount of time with One Handed weapons. One-Handed weapons attack faster than Two-Handed weapons, meaning that it’s easier to hit with them, and even better, with a One-Handed weapon you can also use a Shield in the off-hand (for impervious defense) or a spell, or if you really want the damage boost, another weapon. It’s got power, speed, and versatility, what more could you want? I don’t suggest using One-Handed weapons for warrior types, I suggest that everybody become competent in them.

Perk Picks

If you bothered getting your crafting skills up to snuff, you can double the damage you deal with One-Handed weapons by investing five perks into the five ranks of the ‘Armsman’ perk. Also, with my 300 Stamina build, I have a huge fund for power attacks, and since power attacks are much more effective in this game, I consider it a worthy investment to sink two more perks into the ‘Fighting Stance’ and ‘Savage Strike’ perks. As for the other two power attack perks, I could care less about performing an uber charge attack, and when I’m killing enemies in three hits or so, I don’t really see the need to paralyze them.

The rest of the perks in the tree are optional. Frankly, I think dual-wielding sucks, since the only way to perform a true dual-weapon attack that hence deals greater damage locks you in place. I thought I decided against Two-Handed weapons because they were unwieldy, so why would I bother dual-wielding when it imposes the same problem? And as for the weapon-specific perks, if you want to be married to a weapon type, sword, axe, or mace, by all means, sink three perks into ‘Hack and Slash’, ‘Bone Breaker’, or ‘Bladesman’. Just remember, these extra perks are not as potent as ‘Armsman’, and in general, this is true for most ancillary weapon and armor perks.

Leveling Tips

You level up One-Handed by hitting things with One-Handed weapons. Really, there’s no quick way to do this, but don’t worry, there’s lots of enemies to hit in the game, and you’ll need to do so fairly often. In the beginning of the game, you can beat up your immortal fellow Helgen escapee to level up this skill as much as you wish, in a non-threatening situation.

Notes

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List of One-Handed Weapons {LST013}

One-Handed Weapons	Damage*	Weight	Value
Daedric Dagger	33	6	500
Daedric Mace	71	20	1750
Daedric Sword	62	16	1250
Daedric War Axe	67	18	1500
Dwarven Dagger	21	3.5	55
Dwarven Mace	53	16	190
Dwarven Sword	44	12	135
Dwarven War Axe	49	14	165
Ebony Dagger	30	5	290
Ebony Mace	71	19	1000
Ebony Sword	58	15	720
Ebony War Axe	67	17	865
Elven Dagger	24	4	95
Elven Mace	58	17	330
Elven Sword	49	13	235
Elven War Axe	53	15	280
Glass Dagger	27	4.5	165
Glass Mace	62	18	575
Glass Sword	53	14	410
Glass War Axe	58	16	490
Iron Dagger	12	2	10
Iron Mace	40	13	35
Iron Sword	31	9	25
Iron War Axe	36	11	30
Orcish Dagger	18	3	30
Orcish Mace	49	15	105
Orcish Sword	40	11	75
Orcish War Axe	44	13	90
Steel Dagger	15	2.5	18
Steel Mace	44	14	65
Steel Sword	36	10	45
Steel War Axe	40	12	55

Note: This list only includes the most common gear available, namely items that can be crafted.

*The values provided here were recorded with a character who had a One-Handed skill score of 100, and five ranks in ‘Armsman’. The weapons are otherwise unimproved.

Pickpocket {SKL014}

Pickpocket allows you to borrow things that you happen to have misplaced in the pockets of others. Honestly, I don’t know why this needed to be a skill instead of a branch of Sneak, and almost all of the perks serve to make your success rates go up or allow you to lift nicer things. Consider two facts: there are better ways to get money, and you’ll never be able to steal something as good as the items you can simply craft yourself. Who wants to bet I’m not going to be gentle when we discuss the perks?

Perk Picks

Nah, I’ll be gentle. Most of the perks are obviously not worth picking. A perk that makes stealing keys easier? They’re light objects. They’re already easy! Pickpocketing gold is 50% easier? It’s already easy! There’s no point in taking equipped gear, because most of it is mediocre at best. And yes, I’ve been too lazy to grab all these perks and pickpocket every character in the game in case one character has some uber item. I doubt it, and even if they did, it would have to be worth about five perks. There is one, single, interesting perk in this tree. ‘Extra Pockets’ just calls to the shameless loot-whore packrat in me. Really, I’m awful when it comes to hoarding, and an extra 100 points of carrying capacity is a huge boost. If you’re a certified packrat gamer like me, it might just be worth three perks, for absolutely no real power-gamey advantage, mind you.

Leveling Tips

Pickpocket is only hard to level at the beginning, and even at its highest levels, 2-3 good steals will level you up. At first, however, your success rates will be fairly low, and there’s really only two good ways to deal with this. Play the odds, and be prepared to save/load a lot, or train yourself up a bit. The best things to steal at any level are lightweight but moderately expensive items. Gems and jewelry naturally will become your prime targets, and robbing all such items from three or four cities’ worth of people will max your Pickpocket. Remember, the more expensive the steal, the more experience you’ll get. You probably shouldn’t even bother with food items, gold, keys, or other low-quality stuff.

Notes

N/A

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Restoration {SKL015}

Restoration is a bit of a necessary evil in Skyrim. When you’re an uber powerful character, you’re not likely to get hurt by much, but some critters can, in enough numbers, still hurt you. Your healing options are potions or Restoration. Since you pretty much have to find the best healing potions (you can’t make Potions of Ultimate Healing) and since potions require effort, ingredients, are finite, and have weight, it’s infinitely easier to just rely on Restoration to heal you up. The Restoration skill also has spells that turn undead and create barriers that increase your Armor rating and negate spell damage, but really, it’s all about the healing.

Perk Picks

Restoration is another skill that has very good spells that require no real perk commitment at all, although there are a few that might come in handy. But first, let’s talk about some of the spells and why we can ignore perks that have to deal with them. Bane of the Undead, the master-level spell for Restoration, deals minor damage to undead and causes them to flee, bound by a level requirement. If I wanted something similar to that, why, oh why, would I not just go through the Illusion tree? Also, barriers. We know how I feel about using spells as armor by now, right? Well, this goes beyond Alteration. You need to keep the ward up by constantly keeping it cast and using up Magicka. You’ll see enemy mages do it often, defend with one hand, cast spells with the other. Honestly, the best defense in this game is a good offense, and failing that, high-quality enchanted armor. Wards are pretty low on the list. So I won’t even bother discussing related perks since those spells are entirely useless, as far as I’m concerned.

