By the time I wrote this guide, I was playing with my third assassin. I also played with a pure warrior, a pure mage, a battlemage and a barbarian, but being an assassin offered me the best experience in the game mostly because the different ways I can choose to approach any situation. I can grab a bow and kill everyone with sneaky attacks, do the same thing with daggers, use illusion to get my opponents killed or just passing them without actually killing anyone.
The Race
In the end, this is a matter of personal preference. A lot of people tend to choose Khajiit though. They do have some advantages:
·They start with 25 sneaking, 20 alchemy, 20 archery and 20 one-handed, being the character that fits the most with the assassin skill needs in the game.
·They do extra damage with their fists, which is good for brawling.
·They have a power, Night-Eye, that make them able to see better at night, which is very good for an assassin specially in early stages of the game, because sneaking at night is much easier.
·They look really good in the game.
I played as a Khajiit in the first and second characters. However, my third was a Breton. I choose such class (indeed, most related with a Mage type of class) because I was thinking in mid and late game. The thing is, Khajiits are very good at the beginning of the game, but low level skills are so easy to upgrade that makes the initial boosts almost redundant. Brawling is something people rarely do but, for the rare times you are required to do it, you can wear the Gloves of Pugilist (click show spoiler to check where you can get them).
Night-Eye is good, but even in the darkest night of Skyrim, you can see everything without any trouble. So, this ability is more of a curiosity and a cool thing to have than a handy skill.
So, what the Breton offer that Khajiit doesn't? Khajiit, indeed, looks very cool but, at least for me, looks like a guerrilla warrior or a barbarian and not actually an assassin. Breton gives me that assassin feel Khajiit doesn't. The biggest advantage, however, is the 25% natural resistance to magic they have. Remember, you are a sneaky kind of guy; you are not going to have a good resistance to magic especially at the beginning and mid-term of the game. You easily kill mages by cutting their trough, but hiding from a dragon is a much more difficult task, impossible until you master Sneak.
The Perks
One-Handed
·Until level 50: Armsman 5/5
·After level 50: Fighting Stance and Savage Strike
Why not the other perks? You are not going to dual wield. Remember, you are not a warrior; you are an assassin that goes to one hit, one kill trying to avoid open combat at all making Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery useless. You are going to use daggers, so no point having Bladesman, Bonebreaker and Hack and Slash.
Why Fighting Stance and Savage Strike? These perks are added to the build because they can help you to kill more difficult opponents easier. Don't forget you can power attack while sneaking making both perks very interesting, especially the last one combined with 30x damage you can do with sneaky dagger attacks.
Archery
·Until level 50: Overdraw 5/5, Eagle Eye, Steady Hand 1/2
·After level 50: Steady Hand 2/2
Archery has one of the most interesting perk trees in the game, so why should you just invest in only 3 of these?
Remember, you are an assassin; you go for one shot, one kill. If you can't, you have to hide and try again, and this process of hiding requires time. So, there's no need to stagger (Powershot) or paralyze (Bullseye) your opponent; by the time you are able to go for another shot, those effects are long gone. Being able to attack faster doesn't give you any advantage as well. One might think that's right shooting another arrow if the opponent didn't die (Quick Shot would be nice in these situations). This is wrong because this second arrow will not give you the 2x/3x boost, your opponent will most likely stay alive and find you triggering open combat situations that could easily be avoided. Take your time to hide and try again. Critical Shot can be useful, but don't forget you are spending 3 perks to get 30% critical shot which is a lot of an investment for a small benefit and don't forget that most of the times a normal shot is enough to kill the opponent.
Illusion
·Until level 50: Novice Illusion, Apprentice Illusion, Adept Illusion, Expert Illusion, Master Illusion, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage, Master of the Mind, Animage, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting
Just don't put any point on Illusion Dual Casting. When mastering this perk tree the opponents that won't get affected by your spells are:
Sneak
·Until level 50: Just grab everything!
Right branch is a no brainer as it lets you do more damage with sneaking attacks. Some of the left perks, however, are not really useful, like Muffle Movement, Light Foot and Silent Roll. However, the last two perks of the tree are just awesome. Silence removes all noise your character makes while sneaking; this is exactly the same thing as Muffle! Shadow Warrior will save you a lot of times on those "oh crap" situations for example when you trigger open combat at master difficulty in a room full of tough opponents. Press Ctrl (PC) to start sneaking and your character turns invisible for a couple of seconds forcing your opponents to search for a new target.
