Skyrim - Builds, Tips, Q&A

Skyrim is the next game in a series extending from Morrowind, Oblivion and now Skyrim. It is officially named "The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim". Was released publicly November 11th, 2011 for the PC, XBox 360 and PS3. The game usually retails around $60 new.

(*right click and view in new tab to see the whole thing*)

Click HERE to view more information on each race.

- The start of the game is kind of long and monotonous consisting of a carriage ride all the way in to a town before you can start a new character. At the end of the carriage ride a soldier will start to ask prisoners to step forward. Right after you see one of your fellow prisoners flee and get shot down by archers go into the Menu and start a save file (You won't be able to save until this time, it will be greyed out in your menu). This will enable you to start a new character whenever you want without having to endure the monotonous carriage ride.

- Save often. It only takes 5 seconds and can save you a ton of time. Also leave your Autosave options on just in-case you forget. It will end up saving you sometime and it doesn't really slow you down at all.

- Good video for anything you need to know about mining in Skyrim


- Your companions or followers that travel with you can be used to carry a torch and they will use it to supply light to areas that need it (if it is night time).

-Your followers recycle arrows. If you take all of your companions arrows, they pick more up on their own. Great way to get more if you run out. On that note, followers don't run out of magic charges when they use enchanted weapons. That means if you give a follower a sword that drains health, it will continue draining health and won't run out of changes. Same applies for staffs: they can cast an infinite amount of spells from them.

- If the NPCs are asking you about your health ("feeling sick?" or "You feeling alright?") that means you have a disease, use a shrine to cleanse it, or craft a disease curing potion and drink it.

- Every major city stables has a wagon which you can use to fastravel to other cities you've never been to.

- You can take torches off the wall to make the room more dark if you are trying to sneak.

- Instead of stealing things directly and risk getting caught, pick them up and move them to a secluded room. Then steal the item, hidden from sight. (Do this by holding down your console's main selection button, like X on PS3)

- Grelka appears in Riften after joining the thieves guild. She has over 3300 gold and will buy everything you want to sell.

- When you increase your stamina you also increase your maximum carry capacity by 5.

- Resting in a bed will give you rested status, allowing for bonus XP gain, resting in your own bed (inside your house or one you purchased at the inn) will give you a well rested status allowing for even more bonus XP.

- Whenever you find an enchanted weapon (one with a status effect, like 'Orcish Sword of Flame' or 'Dwarven Sword of Leeching'), don't sell it if you don't plan to use it. Instead, find an arcane enchanter table and disenchant the object. This will let you learn its effects and apply it to standard weapons (providing you have a filled soul gem). The benefit here is that your enchanting will level up rapidly and you can sell the magic items for a pretty penny.

- Eating an ingredient will only unlock its first effect, to discover more effects you need to start crafting potions.

- It is possible to get married in Skyrim. There are actually some benefits to getting married. Click HERE to view more on marriage.

(*these are basically the birth-signs from Oblivion*)

The Warrior Stone - Combat skills increase 20% faster.
The Thief Stone - Stealth skills increase 20% faster.
The Mage Stone - Magic skills improve 20% faster.
The Lover Stone - All skills improve 15% faster.
The Apprentice Stone - Recover Magicka twice as fast; twice as vulnerable to magic.
The Atronach Stone - 50 extra points of Magicka, 50% Absorb spells, -50% Magicka regen.
The Lady Stone - Regenerate Health and Stamina 25% Faster.
The Lord Stone - 50 points of damage resistance, 25% magic resistance.
The Ritual Stone - Raises all the dead around you to fight for you once per day.
The Serpent Stone - Paralyze the target for 5 seconds, and do 25 points of damage once per day.
The Shadow Stone - Invisibility for 60 seconds once per day.
The Steed Stone - Carry weight +100, no movement penalty from armor.
The Tower Stone - Unlock any expert level lock (or lower) once per day.

*if there ends up being a ton of character builds submitted and ones of the same type are being posted (like 3 people posting a 1 handed melee warrior) I may choose the most well-written one and just post that one*

Sneaky Illusionist
Submitted by: LunaSaint

Style: Use a combination of stealth and illusion to cause complete chaos in a populated area without being detected. When done properly, you will always be the last thing the enemy will attack. And to back that up, you can use summons to further the chaos and provide a meat shield.
Another 'benefit' of this build is that bosses and high level enemies are absolutely terrifying and a very good challenge.

Race Suggested: High Elf (Altmer) makes this so much easier for the first few levels, where you'll probably need to use destruction to survive anyway.

Stat Allocation: Ugh, I'm not sure. 4/1/0? I got enough magicka to be able to use a couple of dual-casted frenzies, an atronach and have some leftover. After that, pump Health until magicka is a problem again.

Armour: None. Just robes, a hood/circlet, gloves and boots.

Primary Skills: Illusion, Sneak, Conjuration

• Illusion is the core focus of the build, using fury and frenzy to cause enemies to attack each other rather than you. Because this is the priority of the spec, you never have to worry about instakilling everything. It also has the benefit of scaring away/calming sabre cats and bears that get the jump on you in the early stages of the game, and gives you courage to provide extra durability to companions.
  + Show Spoiler [Notable perks/abilities] +
  • Get like, every perk. The only ones I haven't picked up so far (at level 40) are expert and master illusion. I'm heavily considering expert since I've been using Invisibility quite a lot.
    
  • Quiet casting is an absolutely beautiful perk, and the first thing I rushed to. When I discovered this thing existed, I knew I had to try this build.
    