That said, Restoration does have some interesting perks. ‘Respite’ allows healing spells to restore Stamina, which is fairly interesting, as Stamina is important to our build. More Stamina means more power attacks, shield bashes, time-warp effects while aiming with a bow, that good stuff. Although with a hefty pool of 300 points and possibly improved Stamina regeneration from Light Armor, this is a luxury at two perks, one that isn’t easy to justify. Another interesting perk is ‘Regeneration’, which flat-out makes all your healing spells twice as potent. It’s really unnecessary, however, as casting a pair of Grand Healing spells will quickly restore 400 Health. Even at level 81, with our Health reaching its max of 700, that’s enough healing to get us out of any trouble spots, and if it’s not quite enough, it’s quick enough to cast again for a full heal in a flash. We probably just won’t be taking damage often enough to really need the boost in healing power, especially if we reduce our Magicka costs to nothing. ‘Restoration Dual Casting’ probably isn’t going to make our healing spells as strong as ‘Regeneration’ will, and for the other spells we could use it with, again, I just don’t care about them. ‘Recovery’ is moot for this build, as it’s a low (read: no) Magicka build. We won’t be expending Magicka, so we won’t need to worry about regenerating it. Finally, ‘Avoid Death’ will give you a 250 Health safety net. I’m not sure if it prevents auto-kills, which seem to potentially occur when you’re at a third of your health or less, but 10% of your Health is cutting it pretty close. I wouldn’t suggest allowing yourself to get that injured, a suggestion that this build makes easy to follow, and at the end of the day, a 200-damage healing Grand Heal is a more reliable safety net than this perk. There are a few considerable perks you could work in, but no must-haves.

Leveling Tips

Restoration again levels slowly. It’s not as bad as in Oblivion, but there’s a good chance it’ll be one of the last skills you get to 100. The way to level? Heal. Which means you need to be hurt. The more you heal, the more powerful spell you cast, the faster you’ll level. I tend to level up Restoration into the 60’s or 70’s by healing as I level my armor skills. You can simply keep doing that to max out Restoration, too, but it’s a slow process.

Notes

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List of Restoration Spells {LST014}

Spell	Level	Magicka Cost**
Bane of the Undead	Master	586
Circle of Protection	Expert	101
Close Wounds	Adept	75
Fast Healing	Apprentice	43
Grand Healing	Expert	151
Greater Ward	Adept	51 per second
Heal Other	Adept	48
Healing	Novice	7 per second
Healing Hands	Apprentice	14 per second
Lesser Ward	Novice	20 per second
Repel Lesser Undead	Adept	68
Repel Undead	Expert	210
Steadfast Ward	Apprentice	34 per second
Turn Greater Undead	Expert	158
Turn Lesser Undead	Apprentice	49
Turn Undead	Adept	100

Note: This list does not include quest-related spells. *Almost all spells except for Master-level spells can be purchased from various Mages in Skyrim. Note, however, that they will not start selling you higher level Mage spells until you approach the level of proficiency required to get the Magicka-cost reducing perk for that level of spell. For example, vendors will not start stocking Fireball spells until you’re nearing level 50 in Destruction, and they won’t sell Incinerate until you near level 75. Also note that you can’t begin Master-spell related quests until you have a score of 90 or higher in a spell skill. **This is the Magicka cost for a character with a skill of 100, with no perks or gear that lowers Magicka costs.

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Smithing {SKL016}

Smithing allows you to create new weapons and armor from scratch and improve existing pieces of equipment. This is an awesome skill for several reasons. First, while weapon and armor skills allow you to improve their effectiveness, Smithing is the universal item-booster. Swords, bows, shields, light armor, heavy armor, it doesn’t matter, Smithing improves it. And potentially improves it a lot. Also, Smithing improves the base quality of the item, meaning that those perks that add +x% to armor rating or weapon damage will improve the value of the item after Smithing. Doubling the power of a 40 damage weapon is much better than doubling the damage of a 12 damage weapon. Also, being able to simply create the arms and armor you wish to use is much, much easier than buying or finding them. Last but certainly not least, in terms of economy Smithing will improve your weapons and armor rating more per perk spent than any of the weapon and armor skills themselves. Spending a handful of perks to get access to Daedric gear and then being able to improve it twice as much is cheaper than getting the relevant perks in both Heavy Armor and whatever weapon you fancy. And of course, when you mix this crafting skill with Enchanting, you can create exactly what suit of armor and weapon you need for any situation at hand. Mix Smithing with Alchemy, and you can create potions that make your Smithing +129% better. It’s an easy way to get weapons and armor that make you all but untouchable, except for magic, you need Enchanting to handle that.

Perk Picks

Daedric Weapons are the most damaging weapons in the game, so it only makes sense that regardless of what armor you wish to wear, you get Daedric Smithing. This means going through the Heavy Armor route and getting all the perks along the way. If you want to wear Light Armor, simply spend another perk to get Dragon Smithing, which will allow you to create Dragon Scale Armor, the strongest Light Armor in the game. Note that although the constellation appears to be circular, it’s not. You cannot reach Daedric Smithing by going through the Light Armor perk path. It does not wrap around. Finally, Arcane Enchanter is a decent perk if you lack foresight or if you want to upgrade any of the unique arms and armor you find in the game (read: Daedric Artifacts). Of course, you can arguably make better equipment, so you don’t need this perk, but if you want to upgrade any of the pre-enchanted, quest-related gear you’ll find, there are worse ways to spend a perk.

Leveling Tips

Smithing, as a crafting skill, is a skill that can be easy or hard to level depending on your coin purse. The simplest way to level it up is to forge Iron Daggers. Buy an Iron Ingot and some Leather, turn the Leather into Leather Strips, and smith away. It’s the cheapest of the crafting skills to level, and for that reason, it’s the first one I tend to improve. Of course, forging anything, as well as improving weapons and armor also increases your skill, but the quality of the item doesn’t matter, only the quantity. Hence, Iron Daggers is the most cost-effective item to produce. At least when you consider how much you can sell them for when you put a Banish enchantment on them.

Notes

Forge twelve Iron Daggers to go from level 99 to 100. Forge 500 Iron Daggers to go from level 15 to 100.

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Sneak {SKL017}

Sneak helps you sneak better, of course. It’s an essential skill for many quests, particularly involving the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. On its own, it’s decent enough at helping you avoid detection, so long as you stay out of the line of sight of your foes, are in darkness of some sort, are lightly equipped, and move slowly. Okay, the skill by itself can just barely get you through the quests you need it to, and even then, only with a lot of patience and bother. If you want sneaking to be truly effective, you’ll have to invest some perks.

