Skyrim Legendary Character Developing Guide
24 November 2013
Version 1.00
Bob Cameron
Bob.Cameron@CameronTS.com
Copyright 2013 Cameron Technology Solutions
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. This document may not be placed on any web site or otherwise
distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on
any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited,
and a violation of copyright.
About the Author:
My day job is training software managers and teams transition from a command
and control development style into self-organized teams using Scrum and
eXtreme Programming (XP). I also help companies that have many agile teams
coordinate self-organized teams using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
Table of Contents
Contents
1. Introduction 2
1.1 Skyrim Legendary Character Building 3
1.2 Breton Sample Skills by Tree 3
1.3 Non-Breton Legendary Sample Skills by Tree 6
1.4 Skills by Level Approach 6
1.5 Breton Skills by Level 7
1.6 Non-Breton Skills By Level 9
1.7 Leveling Tips 11
2. Races 11
2.1 Constant Effects 11
2.2 60 Second Power 12
2.3 Preferred Races 12
3. Followers 12
4. Marriage 13
5. Training 15
6. Skills and Perks 15
6.01 Alchemy 16
6.01.1 Potions and Farming 16
6.01.2 Alchemy Perks 17
6.02 Alteration 18
6.03 Archery 18
6.04 Block 19
6.05 Conjuration 19
6.06 Destruction 21
6.07 Enchanting 22
6.08 Heavy Armor 24
6.09 Illusion 24
6.10 Light Armor 25
6.11 Lock Picking 25
6.12 One Handed 25
6.13 Pick Pocket 26
6.14 Restoration 26
6.15 Smithing 27
6.16 Sneak 28
6.17 Speech 28
6.18 Two Handed Weapons 28
7 Conclusion 29
1. Introduction
Since Skyrim has come out, I have spent thousands of hours playing Skyrim
designing, re-designing and then restarting Skyrim again. This guide targets
both new and experienced players playing Skyrim Legendary which includes the
official expansions Dragonborn, Hearthfire and Dawnguard. The Legendary
edition is available wherever the original edition used to be available. This
guide does not include the plugins beyond those packaged in the Skyrim
Legendary edition. Elder Scrolls Anthology includes Skyrim Legendary and the
previous games from the Elder Scroll series (Oblivion, Morrowind, etc.). For
new players, the guide tries to supply enough information to reduce
restarting after discovering more about how the game plays and identify some
places to visit early. Another goal is to level up without having to grind
your skills. Grinding a skill is when your character stops playing the game
and starts repeating a game activity to improve a game skill. For
experienced Skyrim players, this guide may point out some places to visit
early and will hopefully influence Skyrim character development for at least
one game. The guide has some spoilers, but is not a walkthrough. The build
plan described below is a good plan, but the point of the guide is to provide
a strategy to build your own plan.
This guide takes a different approach than other guides in that the goal is
to create a framework to map out different Skyrim leveling plans and survive
on the most difficult game settings. There are already many good guides for
character builds including the official strategy guide and Skyrim web sites
that contain more details such as http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim.
Many of the guides do not account for the standard expansions that are now
bundled with Skyrim or the higher difficulty levels. This guide suggests a
legendary character building strategy that will hopefully minimize your time
grinding skills and help survive and excel on the legendary difficulty level.
1.1 Skyrim Legendary Character Building
The Skyrim Legendary character building guide builds a character building
framework creating a character who encounters everything, can do all of the
quests, and maximizes skills working in the Skyrim universe and minimizes
time grinding skills. When the game first came out, there was a level limit
of 81, so the leveling guide shown is for the first 81 levels. For the
impatient, try one the character perk plans below.
1.2 Breton Sample Skills by Tree
Race: Breton (25 percent magic resistance, dragon skin)
Perks by skill:
Alchemy (9): Alchemist 1-5, Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner,
Concentrated Poison
Alteration (7): Novice Alteration, Alteration Dual Casting,
Magic Resistance 1 and 2, Apprentice, Adept, Stability
Archery (8): Overdraw 1-5, Eagle Eye, Power Shot, Quick Shot
Block (0): None
Conjuration (4): Novice Conjuration, Necromancy, Dark Souls, Twin Souls
Destruction (5): Novice Destruction, Augmented Shock 1 and 2,
Augmented Frost 1 and 2
Enchanting (10): Enchanter 1-5, Insightful, Fire, Frost, Storm,
Extra Effect
Heavy Armor (0): None
Illusion (6): Novice Illusion, Illusion Dual Casting, Animage,
Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting, Master of Mind
Light Armor (4): Agile Defender (1), Custom Fit, Unhindered,
Wind Walker
Lock Picking (0): None
One Handed (10): Armsman 1-5, Fighting Stance, Dual Flurry 1-2,
Dual Savagery, Savage Strike
Pick Pocket (0): None
Restoration (3): Novice Restoration, Regeneration, Necromage
Smithing (6): Steel, Elven, Advanced, Arcane Blacksmith, Glass, Dragon
Sneak (8): Stealth 1, Backstab, Muffled Movement, Deadly Aim,
Light Foot, Silent Roll, Silence, Shadow Warrior
Speech (0): None
Two Handed (0): None
Using the plan above, training can ignore block, heavy armor, lock picking,
pickpocket, speech and two handed weapons. Whatever plan is used, knowing
which skill trees to ignore will help decide what to train and what not to
train. Reasons to ignore block include a preference for dual wielding over
blocking and to have one less skill tree to maintain. Light Armor is both
lighter than heavy armor and provides a perk to restore stamina quicker.
Lock picking takes some practice, but eventually any lock can be picked
without spending perks. Pickpocket is nice for the extra pockets perk
allowing your character to carry 100 more, but at the cost of three perks and
another skill tree to maintain. With the Hearthfire expansion, money is not
an issue somewhere around level 15, so speech is not critical for very long.
Two handed weapons are heavier and slower than one handed weapons. Dual
wielding one handed weapons also means attacking with two enchanted weapons
instead of one.
Please alter your skill plan by your preferences. Selecting which perks and
skills to improve is part of the fun of the game. Whatever your list, break
down the skills by level to prevent having to grind skills later in the game.
1.3 Non-Breton Legendary Sample Skills by Tree
When playing a race other than Breton, reaching a magic resistance of 85%
requires either carrying a shield or wearing magic resistant jewelry. Magic
resistant jewelry is a good choice for Dark Elf (50% fire resistant) or Nord
(50% frost resistant), as jewelry piece resistant to the other two elements
will raise enough resistance quickly in the game. Another approach is to
give up on dual wielding and carry a magic resistant shield using 3 block
perks instead of the 3 one hand dual wielding perks. Magic resistance
alteration perks are not really needed with a shield. The 2 additional perks
available from not using the Magic resistance will be replaced by additional
block perks block runner and shield charge.