  • Illusion Dual Casting is a necessity for this build, as it more than doubles the highest level targets for your illusions. This is super important for being able to hit bosses.
    
  • Master of the Mind allows you to also use courage on any summons, and makes tombs/dwemer ruins a lot more accessible.
    
  • Most of the time, you'll want to initiate a battle with fury/frenzy. It's your staple ability, and works best when they aren't already in your face. Regardless though, when you cast it enemies lose all their wits for a second and have to find a target again, so they can still stop attacking you when you cast it.
    
  • Calm can be used to give you time to heal up, regen magicka and summon, but is immediately broken when you attack them again. Therefore it's really used in emergencies.
    
  • Fear can be used like calm, but isn't broken upon hitting enemies. However, it has the disadvantage of enemies running the away and being a pain to keep up with. In enclosed spaces, it's very powerful as they can't escape. Also, note that unless there's nowhere else to go, a feared NPC will tend to run away from you, rather than past you. This can be abused to direct them towards a corner, when they then have to turn round again.
    
  • I tend to frenzy and rally over fury/courage, but with fear and calm I find it best to use on singular targets.
    
  • Invisibility is an amazing amazing ability, though I think I use it more than I need to. It lets you get into all kinds of useful vantage points (great fun at the various ruined castles in the world). It also provides a collateral if you mess up your opening. But it still doesn't stop enemies from seeing you if they're already up in your grill, so don't expect it save you from every situation.
    
  • Muffle is very important to cast, even though you're not wearing armour. Don't underestimate it.
  
  
• Sneak is the skill that makes this build so magical. Even without using any of your perks in the sneak tree, you can still avoid detection easily once you hit middling levels of the skill. Sneak lets you position and aim your spells, fire them off and then get out of sight before they find you. Executed properly, no-one will know you exist the whole time and be too busy killing each other to look for you.
  Like seriously, between having no armour, muffle and invisibilty, you really need no sneak talents.
  
  
• Conjuration complements the above two skills by providing you summons (I went with atronachs) to either add to the chaos (and hasten the killing), or provide a meat shield for situations where there's a single remaining enemy you cannot handle.
  + Show Spoiler [Notable perks/abilities] +
  • I opted to use atronachs over undead, because they don't need corpses, can be banished and aren't as morally reprehensible.
    
  • Fire Atronachs are the most reliable as they're much smaller, don't get stuck on terrain, and use a ranged attack. They're not so effective as meat shields however, so until I learned to summon Frost Atronachs, I kept a follower with me.
    
  • Frost Atronachs are brilliant meat shields, having the stamina reducing nature of frost, causing stagger with their slam, and just having a studly amount of health. However, their stompy nature makes them impossible to sneak with while active. Definitely the one to use solo. Also, because they're so huge they can often get stuck in doorways. This is incredibly bad when the game decided that NPCs cannot be pushed away unless you keep pushing for 5-10 seconds.
    
  • Storm Atronachs are simultaneously the best and worst. They have amazing damage output and a good amount of health, but suffer from randomly getting stuck on terrain and becoming untargetable and incapable of attacking. You can tell this is happening because they tend to wave their hands in the air. It's absolutely infuriating, so I tend not to use them in tight indoors areas.
    
  • The bound weapon tree is super useful regardless of whether you want to use them, as they let you banish atronachs after combat, making it possible to sneak again.
    
  • The Summon Daedra Lord spell is basically an "I win" button. The only time I've done it so far was when I encountered an Ancient Vampire, who would handily demolish my Frost Atronachs in seconds. Granted, I still don't have enough conjuration for the Stronger Atronachs perk yet.
    
  • The Summoner perk (extended range for summoning Atronachs/undead) is actually amazing, as it lets you summon them into the middle of a battle while staying in a dark corner. Also, summoning an atronach into a castle wall or something with a platform on top will usually summon them on top. This is hilarious fun, and gives you loads of options.
    
  • I haven't needed to get the dual casting perk yet, if you want to save points.
    

Optional Skills:

• Alteration - This provides you with the Mage Armour and Spell Resistance perks, as well as Detect Life, a really useful spell when sneaking around and working out where you can afford to go and who you can hit.
  
• Restoration - I didn't invest any perks into restoration, but it's definitely something to consider as it provides the mana regeneration perks and turn undead spells, the latter really handy if you want to go through tombs before you get Master of the Mind. You can also use calm or fear to buy time to heal yourself, so it doesn't hurt to at least get some spells from there.
  
• Archery - Between the Bound Bow being totally badass and the synergy with sneak, archery is a very strong choice. It provides you with a source of damage of your own, and lets you regenerate mana when not summoning or frenzying.

Other Tips:

• I used a follower to assist me until I could summon frost atronachs, but after that I went solo to capitalize on sneak. Atronachs that can spontaneously appear at the opposite side of the room and be banished when they're not needed are ten times more helpful and don't have as many problems. This does mean you don't have as much carry weight, however.
  
• For reasons above, if you really don't want to use the mage or lover stone, the steed stone is not a bad choice.
  
• Other skills to consider are Destruction and Enchanting. You'll probably want to use destruction for a bit in the earliest stages of the game anyway
  
• The College of Winterhold quests will get you one or two staves that help a lot against mages, I'd suggest keeping them.
  
• My build at level 40 looks something like this: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#8777
  
• If you go with the bound bow + archery for your choice of weapon, you'll have to learn to shoot between the legs and arms of a frost atronach without hitting it. A lot of times it's going to be blocking your enemies from you, and the last thing you want to do is banish it by accident.