Perk Picks

Sneak, like most skills, has a collection of perks that can largely be defined by one really great perk that makes the entire skill significantly better, and the way we evaluate its worthiness is by discussing that great perk and all the perks leading up to it. In my mind, the defining perk for Sneak is ‘Silence’. Let’s be honest, sneaking is good, but almost every time you’re sneaking, you’re doing it because you’re trying to get somewhere unseen or to kill something undetected. Standing still is rarely the best way to do this. Yet movement is one of the factors that determine whether you’ll be seen or not, and removing this makes sneaking much, much more likely to succeed. To get there, we’ll need to grab a rank of ‘Stealth’, which like the Block skill ‘Shield Wall’ is useful for a point for the brute +25%, but afterwards the diminishing returns make it less worthwhile. ‘Muffled Movement’ will drastically lower your detectability while wearing armor, but if you’re serious about sneaking, you should be in Light Armor, and wearing boots with the ‘Muffle’ enchantment. Still, not a horrible perk for the battle-ready armored assassin. ‘Light Foot’ is just stupid, a useless perk that Bethesda apparently couldn’t get out of their system after Fallout 3. Traps will stop scaring you as you get stronger, and failing that, just be observant. ‘Silent Roll’ is actually fairly useful for covering the last bit of ground to a target or just for moving silently. If you’re not detected when you start the roll, chances are you’ll remain undetected until the roll finishes. With the five perks it takes to reach ‘Silence’ you’ll get some duds and understudies, but you’ll ultimately make yourself a much more capable sneaker. As for ‘Shadow Warrior’, after playing around with it for a while, I’ll admit, I don’t see the point. It gives you a fraction of a second of invisibility if you enter Sneak mode, but it’s really too short to do much of anything. I don’t see why anybody would bother with it instead of, say, an invisibility spell? As for the sneak-attack perks, they’re all gold. I’m especially fond of using bows, as it’s much easier to stay hidden while you pick off foes with a bow. Since that forces me to pick up ‘Backstab’ along the way, it’s just an added bonus. As for ‘Assassin’s Blade’, I’m not a fan of daggers, but for backstabbing purposes, their speed and the sheer lethality of x15 damage is somewhat ludicrous. Ultimately, I can’t think of many things that could survive a 200 damage backstab from a Daedric Sword, with ‘Backstab’, making me pretty opposed to spending another perk on a backstabbing option that probably isn’t even necessary.

Leveling Tips

Sneak is one of the easiest skills in the game to level. You improve this skill by sneaking around other people, which do not have to be enemies, but have to be able to detect you. Meaning you cannot usually hide behind a wall or down some stairs where the enemy has no way to detect you and expect to increase this skill. My favorite place to level is in Dragonsreach, near the door to Whiterun. Guards always stand there, and at night you only have to sneak near unmoving guards who don’t care that you’re there, who won’t move around, and if you sneak into the corner, they won’t have a line of sight to you. Just walk into the corner for a few hours and you’re gold. Just remember that during the day the maids come out, and they can and will spoil your sneaking by being nosy and looking at you.

You can also level up sneak by performing sneak attacks or by evading detection and becoming hidden again after being detected by an enemy. Both of these give huge bonuses to the skill, but naturally you’ll need a decent Sneak score before you can expect to sneak attack enemies, right? Here’s a trick. During your escape from Helgen at the beginning of the game, you can sneak attack your buddy (either Ralof or Hadvar) for quick, easy, and unlimited skill gains. Keep at it, and you can max Stealth before ever leaving Helgen.

Notes

12 sneak attacks to go from Sneak level 99 to 100.

Speech {SKL018}

Speech determines the prices you get when buying and selling things, and determines your chances of success when attempting to persuade, bribe, or intimidate others.

Perk Picks

Since Speech is pretty much all about making more money, a power-gamey build like ours doesn’t really need to spend any of our precious perks here. But let’s not be hasty, you say, what about the story and quest sides of Speech? With a Speech score of 100, there was not, in my experience, a single situation where a Speech option was possible that couldn’t be overcome. Now, even with a score of 100, some characters will be unmoved by one attempt or another, but a character that isn’t moved by a Persuade attempt might be intimidated, or failing that, bribed. Since every quest can be done without spending any perks, why bother wasting perks? You’ll get enough money without blowing perks in the Speech skill, and improving your Persuade/Bribe/Intimidate chances aren’t necessary.

Leveling Tips

There are only two ways to level up Speech without training. First, succeed at Speech/Bribe/Intimidate checks, which are fairly frequent, but it’s not really something you can grind like you could in Oblivion. The second way is to buy and sell stuff. Unlike Oblivion, the quality (value) of the items matters, not the quantity. Selling items, in particular, raises the skill, although I have a few observations to make. First, selling items in bulk doesn’t seem to help you as much as selling them individually, even if you build up several thousand coins worth of loot in a transaction. Perhaps the game doesn’t count multiple copies of the same item sold in a bundle as a more valuable transaction? Also, when selling off my daggers enchanted with the ‘Banish’ enchantment (the fruits of my Enchanting grind), they didn’t produce gains in the Speech skill in proportion to their value. Again, my only guess about this is that the game valued the items as normal Iron Daggers for the purposes of experience, regardless of their value post-enchantment. What does work, then? Selling off the potions you make as part of leveling your Alchemy skill one at a time. In bulk, they produce minor gains, but individually sold, their relatively high value will end up leveling Speech fairly decently, and the more impressive potions (anything with a ‘Giant’s Toe involved) might be worth up to 2,000 gold. Even selling at 800 per pop, it only took several sales to level up a Speech score that was in the 60s. To that end, you’ll level up Speech from its humble beginnings to a fairly high score just by leveling up Enchanting, Alchemy, Pickpocket, and selling off your gains.

There is, however, a cheat. You’ll quickly notice that Persuade/Bribe/Intimidate successes increase the Speech skill very quickly. In Riften, you can find Ungrien working the counter at the Black-Briar Meadery. Pick the dialogue option “Tell me about Maven Black-Briar,” then select “Come on, get the truth off your chest. (Persuade)” You can do this as much as you’d like, leveling your Speech every time you persuade Ungrien.

Notes

N/A

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Two-Handed {SKL019}

There’s just something majestic about two-handed weapons, and in a game like Skyrim, the appeal to be a battle-axe bearing barbarian is really there. Unfortunately, some flaws exist on the combat side of things that make One-Handed weapons more appealing, namely the terrible speed of Two-Handed weapons and the fact that, although they are more damaging, the gulf isn’t really wide enough to bother dealing with the horrible attack speed.

Perk Picks

If you bothered getting your crafting skills up to snuff, you can double the damage you deal with One-Handed weapons by investing five perks into the five ranks of the ‘Barbarian’ perk. Also, with my 300 Stamina build, I have a huge fund for power attacks, and since power attacks are much more effective in this game, I consider it a worthy investment to sink two more perks into the ‘Champion’s Stance’ and ‘Devastating Blow’ perks. As for the other two power attack perks, I could care less about performing an uber charge attack, and when I’m killing enemies in three hits or so, I don’t really see the need to paralyze them. ‘Sweep’ certainly isn’t lacking in RPG credentials, but honestly, ‘all targets in front of you’ usually means two, at best. I just don’t see the point. And as for the weapon-specific perks, if you want to be married to a weapon type, sword, axe, or mace, by all means, sink three perks into ‘Limbsplitter’, ‘Deep Wounds’, or ‘Skull Crusher’. Just remember, these extra perks are not as potent as ‘Barbarian’, and in general, this is true for most ancillary weapon and armor perks.

What, you noticed that this ‘Perk Picks’ is almost identical to the One-Handed weapons one? Well, that’s because they’re almost identical skill trees. I calls them hows I sees them. At the end of the day, keep the main differences between the two weapon types in mind: One-Handed weapons are faster and more versatile. I don’t suggest any expenditure into the Two-Handed skill tree.

Leveling Tips

You level up Two-Handed by hitting things with Two-Handed weapons. Really, there’s no quick way to do this, but don’t worry, there’s lots of enemies to hit in the game, and you’ll need to do so fairly often. In the beginning of the game, you can beat up your immortal fellow Helgen escapee to level up this skill as much as you wish, in a non-threatening situation.