1.4 Skills by Level Approach
Using the recommended perks and organizing them by level requirements, fast
track two or three skill trees at a time while slowly leveling the other
skill trees to keep up with your current level. The recommended skill tree
groups to fast track in order are:
1) Alchemy and Enchanting
2) Smithing, Conjuration and Restoration
Increasing alchemy in the first group improves attack, defense and every
skill. With the Hearthfire expansion, alchemy is also the easiest skill tree
to improve. Finally, the Dragonborn expansion will allow resetting a skill
tree to develop your player level beyond 81. Enchanting eventually leads to
the "Extra Effect" perk which allows two enchantments on each item.
When training and leveling, the first set of skills will need to stay at more
than twice the character level to stay on plan. If the first set of skill is
alchemy and enchanting, the first set of skill can stay ahead of plan without
any training, but will require purchasing soul gems for enchanting.
The second group of skills includes smithing, which affects everything made
and improved. Smithing is in the second skill tree group to avoid grinding
skills. The other skills in group increase the level of dead thrall's that
can be raised to 50, and increases the number of dead thrall's that can be
raised to 2. Dead thrall's have a limit of level 50 NPC's, but there are
many good NPC's to choose from limited to level 50.
The second set of skills is more likely to need training in order to keep up
with the plan. Restoration in particular requires taking damage before
practicing, so if restoration is in the plan second skill set, prepare to
train restoration skill.
Meanwhile, there needs to be a balance including all used skills to survive
on legendary difficulty. Improving from level 15 or 20 to level 100 can't be
done without leveling up, so the recommendation is to improve most perks on
the odd numbered levels, and the fast track perks on the even levels.
1.5 Breton Skills by Level
With the Breton perks and strategy outlined above this leads to the following
perk leveling plan with missions to visit notes for early levels:
Breton Leveling Plan:
Player Skill
Level Tree Level Perk Notes
1 - - - Hold ingredients until level 2
2 Alc 1 Alchemist (1) Mix Potions. Add Faendal as a
Follower. Visit the Whiterun Jarl.
3 Smi 1 Steel Smithing Join All Guilds
4 Enc 1 Enchanter (1)
5 Sne 1 Stealth (1)
6 Alc 20 Alchemist (2) Bleak Falls Barrow
7 Arc 1 Overdraw (1) Dragon Rising
8 Alc 20 Physician Keep Smithing at 2 x Level
9 One 1 Armsman (1) Book of Love
10 Enc 20 Enchanter (2) Keep Restoration at 1.5 x Level
11 Lig 1 Agile Defender(1)Keep Conjure at 2 x Level
12 Alc 30 Benefactor Build Falkreath House.
13 Res 1 Novice Restoration
14 Alc 30 Poisoner Mix and Use Paralyze Poisons
15 Con 1 Novice Conjuration
16 Enc 30 Fire Enchanter Start Training As Needed
17 Ill 1 Novice Illusion
18 Alc 40 Alchemist (3)
19 Alt 1 Novice Alteration
20 Enc 40 Enchanter (3)
21 Des 1 Novice Destruction
22 Enc 40 Frost Enchanter
23 Arc 20 Overdraw (2)
24 Enc 50 Insightful Enchanter
25 One 20 Armsman (2)
26 Enc 50 Storm Enchanter
27 Res 20 Regeneration
28 Alc 60 Alchemist (4)
29 One 20 Fighting Stance
30 Alc 60 Concentrated Poison
31 Alt 20 Alteration Dual Casting
32 Enc 60 Enchanter (4)
33 Ill 20 Illusion Dual Casting
34 Alc 80 Alchemist (5)
35 Ill 20 Animage
36 Enc 80 Enchanter (5)
37 Alt 25 Apprentice Alteration
38 Enc 100 Extra Effect Dual Enchant Jewelry
39 Lig 30 Custom Fit
40 Smi 30 Elven Smithing Dual Enchant Elven Items
41 Alt 30 Magic Resistance (1)
42 Con 40 Necromancy
43 Des 30 Augmented Shock (1)
44 Smi 50 Advanced Armors
45 Arc 30 Augmented Frost (1)
46 Smi 50 Arcane Blacksmith
47 Arc 30 Eagle Eye
48 Smi 70 Glass Smithing
49 Sne 30 Muffled Movement
50 Res 70 Necromage
51 Sne 30 Backstab
52 Con 70 Dark Souls
53 One 30 Dual Flurry (1)
54 Smi 100 Dragon Armor
55 Sne 40 Deadly Aim
56 Con 100 Twin Souls
57 Arc 40 Overdraw (3)
58 One 40 Armsman (3)
59 Ill 40 Kindred Mage
60 Sne 40 Light Foot
61 Sne 40 Magic Resistance (2)
62 Arc 50 Power Shot
63 One 50 Dual Flurry (2)
64 Ill 50 Quiet Casting
65 Lig 50 Unhindered
66 One 50 Savage Strike
67 Sne 50 Silent Roll
68 Alt 50 Adept Alteration
69 Des 60 Augmented Shock (2)
70 Des 60 Augmented Frost (2)
71 Arc 60 Overdraw (4)
72 One 60 Armsman (4)
73 Lig 60 Wind Walker
74 Sne 70 Silence
75 Arc 70 Quick Shot
76 Alt 70 Stability
77 One 70 Dual Savagery
78 Arc 80 Overdraw (5)
79 One 80 Armsman (5)
80 Ill 90 Master of Mind
81 Sne 100 Shadow Warrior
Using the plan above, keep an eye on smithing, restoration and conjure
skills. The second set of skills needs to keep smithing skill about twice the
character level starting at level 8. Eorlund Grey-Mane in Whiterun is a
master trainer who can help train to level 90. Restoration needs to stay
around one and a half times the character level until reaching restoration
level 70, so start watching restoration at level 10. Colette Marence in the
in the mages guild can train restoration to level 70. Conjure starts at level
20 with a Breton, so somewhere around level 10 start monitoring conjure
skill. If playing a race other than Breton (starting with skill 15), start
watching conjuration at level 8. Falion is the master conjure trainer and
has a house / store in Morthal
1.6 Non-Breton Skills By Level
Swapping in the block perks for dual wielding and magic resistance also
brings decisions of where to insert the block perks. Re-using the fast track
skill trees, the change ripples throughout the plan as shown below. Both the
Breton and Non-Breton plans reach maximum magic resistance at level 61.