Battlemage
Submitted by: speedphlux

Main focus : Destruction & Heavy Armor
Race : Imperial
Statistics : 3/2/0 (magicka/health/stamina)
Secondary focus : Restoration and Illusion
Essential Perks :
- Destruction Dual Casting
- Illusion Dual Casting
- Augmented Flames/Frost/Shock (Pick 1 of those. My brother goes with Frost, but I recon any of the 3 will be great)
- Juggernaut
- Recovery

Weapons :
The best thing is that you can choose how to approach each battle individually. Usually he keeps one-handed sword and a spell equipped. Transfering to Dual-casting or staff when needed.
Soul Steal + Life Steal is great combo for the sword as it allows you to maintain your health and fill up soul stones for early enchanting power leveling, which is quite important as well. Soul stones are also used for recharging your favorite staff, so you'll be "chewing" thru a lot of those.

Armor :
As heavy as it can get. Not always you'll be able to obtain/craft Daedric or Dragonscale Heavy set, but Ebony works wonders as well.
Enchants are mainly focused around Destruction Magicka cost reduced plus Magicka regen. You can always tweak it to your own prefernce of course.

Follower :
Anyone does good job. As long as you don't kill them yourself

Stone : The Mage for early stages and then The Apprentice.

Gameplay General Tips :
Really simple playstyle - you can allow yourself to take damage or you can choose to keep your distance. Single casting Destro spells are great for "pulling" mobs which you can later finish off with your sword or Dual casting. Restoration will allow you to live thru the most intense fights. Seen a couple of Giants + Dragons + Mamooths fights in which my brother didn't felt any pressure in terms of damage taken vs. magicka left over for spells.
Your Illusion is usually to be used only vs. groups of mobs, thou you can easly just destro-dual-cast thru most bands easly. You can also use your racial (Voice of the Emperor) when surrounded and in need of a bit of room.
Might be hard in the early and mid stages of the game, but once you reach the end game and your critical perks and stats are on par, you're a walking tower of destruction. No mana drain, plus insanely high regen means that you'll have no problems once you get over level 30.



The ULTIMATE assassin 
Submitted by: aznspryd

Just a forewarning, this build is not meant to be your main character, as I will NOT be using enchanting and smithing. I am also writing this guide expecting that you won’t be mad to read spoilers. This is merely an effective but lore-friendly role-playing build that you may wish to play if you want a challenging but FUN assassin gameplay. I will also only plan for 50 perks, because I highly doubt anyone will get much further than that.

I will mostly be using the bound bow as well as the quest daggers, and cast invisibility very often)

About the name of the build…..Okay, maybe this guy’s not the ULTIMATE assassin, but I see the potential for it. I play a dark elf assassin for no reason other than the fact that you can make dark elves look asian and dressed in dark brotherhood armor, they look like FREAKIN’ NINJAS!!

Of course, the racial abilities are nice. Their ancestral wrath (or whatever its called) is very useful in situations when poo-poo happens and you get caught. Put it on, and run the heck out of there. The resistance against fire is also an extra as it makes it easier to fight dragons (ones that spew fire. I run away from the ice dragons cuz they murder me ).

Of course, you may pick any race, but the best choices are probably argonian, khajit, or wood elves (btw, does anyone play woodelf?) for their starting bonuses as well as their racial abilities.

Names: Not original at all, but just an idea
• Desmond Miles
• Altaiir
• Salazar Slytherin (Dark elf) (this one’s for all u harry potter fanboys out there)
• Yigal Amir (Khajit)
• Lee Harvey Oswald (Not sure if the name will fit. If it wont, you can put “L.H.O”)
• Brutus (LOL THE IRONY)



General tactic:
Step 1: Scout the site. If you are attacking an area, sneak around, taking into account where the enemies are located as well as where they are facing.
Step 2: Pop your invisibility spell, sneak up to an advantage point (Higher elevation) and murder whoever is guarding that place 
Step 3: Repeat Step 2 if desired
Step 4: Conjure your bow and snipe targets that are huddled together, or are hard to reach without compromising your presence.
Step 5: KILL EVERYONE using dagger or the bow. The beauty of this build is that you may use both daggers and bows. Simply dual wielding daggers will get boring, Using illusion spells will get boring. Using a bow will get boring. USING ALL THREE, eventually, you’ll get bored, but it will be a MUCH more rewarding experience.
Step 6: Stack everyone against a fire and/or teabag time!

Do not be afraid to run away! You will get killed in 1 or 2 shots by almost everything besides skeevers and wolves, so if you fail at sneaking, run away and try again, perhaps with a different tactic.

Remember to recast your invisibility spell as soon as you kill someone. A true ninja only appears for the kill, then fades back into the shadows!

Allow your Magicka to fully recharge after conjuring the bow. This spell will most likely take up most of your magicka if you dual cast it!



End-Game armor *SPOILERS!*:

Ancient Shrouded Boots – (0.5 weight) Wearer is muffled and moves silently.
Ancient Shrouded Cowl – (1 weight) Bows do 35% more damage
Ancient Shrouded Gloves – (1 weight) Double sneak attack damage with one-handed weapons.
Ebony Mail – (28 weight) Muffle (This effectively makes the Ebony mail as viable for sneaking as any light armor as it perma-casts muffle, making the armor completely silent. Also, it looks AWESOME! Mixing and matching other armor sets might result in clips and strange looks, whereas the ebony mail blends in with your ancient shrouded boots, cowl and gloves perfectly.