Notes

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List of Two-Handed Weapons {LST015}

Two-Handed Weapons	Damage*	Weight	Value
Daedric Battleaxe	75	27	2750
Daedric Greatsword	72	23	2500
Daedric Warhammer	81	31	4000
Dwarven Battleaxe	60	23	300
Dwarven Greatsword	57	19	270
Dwarven War Axe	66	27	325
Ebony Battleaxe	69	26	1585
Ebony Greatsword	66	22	1440
Ebony Warhammer	75	30	1725
Elven Battleaxe	63	24	520
Elven Greatsword	60	20	470
Elven Warhammer	69	28	565
Glass Battleaxe	66	25	900
Glass Greatsword	63	22	820
Glass Warhammer	72	29	985
Iron Battleaxe	48	20	55
Iron Greatsword	45	16	50
Iron Warhammer	54	24	60
Orcish Battleaxe	57	25	165
Orcish Greatword	54	18	75
Orcish Warhammer	63	26	180
Steel Battleaxe	54	21	100
Steel Greatsword	51	17	90
Steel Warhammer	60	25	110

Note: This list only includes the most common gear available, namely items that can be crafted. *The values provided here were recorded with a character who had a Two-Handed skill score of 100 and five ranks in ‘Barbarian’. The weapons are otherwise unimproved.

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Epic Builds {EBD001}

As promised earlier, here are some completed builds by Joel and I. Both pretty much agree on the first steps taken under the ‘General Build’, and some extra vagueness was thrown in where multiple approaches were more or less equal in merit. Destruction or Archery? Too tough to call, so both are provided. Heavy or Light armor? Unless you really want to sneak a lot, both are just as good, or you can go with neither and just let your crafting skills and the Steed Stone get you by. No, so long as you got the crafting skills (Alchemy, Enchanting, and Smithing) and have at least some affinity for One-Handed Weapons, you’re on the right track. How you want to spend the last 20-30 perks of the build, and whether you make it to level 81 and max everything is entirely optional. Below are some examples of what you could do if you wanted to.

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Haeravon’s Build {EBD002}

Hey, Haeravon! That guy’s just great. And his build gets to come first because of the alphabet (not intentional self-promotion). Squeaked by IssacFrost by just one letter, but it’ll do. I suppose my build should best be considered an epic ‘Assassin’ build. It’s cliche, but my goal wasn’t to make an assassin-type character, I merely tried to follow the strongest skills as they seemed to me. Without getting too deep into things that I’ve already said again, crafting skills make uber weapons. Uber weapons vastly out-damage spells. Adding a sneak attack’s multiplier to uber damage makes very, very dead enemies. Overall, it’s just an unstoppable juggernaut that can sneak, kill up close, kill at a range, and it takes very little damage from anything an enemy can throw at me. The choice of race is merely a bit of inefficient sentimentalism.

Attributes

Race: Nord Health: 700 Magicka: 100 Stamina: 300

Perks (79/80, 1 unspent)

Alchemy

• Alchemist (5/5)
• Physician
• Benefactor

Alteration

• Novice Alteration
• Apprentice Alteration
• Magic Resistance (3/3)

Archery

• Overdraw (5/5)
• Eagle Eye
• Steady Hand (2/2)
• Power Shot
• Quick Shot
• Critical Shot (3/3)
• Hunter’s Discipline
• Ranger

Block

• Shield Wall (1/5)
• Deflect Arrows
• Elemental Protection
• Block Runner
• Shield Charge

Destruction

• Novice Destruction
• Augmented Flames (2/2)

Enchanting

• Enchanter (5/5)
• Insightful Enchanter
• Fire Enchanter
• Frost Enchanter
• Storm Enchanter
• Extra Effect

Light Armor

• Agile Defender (1/5)
• Custom Fit
• Unhindered
• Wind Walker
• Deft Movement

One Handed

• Armsman (5/5)
• Fighting Stance
• Savage Strike
• Bladesman (3/3)

Pickpocket

• Light Fingers (1/5)
• Night Thief
• Extra Pockets

Restoration

• Novice Restoration
• Respite
• Regeneration

Smithing

• Steel Smithing
• Dwarven Smithing
• Orcish Smithing
• Ebony Smithing
• Daedric Smithing
• Dragon Armor

Sneak

• Stealth (1/5)
• Backstab
• Deadly Aim
• Muffled Movement
• Light Foot
• Silent Roll
• Silence

Gear

A/R Armor (Dragonscale Armor)

Armor: 296

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Restoration spells cost 29% less to cast.

A/R Helmet (Dragonscale Helmet)

Armor: 141

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Restoration spells cost 29% less to cast.

A/R Ring

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Restoration spells cost 29% less to cast.

A/R Amulet

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Restoration spells cost 29% less to cast.

Slayer Gauntlets (Dragonscale Gauntlets)

Armor: 131

• Bows do 48% more damage. One-handed attacks do 48% more damage.

Resistance Boots (Dragonscale Boots)

Armor: 131

• Increases Fire Resistance by 56%. Increases Shock Resistance by 56%.

Aegis of Annulment (Dragonscale Shield)

Armor: 139

• Block 48% more damage with your shield. Increases Magic Resistance by 23%.

Daedric Bow (Daedric Bow)

Damage: 305

• Burns the target for 55 points. Targets on fire take extra damage. If target dies within 11 seconds, fills a soul gem.

Daedric Sword (Daedric Sword)

Damage: 282

• Burns the target for 55 points. Targets on fire take extra damage. If target dies within 11 seconds, fills a soul gem.

Notes

You’ll have a base Magic Resistance of 45% as a Nord if you have the three ‘Magic Resistance’ perks in Alteration and the ‘Agent of Mara’ Active Effect. With your shield equipped, that will raise to 68%, and if you have the Lord Stone active, you’ll get another 25%, well past the cap of 85%. Decent resistances of 50% in each will make all spell attacks laughable, and with an Armor Rating of 836 (697 without a shield), I’m well over the cap in physical defense, as well. There’s very little that can hurt me on any difficulty, and this often prompts me to just use the Steed Stone for the extra carrying capacity, to make trips back to town less necessary. Also, keep in mind that I get extra physical and elemental resistances if I bother to actually use my shield to block instead of just as an arm ornament. Pair that with the extra-potent free healing, and you have very little to worry about.

The choice to go with the elemental enchantments in the Enchanting Tree was based on my desire to enchant my weapons with elemental damage, then grab three ranks in Destruction to combine the two for the best effect. A more frugal gamer could easily ignore all that. In the end, even I’m not sold on the idea. An extra 55 damage is nice, but one could easily put Paralysis on a weapon and save the perks.

Also, some perks I got just because I wanted to get as near to the 80-perk cap as possible. Nobody needs an extra 100 pounds of carrying capacity, I know, and some of the picks, like the Restoration and Destruction perks, are somewhat suspect. At the end of the day, though, I wanted to have the Level 81 build to actually make use of most of the perks. Most of the power-building is done by level 60, however.

