Skyrim Character Builds Discussion

Going with a Wood Elf Thief.

Light Armor all the way (Thanks, Dark Brotherhood!) and Archery as my main combat option. I can 1-shot almost everything.

For melee I'm using 1-handed with a shield.

Most of my perks are for Stealth and Archery, Lockpicking is a close 3rd, and touches in armor, block, and 1-handed.

I'm also focused on smithing because I really enjoy it. Trying to bump my skill so I can get the Magic unlock and upgrade my enchanted stuff.
 
In Oblivion, I was a stealth/thief/archer, and this time I decided I wanted to do something different so I chose an imperial. However, I'm now level 12 and after about the 7th level I decided I wanted to go back to the thief/stealthy type of player. I guess it just suits me more. Anyway, I don't want to start over, but I know I can continue with this player. I only "wasted" about 3 perk points in destruction - although those may come in handy at times. I need to find/make a pair of daggers though so I will be working on that tonight.

What a fabulous game! My favorite game of all time without doubt. I haven't even touched BF3 since Friday even though that's phenomenal too.

Edit: can I somehow switch to a Wood Elf? I know they're better at the Archery/stealthy stuff.
 
cuemasterfl said:
In Oblivion, I was a stealth/thief/archer, and this time I decided I wanted to do something different so I chose an imperial. However, I'm now level 12 and after about the 7th level I decided I wanted to go back to the thief/stealthy type of player. I guess it just suits me more. Anyway, I don't want to start over, but I know I can continue with this player. I only "wasted" about 3 perk points in destruction - although those may come in handy at times. I need to find/make a pair of daggers though so I will be working on that tonight.

What a fabulous game! My favorite game of all time without doubt. I haven't even touched BF3 since Friday even though that's phenomenal too.

Edit: can I somehow switch to a Wood Elf? I know they're better at the Archery/stealthy stuff.
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Just use the console commands to respec. Also, can change your race via console, but I don't think you get the racial traits.
 
I decided I'll be going with a stealth/archer/magic dude. Not sure what race would be applicable here.

I have a few questions.. Does stamina come into play at all when you're mainly using arrows and magic besides needing it for sprinting?

Is it viable to have a character not even equip a melee weapon and just kite using magic traps and paralysis and whatnot?
 
[F8];1038024214 said:
Attack button? Do you mean you use Mouse button 1? So you can still have something equipped in the other hand right? I was hoping you could hold your shield up to block while you are casting a spell, but I guess you can't do both at the same time? I have not used shield at all yet, mainly been doing one-handed weapon and spell in off-hand.
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Yes, sorry I have answered a lot of questions for people playing on xbox... I have had to use terms that would make sense to them, and I never think to say trigger. To your question no you cant hold up your shield and cast at the same time, would be nice though.
 
I had a similar idea but I don't have the game yet or know much about it. I envisioned shield bashing destruction mage. probably with armor but i don't want to spread myself too thin.From what I heard shield bashing is very useful for dragons.
 
Korben Dallas said:
Didn't know that. Basically it eats up stamina if you're zoomed in? Does it use it up as fast as sprinting does?
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Not sure... I just got it as I stopped playing last night. But you definitely see your stamina bar draining and your character does a hold breathe noise.
 
SilverSliver said:
Just use the console commands to respec. Also, can change your race via console, but I don't think you get the racial traits.
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Will this have any effect on achievements? I've used the console for other stuff and still get achievements... but I just want to make sure.


Korben Dallas said:
Didn't know that. Basically it eats up stamina if you're zoomed in? Does it use it up as fast as sprinting does?
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It's about the same as sprinting, maybe a little less
 
I've reevaluated my character choice. I've switched from a Khajit to a Wood Elf. Much more apt at archery. The other attributes I'm still contemplating. I'll see how my playing style goes. Loving this game so far!
 
limitedaccess said:
Actually I think what I'm mainly looking for is how late game affects these stats.

For instance do you need to pump enough health to avoid 1 hit kills from say higher end mobs?

Can you say offset stamina drain via perks/enchants/pot spot? (is there say a stamina regen enchant, but not health or vice versa?)

The other thing is does the max amount of magicka, health, stamina affect the regen rate? Or is the regen rate static or based on something else?
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I know this is a late reply, but it seems no one picked this up.

1. Things like giants can one or two hit lower level people unless they have armor or full health.

2. Yes/Yes/Yes There are perks to reduce the loss of all of them. The perks are action specific but they help a lot. Enchantments can both increase max health/stamina/magic or improve recovery rate. Lastly there are pot's for seemingly everything.

3. Recovery rates are based on a percentage of the max health/stamina/magic. I cant remember the rates off hand but the fastest to recover is magic then stamina then health.
 
So I became a vampire to see what it was like. Very mixed emotions. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Vampirism_(Skyrim) . The added sneak and resistances to poison, disease and frost are good. I don't really use illusion spells much, so the 25% more power isn't used by me.