Wearing the Ebony mail, you will turn into this dark haze at night and give off black tendrils of smoke if you are crouching. It will also poison nearby enemies that detect you. Of course, this poison is kinda useless because enemies aren’t supposed to detect you, but overall, I think the armor is great. Also, because it’s heavy armor, It provides more armor at the cost of 28 weight

Shout *spoilers?*:

Aura Whisper – Because the Ebony Mail’s black tendrils can sometimes get in the way of your vision, this whisper will allow you to still see the enemy. Also, as an assassin, your first step in any fight it to stalk your prey, taking note of the locations of all the enemies.

FUS RO DAH!! – if you’re caught and 50 draughr are running at you, FUS RO DAH! And run away… RUN LIKE THE WIND!!!

Anywhoos…. Onto the skills:

Major Skills
Archery - On my Archery tree, I get:
• 5 points in overdraw (for the damage, duh)
• One point in Eagle Eye (for sniping)
• One point in Steady Hand (for sniping moving targets such as those annoying flying dragons)
• Power Shot (for fun )
• Quick Shot (TO SHOOT ARROWS LIKE A MACHINE GUN) [okay, you don’t draw the bow that fast, but it’s still an improvement to the slow-mo drawing before you get that perk]
• Bull’s-eye (This perk is used against huge enemies like giants or w/e that you can’t kill with the 3x sneak bonus you get when… you’re sneaking)
• I also get 3 critical shot cuz it’s so fun to crit…

One Handed – Real easy. Remember, we will NOT be dual wielding because we will be using an Illusion spell in one hand!!
• 5 points in armsman (… duh)
• Fighting Stance (because all your sneak attacks will be sneak attacks)
• Savage strike (because it’s so fun to have heads roll around! ^^)

Technically, fighting stance and savage strike aren’t really necessary………. But I like to cut heads off…

Sneak -
• 3 perks in stealth (no, that is not a typo). YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO GET THREE PERKS IN SNEAK!) This is because if you get 5 points in sneak, the game’s over. It becomes stupid. If you get 5 points in sneak, you can run around in daedric armor and a war-hammer with a bard singing at your side WHILE ASSASSINATING PEOPLE! That is STUPID. Seriously. If you put any more points into sneak, you become so stealthy, its unrealistic. You can almost crouch in plain view (not even in the shadows) and your enemy won’t find you. A ninja is not a ninja if he is God.
• I get back stab (cuz I have to)
• Deadly Aim (cuz 3x is a HUGE difference from 2x)
• And Assassin’s Blade. Do I really need to explain this? DAGGERS DO 15X DAMAGE! THAT IS AWESOME!
• Then I get muffled movement, which is unnecessary, but still worth it
• Light foot, which I really think is stupid………………………. But I still get it
• Silent roll. This is actually pretty stupid, but it LOOKS SO COOL!! YOU CAN ROLL AROUND IN THIS GAME! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

That’s it. I will not be getting Silence because why would you be running and walking if you’re supposed to be SNEAKING?! The only time you’re supposed to walk or run is if you’re SURE that there is noenemies around. Once you get into a dungeon, you start sneaking.
I don’t get Shadow warrior either because I personally don’t find it that useful, and… well… you’re not supposed to be seen in the first place.


Illusion – ILLUSION!! SO FUN! SO UNDERRATED! SO OVERPOWERED!!!
• Novice illusion (of course)
• Apprentice
• Adept
• Expert illusion (I get this perk because the main spell you will be using in this tree will be invisibility. Ofcourse, if you’re an assassin, you’ve got to be invisible!!)
• Now, this one’s gonna be weird, but I will take Animage for kindred mage
• Kindred Mage for quiet casting.
• QUIET CASTING!! This will allow you to be… even quieter o.o The reason why I get quiet casting is because we won’t be smithing any bows. Exactly. You heard me right. We will NOT BE SMITHING OR ENCHANTING ANYTHING!! This is because I believe that smithing and enchanting has the potential to make the game too easy that it becomes boring. A real assassin does not work in front of an anvil all day or stand in front of a magic table.. (seriously, they don’t. THEY GO OUT AND KILL PEOPLE! THAT’S WHAT ASSASSINS DO! THEY KILL PEOPLE!)

How are we gonna have a bow, then? Let’s move onto conjuration



Minor Skills
Conjuration *SPOILER* – The only reason I get perks in here is for the Bound bow. Reasons? CUZ IT LOOKS FREAKIN’ AWESOME!! And with the Mystic binding perk, it’s got the power of a Daedric bow, AND you get a free 100 Daedric-level arrows everytime you summon the bow. Note, they are not real daedric arrows. They are shiny arrows that does the same damage as a Daedric arrow. Also, they scale on your archery level, so the higher your archery, the higher your damage. Note that it does NOT scale with your conjuration. It Is also weightless because you’re summoning it, and It disappears when you put it away, and…… its…. Summoned -_-
Cons:
Takes long to take out. Unlike a normal bow, which you can just pull out, You must equip the conjour bow spell, then charge the spell, and after a few seconds of delay, the bow pops up (This lag can vary from person to person. On my laptop, it’s almost instant (0.5-1 second delay) whereas I’ve seen some videos with 3 second delays. Simply plan ahead and summon the bow before you start a fight, and remember to resummon it once in a while or else it will disappear!
Ofcourse, you won’t be doing the crazy high damage you will be doing with a improved daedric bow with crazy insane enchantments, but I believe that with the 3X sneak bonus and the chance to crit, it is still enough to one-shot most end game enemies.
I get points in:
• Novice conjuration (because I have to)
• Apprentice conjuration (because I have to)
• Adept Conjuration (because the bound bow is an Adept conjuration spell)
• I get Mystic Binding because without Mystic binding, your bound bow hits like a wet noodle (just kidding, it’s still pretty powerful, but I believe it’s only a bit more powerful than an Elven bow. Can anyone verify this?)
• Conjuration Dual Casting (I get this spell because the bow only lasts 2 minutes. Now, I’m very forgetful and I don’t want my bow to disappear when I’m about to shoot an innocent bandit in the head, so I get this perk. This is not very necessary, but I also think it looks better. It looks like you’re doing a purple hadouken in front of your face haha.