Another interesting note to make: during some gaming sessions, I’ve substituted the normal ‘A/R Armor’ with an upgraded version of ‘Savior’s Hide’, which can be obtained by completing the quest ‘Ill Met by Moonlight’. This unique armor gives 15% Magic Resistance and 50% Poison Resistance, an otherwise unique set of enchantments to have on a suit of armor. It allowed me to dispense with the Lord Stone in favor of the Steed Stone, and at the end of the day, I still had 83% Magic Resistance (60% shieldless) and an Armor Rating of 804 (666 shieldless). Both are very respectable numbers. It requires that I expend my last saved perk on ‘Arcane Blacksmith’ and takes away our free-casting of Restoration and Illusion, but at 87% cost reduction, everything is still cheap enough to be cast-able. It really only indulges my aesthetic preferences and the joy I get at being able to haul around 600 pounds of loot.

IssacFrost’s Build {EBD003}

This build is the preferred build of IssacFrost, a regular contributor, perhaps best known for his exhaustive addition of the ‘Energy Weapons Build’ in my Fallout: New Vegas FAQ. It’s based on regular email correspondence with him, and I will attempt to use direct quotes whenever possible and/or necessary, while still trying to fit his information into the standard set by my build, above.

“This build is a controller Bard build that utilizes 100% free Illusion and Alteration. It is a powerful build that renders your enemies useless via Paralyze, Mass Paralysis, Frenzy, Rout, Pacify, Mayhem, Hysteria, and Harmony while you wail on them with little to no retaliation. Due to Master of the Mind, only Dragons are safe from your Illusion spells.”

Attributes

• Race: Breton
• Health: 550
• Magicka: 150
• Stamina: 400

Perks (65/80, 15 unspent)

Alchemy

• Alchemist (5/5)
• Physician
• Benefactor
• Poisoner
• Concentrated Poison
• Snake Blood

Alteration

• Novice Alteration
• Apprentice Alteration
• Adept Alteration
• Expert Alteration
• Atronach

Block

• Shield Wall (1/5)
• Quick Reflexes
• Power Bash
• Deadly Bash
• Deflect Arrows
• Elemental Protection

Illusion

• Novice Illusion
• Illusion Dual Casting
• Animage
• Hypnotic Gaze
• Kindred Mage
• Aspect of Terror
• Rage
• Master of the Mind

Enchanting

• Enchanter (5/5)
• Insightful Enchanter
• Corpus Enchanter
• Extra Effect

Light Armor

• Agile Defender (1/5)
• Custom Fit
• Unhindered
• Wind Walker
• Matching Set

One Handed

• Armsman (5/5)
• Fighting Stance
• Savage Strike
• Bladesman (3/3)

Restoration

• Novice Restoration
• Respite
• Regeneration

Smithing

• Steel Smithing
• Elven Smithing
• Advanced Armors
• Glass Smithing
• Dragon Armor

Speech

• Haggling (5/5)

Gear

Dragonscale Armor

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Illusion spells cost 29% less to cast.

Dragonscale Helmet

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Illusion spells cost 29% less to cast.

Ring

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Illusion spells cost 29% less to cast.

Amulet

• Alteration spells cost 29% less to cast.
• Illusion spells cost 29% less to cast.

Dragonscale Gauntlets

• Block 48% more damage with your shield.
• One-handed attacks do 48% more damage.

Dragonscale Boots

• Stamina regenerates 37% faster.
• One-handed attacks do 48% more damage.

Dragonscale Shield

• Block 48% more damage with your shield.
• Increases Magic Resistance by 23%.

Notes

According to IssacFrost, he prefers to use spells like ‘Detect Life’ and ‘Detect Dead’ to set up ambushes, led by a sneaking protagonist using Illusion spells. What he lacks in health compared to my build, he makes up for by providing a well-equipped sidekick, caution, and tactics, as opposed to my brute-force approach. Invisibility and Muffle support him and allow him to remain unseen. One must imagine that he’s got well over the Armor cap, and whatever he’s lacking from ignoring the ‘Magic Resistance’ perks in the Alteration tree, he makes up for by being a Breton.

He also makes use of more consumables than my build does. He advocates using Vegetable Stews to provide an unlimited source of Stamina and, of course, poisons to inflict more punishment on high-health targets, such as Dragons.

Last but not least, while shield-bashing is a great tactic, IssacFrost’s build is designed to mercilessly pummel enemies into submission. With his numerous concessions towards stamina regeneration and a larger Stamina pool, one can only imagine how many bashes/power attacks he can unleash.

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Getting Started in Skyrim {SKY001}

Ever since my first big Character Creation FAQ, I’ve been providing mini-walkthroughs to get people started. Bethesda games are big, and some people find it a bit overwhelming. Most of the time, however, they just need a little direction, and once they get settled a bit, they’re able to proceed with more confidence. In Fallout 3, the Rivet City run helped people find their way through the dangerous wasteland to quickly get the Intelligence Bobblehead. In New Vegas, the in-game guide was provided to help people find the New Vegas Medical Center to get Implants quickly. Both helped the overall build. In Skyrim, I’m providing a little hand-holding just to point people in the right direction, get some money, and most importantly, get their crafting skills maxed. It’s not very in-depth, it’s really just a brief on how I get myself started in Skyrim, after doing this several times. Some people might, after Fallout 3, wish for a little more, but this is as close to a full FAQ as I’m going to be getting for a long while.

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The Helgen Grind {SKY002}

The game begins with the wagon ride, character creation, and Helgen. There’s little to say here, as it’s really just the tutorial and intro, but we can take advantage of something. During our escape, we’ll run into a representative Nord of each faction of the civil war. Ralof represents the Stormcloaks and Hadvar represents the Empire. Both of them are your invincible allies, and the adjective there is the key point of interest. You can hit them with whatever weapons you find in Helgen and level up your One-Handed and/or Two-Handed skills as much as your heart desires. Also, if you sneak attack them, you can max out Sneak as well. It’s entirely possible to leave Helgen with skill scores of 100 in One-Handed, Sneak, and Two-Handed. The weapon skills take half of forever to level up, but you should consider maxing out Sneak, as this will make our next steps easier.

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First Steps {SKY003}

Outside of Helgen, follow Hadvar/Ralof to Riverwood, talk to their associates, and start the quest ‘Before the Storm’. At this point in the game, I’ll mention a few things. If you leveled up in Helgen, you could easily be near level 30 or higher. Which means your enemies will have scaled to match. If you’ve leveled up One-Handed, you’re at less of a disadvantage since you can deal a bit more damage, but until we get our crafting skills up and get some stronger gear, we’re very, very vulnerable. And as a friendly note, gear is the name of the game. So we’ll avoid combat for now and work to find a way to make some money, which we’ll use to boost our Smithing skill and give us a fighting chance. Some miscellaneous things we can do now: if you head out the south-west gate of Riverwood and turn south until you reach some impassable cliffs, you can follow these cliffs to the west and find an unmarked entrance to the Embershard mines. Herein you’ll find Bandits, some of which may be leveled. It’ll give you a taste of combat and allow you to see where you stand in the world. If you’re eager to grind, you can max out your Block skill here. There’s also numerous Iron Ore Veins inside, one of the components that will fuel our Smithing skill. Also in Riverwood, you can talk to Alvor and offer to help around the forge, which serves as a useful Smithing tutorial, or you can just wait until you get to Whiterun and work for Adrianne Avenicci instead. Last and least, you can talk to Lucan Valerius, the proprietor of Riverwood Trader, who will start the miscellaneous quest concerning the Golden Claw, which will tie in with another quest we’ll be doing shortly.

