The early Skyrim game and the subsequent re-releases have a ton of content to sink your teeth into, and the open-world free exploration mission structure of the game can lead to some amazing unique experiences for each player. The Skyrim community has come up with so many different ways you can play this game and has kept this game from dying out.
One of the places where the community has invested the most effort is the builds. There is so much freedom when you are making and progressing your character that the world of Skyrim has become a roleplaying and overpowered build haven for the players. In this article, we will be discussing some of the most fun builds you can go for in Skyrim.
There are 3 builds that we will discuss:
- Sauron: A Lord of the Ring roleplay type build.
- Archer Assassin: A stealthy archer that wreaks havoc from the shadows
- Machine Tank: A fantasy Iron-Man that bulldozes anyone that stands in its way.
Sauron (LOTR)
This is a build inspired by the menacing baddy from the Lord of the Rings franchise. The whole build is focused on destruction magic and spawning an unrelenting army of demonic beings to do your bidding and everything is to do with the struggle to acquire more power to conquer everything that stands in your way.
Skills And Perks
- Destruction
- Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert
- Augmented Flames 2/2
- Intense Flames
- Augmented Shock 2/2
- Disintegrate
- Destruction Dual Casting
- Impact
Destruction dual casting is going to be your bread and butter, allowing you to stagger with the impact perk and deal more damage to enemies and focus on flames and shock.
- Conjuration
- Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master
- Mystic Binding
- Summoner 2/2
- Atromancy
- Elemental Potency
- Necromancy
- Dark Souls
- Twin Souls
In conjuration, we have a lot of options and this character utilizes both necromancy and Daedric summoning depending on what the situation calls for. Twin souls are needed for more summons.
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- Heavy Armor
- Juggernaut 5/5
- Well Fitted
- Tower of Strength
- Matching Set
Heavy armor for defense as there is no need to move faster because we have the summons to distract plus we also use destruction to deal with enemies from afar.
- Smithing
- Steel
- Arcane Blacksmith
- Dwarven
- Orcish
- Ebony
- Daedric
Smithing is needed to maximize our defense and for a reliable method of crafting Daedric armor.
- Enchanting
- Enchanter 5/5
- Insightful Enchanter
- Corpus Enchanter
- Extra Effect
Enchanting is needed to truly unlock the power of this character by boosting his gear.
- One-Handed (Low Priority, for backup only)
Gear
Armor
The Daedric Armor is the armor of choice here:
- Daedric Boots
- Daedric Brawler’s Gauntlets
- Daedric Plate Helmet
- Daedric Plate Armor (an alternate-looking Daedric that gives a little bit more of a sorcerer-type feel)
- A Necklace and Ring of your choice. A gold ring reminds me of Sauron’s over the armor ring.
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Weapons
- Black Star Azura
- Staff of Hasedoki
The Black Star makes everything easier with enchanted weapons. The Staff of Hasedoki allows for if a target dies within 60 seconds it fills the Soul Gem, and when you aren’t attacking with this staff it gives you a ward that protects against spells for 40 points. The staff has a crazy knock back effect which provides the ultimate crowd control for the Dark Lord.
Spells
The four spell types we will stick to are fire, shock, necromancy, and Daedric summoning. Spells are the driving force of this build and with so many available in the game, there are many options that you can use.
As for the destruction spells when it comes to fire and shock is the Elemental Blast spell, an elemental explosion of 40 points of fire damage and 40 points of shock damage. This spell can easily be a base spell to be used most often. Other options include Elemental Bolt and Elemental Burst. Flame Cloak helps wear down enemies that get too close. Unbounded Flames and Unbounded Storms are powerful expressions of pure destruction and great for the late game.
For Conjuration the options are plenty and can be used for different scenarios. Atronachs (Flame, Storm, and Frost), Golden Saints, Dark Seducers, Dramora Skeletons, and Zombies. Necromancy is available for Dead Thralls and Dread Zombies. Summoning the Bone Colossus and the Ancient Death Priest are master-level summons that is quite powerful and menacing. This character is the Dark Lord after all and we want him to have dark summons to match.
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Playstyle
Once you have your hands on all of the gear and upgrades, you will want to start each encounter by summoning one or two summons depending on level and threat and then optimally use the Staff of Hasedoki for some crowd control then get to work with unleashing elemental blasts upon your foes. This character should be beefy with the armor and magic resistance, but we do want to keep distance optimally and let the summons handle most of the work. Keep an eye on your Magicka and let your summons or undead flex their muscles.
Archer Assassin
The Assassin Archer build, if done right, is one of the most overpowered builds in Skyrim. Sneaking and taking out enemies without alerting anyone is the name of the game here. Along with that this character also possesses all the necessary skill sets to function as a deadly assassin that can infiltrate any place without much trouble. Nothing can get near you and with a silver tongue, you get to rule the minds of many.