Bretons could also use this plan which acquires 6 perks at skill level 100.
Non-Breton Leveling Plan:
Player Skill
Level Tree Level Perk Notes
1 - - - Hold ingredients until level 2
2 Alc 1 Alchemist (1) Mix Potions. Add Faendal as a
Follower. Visit the Whiterun Jarl.
3 Smi 1 Steel Smithing Join All Guilds
4 Enc 1 Enchanter (1)
5 Sne 1 Stealth (1)
6 Alc 20 Alchemist (2) Bleak Falls Barrow
7 Arc 1 Overdraw (1) Dragon Rising
8 Alc 20 Physician Conjure and/or Smithing at 2x Level
9 One 1 Armsman (1) Book of Love
10 Enc 20 Enchanter (2) Restoration at 1.5x Level
11 Lig 1 Agile Defender(1)
12 Alc 30 Benefactor Build Falkreath House
13 Blo 1 Shield Wall (1)
14 Alc 30 Poisoner Mix and Use Paralyze Poisons
15 Res 1 Novice Restoration
16 Enc 30 Fire Enchanter
17 Con 1 Novice Conjuration
18 Alc 40 Alchemist (3)
19 Ill 1 Novice Illusion
20 Enc 40 Enchanter (3)
21 Alt 1 Novice Alteration
22 Enc 40 Frost Enchanter
23 Des 1 Novice Destruction
24 Enc 50 Insightful Enchanter
25 Arc 20 Overdraw (2)
26 Enc 50 Storm Enchanter
27 One 20 Armsman (2)
28 Alc 60 Alchemist (4)
29 Res 20 Regeneration
30 Alc 60 Concentrated Poison
31 One 20 Fighting Stance
32 Enc 60 Enchanter (4)
33 Alt 20 Alteration Dual Casting
34 Alc 80 Alchemist (5)
35 Ill 20 Illusion Dual Casting
36 Enc 80 Enchanter (5)
37 Ill 20 Animage
38 Enc 100 Extra Effect Dual Enchant Jewelry
39 Alt 25 Apprentice Alteration
40 Smi 30 Elven Smithing Dual Enchant Elven Items
41 Lig 30 Custom Fit
42 Con 40 Necromancy
43 Des 30 Augmented Shock (1)
44 Smi 50 Advanced Armors
45 Arc 30 Augmented Frost (1)
46 Smi 50 Arcane Blacksmith
47 Arc 30 Eagle Eye
48 Smi 70 Glass Smithing
49 Sne 30 Muffled Movement
50 Res 70 Necromage
51 Sne 30 Backstab
52 Con 70 Dark Souls
53 Blo 30 Deflect Arrows
54 Smi 100 Dragon Armor
55 Sne 40 Deadly Aim
56 Con 100 Twin Souls
57 Arc 40 Overdraw (3)
58 One 40 Armsman (3)
59 Ill 40 Kindred Mage
60 Sne 40 Light Foot
61 Blo 50 Elemental Protection
62 Arc 50 Power Shot
63 Ill 50 Quiet Casting
64 Lig 50 Unhindered
65 One 50 Savage Strike
66 Sne 50 Silent Roll
67 Alt 50 Adept Alteration
68 Des 60 Augmented Shock (2)
69 Des 60 Augmented Frost (2)
70 Arc 60 Overdraw (4)
71 One 60 Armsman (4)
72 Lig 60 Wind Walker
73 Sne 70 Silence
74 Arc 70 Quick Shot
75 Alt 70 Stability
76 Blo 70 Block Runner
77 Arc 80 Overdraw (5)
78 One 80 Armsman (5)
79 Ill 90 Master of Mind
80 Sne 100 Shadow Warrior
81 Blo 100 Shield Charge
Which skills are selected is not as important as having a plan to create the
desired character to guide training and leveling decisions. Note that using
a shield instead of dual wielding and magic resistance keeps the plan the
same until about level 13, but the plans diverge after that.
1.7 Leveling Tips
Characters except high elves start the game with 100 magicka, 100 health, and
100 stamina. High elves start with 150 magicka. Each time your character
levels up, your character can level up magicka, health or stamina. The
enchanting system can reduce the magicka cost to cast any spell to 0 if
wearing the right sets of enchanted armor, helmets, rings and necklaces.
With good enchanting each item can reduce magicka cost by 29 percent.
Carrying only extra sets of rings and necklaces, a character can reduce the
cost of four magic schools by 86 percent instead of two schools reduced to 0.
Stamina is used when running or using weapons, so stamina needs to increase,
but not too fast. Health is used to stay alive. Staying alive is highly
recommended. With this in mind, try leveling up at a ratio of 3 health, 1
stamina, and 1 magicka.
The third set of skills are generally looking to stay about the same level as
the player level until player level reaches 77 or 78.
2. Races
All races are playable in Skyrim. As far as game dialog goes, there seem to
be two races: Nord and not Nord. The game will have friendlier dialog with
Nords.
For a Legendary character build, all races are not the same. All races
except Orcs come with a constant effect. All races except Nords come with a
60 second power (the Nord power lasts 30 seconds).
2.1 Constant Effects
In my opinion, there is one constant effect that is better than the rest: 25
percent magic resistance. This is the Breton constant effect. Magicka is
used by powerful dragons and some spell casters. Fortunately, magic
resistance is not needed often. When magicka resistance is needed, an
enchanted ring and necklace can make your character reach maximum magicka
resistance for fire and frost, which are the only two magic forms that
dragons use. The worst constant effect is the Orc, which does not have a
constant effect. While constant effects seem more useful than 60 second
powers, in reality, constant effects are used about once a day, but sometimes
for more than 60 seconds at a time.
2.2 60 Second Power
Also in my opinion, the best 60 second power is the Orc power: take 50
percent damage and give an extra 100 percent damage. This is a power that
stacks with other powers or potions and comes in handy in the middle game
when opponents are a little more powerful than your character. When playing
Skyrim, the Dragons rarely kill, and almost never kill after enchanting a
fire/frost resistance ring and necklace. The tough enemies to handle tend to
be the boss characters not easily attacked from a distance with an arrow,
magic or voice attacks.
2.3 Preferred Races
For the Legendary build, maximum magic resistance requiring no enchanted
jewelry or armor makes the Breton the best race for playing on the legendary
difficulty level. The Breton is the only race that can maximize magic
resistance without using magic resistance enchantments, freeing the
enchantment slots for other abilities. Also play as an Orc at least once
using the shield skill tree plan.