Note that I did NOT get soul stealer because we will not be needing to fill any soul gems. Also, the huge thunder clap and the bright colors as the soul moves to you is very UNSNEAKY. Ofcourse, this does not affect gameplay, but I find it annoyingly loud when you’re playing a sneaky character. It’s simply unrealistic

Smithing – I know I said we won’t be smithing…. But I lied HAHA
• Steel Smithing (cuz we have to)
• Arcane Blacksmith (THIS is the reason why we have perks in this tree. When you get your quest equipments, their base defence is pretty low. As a result, we must improve them. In order to do so, we need Arcane Blacksmith!
*SPOILER!* That is all. I do not go to Daedric Smithing because we will just be using the Blade of Woe or the Mehrune’s Razor. They’re AWESOME! Remember! REAL ASSASSINS DON’T SMITH! (unless you’re spamming iron daggers and leather bracers to get to level 60 for the arcane blacksmith perk

Light Armor
• 5 points in Agile Defender (dragon teeth, claws and tail really hurt )

*SPOILER!*THAT IS IT! We will NOT be wearing all light armor! We will eventually get the Ebony Mail (google it. It’s awesome). The Ebony Mail is a Heavy armor, rendering Custom Fit, Matching set, Wind Walker and Deft Movement all be useless. Ofcourse, you can say you want Unhindered, but seriously? Light armor doesn’t weigh that much, It does not slow you down that much (I think it slows you down by 5%? Not sure. Please verify) and… you’ll be wasting perks.

How to spread magicka/Health/Stamina:
I go 1/1/1 until I reach about 200 Magicka, then I go 0/1/1. At this time, If you are getting caught very often, put more into health. If you’re running out of Stamina because you’re taking too long to aim down the sights of the bow, put more into stamina. As you realize that you stop emptying your stamina, stop putting points into stamina. Put everything else into Health because eventually, you WILL be caught, and you WILL be killed in one shot (mostly)



Sharpshooter/Sniper
Submitted by: speedphlux

Main focus : Archery & Stealth
Race : Wood Elf / Khajit / Argonian
Statistics : 0/3/1 (magicka/health/stamina)
Secondary focus : Light Armor & Lockpicking
Essential Perks :
- Eagle Eye
- Steady Hand
- Overdraw
- Deadly Aim
- Light Foot

Weapons :
Your main should be something like an Elven/Glass Bow with dual elemental enchantments - Fire & Ice seems perfect. If you get good at enchanting, you can squeeze out around 320 damage from a shot, without any of the bonuses from the stealth perks.
Keep your back up as either dual daggers (Orichish) or a combo of sword and shield (Elven/Glass). Good enchants for the dual daggers is "life steal" (health absorb) on both and one elemental for each - left hand Ice, right hand Fire. Shield is good with health boost and one-handed skill buff or health boost plus magic resistance. The sword should be enchanted with life steal and fire.

Armor :
Light ! That's the key. Either Elven or Glass would be great for you. If you manage to scrap up enough blacksmithing (highly doubtful), you can try sneak in a set of Light Dragonscale Armor.
Good enchants are Archery for the helm, Health + Stamina regen for the torso, Archery + Lockpicking for the gauntlets and Sneak + Muffle for the boots.

Follower :
Vorstag is perfect. Faendal is actually pretty good as well.

Stone : The Thief. Simple as that. You pick it up early and stick with it thru out.

Gameplay General Tips :
When exploring, keep sneaking. You'll often catch your pray before they can see you and the bow + sneak will result in one-shot-one-kill quite often. The only problem I have is when I'm with the dual daggers. I pretty much need to access my inventory every time my one-shot-one-kill move fails, because I have to equip my daggers properly. Nothing major to worry thou. You'll have enough health pool to take damage by dragons and giants once you reach level 20 and above. Besides, your light armor should offer decent protection by default.
I've often found myself in situations facing multiple enemies at once, usually killing 2 or 3 just with the bow and arrows from distance and from there on, I massacre the rest pretty easly with the dual dagger power strikes (hold down mouse left and right buttons at the same time).



2-Handed Barbarian
Submitted by: Sated

Race: Nord
Leveling: 0/2/1
Skills: 2-Handed Weapons, Heavy Armor, Blocking, Smithing, Enchanting (Optional: Alchemy For Potions).

