10 Most Powerful Skyrim Builds

Here are the best Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Builds that players can use.

If you are playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you would want to have the best and most powerful builds. There are a lot of factors that go behind making a powerful build. Since the game has been going on for a long time, putting up a list of the best builds in the game is difficult. However, while playing the game all these years, there have been some powerful build no doubt. In this guide, we will provide you with the best builds you can use while playing the game.

10 Best Skyrim Builds

Most Powerful Builds in Skyrim

Here are the 10 best and most powerful Skyrim Builds:

  • Stealth Archer Build
  • Bound Warrior Build
  • Illusion Assassin Build
  • Shadow Archer Build
  • Battlemage Build
  • The Necromancer Build
  • Mage Assassin Build
  • Pure Mage Build
  • Paladin Build
  • The Master Artisan Build

Stealth Archer Build

As a ranged player myself, the Stealth Archer Build is one of the best builds that I have played with in Skyrim. Stealth Archer as you can guess hides in the shadows and eliminates the enemies and hence has gained a lot of popularity among players who love playing an archer build.

For a Stealth Archer build, the best races you can go for are either Bosmer or Khajit. Bosmer are better at Archery and Khajit are better at Sneak. Since these are the two main components of a Stealth Archer Build, you need to choose which Skill Bonus you want to depend on. After this choice, here are some of the other things in this build that you need to get:

  • Standing Stone Buff – Select Thief
  • Core Skills – While Archery, Sneak, and Illusion are quite important, players can choose any of these skills.
    • Archery
    • Sneak
    • Illusion
    • Pickpocket
    • Speech
  • Armor – For the Armor, players need to go with Light Armor.
    • Ancient Shrouded Armor Set
    • Nightingale Armor
  • Bow – If you are looking for the best bow to go with this Stealth Archer build, there is no point in looking further than the Dragonbone Bow.
  • Potions – While you can carry as many potions and poisons as you want, we recommend these three to surely be there with this build.
    • Fortify Light Armor
    • Fortify Sneak
    • Invisibility

These are the basic build that players will need if they want to use the Stealth Archer. While leveling up, players need to concentrate on improving their health over stamina. Since this build is all about stealth, make sure you don’t have any followers around with you while exploring.

Karliah’s Bow is one of the most powerful bows in the game and if you have managed to unlock it, it would provide you with better damage than Dragonbone Bow. Additionally, you can also equip Shouts with this build but make sure they are advantageous to you. You can use the Aura Whisper or Throw Voice if you wish to use this mechanic.

Bound Warrior Build Skyrim

If you want to build that is powerful right from the start, then this is one of the best builds to go for in Skyrim. This build depends on Conjuration magic and can help you create Bound Weapons which are known to be way more powerful. If you are interested in using this build, you can start by choosing your preferred race. For this build, there is no specific need but we prefer to use the Breton or Redguard race. Bound Warrior build is quite useful from the start to the mid-game so we recommend you check out the other components necessary for it:

  • Core Skills
    • Conjuration
    • One-Handed
    • Light Armor
    • Archery
  • Gear – For this build, players will need to use the enchantment Fortify Magicka.
  • Spells –
    • Bound Sword
    • Bound Bow

Keep in mind that this build is heavy on Conjuration magic and the spells will summon high quality gear for players to use for one minute. Although the time seems short, the weapons are quite powerful. Along with this build, you can also use the Slow Time shout to get the best out of the Bound Bow spell.

Illusion Assassin Build Skyrim

This build is a lot similar to the Stealth Assassin build. However, what makes this one of the best builds in Skyrim is the fact that it still involves close combat. For this build the best race that you can have is Khajit. Since they provide better Sneak skills, players can use the abilities of the Illusion Assassin quite easily. Apart from that, here are the other components with the Illusion Assassin build in Skyrim:

  • Core Skills
    • Illusion
    • One-Handed
    • Sneak
  • Spells –
    • Bound Dagger
    • Bound Bow
    • Frenzy
    • Pacify
    • Invisibility
  • Gear – Daedric Dagger/ Dragonbone Dagger. For this build, players will need to use the enchantment Fortify Magicka.

Along with these, players can use the Aura Whisper, Bend Will, and Soul Tear sounds to lure enemies and strike them at ease. As mentioned, Illusion Assassin are quite similar to Stealth Archers. The only major difference is that Illusion Assassin focus on Dagger use rather than Bows.

This guide is a work in progress and we will update more on the best Skyrim builds soon. While you are here, check out our other Skyrim guides right here at Gamer Tweak.