Skills And Perks
- Archery
- Overdraw 5/5
- Eagle Eye
- Steady Hand 2/2
- Power Shot
- Quick Shot
- Critical Shot 1/3
- Hunter’s Discipline
- Ranger
- Bullseye (Optional)
Eagle Eye and Steady Hand are going to be vital for this build and they are a big reason for the high stamina as with them you’ll be able to hold for a long time with perfect zoom headshots and kills and the slow time matrix kind of vibe for this character. Quick shot is going to let us draw our bow 30% faster on top of the 20 bonus already given from the Bow of Shadows which lets us fire like Legolas. On top of this, we have Ranger which will allow total freedom of movement while stringing an arrow.
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- Light Armor
- Agile Defender 5/5
- Custom Fit
- Unhindered
- Wind Walker
The perks here are pretty straightforward however Wind Walker is a particularly useful one which makes it so when you’re wearing all light armor you get 50% more stamina regen and when you’re talking about a stamina pool of something like 500 or more then you’re going to be restoring a lot of stamina real quick.
- Sneak
- Stealth 5/5
- Backstab
- Deadly Aim
- Muffled Movement
- Light Foot
- Silent Roll
- Silence
- Shadow Warrior
All of these perks help us do more damage from the shadows and help us stay in them. Shadow Warrior works well in combination with the Bow of Shadow’s invisibility enchantment so you have a whole host of tricks to use.
- Speech
- Haggling 5/5
- Allure
- Merchant
- Investor
- Fence
- Master Trader
Speech is useful for gathering materials to enchant and smith your armor and jewelry but also lucrative for money-making yourself. Perks like Master Trader and Fence make the whole money-making process that much easier.
- Smithing
- Steel
- Elven
- Advanced Armors
- Arcane Blacksmith
We need Steel, Elven, and Advanced Armors so we can be making shadowed leather armor and upgrading it as we see fit and also Arcane Blacksmith to improve things like the Guild Master’s Hood and Bow of Shadows, as well as upgrading your currently enchanted gear.
- Enchanting
- Enchanter 5/5
- Insightful
- Corpus
- Extra Effect
Enchanting is useful for upgrading gear. If you shoot up the middle of the branch you get the best of all the perks that in combination will allow you to get a whole host of useful enchantments for your armor perfecting your assassin’s equipment.
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Gear
Armor
Early on in the game, faction armors such as the Thieves or Dark Brotherhood sets are quite handy and come with solid enchantments but for the actual look of the build we want to get Netch armor and ultimately the Shadowed Netch Armor for the aesthetic.
The headpiece for aesthetic is the Guild Master’s Hood and the black color suits the shadowed leather of the base armor set. It also improves the prices you get at stores. But if you want a power game you could probably use the Boiled Shadowed Netch Leather Helmet and enchant it with what you like. Though aesthetically the Guild Master’s Hood looks the best.
Weapon
The Bow of Shadows is easy to get your hands on early in the game. It is a powerful bow in terms of damage, it is on par with a Daedric bow however it comes with an insane enchantment that increases weapon draw speed by 20%, and every time you ready it, it casts invisibility for 30 seconds. The draw speed is super fast, especially when you get the 30% boost from the Quick Shot perk. The invisibility is perfect for this stealth character, and it is simple as putting away the bow and redrawing it to reinstate the invisibility.
Playstyle
This build doesn’t take long to achieve, and that is its best part. When approaching any combat scenario, stealth is the priority, do keep in mind that this character is fragile but deadly. This is a stealth archer, and the consequences for failing can often be death however, by the late game, you have a lot of enchantments and stronger armor to help counter this.
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The plan is to run reapply Bow of Shadows’ invisibility and approach from the shadows. As your skills improve you can do some more of the charging Legolas style trick shot play when you have the Ranger perk for movement speed.
Ultimately all the stamina and stamina regen you have will give you a lot of options for movement, sprinting, or slowing time from aiming. You draw speed, and firing is super fast and can easily finish off any enemy before they alert their comrades. This is the ultimate stealth archer or maybe even just a simple archer experience you can get in Skyrim.
Machine Tank
He is a man inside a mechanical suit of armor built from Dwarven metal, sort of a fantasy Iron-Man. This is a build that relies heavily on brute force and technical ingenuity to tackle most challenges. For all you players who want to face the enemies head-on without worrying about going down easy, this is the build to choose.