Enchanting
·Until level 50: Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect
There's not much to say here. The point is to grab Extra Effect that allows you to put two enchantments on the same item and 5/5 in Enchanter to make these enchantments more powerful.
Smiting
·Until level 50: Steel Smiting, Arcane Blacksmith
This build offers a clear disadvantage; the game becomes much harder because you do not get the most of your upgraded weapons and armor. Well, that's exactly the point. In late game you will find yourself really powerful and a reason for people to give up and start over is exactly the lack of challenge the game offers at this stage of the game (there are a lot of mods that increase the difficult way beyond Master, as well). The other reason that led me to do this was the "feel" of the game. Because you cannot craft your own gear, you give a lot more value to the looted things and quests rewards that happen to be some kind of equipment. You also give a lot more value to the unique items and artifacts that otherwise would be weaker than your upgraded crafted weapons. Doing this, you are going to have more freedom of choice.
Important note: Not investing perk points in this tree doesn't mean you should not upgrade this skill. Get it to 100 anyway.
Light Armor
·Until level 50: Agile Defender 2/5
·After level 50: Agile Defender 5/5
You should avoid at all costs open combat situations but there are some times you simply cannot do this. You should be prepared for these rare times, so you don't get killed by the first hit. Don't forget you are not boosting your armor with Smiting perks; therefore, Agile Defender really comes in handy.
Alchemy
·After level 50: Alchemist 5/5, Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner, Concentrated Poisoner, Snakeblood
Alchemy is a great way to make the most of your assassin. You can make poisons to kill the most powerful opponents like Legendary Dragons, you can regenerate health with potions, increase damage your weapons deal, improve your weapons and armors even more and make your new enchantments more powerful. This is a matter of personal choice (I know people who started to invest in alchemy early in the game) but I find it to be quite boring. Until level 50, I gathered harvest materials I encountered and stored them in a chest in my house. By the time I reached level 50, I was able to upgrade my alchemy from 22 to 84 with the stored harvest. If you have a smartphone install some Skyrim Alchemist app to help you with the planning, if you don't, go to UESPWiki or another Skyrim wiki and print the effects of the plants and the fungus.
Alteration
·Late game perks: Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, Magic Resistance 3/3
Spending 5 points in Alteration tree gives you a 30% magic resistance. With the natural resistance provided by your Breton you can get 55% magic resistance!
·Your assassin’s build at level 71: Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them!
Note: I’m currently at level 77 and invested the rest of the points in Conjuration (Necromancy branch). I also use spells like Courage and Call of Armors (Illusion spells) to boost my raised followers’ stats. This is a matter of personal preference.
What about Lockpicking, pickpocket and speech?
First of all, Lockpicking is not mandatory. With a little bit of skill you can open Master locks at low Lockpicking levels and don’t forget higher levels of this skills means easier Lockpicking. Lockpicks are extremely cheap and weight nothing; don’t worry if they break, you can easily replace them.
Pickpocket is the only skill I hate in this game. Probabilities mean nothing because you can reload and try again. Also, you can exploit the game by learning skills with Trainers using pickpocket to return the money to you. This simply ruins the game as you can learn skills (at least until level 50) with an ease. Keep in mind that no effort means “no relation” with your character. If you take that skill for granted, you do not give value to the skill and the real effort you would have to make if you upgraded the skill manually. Don’t use pickpocket (unless strictly necessary for quest progression). Remember, “Opportunity makes the thief”, in this case, both figuratively and literally!
You can pass speech altogether. I never invested in this tree and I never had any problem with my finances. Fence and Investor are the only worthy perks in this tree. Fence lets you sell stolen goods at any merchant, but remember – you are not a thief. If you really want something, kill the guy (without anyone noticing) and take it. After all, that’s what assassins do. For 500 gold you can make your Riverwood general trader to have 10.000 gold available every 48 hours. But you can easily sell items you have when you go to a major city, and believe me, this happens more often that you might think. When you get to the late stage of the game and have accumulated ridiculous amounts of gold you will regret investing in this tree (my max was 751.312 gold according to game stats).