3. Followers
When playing on the easy levels, followers are helpful to carry loot from
adventures, but can hinder your sneak ability and get in your way when
moving. On the legendary difficulty level, enemies and followers start
significantly more powerful than your character making followers more
important for survival on early levels. Followers need to become the primary
target in battles because followers are leveled similar to enemies, but your
character is not leveled like the enemies.
Detailed information about followers can be found at
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Followers. There are some things to know
about followers. First, follower levels match with your character level up
to a character specific maximum. Skyrim with expansions has 4 followers who
do not have a maximum level: J'zargo (Mages Guild), Caleann (Dawnguard),
Durak (Dawnguard) and Ingjard (Dawnguard). The Dawnguard followers can also
be Blades who will join quests attacking dragons. The Dawnguard followers can
also be stewards who in addition to helping run a house built, will help when
attacked at your built house. Other important followers are dark brotherhood
initiates. The initiates have a maximum level of 100. Using a dark
brotherhood initiate when recruiting Serana from Dawnguard allows having two
followers.
Creatures are also followers. The highest level creature follower is
Vigilance, which is a dog that can be purchased at the Markarth Stables.
Vigilance has a maximum level of 50.
Another set of followers to consider are followers who are also trainers.
Followers who are trainers are paid for training, but then your character can
"trade some things" with the follower to take the gold back. In general,
trainer followers are companions. One exception is Faendal in Riverwood.
Faendal is an archery trainer follower who has a house and some equipment in
his house and is a good first follower. Faendal has a maximum level of 30,
so switch to another follower by level 30 at the latest. If playing on the
legendary difficulty level, do NOT use free archery training (or any
training) to increase your archery level higher than your current player
level. Free archery training can raise your character archery to level 50
and player to level 8. A high archery and player level enables almost all
enemies to one or two hit kill your character until your other skills,
equipment, etc. catch up. Archery will level fast enough without the free
training.
Another follower benefit comes when asking your follower to pick up a skill
book (identified as books valued over 50 gold). A follower can pick up the
book and trade the book to your character without your character reading the
book. Delaying reading a book until reaching a higher skill level is helpful
latter in the game. Some followers can be married.
4. Marriage
Marriage in Skyrim has many practical advantages. Your spouse will open a
store allowing your character to buy and sell items at home to your spouse.
Your spouse's store will also provide 100 gold per day when your character
asks if the store has made any money. Some spouses have houses. Another
advantage is that sleeping where your spouse is receives the lover's comfort
bonus. The bonus increases all skill tree experience gained by 15 percent
for 8 hours of game time. If your spouse is your follower, using bed rolls
located at many quest locations enables gaining experience faster. Marrying
someone who is not a follower and fast traveling to another location
frequently simulates more than 8 hours of game time. The faster experience
leads me to recommend marrying a follower. Before your character can marry
someone, your character has to wear an amulet of Mara, and do something to
gain the potential spouse's favor.
The maximum level of followers that can be married is 50. There are several
housecarl and circle companion member followers who can advance to level 50.
The circle companion followers are also trainers: Aela the Huntress (expert
archery), Farkas (master heavy armor) and Vilkas (master two handed). Since
Aela is the only follower who trains in a skill tree that the plan is not
ignoring, Aela seems the most practical of the companion followers to marry.
Aela is an archer with one handed weapon, light armor and sneak skills. The
issue with marrying companions is that your character cannot marry them until
after completing all of the companion quests.
For the housecarls, your character must become thane of a hold, and then win
their favor. Early in the game, the gold from your spouse's store helps the
finance issue until building the Falkreath house. The first available
housecarl to marry is Lydia from Whiterun. To win her favor, your character
must do the main quest Dragon Rising (fight a dragon with help), and purchase
a house in Whiterun for 5000 gold. With the plan above, your character can
usually marry Lydia somewhere around level 10 or 11. Housecarls have heavy
armor, archery, one handed and block skills.
A third follower candidate worth mentioning is Uthgerd the Unbroken. To win
her favor, your character must best her in a bar fight in Whiterun. On lower
difficulty levels, fighting is reasonable to attempt when first entering
Whiterun. On the legendary level, your character will need potions and will
need to have defeated Gian the Fist in the Ratway while joining the Thieves
guild to pick up his Gloves of the Pulgist. Uthgerd comes with a house in
Whiterun, but has a maximum level of 30.
Marrying Uthgerd is recommended to get married follower benefits the
earliest. If looking to marry a follower who can reach level 50, Lydia is
recommended. Marrying Lydia or Uthgerd before building your house will also
help gain smithing experience faster while building and furnishing your
house.
5. Training
There are some lessons about training that are not obvious the first time
playing Skyrim. The first lesson is to use an upper limit training skill
trees that are not fast tracking up to your current level on the master and
legendary difficulty level. Your character may need to train the skills that
are fast tracking beyond your current level to meet your planned
requirements. In general, accelerating alchemy and enchanting does not
require trainers. Smithing, alteration, conjuration and restoration may need
trainers when fast tracked. There are two reasons to limit training skills
up to your player level. The first reason is that early in the game, gold is
needed to purchase equipment, filled soul gems, spell books, a house, etc.
All skills start at level 15 or above. The second reason to not train base
skills beyond your player level is the reason for not using the free training
from Faendal. Skills higher than your player level tend to increase your
player level too fast making your character more vulnerable to leveled
enemies.
The second lesson is to consider your player level the lower limit for skills
in skill trees that use perks in your plan. On the odd player levels, the
skill level required for the perk is below your player level following the
proposed plan. Keeping skills up at character level in the used skill trees
will keep the skills relevant. Relevant skills are important for skill trees
like destruction. If your character is using novice destruction spells at
level 25, the spells will have very little effect on level 25 enemies
The third lesson is to not train skills for the skill trees that your
character is not planning to gain perks in. Trying to keep all skills up to
your player level falls apart somewhere around level 25 due to a training
limit of five skills per player level. Training skills not frequently used
will contribute to enemies leveling too fast for your character to survive.
Too low a skill level will prevent your character from picking up the planned
perks.
6. Skills and Perks
The skills section gathers as much relevant information about each skill into
a single place to enjoy the skill tree without providing every detail about
the game. Each section also explains the perks in the recommended legendary
character build. The skills and perks are presented in alphabetical order
6.01 Alchemy
Alchemy is one of the first two skill trees to develop quickly in the game.
Farming makes alchemy easy to improve and help solve the finance issues in
the game.