Skills And Perks
- Archery
- Overdraw 5/5
- Eagle Eye
- Power Shot
- Quick Shot
Archery is to give our tank some far-range combat options, and the Dwarven Crossbow is a perfect aesthetic fit. Power Shot allows us to stagger enemies 50% of the time on top of Quick Shots speeding up our firing speed by 30%. All this is for the tank to not be overpowered by ranged enemies.
- One-Handed
- Armsman 5/5
- Fighting Stance
- Savage Strike
One-handed is our main attack form, and perks are basic damage-centric ones and an additional boost to our power attacks with perks like Savage Strike. We also get Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery for when we switch up tactics and dual wield.
- Block
- Shield Wall 5/5
- Quick Reflexes
- Deflect Arrows
- Elemental Protection
- Block Runner
- Power Bash
- Deadly Bash
- Disarming Bash
- Shield Charge
Block Runner gives us total freedom of movement with a shield raised. Disarming Bash and the other bash perks give us some deadly shield bashers with a bonus chance to disarm and let us not forget Shield Charge where we can take spell breaker and do a steam-powered sprint into a crowd of enemies bowling them aside before turning and crushing the fallen.
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- Heavy Armor
- Juggernaut 5/5
- Well Fitted
- Tower of Strength
Heavy armor is our bread and butter for this tanky build. Juggernaut 5 out of 5 for max armor rating and Well Fitted as well as Tower of Strength for a little extra sturdiness.
- Smithing
- Steel Smithing
- Dwarven Smithing
- Arcane Smithing
Arcane Smithing is essential to improve the artifacts and armor, and Dwarven Smithing is necessary for its creation and improvement of the Mask of Sotha Sil otherwise, it won’t be able to be upgraded to legendary condition.
- Enchanting
- Enchanter 5/5
- Insightful Enchanter
- Corpus Enchanter
- Extra Effect
Enchantment is useful for using Soul Gems to enchant this armor and weapons with great effects. Twin Effects is going to be the game changer giving us the ability to slot two enchantments at once.
Gear
Weapons
Sunder is the hammer and primary weapon with an enchantment that does 5 points of frost fire, and shock damage, and it does 15 points of damage to stamina and Magicka. Sunder empowered by Wraith Guard makes it so that your stamina regenerates 50% faster, and you do 15% more melee damage in general.
Keening, it absorbs 10 points of Magicka, 10 points of health, and 10 points of stamina and with Wraith Guard equipped it confers a bonus 50 Magicka as well as 20 stamina and 20 health.
Aetherial Staff allows us to summon a Dwarven Spider or Sphere for 60 seconds which is befitting for this character producing mechanical constructions upon the battlefield.
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The Dwarven Crossbow is enchanted with a powerful absorb health enchantment as well as a minor paralyze enchantment which helps create openings in battle and make crowd control a lot easier. Pair this with Dwarven Bolts of Shock which are more powerful, delivering 15 points of shock damage and adding to the mechanical feel of the character.
Spellbreaker shield, when blocks create a ward that protects against spells for up to 50 points. This, combined with spell absorption and the resistances we have, will help you become quite the machine.
Armor
The gauntlets are the vital components of the build. Wraithguard which confers a 10% resistance to shock, fire, frost, magic, disease, and poison. It also empowers Sunder and Keening.
Dwarven Plate Armor, enchanted to boost health and stamina.
Dwarven Plate Boots are designed to boost one-handed damage and stamina.
The Mask of Sotha Sil is worn as a sacred piece to embody the mechanical look. We can enchant it with bow damage boosts and water breathing.
Playstyle
With a lack of traditional magic, this build relies on his gear, and also Dragon shouts are used liberally some of our favorite picks are Cyclone, Disarm, Dragon aspect fire breath, Ice storm, Storm call, and Unrelenting Force. Shouts are the main attraction.
The most basic and reliable approach for this character is Spellbreaker on the one hand and Sunder on the other. Charge in with the shield raised and bowl your enemies down and start swinging that hammer, bashing them down again with your shield if they try and get up.
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Sunder and Keening can be dual-wielded, allowing you to attack incredibly fast and also get some valuable health and stamina back. This dual-wielding option can be great to switch in and out of, especially for bosses or tougher enemies. Switch back to Spellbreaker if you need to up your defenses and ward off some damage.
There are ranged options suitable for dragons and those faraway enemies. Firstly the Aetherial Staff can be used to summon dwarven automatons that provide valuable support and distraction, and with the Dwarven Crossbow, especially with the stagger perk and the paralyzed enchantment, the crowd can be more than controlled, and the absorb health enchantment is going to provide us with some serious recovery.
Skyrim is chock-full of build diversity, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. These are some of the most powerful builds in the game with different playing styles. One allows you to be stealthy and deal with punishment from the shadows. One is a tank that can never be stopped. And one is the leader of the dark army with a thirst for more power.