Stats
Let me make things easy for you:
·2 Health points / 1 Stamina point until level 31. You should have 300 Health, 200 Stamina and 100 Magicka at this point (no bonuses).
·2 Health points / 1 Magicka point until level 51. You should have 450 Health, 200 Stamina and 150 Magicka at this point (no bonuses).
·After that, choose the combination that best suits you. I did 2 Health points / 1 Stamina point. Don’t stress about Magicka too much, there are ways to reduce or even eliminate spells’ costs.
Dragon Shouts
These are the shouts I consider very interesting for your assassin character:
·Become Ethereal – This shout is awesome specially facing dragons that are stubborn to land. Just activate it and there you go, no damage until you deal the first hit.
·Dragonrend – This shout is mandatory in every class you make. With it, you can force a dragon to land making easier for you to kill it.
·Marked for Death – This is the skill I use the most. After learning the three words, shouting this spell against your opponents damage their health by 3 points per second and, the best part, damages their armor rate by 75 points per second! Much easier to kill enemies.
What about Throw Voice? I guess you could use it, but a simple arrow does the same effect just as effectively.
Spells
Muffle gives you the ability to move around without making any sound. This spells is very useful at the beginning of the game until you grab the perk Silence. Casting the spell makes your Illusion skill improve really fast; at low levels, casting once improves your skill level by one.
Invisibility is also a very good skill especially if you have to sneak during daylight at open fields. This is a good spell, even at late stages of the game when you want to hide from dragons and other opponents with a high detection rate.
Fury, Frenzy and Hysteria make your opponents aggressive against each other. They find for the nearest target and start a fight against each other. You have to develop techniques against higher level mobs, for example, Mammoths are resistant to these spells but you can cast it on a Giant to make him start the fight against the mammoth.
Calm, Pacify and Harmony, with the lack of a better word, calm or pacify your opponents. If you get discovered, just cast one of these spells against your opponent and then hide and try again.
Fear, Rout, Mayhem make your opponents to flee from combat. I don’t use these spells as often as I use the others because I don’t find them to be as useful as the others.
Stone
At the very beginning choose between Warrior Stone, Thief Stone and Mage Stone. It’s a matter of personal choice, really, because your assassin uses combat, magic and stealth skills.
You should, however, find the Lover Stone that allows all of your skills to improve 15% faster (instead of 20% faster from one of those tree stones that are confined to 1/3 of your skills).
The Steed Stone is very useful in late stages of the game. Wearing armor does not affect speed, equipped armor is weightless and you can carry +100 height.
Equipment you should wear as early as possible
You should join both Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood factions. They provide you good light armor sets and good weapons at the beginning of the game.
Equipment I advice you to have in late stages of the game
Weapons:
A simple Dragonbone Dagger or the Blade of Woe and a simple Dragonbone Bow.
Some bow or dagger with Soultrap enchantment (or just use one of your main weapons to do this) so you can recharge your next weapon:
Dragonbone Sword with Magic Damage and Shock Damage. This sword is to be used against Dragons. It deals more damage than a Dagger and it's sensitive to one-handed perks. Don't forget that Dragon's Dragonshouts consume Magika so it's important to drain their magicka as quickly as possible (be aware that Dragons can have 4163 health but their magicka does not go beyond 150!). Alternatively, you can equip a Dragonbone Bow with these enchantments and hit the Dragon (I personally use this last one because when I finish to drain the Dragons' magicka he can only hit me with his wings; if you manage yourself well with your bow, the Dragon never hits you again). Don't worry about the amount of charges you have, you are going to be wealthy enough to have 5/10 Grand Soul Gems with you all the time in case you need them.
Armor:
Armor with Fortify Illusion and other enchantment (I use Fortify Conjuration because at level 72 I started investing on it). If you have some troubles with your Health/Stamina, choose one of these enchantments.
Shrouded Gloves that double your backstabs.
Bracers with Fortify Archery and Unarmed/Lockpick.
Boots with Fortify One-Handed and Stamina/Carry Weight (Sneaking is extremely easy at late stages of the game, there's no need to improve it. Muffle is useless because you invested in perk Silence).
Helmets with Fortify Archery and Illusion.
Necklace and Ring.
One with Fortify Illusion and One-Handed.
Another with Fortify Archery and Health/Stamina or Resist Magicka (if you use bows to kill Dragons).