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The Dragonborn Emerges {SKY004}

For now, we’re best served by following the main questline. Head north along the river until you find the Honningbrew Meadery and then follow the road west to Whiterun. Go through Whiterun and talk to the Jarl. There’s going to be a bit of chatter with the Jarl and then Farengar, the court wizard, but your task ends up the same: you’re supposed to go to Bleak Falls Barrow (west of Riverwood) and find a Dragonstone to learn why the Dragons are returning. There are two rough spots in this quest. First, there are some Bandits outside of Bleak Falls Barrow that can be leveled and hence a problem. Second, at the end of the Barrow, we’ll have to fight a Draugr Scourge Overlord. While story events shouldn’t be leveled at this point, this particular Draugr can still be a pain in the ass. Head back to Whiterun when you’re done and continue to follow the main story, which I won’t ruin for you. When it’s all said and done, the Jarl will be itching to reward you. Most interestingly, we’ll be able to purchase Breezehome. Owning a house is a very good thing, as it allows us to stash all our crap, but we’ll need to raise 5,000 gold to buy it. The next bit is all about earning money. And of course, since you got the Golden Claw in Bleak Falls Barrow, feel free to turn it in to Lucan Valerius for the quest reward.

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Joining the Thieves Guild {SKY005}

Just outside of Whiterun, you can find the Whiterun Stables. You’ll want to rent a wagon to take you to Riften for 20 gold, which is nothing. Unless you’re very careful, or you drop the difficulty, walking to Riften will be dangerous and time-consuming. Paying the gold to fast-travel there is much faster and easier. Once there, you’ll want to find Brynjolf, who will ask you to pull a job for him. He’ll run distraction while you’ll need to steal Madesi’s Ring and plant it on Brand-Shei. Just make sure you’re hidden while getting Madesi’s Ring (which will be much easier if you’ve leveled Sneak) and save/load until you successfully plant the ring (which you do not need to be hidden to do.) Afterwards, Brynjolf will tell you to meet him in the Ragged Flagon. To get here, you’ll have to go through the Ratway, within which are some enemies you’ll just have to outfight. Once you reach the Ragged Flagon, talk to Brynjolf again, and he’ll give you another job, starting the quest ‘Taking Care of Business’. Just talk to Brynjolf and he’ll tell you exactly what to do to coerce Keerava, Bersi, and Haelga to pay their debts, regardless of your skill levels. Complete this quest and you’re in the guild. Most importantly, you can take jobs from Delvin and Vex and sell goods to Tonilia.

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Restoring the Guild {SKY006}

Because I’m lazy, I tend to just do Bedlam jobs for Delvin. It requires nothing but some travel and some sneaking. No picking pockets or locks, no trespassing. Just go into stores and steal until you’ve got enough loot. Return to Tonilia, fence the stolen goods (and get paid for the job) and repeat. To fast-travel between the cities, just take a wagon. It’ll cost you 20-50 gold, but once you’ve been there, you can just fast-travel via the map. These jobs will send you to Markarth, Whiterun, Riften, Solitude, and Windhelm. Starting a few quests is probably unavoidable, but don’t pursue anything besides guild jobs. Eventually, you’ll do enough jobs that you’ll get a special task from Delvin. You’ll have to go to one of the important cities you’ve been doing jobs in (except for Riften) and perform a task for somebody to appease them and spread the influence of the guild. Of the four, only the job in Whiterun doesn’t require any fighting. Your goal is to get as much money as possible before one of these jobs comes up, so don’t go wasting your money. Completing these tasks is possible, but it can be fairly difficult to fight leveled enemies without decent gear. If you can complete these missions, good. Keep going. If not, you can still keep stealing and fencing your loot, or you can start leveling up Pickpocket and selling what you steal there to earn money. Every time you complete one of these unique missions, a new merchant will show up in the Ragged Flagon, Tonilia will have more money available, and you’ll get the services of a fence in the city you just performed the job in.

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The Smithing Grind {SKY007}

What’s the point of getting all this gold? First, buying Breezehome is a good idea. Second, and most importantly, we’ll want to spend as much money as possible buying Iron Ingots and Leather. At a Tanning Rack, you can turn the Leather into Leather Strips (it’s cheaper to buy the Leather and turn it into four Leather Strips than it is to just buy the strips.) With one Iron Ingot and one Leather Strip, you can make an Iron Dagger and level up your Smithing skill. Do this until you max Smithing, which requires you to make 500+ daggers. Keep the Iron Daggers you make (store them in Breezehome) and spend some perks in Smithing until you reach at least ‘Daedric Smithing’. You can now, in theory, create whatever armor you need, but you at least need a strong weapon—the best defense is a good offense. You can buy a Daedra Heart to make your Daedric Weapon of choice from most any alchemist, although you might have to try a few times, as it’s not a guaranteed sale. Get a Daedra Heart, some Ebony Ingots, forge your weapon, then hone it at a Grindstone. You now have a fighting chance against most enemies and can probably complete all the quests that involve spreading the influence of the Thieves Guild. Creating a full suit of Daedric Armor or Dragonscale Armor will improve your odds even more, but getting the raw materials for them will either be expensive or just difficult.

Note: To get a merchant to change their stock and replenish their gold, you’ll need to rest for 48 hours.

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Joining the College of Winterhold {SKY008}

Now it’s time to prepare to level up Enchanting. To do this, I suggest you take a wagon to Winterhold and head to the College of Winterhold. Save before you approach the bridge, because at the entrance you’ll be accosted by Faralda, a paranoid member of the College ensuring that not any and all riff-raff can get in. You’ll either have to succeed at a surprisingly hard Persuade check to get her to let you in or show your competence. If she asks you to cast a spell you don’t have, buy it from her. If she asks you to cast a spell you don’t have the Magicka for, reload and try again. Once you get in, ignore the College-related quests. You’re not here to quest, you’re here to shop or at least to become aware of shopping opportunities. In the Hall of Countenance, you can usually find Drevis Neloren, the master Illusionist of Skyrim, Faralda, who specializes in Destruction magic, Collette Marence, specializing in Restoration, and Phinis Gestor, specializing in Conjuration. Each of these mages can train you in their school of choice, they’re the mages you’ll need to go to when your skill reaches 90 to start the quest to obtain the master-level spells in that school, and they’ll all sell you spells and soul gems. We’re interested in the latter, right now. In the Hall of Attainment, you can find Enthir. He gives you terrible rates, but he’s guaranteed to sell Daedra Hearts. To train in Alteration and get master-level Alteration spells, you’ll have to find Tolfdir, who is largely unavailable until you complete some College-related quests, so we won’t be bothering with him now. You can also steal/take some alchemical ingredients and Soul Gems lying around, which will respawn in time.