6.01.1 Potions and Farming
Potions are among the most versatile aids in the game. Potions are created
by combining ingredients that have common effects. Each ingredient has four
effects. The first effect of each ingredient can be discovered by eating the
ingredient. Further effects can be discovered by purchasing recipes, using
perks, or using trial and error. Potions are also a source of income that
improves as alchemy perks are gained.
The most expensive potion to make from ingredients early in the game is:
Blue Butterfly
Blue Mountain Flower
Giant's Toe
The potion value will increase as alchemy skills and perks are acquired.
Giant's Toe will create a great return on investment when purchased from an
alchemy shop. Eventually, giants can be taken down using paralysis potions
and your best weapons.
The Hearthfire expansion enables farming, or planting ingredients and
harvesting the plants. Around level 10, your character will get an
invitation from the Jarl of Falkreath for a quest to take care of some
bandits. To become Thane also involves some quests helping three people from
Falkreath. The simplest quests in Falkreath to become a Thane are: Barit's
Ashes (delivering ashes from Thadgeir to Rumil), Stealing a note from Lod's
house for Dengeir, and selling a cabbage to Mathies that can be picked from
his farm. Sell the cabbage last, as the cabbage seems to reset any glitches.
Four quests and 5000 gold pieces enable buying land to build a house. Built
houses can include building a garden and planting 11 ingredients. Building a
house can also include building a greenhouse and planting 18 more
ingredients. House plants produce 3 to 5 of each ingredient when harvested.
Purchase needed farming ingredients not found.
The following farming recipes are recommended:
Ingredients
Plant Per Plant Potions
Creep Cluster 5 Fortify Carry Weight / Restore Magicka
Scaly Pholiota 5 Regenerate Stamina / Fortify Illusion
Mora Tapinella 3 Weakness to Magic
Cannis Root 4 Paralysis /
Imp Stool 4 Damage Health (1.5xDamage)
Death Bell 3
Blisterwort 4 Fortify Smithing /
Glowing Mushroom 5 Fortify Health /
Wheat 4 Restore Health
Snowberries 4 Enchanting (w/Blue Butterflies) /
Dragons Tongue 4 Resist Fire /
Tundra Cotton 3 Fortify Barter /
Snowberries with Blue Butterflies create Enchanting potions. Unused
Snowberries adds Resist Fire to the fortify barter with Dragons Tongue and
Tundra Cotton.
Sell unused potions. Eventually, carrying all of your potions will get
heavy, so as a general rule when your character has more than 5 of any
potion, store the rest in your house for future use. The extra potions will
come in handy using the Dragonborn expansion when recycling your alchemy
skill tree and want to use the good potions while selling the cheaper
potions.
As for the rest of the ingredients, try eating them and trial and error to
figure out what different ingredients do. Farming provides needed potions.
The rest of the potions are for discovering on your own. Looking up all of
the ingredient effects takes something away from playing the game.
6.01.2 Alchemy Perks
Returning to the perks selected on the Alchemy skill tree, the recommended
perks are alchemist 1-5, physician, benefactor, poisoner and concentrated
poison. The alchemist perks increase the potency and value of all potions.
Physician and benefactor help the positive effects of potions. Poisoner
helps your poisons, and Concentrated Poison allows your character to paralyze
two enemies before reapplying poison to your weapon. With concentrated
poison and paralysis with only one enemy, be sure to switch to another attack
such as destruction or the weapon in your other hand until the paralyzed
enemy tries to get up. Paralyzing a paralyzed enemy does not do much.
The experimenter perks are ok for discovering other ingredient effects.
Farming makes Green Thumb obsolete. Green Thumb does not affect how many
ingredients are harvested from farm plants. Snakeblood provides 50 percent
poison resistance. Purity makes potions have all positive or all negative
effects. For some potions, purity increases the potion usefulness while
decreasing the potion sale value. Snakeblood and Purity are ok, but 9 perks
in one skill tree are enough.
6.02 Alteration
Alteration is recommended for the magic resistance perks, the paralysis and
mass paralysis spells.
Magic resistance has a maximum of 85 percent. To reach 85 percent a Breton
starts with 25 percent resistance. Early in the game, enter the temple in
Riften and visit Dinya Balu. Dinya will send your character on The Book of
Love quest which involves helping 3 people. When completed, your character
receives "Agent of Mara", providing 15 percent magic resistance brining magic
resistance up to 40 percent. In the process your character will receive an
amulet of Mara, which is needed to get married. Sometime around level 10 a
courier will deliver a note to visit the Museum of the Mythic Dawn in
Dawnstar. Visit the museum and start a quest line for the pieces of
Mehrune's razor. Do the quests and your character will be asked to go to the
Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon which will be added to your map. Follow your map to
reach the Shrine. Across from the Shrine entrance is the Lord Stone.
Activate the stone and receive 50 to your armor rating and 25 percent magic
resistance, totaling 65 percent. Add the two 10% magic resistance perks
Magic Resistance 1 and 2, and your Breton has maxed out magic resistance at
85 percent without carrying a shield or other enchanted magic resistance
items.
For the non-Breton, a magic resistance enchanted shield with the elemental
protection perk and the Agent of Mara mission above also provides 85% magic
protection without needing the magic resistance perks.
The selected alteration perks, novice and apprentice alteration are required
for magic resistance. Adept alteration is needed for stability which extends
how long the paralysis spells last. Alteration dual casting and stability
extend the duration of the paralysis and mass paralysis spells. Magic
resistance 3 is not needed for a Breton. Expert alteration and atronach are
not necessary with 85 percent magic resistance. Master Alteration is ok, but
3 alteration enchantments reduce the cost of the mass paralysis spell by 87
percent allowing the perks to be used in other places.
6.03 Archery
Poisoned enchanted bows are the most powerful ranged weapons in the game.
Smithing and enchanting will make your bows very powerful without the archery
specific perks. The archery perks recommended include overdraw 1-5, which
amplifies bow damage by 20 percent for each perk. Eagle Eye will help see
and hit targets that are further away. Magic attacks do not have an
equivalent perk to eagle eye, contributing to bow superiority over
destruction spells. Staggering opponents with Power shot is nice and on the
way to the Quick Shot perk which increases your bow firing rate and damage
per second by 30 percent.
The other archery perks are helpful, but do not improve the bow attacks by as
much as the perks selected. Critical hits increase damage by approximately 5
percent per perk taken. Ranger is useful for moving faster, but requires
critical hit and hunter's discipline perks as prerequisites. Finding or
making arrows is not an issue, so hunter's discipline is not very helpful.