Non-combat:
Necklace with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Ring with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Armor with Fortify Smiting.
Bracers with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Helmet with Fortify Alchemy.
Masque of the Clavicus Vile and Fortify Barter on a necklace if you need a boost in your Speechcraft.
The Black Star if you need to recharge your weapons (a more convinient solution than carrying Grand Soul Gems with you).
Don't forget: Health Potions, Resist Magicka or Fire/Shock/Frost Potions, and Potent Poisons.
Sorry for any grammar issue this text might have. I'm not an english native speaker.
The Race
In the end, this is a matter of personal preference. A lot of people tend to choose Khajiit though. They do have some advantages:
·They start with 25 sneaking, 20 alchemy, 20 archery and 20 one-handed, being the character that fits the most with the assassin skill needs in the game.
·They do extra damage with their fists, which is good for brawling.
·They have a power, Night-Eye, that make them able to see better at night, which is very good for an assassin specially in early stages of the game, because sneaking at night is much easier.
·They look really good in the game.
I played as a Khajiit in the first and second characters. However, my third was a Breton. I choose such class (indeed, most related with a Mage type of class) because I was thinking in mid and late game. The thing is, Khajiits are very good at the beginning of the game, but low level skills are so easy to upgrade that makes the initial boosts almost redundant. Brawling is something people rarely do but, for the rare times you are required to do it, you can wear the Gloves of Pugilist (click show spoiler to check where you can get them).
You can loot this gloves after killing Gian the Fist in the Ratways, Riften.
Night-Eye is good, but even in the darkest night of Skyrim, you can see everything without any trouble. So, this ability is more of a curiosity and a cool thing to have than a handy skill.
So, what the Breton offer that Khajiit doesn't? Khajiit, indeed, looks very cool but, at least for me, looks like a guerrilla warrior or a barbarian and not actually an assassin. Breton gives me that assassin feel Khajiit doesn't. The biggest advantage, however, is the 25% natural resistance to magic they have. Remember, you are a sneaky kind of guy; you are not going to have a good resistance to magic especially at the beginning and mid-term of the game. You easily kill mages by cutting their trough, but hiding from a dragon is a much more difficult task, impossible until you master Sneak.
The Perks
One-Handed
·Until level 50: Armsman 5/5
·After level 50: Fighting Stance and Savage Strike
Why not the other perks? You are not going to dual wield. Remember, you are not a warrior; you are an assassin that goes to one hit, one kill trying to avoid open combat at all making Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery useless. You are going to use daggers, so no point having Bladesman, Bonebreaker and Hack and Slash.
Why Fighting Stance and Savage Strike? These perks are added to the build because they can help you to kill more difficult opponents easier. Don't forget you can power attack while sneaking making both perks very interesting, especially the last one combined with 30x damage you can do with sneaky dagger attacks.
Archery
·Until level 50: Overdraw 5/5, Eagle Eye, Steady Hand 1/2
·After level 50: Steady Hand 2/2
Archery has one of the most interesting perk trees in the game, so why should you just invest in only 3 of these?
Remember, you are an assassin; you go for one shot, one kill. If you can't, you have to hide and try again, and this process of hiding requires time. So, there's no need to stagger (Powershot) or paralyze (Bullseye) your opponent; by the time you are able to go for another shot, those effects are long gone. Being able to attack faster doesn't give you any advantage as well. One might think that's right shooting another arrow if the opponent didn't die (Quick Shot would be nice in these situations). This is wrong because this second arrow will not give you the 2x/3x boost, your opponent will most likely stay alive and find you triggering open combat situations that could easily be avoided. Take your time to hide and try again. Critical Shot can be useful, but don't forget you are spending 3 perks to get 30% critical shot which is a lot of an investment for a small benefit and don't forget that most of the times a normal shot is enough to kill the opponent.
Illusion
·Until level 50: Novice Illusion, Apprentice Illusion, Adept Illusion, Expert Illusion, Master Illusion, Hypnotic Gaze, Aspect of Terror, Rage, Master of the Mind, Animage, Kindred Mage, Quiet Casting
Just don't put any point on Illusion Dual Casting. When mastering this perk tree the opponents that won't get affected by your spells are:
Fear and calm spells - Mammoth, Dwarven Centurion Master, Falmer Shadowmaster, Falmer Warmonger, Dragon Priest, Elder Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Revered Dragon and Legendary Dragon
Frenzy spells - Mammoth, Falmer Shadowmaster, Falmer Warmonger, Dragon Priest, Elder Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Revered Dragon and Legendary Dragon
Frenzy spells - Mammoth, Falmer Shadowmaster, Falmer Warmonger, Dragon Priest, Elder Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Revered Dragon and Legendary Dragon
Sneak
·Until level 50: Just grab everything!
