ShadowGambit
Active Member
For those AD&D fans, Eldritch Knight is a prestige class, pretty much a Caster in Heavy Armor that can somehow tank.
My Eldritch Darknight is basically Necromancer in Heavy Armor that can crush your head with his mace, or turn you to ashes with his destruction spell. Nothing subtle about this guy.
The skill that will be used, in that order:
· Conjuration
· Heavy Armor
· One Handed
· Destruction
· Alteration
Also, a character cannot be “uber”in Skyrim without the 3 crafting skills Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing at 100. I will cover the crafting in the last part, so people that are NOT interested in the crafting will be able to skip that.
Follower:
As a Follower, I found that Eola is the best fit. She actually is a good necromancer. She actually has about the same skill you, except as a follower. And her AI is pretty good, she doesn’t spread her Fireball all over the place. At the end, you can walk around with a dead Thrall, you own raised zombies, Eola and her own zombies. If your thrall is also a conjuror, that’s goin to be crownded around here….
Race:
Not very important, but some are better than others. I see 3 races that can be very good for the build: (In that order)
1. Breton: 25% magic resistance, a power that absorb magicka from enemy spells, +10 conjuration, +5 Alchemy-Illusion-Alteration. Best overall in my point of view
2. Orsimer: Berserk is interesting when tanking, +10 Heavy Armor, +5 Enchanting-One Handed-Smithing is nice. No bonus in casting though.
3. Altmer: +50 magicka, Magica regen faster, +5 Conjuration-Destruction-Enchanting. It is ok, but I’d rather choose one of the 2 races first.
Attributes:
For the attribute, my leveling advice would be to increase them 1/3/1 every 5 levels till level 50. over 5 levels, you will get +10 magicka, +30 Health and +10 Stamina.
At level 51: Magicka 200 – Health 500 – Stamina 200
200 Magicka should be more than enough to cast the spell you need, mostly is your equipment has 100% Fortify Conjuration and Destruction
After level 50, put all in Health. At level 81, you should get: Magicka 200 – Health 700 – Stamina 200.
Skills:
The skills in parenthesis will have to be leveled after level 50
Conjuration (7-8):
This is what’s make you a Necromancer.
Also, Conjuration will help you avoid the lack of strong weapon at the beginning of the game, till you get your Crafting Skills up to where you can get decent gear. The bound Sword will be your main weapon for awhile.
· Novice
· Mystic Binding
· Soul Stealer
· Summoner 1/2
· Necromancy
· Dark Souls
· Twin Souls
· (Summoner 2/2)
How to level: Go to Dragonsreach and see Farengar. Buy Conjure Flame Atronach and Bow Sword from him. Cast your flame Atronach and then bound sword. Fight your Atronach. That will increase your Conjuring level nicely. Upgrade everytime you can get a better. For the purpose of leveling, Flame atronach is better than Reanimate corpse because you will need a corpse to cast Reanimate. If you have a corpse, then Reanimate is better and more suited with your build.
Heavy Armor (4)
As a semi-tank, you will need to have some heavy protection. I will choose the Ebony armor over the Daedric Armor. For the reason why, check the crafting section. Also, I like the design of the Ebony armor better than the daedric one.You will only need 4 perks, mostly to get the “conditioning” perk, for your armor to weight nothing when wron. The 2 perks before that are useless in my point of view, but you have to take them, sadly. Juggernaut 1 will take you a little over your armor cap.
· Juggernaut 1
· Fist of Steel
· Cushioned
· Conditionning
How to level: Get hit often. Seriously. At the beginning, go to Whiterun and challenge Uthgerd the Unbroken for a fight. Let her hit you and just heal from time to time. That slow but easy. A faster way would to be to go challenge Giants and Mammoth. You better have a good armor and a good healing spell.
One Handed (5-10)
For this build I will use the Bound Sword at the beginning. I would try to get the Mace of Molag Bal early. After getting max-out in smithing and enchanting, I will go with an Ebony mace. I feel like it is more adapted to the character. Therefore I will go the crushing way on the One-Handed line. See the crafting section to know why I choose Ebony mace over Daedric mace.
· Armsman 5/5
· (Fighting Stance)
· (Bone Breaker 3/3)
· (Savage Strike)
How to level: If you want to level in Helgen, the same method as sneak can be used. Using the Conjuring leveling technique will help you level. Also you can go to the Greybeard and bash them.
Destruction (8-10)
That will serve as your range attack. I think that Desintegrate is the only interesting spell of the 3 “low health” spells, so I dropped the 2 others. Dual casting and Impact are situational.