The biggest letdown is the spell Vampiric Drain. It's totally worthless in my opinion. Stage one costs 5 magika per second to drain 2 health per second. Stage two costs 10 magika per second to drain 3 health per second. Stage three is 12 magika per second to drain 4 health per second. Stage four is 15 magika per second to drain 5 health per second. I assumed that since this was a destruction spell, putting points into perks that reduce the mana costs of destruction spells would work, but it does not. Stage four Vampiric Drain costs almost twice as much magika and does less damage than a novice destruction spell you start the game with. In my opinion, the spell should drain more and cost less, in fact I feel like numbers are backwards. 2 magika per second for 5 health for stage one would not be too bad, and if the perks in destrucion tree reduced the mana cost it might actually be decent. I think it should scale with your level somehow. Maybe a % of health for a % of magika?
 
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Anyone know if "Critical Charge" works with "Silent roll"? Silently roll forward and do a stealthed dagger attack for double critical damage?
 
Sounds like smithing and enchanting super weapons are the new over powered thing in the game. And sounds like destruction magic is seriously underpowered at about level 35+ since magic damage doesn't scale with skill and nothing can be done to add multipliers to the damage (other than earlier level perk multipliers).
 
Speaking of Enchantments, does anyone know how to get a list of the enchantments I've learned when I'm not at an arcane enchanter table? Carrying that magic 50 lb dwarven armor back to town with me isn't worth it if I already have the enchantment it's got.
 
Parmenides said:
Sounds like smithing and enchanting super weapons are the new over powered thing in the game. And sounds like destruction magic is seriously underpowered at about level 35+ since magic damage doesn't scale with skill and nothing can be done to add multipliers to the damage (other than earlier level perk multipliers).
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Enchanting super equipment has always lead to overpowered gear since Morrowind, it was actually the most broken in Morrowind.
 
BETA. said:
So, this means my vision of maxing out every single perk for my character will not come true? :mad:
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No. It just means you'll need to wait for a mod to achieve your dream, or you'll just have to open the console up.
 
[F8];1038027698 said:
So I became a vampire to see what it was like. Very mixed emotions. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Vampirism_(Skyrim) . The added sneak and resistances to poison, disease and frost are good. I don't really use illusion spells much, so the 25% more power isn't used by me.

The biggest letdown is the spell Vampiric Drain. It's totally worthless in my opinion. Stage one costs 5 magika per second to drain 2 health per second. Stage two costs 10 magika per second to drain 3 health per second. Stage three is 12 magika per second to drain 4 health per second. Stage four is 15 magika per second to drain 5 health per second. I assumed that since this was a destruction spell, putting points into perks that reduce the mana costs of destruction spells would work, but it does not. Stage four Vampiric Drain costs almost twice as much magika and does less damage than a novice destruction spell you start the game with. In my opinion, the spell should drain more and cost less, in fact I feel like numbers are backwards. 2 magika per second for 5 health for stage one would not be too bad, and if the perks in destrucion tree reduced the mana cost it might actually be decent. I think it should scale with your level somehow. Maybe a % of health for a % of magika?
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I got the vampiric curse today and decided to cure it immediately, after having been a lycan and seeing how incredibly bad is sucked. Vampirism sounds crappy, but it can't possibly suck as bad as being a werewolf. It takes a good 10 seconds to do the transformation, and the whole time your enemies are beating the piss out of you. If you're lucky enough to make the change before getting killed, you'll find that you can't heal, you take massive amounts of damage thanks to not having armor, Oh, and your attacks are a complete joke. Top that with not being able to get resting bonuses, and you have a recipe for suck. I cured that shit the first chance I got.
 
I'm still debating whether to allow my character to use a bow. Right now he's made in the image of Achilles; I can't decide if I should allow him to be more like Odysseus or if I should just keep him the way he is. He'd have to die young if he stays the way he is, of course.
 
It isn't critical to have a ranged weapon from my experience. But it is annoying if you don't, so I do have a bow as a secondary. Although I wonder if shouts can replace this need, and if yes I wasted a perk.
 
My current build is a destruction/necro/sneak Dunmer. I'm pretty much focusing on just illusion, destruction, conjuration and stealth. The reason for including sneak is due to my history of always playing assassin/rogue characters in previous TES games. I enjoy sneaking too much to give up entirely. Plus, I figure there's no reason I can't RP a necromancer assassin.
 
The sneaking bonus of Vampire is pretty nice, but other than that, I don't really care for it.

On a side note how good are two-handers vs one-hander + shield/magic vs. dual wielding one handers?

Does shield wall only refer to blocking with shields or does it include two-hander? I know it says shield but the description does not say shields only.
 