Right branch is a no brainer as it lets you do more damage with sneaking attacks. Some of the left perks, however, are not really useful, like Muffle Movement, Light Foot and Silent Roll. However, the last two perks of the tree are just awesome. Silence removes all noise your character makes while sneaking; this is exactly the same thing as Muffle! Shadow Warrior will save you a lot of times on those "oh crap" situations for example when you trigger open combat at master difficulty in a room full of tough opponents. Press Ctrl (PC) to start sneaking and your character turns invisible for a couple of seconds forcing your opponents to search for a new target.
Enchanting
·Until level 50: Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, Extra Effect
There's not much to say here. The point is to grab Extra Effect that allows you to put two enchantments on the same item and 5/5 in Enchanter to make these enchantments more powerful.
Smiting
·Until level 50: Steel Smiting, Arcane Blacksmith
This build offers a clear disadvantage; the game becomes much harder because you do not get the most of your upgraded weapons and armor. Well, that's exactly the point. In late game you will find yourself really powerful and a reason for people to give up and start over is exactly the lack of challenge the game offers at this stage of the game (there are a lot of mods that increase the difficult way beyond Master, as well). The other reason that led me to do this was the "feel" of the game. Because you cannot craft your own gear, you give a lot more value to the looted things and quests rewards that happen to be some kind of equipment. You also give a lot more value to the unique items and artifacts that otherwise would be weaker than your upgraded crafted weapons. Doing this, you are going to have more freedom of choice.
Important note: Not investing perk points in this tree doesn't mean you should not upgrade this skill. Get it to 100 anyway.
Light Armor
·Until level 50: Agile Defender 2/5
·After level 50: Agile Defender 5/5
You should avoid at all costs open combat situations but there are some times you simply cannot do this. You should be prepared for these rare times, so you don't get killed by the first hit. Don't forget you are not boosting your armor with Smiting perks; therefore, Agile Defender really comes in handy.
Alchemy
·After level 50: Alchemist 5/5, Physician, Benefactor, Poisoner, Concentrated Poisoner, Snakeblood
Alchemy is a great way to make the most of your assassin. You can make poisons to kill the most powerful opponents like Legendary Dragons, you can regenerate health with potions, increase damage your weapons deal, improve your weapons and armors even more and make your new enchantments more powerful. This is a matter of personal choice (I know people who started to invest in alchemy early in the game) but I find it to be quite boring. Until level 50, I gathered harvest materials I encountered and stored them in a chest in my house. By the time I reached level 50, I was able to upgrade my alchemy from 22 to 84 with the stored harvest. If you have a smartphone install some Skyrim Alchemist app to help you with the planning, if you don't, go to UESPWiki or another Skyrim wiki and print the effects of the plants and the fungus.
·Your assassin’s build at level 50: Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them!
·You assassin’s build at level 66: Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them!
Alteration
·Late game perks: Novice Alteration, Apprentice Alteration, Magic Resistance 3/3
Spending 5 points in Alteration tree gives you a 30% magic resistance. With the natural resistance provided by your Breton you can get 55% magic resistance!
·Your assassin’s build at level 71: Skyrim Perk Calculator - Plan the perks for your Skyrim character before spending them!
Note: I’m currently at level 77 and invested the rest of the points in Conjuration (Necromancy branch). I also use spells like Courage and Call of Armors (Illusion spells) to boost my raised followers’ stats. This is a matter of personal preference.
What about Lockpicking, pickpocket and speech?
First of all, Lockpicking is not mandatory. With a little bit of skill you can open Master locks at low Lockpicking levels and don’t forget higher levels of this skills means easier Lockpicking. Lockpicks are extremely cheap and weight nothing; don’t worry if they break, you can easily replace them.
