Builds

Every level in Skyrim asks the same question: health, magicka or stamina? Skills can be re-trained, perks can be planned around, gear can be swapped, but the ten points you put into an attribute at level-up are the one decision that quietly defines a character for eighty levels. So this guide sorts the folder's three build pages by that decision. The archetypes page states a ratio for nearly every playstyle, and once you know yours, the rest of a build (race, two primary skills, two secondary ones, a standing stone and a follower) follows in a line.

Eleven archetypes and the split each one asks for

The archetypes page is deliberately blunt: one race, one ratio, two primary skills, two secondary, one stone, a follower or two. The ratios are given as percentages of your level-ups, with the order of the attributes changing by archetype.

Read the split column top to bottom and the eleven collapse into three shapes. Six archetypes ignore magicka entirely or nearly so, and their argument is only how much stamina a two-hander needs. Three put magicka first and keep enough health to survive being cornered. Two, the spellsword and the rogue, refuse to choose and pay for it with a thinner health pool than anyone else. The page closes with five playstyles it rates above the rest, sword and board, illusion control, sneak archery, the dagger assassin with the fifteen-times sneak multiplier, and the conjuration warrior with bound swords, and the standing stones it names are mapped in the locations guide.

Thirty-four named builds and their perk lists

The character builds page is the deep end. Its first seven builds are race recommendations with full perk lists (the pure mage, the battle mage, the thief, the assassin, both kinds of warrior, and the dual-wielder it advises against), and the remaining twenty-seven are finished characters with a race, a level and skill levels to match. The page's one hard rule applies to all of them: you are limited to seventy perks at a time, so no build can take every perk in every listed tree, and the lists are the cuts.

Nearly every finished build ends its list with Enchanting 100 and the same four perks (five ranks of Enchanter, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect), which is the page's quiet admission that a second enchantment on every piece is the one upgrade no split can do without. The skills themselves, and the perk count the game actually allows across all eighteen trees, are laid out in the skills guide.

Dual-wielding: the split that pays in stamina

Two weapons swing on two stamina bars' worth of cost, which is why the dual-wielding page starts with race before weapons. Redguards get Adrenaline Rush, a tenfold stamina regeneration for a short spell, and Orcs get Berserker Rage, which doubles outgoing damage; Orcs also start with a bonus to every stat but magicka. Put the lighter weapon in the right hand, since the right hand swings first and the left follows, and enchant both for damage, an element and stamina cost.

The perks are all in the One-Handed tree and apply to both hands: two ranks of Dual Flurry for speed, Dual Savagery for half again as much power-attack damage, five ranks of Armsman up to double damage, Fighting Stance for cheaper stamina, and Savage Strike. Elemental Fury is the shout to pair with unenchanted blades, raising attack speed by 30, 50 or 70 percent depending on the words known, and Marked for Death softens armor and health. Light or heavy armor both work: Smithing at 100 makes light armor protective enough, and the Heavy Armor tree's Encumbrance perk removes the speed penalty. The pairs above are ranked against every other unique blade in the weapons guide.

Build questions

How many perks can one character hold?

Seventy at any one time, according to the character builds page, which is why every list there is a selection rather than a tree.

Which stone matches which split?

The archetypes page pairs them: Warrior for the sword-and-board Nord, Mage for the 80/20 caster, Thief for the archer, Lord for the berserker, Lover for the spellsword's three-way split, Ritual for the necromancer, Shadow for the assassin, Apprentice for the battlemage, Steed for the weaponmaster and Serpent for the rogue.

Is dual-wielding worth it?

The builds page says no as a default style, because two weapons give up most of your defense, and it suggests paralysis first and blades second; the dual-wielding page says yes with the right race and pairs. Both live under the Skyrim hub, next to the followers that a heavy-armor archetype leans on.