JI wanted to dab into two handed but playing on Master, it wasn't the way to go. High level battles with mage blasters will take to much trial & error & you'll most likely be 1 hit kill a majority of the time lol. So I stuck with the expected standard, sword & shield. My damage output is greatly decreased but my ability to survive a tough battle is far higher. I also don't have to rely on potions as much. The perk " quick reflexes " is something I couldn't pass up on either. It has come in handy on a few hundred occasions already.

My mains are One Handed, Block, Heavy Armor, Smithing

My only secondary at the moment is Alteration. Mainly to further echance my elemental resistance. So I can pretty much shield charge mages with no issues :). I'll figure where else I'll put my other points once I'm done with Alteration.
 
Is a dual wield heavy armor warrior viable? I mean with the dragons and all really seems like magic and archery seems the way to go. Just started and didn't want to really make "fight" the game if that makes sense. First go around with the series since Morrowind way back in the day.
 
Im going for a sneaky destruction mage.

Perks
Dual cast
impact
Master destruction
Ice tree(or fire can't decide)

Then going to build up the enchant tree to make some fortify destruction jewelry. Should mean Ill have damn near unlimited mana for casting.

Also building up the sneak tree because I like sneaking and stealing everything that's not nailed down.


Op? Probably. But meh first play through Im okay with that.
 
MisterClean said:
Im going for a sneaky destruction mage.

Perks
Dual cast
impact
Master destruction
Ice tree(or fire can't decide)

Then going to build up the enchant tree to make some fortify destruction jewelry. Should mean Ill have damn near unlimited mana for casting.

Also building up the sneak tree because I like sneaking and stealing everything that's not nailed down.


Op? Probably. But meh first play through Im okay with that.
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build up the illusion tree so no one can hear your spells. At least up to that one illusion perk.
 
Suprfire said:
So in my experience... destruction + destruction mana cost reduction enchants = overpowered

if you're a destruction or pure mage, you're gonna wanna see this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wVhYbDbV58
(shameless video self promotion :) )
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Wait until you get past level 35... and approaching 50. You'll be needing that mana reduction because it will take about 20 or more of those to take down any enemy close to your level.
 
I've been playing a high elf illusionist/conjurer, vampire. Pretty crazy style of play. Basically you juggle opponents with Calm/Frenzy, or cast Frenzy while stealthed. The enemies kill each other off, then you clean up with a summon or whatever. If it gets too much to handle, you just Calm them down and back off. Or Calm them, take all their stuff and continue on - dont really need to kill everything. In a pinch (vs undead, who are immune until you get a high-level perk) theres always Conjuration + some basic Destruction.
 
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Climber said:
Is a dual wield heavy armor warrior viable? I mean with the dragons and all really seems like magic and archery seems the way to go. Just started and didn't want to really make "fight" the game if that makes sense. First go around with the series since Morrowind way back in the day.
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I just started and I have this type of build, seems okay so far, but my dude is also an archer too.
 
I've finally gotten my plate-wearing caster built up where I needed him at to be effective, and I actually feel like the build has made the game less fun overall.

I'm currently at level 39 and have misspent 2 perks, so this build could be a little stronger still. Here is how my character (dark elf) is set up:
All Daedric legendary set with dual enchants on all pieces that bring my final stats up to something like:
750 ap
450 magicka
350 hp
100 stamina
92 frost resit
92 shock resist
50 fire resist
mana regenerates 50% faster (thank you restoration perks)
80 heavy armor base +25 on gloves
Destruction spells cost 75% less (perks + enchants)

The game has gone from pretty challenging on expert to easy-mode. My resistances and ap are high enough that I can literally stand in front of 2 Draugr death knights and take almost no damage. Mages using ice or shock do almost no damage, and fire does so little I can easily out-heal their dps. I intentionally chose not to make spells 0 mana in order to keep the game fun, but even 75% off is still too much to make it hard.

tl;dr - Making an uber character, even following in-game rules, can make the game less fun.
 
Started a new character to go down the magic route. She's High Elf, for that baller racial spell. I'm thinking I'll go pure destruction as I level and sprinkle some into alteration for the buffs. I'm a little nervous about having to wear no armor though.

Any advice for a magic noob? Please hold off on the high level tips and tricks, I would like to figure that out for myself. I'm just looking to see if there is something critical I'm missing to building a mage.
 
I'm not trying to minmax my character or anything jsut going with what seems cool. My main skills right now are Light Armor, Destruction, 1-handed weapons and restoration for battle.
 
petertew said:
I've finally gotten my plate-wearing caster built up where I needed him at to be effective, and I actually feel like the build has made the game less fun overall.
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The game is not balanced out in terms of heavy armor, light armor, and robes. There needs to be more things differentiating heavy, light and robes that cannot be easily nullified via the use of perks/guardian stones.
 
Restarting a new character. Going khajit with heavy armor and just using my claws with heavy armor gauntlets. Pew pew? Try meow meow. I'm going to kick some storm cloak ass!
 
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