Perks:
Basic/Core Perks (48 perks):

2-Handed Perks (13):
5/5 Barbarian (obviously)
Champion's Stance
Devastating Blow
Great Critical Charge
Sweep
Warmaster
3/3 Speciality Perk (Greatword, Warhammer or Battleaxe - Your Preference)

Heavy Armour Perks (9 - 22 Total)
Juggernaut 5/5
Well-Fitted
Tower of Strength
Matching Set
Reflect Blows

Blocking (9 - 31 Total)
5/5 Shield Wall
Quick Reflexes
Power Bash
Deadly Bash
Disarming Bash

Enchanting (11 - 42 Total)
5/5 Enchanter
Insightful Enchanter
Corpus Enchanter
Fire/Frost/Storm Enchanter
Extra Effect

Smithing(6 - 48 Total)
Steel
Arcane Blacksmith
Dwarven
Orcish
Ebony
Daedric

Playguide:

- Even though Stealth isn't something you're focusing on, it is a good idea to use Sneaking as an indicator for whether or not there are enemies in the area. Enemies will spot you from quite far away (or more accurately, hear you) so you will know they're around even if you can't see them. This isn't too useful in dungeons where you can usually see enemies before they attack you, but is very useful in the wilderness for detecting sneaky enemies like wolves.

- Try to fight in choke-points and avoid open areas when possible. This allows you to funnel enemies towards you, making them prime targets for Power Attacks to the face. You don't want to get surrounded, but if you do you can use either Unrelenting Force or the Nord's racial power to push enemies away/cause them to flee. I prefer using the Nord's racial power because it reminds me more of a Diablo II Barbarian, but you can only do it once-per-day! Another option when surrounded is to use the "Sweep" Power Attack to damage multiple enemies at once, but this leaves you open to counter-attacks.

- When faced up against Mages or Archers, determine if there is a good route to run at them that keeps you under a decent amount of cover. If there is, do so and "Great Critical Charge" into them for massive damage (they will fumble around swapping to their melee weapon when you do this, giving you time for a follow-up attack: This will usually kill an archer or a mage). If there isn't a good route to run at them under cover, either charge straight at them (if their damage isn't too high) or duck behind a corner and wait for them to come to you (especially helpful with destruction mages).

- When fighting Dragons, wait for them to land and hit them with a Power-Attack straight in the face. This will often stun them. Keep repeating the Power-Attack to force them to stay on the ground. When they are on low health, repeatedly tap the attack button for a chance to perform a special kill, just 'cause it looks cool!

- When fighting other 2-Handed weapon users, the best idea is to dodge backwards when they use normal attacks and then take advantage of "Deadly Bash" and "Quick Reflexes" to stagger them when they try a Power-Attack. This gives you the oppurtunity to chain Power-Attacks together and should deal enough damage to kill them.

- Potions of Fortify 2-Handed and Potions of the Knight/Potions of Fortify Heavy Armour are your friend. They will help you to deal more damage and tank more damage in a pinch, making fights against enemies you know are going to be difficult (or fights against enemies you've just died to) that much easier. This is why Alchemy is suggested as an optional skill, as a couple of points in the first Alchemy perk will increase the effectiveness of these potions even further.

Equipment (2 Enchants Per Item Once Enchant Maxed):

Weapon: Fire Damage Enchantment/Stamina Absorb Enchantment: Setting enemies on fire causes them to take extra damage from subsequent blows, giving you a chance to deal quick "burst" damage against a staggered opponent. Since we open most attacks with a Power-Attack, this is ideal. Absorbing Stamina allows us to repeatedly use Power-Attacks, which is always nice.
Head*: Anything you don't already have.
Arms*: Fortify 2-Handed x2: Obvious.
Feet*: Resist Fire/Shock/Magic (Pick 2): Backs up the 50% cold resistance you get from being a Nord.
Ring: Stamina Regen and Health Regen: Quick stamina regen allows you to chain Power-Attacks more readily. Health Regen is obvious
Necklace: Resist Fire/Shock/Magic (Pick 2): Backs up the 50% cold resistance you get from being a Nord.
Chest: Stamina Regen and Health Regen: As per the ring.

-Make sure your Helmet, Armour, Bracers and Boots come from the same set so you get all the Heavy Armour perk bonuses.
-I prefer Warhammers, but it doesn't really matter. Warhammers just look cool.

Follower:
Since you're not sneaking, having a follower isn't a problem. They're not going to disrupt your sneaking so there isn't any reason not to have one. It is best to have a follower who is capable of using a bow because that synergises well with the Barbarian's in-your-face attitude.

Stone: Lady Stone



Paladin
Submitted by: NightOfTheDead

Main focus : Heavy hitter with Healing
Race : Imperial (Breton for min/max players for magic resist)
Statistics : 2/3/0 (magicka/health/stamina) - put some stamina points mid game like 3 -5 (depending on your gear)
Secondary focus : Whatever you feel like (it's pretty easy and straightforward build)

Perks:
Restoration (Average - to Heavy investment)
Heavy Armor (Heavy investment)
One-handed Maces (Average to Heavy investment)
Alteration (Low investment) (Optional)
Smithing up to Daedric

Essential Perks :
- Respite (The most essential)
- Regeneration
-Bone Breaker
-Line up to Matching set in Heavy armor
-Ward Absorb
-Daedric Smithing
-Magic resistance (optional)

Advantages:
- Stand your ground and bash monsters. No more running around - when you get respite, bash with your mace and take a few steps back while healing and watch how your life and stamina instantly full, rinse and repeat.
-Ward usage and heal spells complement a lot this one-handed build.
-A lot of room for additional specializations (can go cleric style undead raising, also can go enchanting for min/max DPS build, can spec heavy into alteration for tanky build)
-Pretty easy to use.
-Very solid from early begining to late game.
-Who needs health or stamina potions? (very low potion usage)