· Novice
· Augmented Flame 2/2
· Augmented Frost 2/2
· Augmented Shock 2/2
· Desintegrate
· (Dual casting)
· (Impact)
How to level: in Helgen, you can cast flame on Rolof or Hadvar, they won’t react. That will increase your Destruction. Or in Whiterun, when Vilkas tests you, just cast destruction spell on him, he won’t react. And the test ends only when you hit him with your melee weapon.
Alteration (5)
Alteration will be mostly leveled to get the 30% magic resist. Some spells can be useful, but not essential.
Detect Life makes your life a little easier, being able to locate enemies. Waterbreathing is also useful, but the enchantment is better in my point of view. Transmute can brings you money early in the game..
· Novice
· Apprentice
· Magic Resistance 1
· Magic Resistance 2
· Magic Resistance 3
How to level: Cast Magelight till 50 Alteration. Or Stoneflesh when you are fighting your Flame Atronach/Zombie (see Conjuration). At50 Alteration, get Detect Life and cast it over and over. The more people around the better.
Crafting
You will have to max it out. The goal is to make:
· 4 pieces of Fortify Smithing +29%
· Fortify Smithing Potions +147%
· Fortify Enchanting Potions +32%
Note on Equipment:
First, the melee weapon:
I will use the bound Sword till I get the Mace of Molag Bal. Then enchanting and smithing will give a better weapon.
I chose the mace because I thought it would look better for that character. After that I checked the stats, and guess what, Ebony mace and Daedric have the exact same damage stats. And Ebony mace is a little lighter. So Ebony mace is the winner.
Second, the armor:
With your Heavy Armor skill as described, you don’t need a Daedric Armor to reach the armor cap. An Ebony armor is enough.
Smithing (5)
Following what was just said on equipment, then it looks like for my purpose, Daedric and Dragon smithing perks are not very useful. So I will stop at Ebony smithing first, still taking Arcane Smithing (for the Mace of Malog Bal).
· Steel
· Dwarven
· Orcish
· Arcane Smithing
· Ebomy
How to level: With 1.5 patch, smithing leveling is a little different now. So make daggers… but not only iron, different type following the level you reach. Or jewellery with gems in it.
Alchemy (7)
Note: I use the Circlet/Falmer glitch for Alchemy.
· Alchemist 1
· Alchemist 2
· Physician
· Benefactor
· Alchemist 3
· Alchemist 4
· Alchemist 5
How to level: Alchemy xp depends on the value of the potion you are making. So the fastest way to get your level up is to make High value potion. Everything with Giant Toe and multiple actions would work. Invisibility potions are also pretty valuable.
Enchanting (8)
· Enchanter 1
· Enchanter 2
· Enchanter 3
· Insightful Enchanter
· Enchanter 4
· Corpus Enchanter
· Enchanter 5
· Extra Effects
How to level: Disenchant whatever equipment you can find. Buy every Lesser or Pretty filled soul gems that you can find. Enchant daggers with Banish. Buy every empty Lesser soul gems that you can find.
Last Note
This build uses 49 main perk points and 57 perk points total. That means that it will leave you with 23 perk points to play with, if you intend to go till level 81.
My Eldritch Darknight is basically Necromancer in Heavy Armor that can crush your head with his mace, or turn you to ashes with his destruction spell. Nothing subtle about this guy.
The skill that will be used, in that order:
· Conjuration
· Heavy Armor
· One Handed
· Destruction
· Alteration
Also, a character cannot be “uber”in Skyrim without the 3 crafting skills Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing at 100. I will cover the crafting in the last part, so people that are NOT interested in the crafting will be able to skip that.
Follower:
As a Follower, I found that Eola is the best fit. She actually is a good necromancer. She actually has about the same skill you, except as a follower. And her AI is pretty good, she doesn’t spread her Fireball all over the place. At the end, you can walk around with a dead Thrall, you own raised zombies, Eola and her own zombies. If your thrall is also a conjuror, that’s goin to be crownded around here….
Race:
Not very important, but some are better than others. I see 3 races that can be very good for the build: (In that order)
1. Breton: 25% magic resistance, a power that absorb magicka from enemy spells, +10 conjuration, +5 Alchemy-Illusion-Alteration. Best overall in my point of view
2. Orsimer: Berserk is interesting when tanking, +10 Heavy Armor, +5 Enchanting-One Handed-Smithing is nice. No bonus in casting though.
3. Altmer: +50 magicka, Magica regen faster, +5 Conjuration-Destruction-Enchanting. It is ok, but I’d rather choose one of the 2 races first.