Steady hand slows down both your character and your opponent, so the perk
does not inflict damage faster when able to hit your targets without needing
to slow them down. Finally, bullseye is ok, but is one of the effects of
using a paralyze potion. The paralyze potion has other effects such as
lingering damage health. The other archery perks may be good choices after
leveling up beyond level 81.
6.04 Block
Block can be ignored by Bretons, but is essential for all other races. There
are useful block perks. If using minimal block perks, recommend perks
include shield wall 1, and deflect arrows and elemental protection. If using
five block perks, block runner enables moving faster with your shield up and
shield charge knocks down less threatening enemies on the way to the boss.
Additional shield wall perks only add 5 percent better protection than shield
wall 1. Protection is already maximized when your armor rating is 567, which
can be reached without using a shield. That leaves shield bash and disarming
bash. The block skills are not bad, but there are better alternatives.
6.05 Conjuration
The second pair of skill trees to fast track includes Conjuration.
Conjuration is very powerful early in the game when summoning a flame
atronach, and again at Conjure level 90 when casting the dead thrall spell.
Conjure at level 100 gives access to the twin soul's perk which allows two
dead thralls.
Conjuring ability is effected by what happens in the beginning of the game.
In the starter dungeon is a dead mage in the torture chamber who has a novice
hood. Keep this hood after leaving the dungeon. When in Whiterun, Farengar
sells a conjure flame atronach spell that can be cast while wearing the
novice hood.
Early in the game, the flame atronach is very powerful, has both melee and
ranged attacks, and can solve quest issues on legendary difficulty that are
otherwise not addressable until later in the game. For example, when joining
the thieves guild early in the game (before level 10, levels 3 to 5 are
recommended), your character will encounter a lowlife NPC that is very
difficult to kill at low levels. Cast the flame atronach up to the ledge by
the drawbridge, and the atronach will take care of the lowlife.
The set of perks recommended for conjure are along the necromancy branch
leading to the twin souls perk. These perks are Novice Conjuration,
Necromancy, Dark Souls and Twin Souls. Necromancy has limited use by
extending how long reanimated dead are active. Dark Souls adds 100 more
health to your reanimations and thralls. Twin souls allows two reanimated,
thralled or summoned helpers. These four perks combined with the restoration
perk Necromage allow casting the Death Thrall spell and thrall two corpses
that are up to level 50.
A spoiler that should not surprise even new players is that your character
eventually becomes the leader of each guild after the original guild leader
dies. Most guild leaders level up with your character up to a maximum of
level 50, which is conveniently the maximum level to thrall characters. Want
a mage follower? Try Savos Aren and/or Ancano. Want a fighter? Try Kodlak
Whitemane or Skjor. Complete the civil war to thrall Ulfric who comes with
dragon shouts or General Tulius.
There are a few things to know about the dead thrall spell. First, the
difference between reanimate and thrall is that when your thrall dies, the
thrall does not turn to ash. Instead, the thrall can be looted, given smithed
and enchanted weapons and cast dead thrall again. Thralls follow until
killed, banished or turned. Casting cloak spells seems to kill all of your
thralls. One technique is to smith and enchant the armor that thralls are
wearing. Return the armor and the thrall will wear the armor. Thralls will
spawn new unique armor if the original armor is looted. Giving the thrall
smithed and enchanted weapons will only make them more powerful. Giving the
thrall back smithed and enchanted armor that the thrall was not wearing
before causes the thrall to spawn a new set of the armor and ignore the given
armor.
The other conjure branches are good, but not as good as the necromage branch.
The atronach branch provides summoning without having to rely on finding a
dead body or creating one during a battle before gaining an assistant.
Atronachs cannot use smithed and enchanted weapons.
The bound weapons branch allows your summoned weapons to be more effective,
and to attach a soul trap and banish spell to summoned weapons. Created
weapons are more effective because the weapons can be smithed and enchanted.
Dual casting is useful for casting the bound weapons and increasing the bound
weapon duration, but there are more useful perks. Finally, the proficiency
effects (apprentice, adept, expert and master) can be taken care of using
enchantments. Proficiency perks for any magic school are only recommended
when the proficiency perks are pre-requisites for other perks. In this case
the novice conjuration perk is recommended.
6.06 Destruction
Destruction magic and the destruction skill tree are helpful, but not as
critical as the other recommended skill trees. As a ranged attack, the magic
spells are not as powerful as a bow for attacking single targets and
destruction does not have an eagle eye perk to see targets that are far away.
The destruction crowd control attacks are useful in the earlier to middle
parts of the game, but not as effective as the alteration spells paralyze and
mass paralysis available later in the game. The rune master perk casing
runes further away is ok, but not having the perk sill allows placing rune
traps with the restriction to be closer to where the trap is placed.
The dual casting / impact perks are useful when using destruction magic as
your ranged attack. The proficiency perks are not recommended other than
novice destruction. Novice destruction is a prerequisite to get the other
perks. This leaves the fire, frost and lightning branches. Pick two
branches. Most creatures are not immune to lightning, so lightning is a good
choice. Fire does extra damage to enemies on fire, and frost slows down
enemies and drains stamina. Destruction is useful for crowd control and for
boosting enchanted weapons. The frost branch is recommended, but fire is also
useful for extra damage.
Two destruction elements are recommended because the augmented flames / frost
/ shock perks increase the elemental damage of weapons that have the
corresponding enchantment. If your weapon has two enchantments, such as
frost and shock damage, then augmented shock will increase the effect of BOTH
the frost and shock damage from the weapon. The effect works on your one
handed weapons, two handed weapons and bows, making the augmented destruction
perks more valuable than perks such as the archery critical hit perk, the one
handed bladesman perk, etc. that only effect one particular weapon each.
The highest level element perks such as intense flames, deep freeze and
disintegrate are not recommended because when these perks are available, the
higher level alteration perks are also available for crowd control. Since
the necromancy conjure branch was recommended, do not select disintegrate to
avoid turning your potential thrall into ash.
6.07 Enchanting
Enchanting is in the pair of skill trees to fast track first. Alchemy
provides an instant boost to almost everything. Enchanting is done at an
arcane enchanter, such as the arcane enchanter in Dragon's Reach. Ask
Farengar how to use an arcane enchanter. Enchanting provides the constant
effect added to armor, clothing, weapons, etc. Weapons are charged with a
combination of soul gems and armor or clothing enchanting. Destruction magic
skill level helps to slow down how quickly weapons discharge.
The shorter enchanting perk list to explain is the list of perks to skip.
