Skyrimoffers 18 different skills for players to level up and unlock new abilities. There is no commitment system to any set of skills, allowing you to play any moment with any sort of build you’d like. The more a skill is used, the more it will level up and get stronger.
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Focusing on a set number of builds will allow your points and levels to be much stronger in a few areas than all of them at once. Deciding on your build early will help make your character incredibly strong later in the game, and here are the best builds for you to try in the game.
Updated By Joshua Leeds On February 1st, 2023:Skyrim is one of the biggest releases in recent memory, with an incredible amount of replayability even years later. With so many options for skills and weapons, there are many builds out there that can make this game a simple cakewalk for players. We’ve come across three more such builds, so this article has been updated to include those three builds.
8Magic Based Vampire
Being a vampire is no small decision, as players must constantly feed and deal with stat negations while fighting in the sunlight. The Dawnguard DLC takes the usual vampire build and offers players an even more potent version, allowing them to transform into a vampire lord.
Vampires also have access to a wide range of spells that other players won’t get, allowing them to steal enemies' health, turn invisible, and summon a gargoyle to fight with you. Focusing heavily on your Magicka and upgrading these unique spells will result in an incredibly powerful magic-based build that dominates the night.
7Illusion Magic
Illusion magic, at face value, may not get many people’s attention. Many of the spells are helpful to add onto other builds, such as turning invisible or guiding players to their next objective. There is also a spell that silences your footsteps, making these spells great additions to an assassin-like playstyle.
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Illusion magic shows its true power with its frenzy spells and more powerful mayhem spell. Frenzy can cause low-level enemies to attack anything in sight, including their allies. Mayhem requires much more Magicka to cast but affects all nearby entities and effect stronger creatures and people. Utilizing these spells often can see you clearing out bandit camps without having to lift a blade.
6Two-Handed Tank
This build is pretty straightforward, having players pick the biggest armor and two-handed weapon. Without focusing on Magicka, you can invest all levels into health and stamina to make you incredibly tanky with enough stamina to dominate battles.
As you level up, there is a perk for heavy armor that ignores its weight, allowing you to move at a normal speed while also receiving a great boost in damage negation. While two-handed weapons swing slower, they deal great amounts of damage, and those who invest enough points into them can see most enemies being finished in just a few swings.
5Mage-Blade
This build is the best of both worlds, giving you a physical weapon in one hand and magic in another. Enemies can excel in either magical or physical defense, and dual-wielding one of each always allows you to target their weaknesses. Anyone-handed weapon of your preferenceworks, and your magic hand can be a bit of a wider net.
Almost any type of magic benefits from this build, including hurting enemies from a distance, summoning allies, buffing yourself, or even healing. Oakflesh is a great alteration spell prior to running into combat, buffing your defense forty points before you start fighting. Add this with healing, and you’re sure to win any close combat.
4Destruction Mage
Focusing on purely destruction magic will help increase your skill’s ability much faster while also making it easy for you to use thhigher-levelel spells. This build does suffer if you are trying to fight around allies, but if you are alone or have summoned allies that can be brought back, it’s best you just let loose. All the highest-end spells are storms that do massive damage to anything and everything around you. These spells will quickly take care of any number of enemies you’re facing, doing more damage as they get closer.
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Dual casting can be upgraded to stagger enemies as they run at you. This is good to keep enemies away as your spells are most efficient when you fight at a range. Fireball is a mid-level stand-out spell doing very high amounts of small AOE damage. You also have access to runes that can be placed along the ground to set high-damage traps for your enemies to walk through.
3Stealth Archer
Stealth Archer is a build everyone tries out at some point, be it intentional or not. This mixes Sneak and Archery to stalk your enemies and pick them off at a distance.Sneaking aroundprevents a situation from becoming dangerous, as the enemy won’t know you’re there until it’s too late. Being an Archery heavy build, you’ll rarely run into situations where hand-to-hand combat is necessary, allowing you to focus more on your Archery skill.
This build makes combat very fast, as most of the time, combat doesn’t even happen. Additionally, the Deadly aim boosts your stealth bow damage by 3X and is the centerpiece for this build. Steady Aim also allows you to slow down time and zoom in on your shots, making sure you hit everyone and kill your target before getting detected.
2Backstab Assassin
The Backstab Assassin is much like the Stealth Archer but with much more damage and possibility. The Skill Assassins blades give you a 15X bonus to damage on your first stealth attack. It is much more difficult to get close enough for a physical hit while being undetected, but once you get your sneak skill high enough, the damage makes this build more than worthwhile.
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If you complete the Dark Brotherhood’s campaign, you’ll receive Blade of Woe, which offers another 15X stealth hit damage stacking. Combining this blade with the Assassin’s Blade perk allows for a total sneak damage bonus of 30X, instantly killing most enemies and greatly weakening bosses. The melee aspect of this build-set is above the archer build, as enemies running up on you is not as big of an issue.
1Conjuration Mage
Having a companion follow you around, dealing bonus damage, and distracting enemies make this game much easier. Having multiple other companions can make even the most difficult battles simple. WithConjuration magic, you’re able to summon atronach alliesor raise dead enemies to assist you. You’re also able to summon Bound Weapons, which deal additional damage from Conjuration perks.
Once you reach the higher end of this skill tree, your summoned allies are able to stay permanently. With the Twin Souls ability, you’re also able to summon two entities - they will stay until defeated. If you attend Mage’s college, you also gain access to the ability to summon Daedra. With two summonses and a companion, you are now exploring Skyrim with a full party. Their added damage makes boss fights much easier, and enemies targeting them means less attention to yourself.