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The Enchanting Grind {SKY009}

If you’ve got some money, buy Petty, Lesser, and perhaps Common Soul Gems that already have souls in them, denoted by the grade in parentheses next to the gem. For example, Common Soul Gem (Common). This can ultimately be a hugely wealth-positive endeavor if you’re willing to sacrifice some gold now. Tonilia will sometimes sell weapons that have the ‘Banish’ property on them. They can be very, very expensive, but if you get one and disenchant it to learn the property, you can start using Soul Gems to enchant those Iron Daggers we made while leveling Smithing with the ‘Banish’ enchantment. It’s faster and easier to buy full Soul Gems from college members, but more expensive. If you want to do it yourself, you’ll have to get out and explore, and learn the Soul Trap spell. Me? I prefer to buy all the Common, Lesser, and Petty Soul Gems that are charged from mages in the Hall of Countenance, rest for 48 hours, and repeat. I stop enchanting when I need to go sell more enchanted daggers to Tonilia and repeat until I reach level 100 in Enchanting.

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The Alchemy Grind {SKY010}

We have the means to create whatever gear we want, but we’re not quite godly yet. To get the most out of Enchanting and Smithing as possible, we’ll need to level up Alchemy first. Since I’m not eager to enchant anything yet, I just create the suit of armor I want, improve it via smithing, and buy some accessories that improve my resistances (these are often sold by general store merchants.) Whenever I encounter a dangerous Mage or Dragon, I just pop on the appropriate accessory. It’s not ideal, but it’ll work. There’s no real avoiding it anymore, it’s time to explore. I search for Deathbells in the marsh south-east of Solitude, Jazbay Grapes and Creep Clusters in the hot springs area south of Windhelm, Juniper Berries and Hanging Moss near Markarth, and Salt Piles from the barrels in the canals of Riften. Try to make high-quality potions (check the tables in the Alchemy skill section of the guide) and sell them to Tonilia. If you want to speed the process up, don’t be afraid to pay an alchemist for some training, at least until you hit level 50 in Alchemy, after which it just becomes too expensive for my tastes. Arcadia in Whiterun is just an example trainer in Alchemy.

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Crafting Gear {SKY011}

Continue to cautiously explore Skyrim in search of ingredients. If you are finding that your favorite spots aren’t respawning ingredients fast enough, you can always head somewhere far away and rest for a long time. It can take a few weeks of solid resting to encourage ingredient respawns, however. Keep going until your Alchemy skill is 100. At which time you need to do several things. First, you need to get items bearing the enchantments you’ll want to use. At the moment, you’ll want to have ‘Fortify Alchemy’ and ‘Fortify Smithing’. You’ll also need to take a trip to get some Falmer Helmets to take advantage of their ability to stack with circlets, hence give you another item that can bear the ‘Fortify Alchemy’ enchantment. North-east of Whiterun, you can find ‘Shimmermist Cave’, within which you’ll find a number of Falmer. At our level, they’ll be leveled enough that some of them are bound to be wearing helmets, and there’s also a helmet lying around near where the first Falmer lurks. Be cautious, however, as Falmer can be dangerous. Once you have several helmets, you’ll want to make a ‘Fortify Alchemy’ potion, then enchant gear (a Falmer Helmet, a circlet, gloves, a ring, and a necklace) with the ‘Fortify Alchemy’ property. Unlike the disposable Iron Daggers that we enchanted to level up Enchanting earlier, you’ll want to use Grand Soul Gems (Grand) for these items, which can be purchased from the same mages at the College of Winterhold that we purchased Soul Gems from earlier. Wearing this newly-enchanted ‘Fortify Alchemy’ gear, go make more potions of ‘Fortify Alchemy’, and with the stronger potions, create another set of ‘Fortify Alchemy’ gear until you can create gear that makes created potions 29% more powerful. On this last set of gear, also be sure to enchant the armor, gloves, ring, and necklace with the ‘Fortify Smithing’ property, which should also be improving that skill by 29%. At the end of your enchanting, you’ll end up with:

1 Crafting Necklace: “Created potions are 29% more powerful. Weapons and armor can be improved 29% better.” 1 Crafting Ring: “Created potions are 29% more powerful. Weapons and armor can be improved 29% better.” 1 Crafting Gauntlets: “Created potions are 29% more powerful. Weapons and armor can be improved 29% better.” 1 Crafting Helmet: “Created potions are 29% more powerful.” 1 Crafting Circlet: “Created potions are 29% more powerful.” 1 Crafting Armor: “Weapons and armor can be improved 29% better.”

This gets you a grand total of +116% Smithing potency and +145% Alchemy potency. Let the god-making begin.

God-Making {SKY012}

While wearing your brand-new crafting gear, go make a few potions of ‘Fortify Smithing’. With an Alchemy score of 100, the perks suggested earlier in the guide, and your new crafting gear, you should be able to make potions that improve your Smithing potency by +147%. Take your crafting gear and your uber potions and go improve your gear of choice at a Grindstone for weapons, and a Workbench for armor. This is what allows you to make weapons that deal over 200 damage (with a high skill level and perks) and armor that can reach the Armor Rating cap without spending a single perk in the armor trees themselves. Create several suits of uber armor and improve it, then head to the College of Winterhold and buy Grand Soul Gems (Grand) from the mages there. If you want to level up all your spell skills, enchant some armor, a helmet, a ring, and a necklace with two schools you want to eliminate Magicka costs on. There are five schools, so it’ll take at least three sets of gear. At four pieces of gear per set, it’ll take at least twelve Grand Soul Gems (Grand) plus extra if you want to enchant your boots, gloves, shield, and weapon(s). What I typically do is create a set of gear with ‘Fortify Destruction’ and ‘Fortify Restoration’, a set of gear with ‘Fortify Alteration’ and ‘Fortify Illusion’, and a set of gear with ‘Fortify Conjuration’ and any other spell school. I’ll end up using the first set longest, since we’ll need to kill enemies to level up Destruction, and it’s good sense to be able to heal (and level up Restoration) while we’re trying to polish off skills like Archery and Destruction. You can now level up all the spell schools, as well as Heavy Armor and Light Armor (see the ‘Leveling Tips’ in the skills section of the FAQ for more information.) I also typically enchant boots with ‘Resist Fire’ and ‘Resist Shock’, and I enchant my gloves with ‘Fortify Archery’ and ‘Fortify One-Handed’. Be sure to make potions (using your crafting gear) that ‘Fortify Enchanting’ by 37% before you enchant anything.

And… that’s it. It’s a few paragraphs to read, but it’ll take you days to actually do. You might as well quest and explore while you level up Destruction and Archery, but after you’ve completed the paragraph above, you’re really good to go. You’ve hit the armor cap, you’re dealing insane physical damage, and are over 50% resistant to all three elements assuming you’re playing a Nord, like I tend to. If you’re playing a Breton, you’ll need to shift around some enchantments. You are pretty much untouchable by most anything the game can throw at you.

Summary {SKY013}

For those of you who don’t like too much reading, here’s a summary.