The soul squeezer / soul siphon branch falls into this category. While
charging perks are nice to have, around level 15 gold is not an issue and
filled soul gems can be purchased. Soul gems to not weigh much. Use a soul
gem storage rule similar to the storage recommendation for potions: once
your inventory has more than 5 of any one soul gem size, store 2/3 to 3/4 of
the soul gems in a container in your house.
The other enchanting perk that can be skipped is corpus enchanter. Corpus
enchanter is ok, but the fortify fire / frost / storm enchantment perks boost
weapons and enable selecting the Extra Effect perk.
The recommended perks include enchanter 1-5, which increase the effect of all
enchantments by 20 percent each. Insightful enchanter increases skill
effects by 25 percent. Finally, Extra Effect allows putting two enchantments
on each item.
In the beginning enchantment skills are grown by disenchanting magic items:
mage robes, enchanted weapons, etc., but NOT your first novice hood. Save
the first novice hood to summon flame atronachs. Around level 15 purchase
any affordable gems from the general merchants (Belethor, Perci Honey-Hand,
Grelka, etc.). General merchants can then use the gold from selling soul
gems to purchase expensive potions, armor, etc. from your character. Also be
on the lookout for enchanted items from merchants that enable learning new
enchantments.
The highest value enchantments are banish for weapons, block for shields,
destruction for armor and clothing, water breathing for headgear and jewelry,
and sneak for boots. Some of the most helpful enchantments include fortify
alchemy and fortify smithing.
Once the Extra Effect perk is acquired, check that your alchemy equipment
(ring, necklace, gloves and helmet) and smithing equipment (ring, necklace,
gloves and armor) are maximized and that your character is wearing the
equipment. Next make the best jewelry, armor, and weapons to enchant. Since
the plan develops enchanting before smithing, the actual armor and weapons
material will change as better materials become available. The bigger the
filled soul gem the better the enchantment effect and the more expensive the
soul gem costs.
A special note for enchanting is that falmer helmets (heavy armor), penitus
oculus helmets (light armor available in Dragon Bridge related to the civil
war and dark brotherhood quests) can be enchanted and worn with a circlet or
dragon priest mask. Circlets can also be enchanted. Enchanting creates many
choices. Useful enchantment combinations depending on availability are:
Weapon 1: Shock / Frost Damage
Weapon 2: Shock Damage / Soul Trap
Helmet: Fortify Conjure / Illusion : Replace with a Penitus Aoculus helmet
Penitus Oculus Helmet:
Archery / Conjure
Circlet: Archery / Illusion
Armor: Destruction / Alteration
Gloves: Bow / One handed weapons
Boots: Sneak / One handed weapons
Rings and Necklaces:
Bow / One handed weapons
Destruction / Alteration
Conjure / Illusion
Ring: Fortify Unarmed / Carry Weight
Necklace: Fortify Barter / Carry Weight
The above combinations maximize bow and one handed damage. Changing rings
and necklaces will provide 3 enchanted pieces to reduce destruction,
alteration, conjure and illusion spells costs, and two pieces of jewelry for
restoration spell costs. Your characters equipment will have room for more
archery damage enchantments after finding the penitus oculus helmet and a
circlet enchanted.
6.08 Heavy Armor
Heavy armor is one of the skill trees to skip. The light armor skill tree is
recommended instead. Light armor is lighter, can also reach the maximum
armor rating and has the perk wind walker which regenerates stamina 50
percent faster.
If your plan chooses heavy armor over light armor, try the Juggernaut 1,
fists of steel, cushioned and conditioning perks. Juggernaut increases heavy
armor by 20 percent and is a prerequisite perk. Fists of steel helps in
brawls increasing hand to hand damage based on your armor. Cushioned halves
damage from falling, and conditioning makes the equipped heavy armor weigh
nothing. Conditioning is key with heavy armor.
Smithing will help reach the maximum armor rating without the additional
juggernaut perks, well fitted or matching set. Tower of strength (50 percent
less stagger) and reflect blows (10 percent reflect damage) have too many
prerequisites for the benefits received.
6.09 Illusion
The illusion skill tree is a recommended skill tree. The illusion skill can
be acquired slowly and still be effective. There are several useful illusion
spells including clairvoyance (show a path to your quest target), muffle (50
percent less noise from armor), invisibility, and call to arms (area affect
boost to archery, one handed, two handed, health and stamina). One issue
with illusion spells is that the spells only work on enemies up to a level
limit, and the spells do not work on all enemy types. The other illusion
fear, frenzy or pacify spells need specific perks to boost their level
effectiveness. As with all magic, the novice illusion is recommended because
the novice illusion perk is a prerequisite for illusion perks. The
recommended illusion branch is animage (effect higher level animals), kindred
mage (effect higher level people), quiet casting (no noise casing any spells)
and master of mind (illusion spells effect undead, daedra and automations).
Illusion dual casting extends the duration for the invisibility and call to
arms spells. The calm, fear and frenzy perks and are not recommended.
6.10 Light Armor
Light armor is the recommended armor due to being the lightest armor early in
the game, and the wind walker perk restoring stamina 50 percent faster.
Smithing will help your light armor reach the maximum armor level when
combined with the light armor perks agile defender (1) and customer fit.
Unhindered is the light armor perk that makes equipped armor weigh nothing.
The extra agile defender and matching set perks are not needed to reach the
maximum armor rating. The deft movement perk avoiding 10 percent of melee
damage may be recommended beyond level 81.
6.11 Lock Picking
The lock picking skill tree is safe to skip. With some practice any lock at
any difficulty can be picked. Extra lock picks are available for purchase at
many stores within the game. For a novice lock try to move the lock while
the pick is in the center. If the lock does not turn, try half way between
the center and the right. If still not opening, try half way between the
center and the left. For apprentice locks, check half way between the points
for novice locks. Adept check half way between the apprentice checks, etc.
Use your perks on another skill tree.
6.12 One Handed
Enchanting and one handed weapons are the skill trees with the most, 10,
recommended perks. Enchanting skills need to be enhanced quickly to affect
all skills, weapons and armor. One handed weapons specialize in melee
weapons, which can do the most damage. The recommended perks are Armsman 1-5
(20 percent more damage per level), Fighting Stance (25 percent less stamina
for power attacks), Dual Flurry 1-2 (faster dual wielding attacks at 20 and
35 percent faster), Dual Savagery (50 percent more damage on dual wielding
power attacks), and Savage Strike (25 percent bonus damage on standing power
attacks). This should be plenty of perks for the one handed skill tree.
What was left behind? Bone Breaker, Hack and Slash, and Bladesman perks
levels 1 to 3 that increase particular types of one handed weapons are left
behind. All are helpful, but not as helpful as the one handed perks
selected. Critical charge allows power attacks while sprinting. Critical
charge is helpful, but not when fighting enemies paralyzed from potions.