After you kill Mercer Frey during the quest Blindsighted (a Thieves Guild quest) you get the give Skeleton Key, an unbreakable key you can use to open locks. Keep in mind that you must give the key away if you want to complete the Thieves Guild’s quest line altogether. You can keep the key until your reach higher levels of this skill though.
Pickpocket is the only skill I hate in this game. Probabilities mean nothing because you can reload and try again. Also, you can exploit the game by learning skills with Trainers using pickpocket to return the money to you. This simply ruins the game as you can learn skills (at least until level 50) with an ease. Keep in mind that no effort means “no relation” with your character. If you take that skill for granted, you do not give value to the skill and the real effort you would have to make if you upgraded the skill manually. Don’t use pickpocket (unless strictly necessary for quest progression). Remember, “Opportunity makes the thief”, in this case, both figuratively and literally!
You can pass speech altogether. I never invested in this tree and I never had any problem with my finances. Fence and Investor are the only worthy perks in this tree. Fence lets you sell stolen goods at any merchant, but remember – you are not a thief. If you really want something, kill the guy (without anyone noticing) and take it. After all, that’s what assassins do. For 500 gold you can make your Riverwood general trader to have 10.000 gold available every 48 hours. But you can easily sell items you have when you go to a major city, and believe me, this happens more often that you might think. When you get to the late stage of the game and have accumulated ridiculous amounts of gold you will regret investing in this tree (my max was 751.312 gold according to game stats).
Stats
Let me make things easy for you:
·2 Health points / 1 Stamina point until level 31. You should have 300 Health, 200 Stamina and 100 Magicka at this point (no bonuses).
·2 Health points / 1 Magicka point until level 51. You should have 450 Health, 200 Stamina and 150 Magicka at this point (no bonuses).
·After that, choose the combination that best suits you. I did 2 Health points / 1 Stamina point. Don’t stress about Magicka too much, there are ways to reduce or even eliminate spells’ costs.
Dragon Shouts
These are the shouts I consider very interesting for your assassin character:
·Become Ethereal – This shout is awesome specially facing dragons that are stubborn to land. Just activate it and there you go, no damage until you deal the first hit.
·Dragonrend – This shout is mandatory in every class you make. With it, you can force a dragon to land making easier for you to kill it.
·Marked for Death – This is the skill I use the most. After learning the three words, shouting this spell against your opponents damage their health by 3 points per second and, the best part, damages their armor rate by 75 points per second! Much easier to kill enemies.
What about Throw Voice? I guess you could use it, but a simple arrow does the same effect just as effectively.
Spells
Muffle gives you the ability to move around without making any sound. This spells is very useful at the beginning of the game until you grab the perk Silence. Casting the spell makes your Illusion skill improve really fast; at low levels, casting once improves your skill level by one.
Invisibility is also a very good skill especially if you have to sneak during daylight at open fields. This is a good spell, even at late stages of the game when you want to hide from dragons and other opponents with a high detection rate.
Fury, Frenzy and Hysteria make your opponents aggressive against each other. They find for the nearest target and start a fight against each other. You have to develop techniques against higher level mobs, for example, Mammoths are resistant to these spells but you can cast it on a Giant to make him start the fight against the mammoth.
Calm, Pacify and Harmony, with the lack of a better word, calm or pacify your opponents. If you get discovered, just cast one of these spells against your opponent and then hide and try again.
Fear, Rout, Mayhem make your opponents to flee from combat. I don’t use these spells as often as I use the others because I don’t find them to be as useful as the others.
Stone
At the very beginning choose between Warrior Stone, Thief Stone and Mage Stone. It’s a matter of personal choice, really, because your assassin uses combat, magic and stealth skills.
You should, however, find the Lover Stone that allows all of your skills to improve 15% faster (instead of 20% faster from one of those tree stones that are confined to 1/3 of your skills).
The Steed Stone is very useful in late stages of the game. Wearing armor does not affect speed, equipped armor is weightless and you can carry +100 height.
Equipment you should wear as early as possible
You should join both Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood factions. They provide you good light armor sets and good weapons at the beginning of the game.
You receive Shrouded armor set after finishing the question Innocence Lost from the Dark Brotherhood. Shrouded Armor gives you 50% poison resistance; Shrouded Boots makes you move more silently; Shrouded Cowl boosts your bows’ attacks by 20%; and Shrouded Gloves doubles sneaky attacks with daggers. They also provide a good defense rate at the beginning of the game. You also receive Blade of Woe at the end of the quest Death Incarnate, a Dagger that has exactly the same damage a Dragonbone Dagger, the best dagger in the game damage wise.