1. Escape Helgen, possibly maxing out One-Handed, Sneak, and Two-Handed.
2. Head to Riverwood, start the quest ‘Before the Storm’ and travel to Whiterun.
3. Talk to the Jarl of Whiterun and complete the quests ‘Bleak Falls Barrow’ and ‘Dragon Rising.’
4. Travel by wagon to Riften and join the Thieves Guild by completing the quests ‘A Chance Arrangement’ and ‘Taking Care of Business.’
5. Do jobs for Delvin and Vex to get money.
6. Buy Breezehome and level up Smithing by forging Iron Daggers.
7. Create stronger gear and complete the Thieves Guild quests ‘Imitation Amnesty’, ‘Silver Lining’, ‘Summerset Shadows’, and ‘The Dainty Sload.’
8. Join the College of Winterhold and buy filled Soul Gems or trap souls in empty Soul Gems. Get a weapon with the ‘Banish’ property and use the Iron Daggers made in step #6 to level up Enchanting.
9. Travel around Skyrim collecting alchemical ingredients and create potions to level Alchemy.
10. When Alchemy is maxed, create a set of ‘crafting gear’ with the ‘Fortify Alchemy’ and ‘Fortify Smithing’ properties.
11. Use the crafting gear to create potent potions that will allow you to create uber-powerful arms and armor.
12. Enchant the gear you created earlier to become all but invincible… and to help leveling the rest of your skills.

Standing Stones {MSC001}

The birthsign characteristics in the previous Elder Scrolls games have been replaced by ‘Standing Stones’. Essentially, they’re updated variants of the old birthsigns that—when activated—bestow various effects upon your character, usually beneficial. They can be changed out at will, although only one can be activated at a time. The Standing Stones should be switched out variously as needed to help with leveling, combat, or whatever function you might need them to perform. Below are listed all the stones, their locations, and effects along with my super-awesome comments on each one.

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The Apprentice Stone

Location: North-west of Morthal. (North of Fort Snowhawk.)

Effect: Recover Magicka twice as fast. Twice as vulnerable to magic.

Comments: My builds require as little Magicka expenditure as possible, using Magicka-cost reducing gear to avoid that attribute entirely. That said, this attribute is more of a burden than a boon.

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The Atronach Stone

Location: South of Windhelm. (North-west of Mistwatch, north-east of Darkwater Crossing, south-east of Eldergleam Sanctuary.)

Effect: 50 extra points of Magicka, 50% absorb spells, Magicka regens at 50%.

Comments: The ability to absorb spells is nice, but again, I don’t even bother with Magicka, so everything this sign does—good or bad—doesn’t matter to me.

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The Guardian Stones (The Mage Stone, The Thief Stone, The Warrior Stone)

Location: Between Whiterun and Falkreath. (South of Anise’s Cabin, west of Embershard Mine.)

Effect:

• The Mage Stone: Magic skills improve 20% faster.
• The Thief Stone: All stealth skills improve 20% faster.
• The Warrior Stone: All combat skills increase 20% faster.

Comments: If you’re dead-set on leveling one type of skill, there’s no better way to improve your leveling speed. That said, I prefer the lazy convenience of the Lover’s Stone.

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The Lady Stone

Location: North of Falkreath (South of Ilinalta’s Deep, east of Half-Moon Mill.)

Effect: Regenerate Health and Stamina 25% faster.

Comments: Again, I don’t use Magicka, and there are much better ways to keep your health up than with a meagre 25% regeneration boost.

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The Lord Stone

Location: East of Morthal. (North-east of Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon, south-west of Frostmere Crypt.)

Effect: 50 points of damage resistance, 25% magic resistance.

Comments: One of the best stones in the game, a 50-point defensive boost is about 1/11th of the total meaningful defense in the game, and 25% magic resistance is pretty self-explanatory. Still, our builds should exceed the useful defense in the game, but the magic resistance is great.

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The Lover Stone

Location: North-east of Markarth. (North of Kolskeggr Mine, west of Bind Cliff Cave.)

Effect: All skills improve 15% faster.

Comments: My favorite leveling stone, I honestly grab this stone as early as I can, and leave it on until I’m done leveling, which for me means until I’m level 81.

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The Ritual Stone

Location: West of Whiterun. (North of Whiterun Stormcloak Camp, south of Graywinter Watch.)

Effect: Raises all dead around you to fight for you.

Comments: If you haven’t caught the vibe yet, I could care less about AI-controlled companions. A stone that summons some undead is about as lame as I can imagine.

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The Serpent Stone

Location: East of Winterhold. (North-east of Wreck of The Pride of Tel Vos.)

Effect: Paralyze the target for 5 seconds, and do 25 points.

Comments: Since most enemies will die in under three hits from a well-leveled, well-equipped character, why, oh why, paralyze them for five seconds? And 25 damage? When you’re doing 200+ with your weapons, who cares about 25 damage? Nobody.

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The Shadow Stone

Location: South of Riften. (South of Nightingale Hall, east of Snow-Shod Farm, north of Lost Tongue Overlook.)

Effect: Invisibility for 60 seconds.

Comments: You can get a better reward for completing the Thieves Guild quests, or you could create armor that makes Illusion spells free. I don’t see the point in having this ability.

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The Steed Stone

Location: North-west of Solitude. (North of Wolfskull Cave, east of Widow’s Watch Ruins, west of Ironback Hideout.)

Effect: Carry weight +100, and no movement penalty from armor.

Comments: At first, it might seem underwhelming… wait… no it doesn’t. 100 pounds of carry weight is equal to 200 points of Stamina or 20 levels of attribute boosting. That’s a huge boost, especially if you’re a mindless pack-rat like me. But if you’re not, this sign also eliminates all encumbrance from armor as if you had the relevant perks. No extra stamina consumption, no hindered speed, and the armor becomes weightless while you have it equipped. If you want to keep this stone active the whole time, you don’t need any armor perks, except for perhaps ‘Agile Defender’ or ‘Juggernaut’, depending upon what armor you prefer to wear.

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The Tower Stone

Location: Between Dawnstar and Winterhold. (North of Hob’s Fall Cave, south-east of Yngvild, south-west of Pilgrim’s Trench.)

Effect: Unlock any Expert level lock once per day.

Comments: Or you could just pick the lock. Seriously? This sucks.

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Special Thanks to:

My girlfriend

For playing through this game with me and helping out significantly. She really should be considered a co-author of this guide for how much she contributed. From recording the alchemical ingredients and their properties as they were found, to making a list of spells, and just for playing and noting how the builds were working and what skills and perks were worth investing in—she did a lot. More than her usual effort of play-testing my builds and confirming and criticizing my ideas (which she did in addition to everything else this time around), there were instances where she was leading the build, having had equal time to play and, for a long time, a higher level character. I won’t say that this guide wouldn’t exist without her help—we all know I have nothing better to do—but it’s still nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of.

IssacFrost

For giving me so many great ideas in Fallout 3 and doing so much work for the Fallout: New Vegas guide. He certainly didn’t disappoint on this next Bethesda project. He again served as a critic and contributor to the guide while it was in its infancy, and as always, had his own ideas for how things should be. Even though I can’t seem to get my contributors to actually follow my advice, having them there to discuss the game helps bring my ideas into sharper focus… and at least we agree on how to build a character up to level 61 or so. Mostly. Kind of. Not really.