Paralyzing strike has a 25 percent chance of paralyzing on a backwards power
attack, but potions are more reliable and do not require a backwards power
attack.
6.13 Pick Pocket
Pickpocket is among the skill trees to skip and spend perks elsewhere. When
pickpocket is selected, try the light fingers, night thief, extra pockets set
of perks. Extra pockets increase carrying capacity by 100. Next most
valuable is to pick up cutpurse and misdirection. Misdirection allows
pickpocketing unequipped weapons before having to fight. Perfect touch
allows pickpocketing equipped items. Pickpocketing has an 85 percent success
cap. A sneak attack with a poisoned weapon and then looting after the battle
is preferred.
6.14 Restoration
Restoration is part of the second fast track skills that can stop advancing
at skill level 70. All of the restoration perks are helpful to some degree.
Healing spells help keep your character alive as do healing potions. Wards
protect against magicka attacks, which does not really help a Breton. The
spells affecting the undead are helpful against the undead, but are too
specialized for general use. Guardian circle is an undead crowd control
spell. Undead are generally immune to mass paralysis, so this is a useful
specialized crowd control spell.
The recommended perks are Novice Restoration (proficiency and prerequisite),
Regeneration (50 percent healing spell bonus), and Necromage. Necromage
increases spells against the undead 25 percent more effective for 50 percent
longer. Necromage helps both the Dead Thrall conjuration spell and the
Guardian Circle restoration spell.
Noteworthy perks not selected include respite which adds stamina restoration
to all healing spells. Characters generally do not have a problem with
stamina, so the perk is not selected. Avoid death heals 250 points of health
when under 10 percent health once per day. Avoid death is another perk that
may be recommended when beyond level 81. The perks Recovery 1 and 2
regenerate magicka 25 and 50 percent faster. Recovery is not as effective as
potions.
Other perks not selected are proficiency perks (apprentice, adept, etc.).
Ward absorption is not particularly helpful perk from reaching 85 percent
magic resistance from other perks.
6.15 Smithing
The smithing skill tree recommendation has changed with the expansions.
Before expansions, the only way to get the best weapons in the game was to
follow the heavy armor track to Dragon Armor. With the expansion, Dragon Bone
weapons are now the most powerful weapons in the game and can be acquired
following either the heavy or light armor path. The following armor smithing
perks are recommended: Steel (prerequisite), Elven, Advanced, Arcane
Blacksmith, Glass, and Dragon Armor. Elven armor is the lightest armor,
which makes a slight difference until gaining the unhindered light armor
perk. Advance armor allows creating better heavy armor for your follower and
light armor for yourself, but no weapons. Glass creates both light weapons
and armor. Dragon scale armor is the best light armor. Arcane Blacksmith
allows smithing armor that has already been enchanted. One note for people
who are used to the heavy armor track is that smithing was easier to develop
with the dwarven smithing perk and converting metal from dwarven ruins into
dwarven armor and bows. With the light armor track, developing smithing
skill involves making more jewelry, armor upgrades and relying on house
building.
Building jewelry is aided by visiting the Halted Stream Camp. To find Halted
Stream Camp if not given a quest early in the game is to leave Whiterun, walk
past the stables, and turn west to walk North around Whiterun on the west
side. Follow your compass directly north towards the tent compass symbol.
Approach carefully, as Halted Stream Camp is a Bandit camp. Paralyze poisons
work well on bandits if the Falkreath farm is up and running. Inside you
will find a spell book on a table by the bandit chief's bed that can
transmute iron to silver and silver to gold. Silver and gold are the main
jewelry components.
6.16 Sneak
Sneak is alphabetically the last recommended skill tree. A crowd of helpers
drawing fire from enemies while sneaking up to attach with arrows or one
handed weapons then disappearing into the crowd again is enjoyable. The
shorter list is the list of sneak perks not recommended. The first perks not
recommended are sneak 2 through 5. Sneak 1 is a prerequisite for the skill
tree adding 20 percent to sneak. Sneak 2 through 5 add 5 percent each.
Sneak 2 through 5 combined are half as effective as enchanting boots with
sneak when enchanting is at 100. The other sneak perk not recommended is
assassin's blade. Assassin's blade is nice, but backstab with longer weapons
is eventually deadly enough to one hit kill most enemies. When advancing
beyond level 81, consider assassin's blade again and use quiet daggers for
sneak attacks.
The selected sneak perks are: Stealth 1 (20 percent sneak skill), Backstab
(one handed sneak attacks do 6 times the damage), Muffled Movement (armor
noise reduced 50 percent), Deadly Aim (bow sneak attacks do 3 times the
damage), Light Foot (don't trigger pressure plates), Silent Roll (sprint
sneaking), Silence (running without increasing detectability), and Shadow
Warrior (crouching causes distant enemies to find other targets).
6.17 Speech
The speech skill tree is not recommended. Speech helps gain more money when
bartering by either getting better prices, or providing more gold to
merchants. In Skyrim, better prices are available when wearing fortify
barter helmets and necklaces. The thief's guild missions will eventually
increase the amount of gold the fences can offer for your merchandise. Spend
your perks someplace else.
6.18 Two Handed Weapons
Two handed weapons are not recommended in favor of one handed weapons. One
handed weapons are faster, lighter and if dual wielding have twice as many
enchantments. Two handed weapons are not bad. Choosing to emphasize two
handed weapons instead of one handed weapons frees 10 perks from the one
handed recommendation. The one handed perks are replaced with the recommended
8 perks below plus two more perks in anything desired. The two handed
recommended perks are similar to one handed perks: Barbarian 1-5 (20 percent
more damage per perk). Champion's stance (25% less stamina for power
attacks), devastating blow (25 percent more damage for standing power
attacks) and sweep (sideways power attacks hit everyone in front of your
character). Sweep does not have an equivalent with one handed weapon perks.
Perks not recommended include deep wounds, limbsplitter and skullcrusher as
these perks are specific to types of two handed weapons. Great critical
charge is sprinting power attacks, which will drain stamina even more with
two handed weapons. Warmaster is the backwards power attack with a 25
percent chance of paralysis which is less effective than a paralysis potion
from the farm.
7 Conclusion
That is the guide for legendary character creation and planning. Hopefully
this guide has presented enough information for new players to enjoy as much
as the game as possible without a "go here then there" walkthrough and helps
develop an even better character building plan. I hope that all enjoy Skyrim
as much as I have.
Bob Cameron