You receive Thieves Guild armor set after completing Taking Care of Business from the Thieves Guild. Thieves Guild Armor increases your carrying capacity by 20 or 35 points; the boots make easier to pickpocket by 15% or 25%; gloves make easier to lock pick by 15% or 25%; and the hood allows you to sell and buy items from merchants by 15% or 20% better prices. Keep in mind that the enchantments on these items are leveled. Don’t worry too much about getting the better ones; you are going to replace them anyway.
You also receive some good gear when joining the Nightingales (a sub faction of the Thieves Guild faction). Nightingale Armor increases your stamina by 20, 30 or 40 points (leveled) and has a good defense rate for a light armor. Nightingale Bow is a very good bow damage wise that deals frost damage, shock damage and slows your opponents (the item is leveled as well, don’t join the nightingales until level 36. At this point, the bow offers you more charges and has a good base damage (17), 1 point better than an Ebony Bow.
You receive Thieves Guild armor set after completing Taking Care of Business from the Thieves Guild. Thieves Guild Armor increases your carrying capacity by 20 or 35 points; the boots make easier to pickpocket by 15% or 25%; gloves make easier to lock pick by 15% or 25%; and the hood allows you to sell and buy items from merchants by 15% or 20% better prices. Keep in mind that the enchantments on these items are leveled. Don’t worry too much about getting the better ones; you are going to replace them anyway.
You also receive some good gear when joining the Nightingales (a sub faction of the Thieves Guild faction). Nightingale Armor increases your stamina by 20, 30 or 40 points (leveled) and has a good defense rate for a light armor. Nightingale Bow is a very good bow damage wise that deals frost damage, shock damage and slows your opponents (the item is leveled as well, don’t join the nightingales until level 36. At this point, the bow offers you more charges and has a good base damage (17), 1 point better than an Ebony Bow.
Equipment I advice you to have in late stages of the game
Weapons:
A simple Dragonbone Dagger or the Blade of Woe and a simple Dragonbone Bow.
Some bow or dagger with Soultrap enchantment (or just use one of your main weapons to do this) so you can recharge your next weapon:
Dragonbone Sword with Magic Damage and Shock Damage. This sword is to be used against Dragons. It deals more damage than a Dagger and it's sensitive to one-handed perks. Don't forget that Dragon's Dragonshouts consume Magika so it's important to drain their magicka as quickly as possible (be aware that Dragons can have 4163 health but their magicka does not go beyond 150!). Alternatively, you can equip a Dragonbone Bow with these enchantments and hit the Dragon (I personally use this last one because when I finish to drain the Dragons' magicka he can only hit me with his wings; if you manage yourself well with your bow, the Dragon never hits you again). Don't worry about the amount of charges you have, you are going to be wealthy enough to have 5/10 Grand Soul Gems with you all the time in case you need them.
Armor:
Armor with Fortify Illusion and other enchantment (I use Fortify Conjuration because at level 72 I started investing on it). If you have some troubles with your Health/Stamina, choose one of these enchantments.
Shrouded Gloves that double your backstabs.
Bracers with Fortify Archery and Unarmed/Lockpick.
Boots with Fortify One-Handed and Stamina/Carry Weight (Sneaking is extremely easy at late stages of the game, there's no need to improve it. Muffle is useless because you invested in perk Silence).
Helmets with Fortify Archery and Illusion.
Necklace and Ring.
One with Fortify Illusion and One-Handed.
Another with Fortify Archery and Health/Stamina or Resist Magicka (if you use bows to kill Dragons).
Non-combat:
Necklace with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Ring with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Armor with Fortify Smiting.
Bracers with Fortify Smiting and Alchemy.
Helmet with Fortify Alchemy.
Masque of the Clavicus Vile and Fortify Barter on a necklace if you need a boost in your Speechcraft.
The Black Star if you need to recharge your weapons (a more convinient solution than carrying Grand Soul Gems with you).
Don't forget: Health Potions, Resist Magicka or Fire/Shock/Frost Potions, and Potent Poisons.
Sorry for any grammar issue this text might have. I'm not an english native speaker.