Disadvantages:
- Low ranged options (speccing into destro, you need to go enchanting too, to give heavy armor spell reduce, no synergies with bow)
-Struggles against heavy ranged firepower in open spaces.(like several mages with impact casting at once, unless you go bretton and alteration)
-Must wait for dragons to land (althought dragonfights are pretty easy).
-Low carrying cappacity in heaviest armors

Tips:
- Level some points of restoration with perks asap (Novice, Regeneration). Then proceed on weapon damage, then on armor when have free perks.
-Usually it will be enough only using Fast Healing spell untill late game (it conserves mana very well), where heavier healing versions will be needed.
-When fighting go on full offensive, you have tools to fall back and fast heal anytime (healing should be equiped almost all the time, unless you need wards)
-Get ring of Namira asap after you get respite
-Go for Mace of Molag Bal if you dont go Enchanting
-This creates kinda sort of Anti-paladin from morality perspective, tho, if you are into role-play

Weapons : Maces. Pretty Old school paladin.

Armor : The best you can smith. No, i dont suggest rushing to Daedric asap, just stay ahead.

Follower : Any, synergizes well with all types.

This is build is open to tailor to your needs later on.



Passive Summoner
Submitted by: banana

A passive early game, exploding into madness later on.

Main focus : Conjuration/Enchanting
Race : Breton (your only weakness is magicka)
Statistics : 1/0/0 untill 200 base magicka, then 0/1/0 (magicka/health/stamina)
Secondary focus : Destruction

Essential Perks:
5/5 Enchanter
1/1 Insightfull Enchanter
1/1 Corpus Enchanter
1/1 Extra Effect

1/1 Apprentice Conjuration
1/1 Atromancy
1/1 Twin Soul

Weapons:
None, just twiddle your thumbs while you wait for magicka to regen. You don't want to raise any weapon skils.

Armor:
None, dont even wear light armor. You don't want to raise your light armor skill. Light optional later in the game for looks mostly.

Follower:
Faendal -> Lydia -> Onmund/J'zargo

Stone:
Mage / Lover's. This mostly just cuts down the time to train the skills. Later on it won't matter anything anymore, I prefer Lover's after enchanting/conjuring is finished.

Gameplay General Tips:
This is the important part. You'll be wanting to maximize your skill gains while keeping your level not too high, if you just rush all kinds of skills you'll level to fast and get crushed. What you are building towards to is - % mana used on conjuration/destruction spells, so you'll need 100 enchanting and a way to afford this. The Black Star should be your main priority on getting as soon as possible, this lets you craft pretty powerfull gear very early in the game, as well as provide you with excellent source of money by selling your enchants.

Playstyle early on while leveling your conjuration/enchanting:
- Flame Atronach out before battle, regen to full magicka.
- Soul trap all the things.
- Watch your companion/summon kill the (humanoid) mob. / Shoot some charges off a random staff.
- Craft some gear to sell, or recharge your staff to level.

The boring part ends once you hit 100 enchanting, enchant neck, ring, chest, head with -25% conjuration/destruction. Conjuration and destruction leveling should be very easy and natural now while doing all your quests now, just play safe. You can still get 2 shot by most things. Once you hit 90 conjuration do the spec quest and learn death thrall. You can gear up your corpses before you ressurect them, carry some extra gear on your companion and raise strong casters/melee. Proceed to do whatever you want and level whatever skill you want. Your little army will tank everything for you.

Tips:
If you need soul gems early on, visit winterhold early and plunder them. If you want to speed up enchanting bit, just spend your money on the small soul gems to trap random stuff.
Your companion can't die, dont kill it by accident yourself.
The hardest mobs to kill will be casters, throw alot of lighting spells to drain their mana and equip your companions with mana drain or shock damage.
Some mobs take a very long time to kill, fire spells are your biggest boon because of the burn.
Protect your companion(s) with - fire/magic damage taken equipment, or other elements. This will prevent you from killing them by accident by aoe.
Onmund is skilled in wearing heavy armor, tanky mage guy tanks everything.

Thoughts:
Very safe playstyle, that goes from beeing really passive into total madness later on. Endless spells and fireballs everywhere while having 3+ companion(s) at all time.



Spellsword
Submitted by Fruscainte

Main focus : Conjuration / 1h Weapons
Race : Imperial / Breton
Statistics : 2/2/1 (magicka/health/stamina)
Secondary focus : Destruction / Restoration / Alteration
Essential Perks :
-Mystic Binding
-Soul Stealer
-Oblivion Binding
-Rune Master
-Armsman (5/5)
-Bladesman (3/3)
-Critical Charge
-Dual Flurry
-Dual Savagery

Weapons :
Conjured weapons and spells

Armor :
This is where it gets a bit tricky. You are a mage, so you need mage armor -- however, until you get higher level Alteration and can get that super high damage resistance spell(s), you need to use Light Armor as well. So mix and match mage/light gear until higher level Alteration, then bust out the full mage gear (preferably the College of Winterhold gear) and then go crazy.

Follower:
Solo. Because you're a bitch if you don't.

Stone :
Hm. This comes down to a stylistic choice. The Lord Stone seems great for the damage/magic resistance that goes pretty damn well with some racials. The Lady Stone, however, has its perks. Faster Stamina regen means you don't need to put as many points into Stamina to keep up with power attacks and shit.

Gameplay General Tips :
Alright, so this is the basic strategy. You got your badass destruction spells if you need them, but they are secondary. Your main focus is conjured weapons. Normally I would say "Just use regular swords if you're going mage", but as I look through the Conjuration tree, you get some specific bonus' that can be extremely helpful. The increased conjured weapon damage, free Soul Stone filling, and best of all -- banishing all Atronarch's with a single hit is just flat out amazing. Mage's in this game are a bitch, and that last perk makes it that much easier to survive them.

Your general strategy is this: Cast your support spells early on with a conjured weapon in one hand, and then conjure your second weapon if necessary for the DPS. You're basically switching in and out from Dual Wielding conjured swords, and casting support spells. With the little testing I had with this class, I would run in and just burst down whatever I could, Fus Ro Dah any extra trash left, lower my swords and start hard casting as a simple mage my healing spells and shit like that.



Orc Cleric
Submitted by Scheefe

Perks go into Alteration, Illusion, Restoration, One Handed and Heavy Armor.
I feel that its a must to have Illusion on master, the crowd control abilitys are too good to pass up.
Alteration give me more armor and a passive 30% magic resist in perks.
Restoration gives me good stamina, and healing through perks.
Also Orc racial + resist pots is so strong.
Magic resist ward from restoration is pretty good aswell.

I try to use as less pots as possible, but against wispmothers and other crazy shit im forced to use them more then I want to. Is this because of my level? You're supposed to be able to kill a wispmother on 25ish right? Even on master.

The gameplay of this build is pretty fun to play with, I bind my weapon on 1, then I make my strongest resto spell sit on 2, my strongest illusion spell on 3 and my strongest armor from alteration on 4. 5 is buffs for allys, 6-8 are shout / racial power. In fights I try to get the opening shot with a stealthed fury effect on mages, they go berserk on their allys and get killed by their superiours. Then its good use of power attacks and running around/jumping and healing to dodge 2hander blows because they will fucking destroy you even with sick armor buffs.

Just the other day I took 2 Mammoths a Giant and a Dragon at the same time, this build is pretty damn strong. I was level 27 when this happened. I was able to dodge the giants and mammoths attack but the dragon keeps hitting with fire, double healing while he keeps spamming breathing attacks keep me up just enough to survive it, and heal back up.

Free Archery Training - An early side-quest in Riverwood sees you getting involved in a love triangle between Sven, Faendal and Camilla. If you help Faendal, he'll become a follower. Faendal can train you in archery. Buy all five levels of training, then speak to him and say you need to access his inventory. All the gold you gave him for the training will be in there, and you can just take it right back.

Sneak
1) Find a NPC in the Skyrim world that does not move and is near a wall. Just go into sneak mode and move against the wall for as long as you want for free sneak points. At early levels take off everything that you are wearing so that they won't detect you as easy.
2) Sneak and backstabb a friendly NPC with a low damaging weapon and then heal them. That way you also train weapon and restoration.

Smithing
Buy lots of leather, and then make hide bracers, upgrade them and then sell them off. There are lots of ways to level Smithing efficiently. Click HERE to view a really good video on how to do it.

Speech
Go to Black-Briar Meadery in Riften, then persuade Ungrien over and over again.

Restoration
1) Find a fire that damages you, stand in it until your health is low, get out of the fire and heal yourself.
2) Trigger a trap in a dungeon and heal yourself over and over.

Block
Find a wolf, then back up into a corner and put your shield up.

Conjuration
Use Soul Trap on a dead body.

Illusion
Cast courage/calm/muffle on a NPC.

Pick-Pocket
Give a follower a single arrow, then pickpocket it and repeat.

Alteration
Repeat cast water breeding while standing in water.

Q. Do I need to play Morrowind or Oblivion to know what's going on or understand Skyrim?
A. Nope, not at all. Skyrim actually takes place 200 years after Oblivion according to the story-line so its not like you will be missing anything in relation to story-line. Skyrim is basically an independent game that happens to be next in a series.

Q. Is there a maximum level?
A. As far we currently know, the maximum level is 81 (that is when all stats will be at 100).

Q. When casting a spell, if I hold it down, my mana continues to drain. Is there an ideal time to let go?
A. Spell-casting in Skyrim sometimes has the option for you to decide how long you cast a spell. There is no "ideal time" to let go when you are casting a spell in these cases. Those spells have a per second mana drain, and a per second damage effect. The starter spells, Spark/Flames/Healing/etc. (and some others from the utility magicks like Alteration and Illusion) are "constant"-type spells where they have an over time effect that continuously drains mana. However, there are also "regular" spells that charge up and go like a good ole' Fireball.

Q. My mercenary died, can they be revived?
A.. When mercenaries become badly hurt they will fall to their knees and stop fighting. They are not dead at this point, and the enemies will usually quit attacking them and focus on you. But if they do die without that happening, they are gone. You will have to re-load if you want them back.

Q. I've heard about the existance of Dragon Priests. Are they quest related or are they like dragons?
A. They're found though out the world in their tombs. Open the tomb to challenge the dragon priest for his mask. There are 8 Dragon Priests in total for you to find and destroy. They're very challenging fights though so be careful. Be prepared to dodge powerful fireballs.

Q. When I see people talking about their characters and putting 2/1/0 or 3/0/1 what does that mean?
A. Those are ratios to depict how a player is spending their statistic enhancements to mana/health/stamina per level up. The numbers are displayed in the order that these are displayed on the bottom while you are playing (left to right, mana *blue* / health *red* / stamina *green*)

Q. Does my shield always have to be in my left hand?
A. Yes. Skyrim doesn't let you play left-handed (like sword left hand, shield right hand).