Attributes:
For the attribute, my leveling advice would be to increase them 1/3/1 every 5 levels till level 50. over 5 levels, you will get +10 magicka, +30 Health and +10 Stamina.
At level 51: Magicka 200 – Health 500 – Stamina 200
200 Magicka should be more than enough to cast the spell you need, mostly is your equipment has 100% Fortify Conjuration and Destruction
After level 50, put all in Health. At level 81, you should get: Magicka 200 – Health 700 – Stamina 200.
Skills:
The skills in parenthesis will have to be leveled after level 50
Conjuration (7-8):
This is what’s make you a Necromancer.
Also, Conjuration will help you avoid the lack of strong weapon at the beginning of the game, till you get your Crafting Skills up to where you can get decent gear. The bound Sword will be your main weapon for awhile.
· Novice
· Mystic Binding
· Soul Stealer
· Summoner 1/2
· Necromancy
· Dark Souls
· Twin Souls
· (Summoner 2/2)
How to level: Go to Dragonsreach and see Farengar. Buy Conjure Flame Atronach and Bow Sword from him. Cast your flame Atronach and then bound sword. Fight your Atronach. That will increase your Conjuring level nicely. Upgrade everytime you can get a better. For the purpose of leveling, Flame atronach is better than Reanimate corpse because you will need a corpse to cast Reanimate. If you have a corpse, then Reanimate is better and more suited with your build.
Heavy Armor (4)
As a semi-tank, you will need to have some heavy protection. I will choose the Ebony armor over the Daedric Armor. For the reason why, check the crafting section. Also, I like the design of the Ebony armor better than the daedric one.You will only need 4 perks, mostly to get the “conditioning” perk, for your armor to weight nothing when wron. The 2 perks before that are useless in my point of view, but you have to take them, sadly. Juggernaut 1 will take you a little over your armor cap.
· Juggernaut 1
· Fist of Steel
· Cushioned
· Conditionning
How to level: Get hit often. Seriously. At the beginning, go to Whiterun and challenge Uthgerd the Unbroken for a fight. Let her hit you and just heal from time to time. That slow but easy. A faster way would to be to go challenge Giants and Mammoth. You better have a good armor and a good healing spell.
One Handed (5-10)
For this build I will use the Bound Sword at the beginning. I would try to get the Mace of Molag Bal early. After getting max-out in smithing and enchanting, I will go with an Ebony mace. I feel like it is more adapted to the character. Therefore I will go the crushing way on the One-Handed line. See the crafting section to know why I choose Ebony mace over Daedric mace.
· Armsman 5/5
· (Fighting Stance)
· (Bone Breaker 3/3)
· (Savage Strike)
How to level: If you want to level in Helgen, the same method as sneak can be used. Using the Conjuring leveling technique will help you level. Also you can go to the Greybeard and bash them.
Destruction (8-10)
That will serve as your range attack. I think that Desintegrate is the only interesting spell of the 3 “low health” spells, so I dropped the 2 others. Dual casting and Impact are situational.
· Novice
· Augmented Flame 2/2
· Augmented Frost 2/2
· Augmented Shock 2/2
· Desintegrate
· (Dual casting)
· (Impact)
How to level: in Helgen, you can cast flame on Rolof or Hadvar, they won’t react. That will increase your Destruction. Or in Whiterun, when Vilkas tests you, just cast destruction spell on him, he won’t react. And the test ends only when you hit him with your melee weapon.
Alteration (5)
Alteration will be mostly leveled to get the 30% magic resist. Some spells can be useful, but not essential.
Detect Life makes your life a little easier, being able to locate enemies. Waterbreathing is also useful, but the enchantment is better in my point of view. Transmute can brings you money early in the game..
· Novice
· Apprentice
· Magic Resistance 1
· Magic Resistance 2
· Magic Resistance 3
How to level: Cast Magelight till 50 Alteration. Or Stoneflesh when you are fighting your Flame Atronach/Zombie (see Conjuration). At50 Alteration, get Detect Life and cast it over and over. The more people around the better.
Crafting
You will have to max it out. The goal is to make:
· 4 pieces of Fortify Smithing +29%
· Fortify Smithing Potions +147%
· Fortify Enchanting Potions +32%
Note on Equipment:
First, the melee weapon:
I will use the bound Sword till I get the Mace of Molag Bal. Then enchanting and smithing will give a better weapon.
I chose the mace because I thought it would look better for that character. After that I checked the stats, and guess what, Ebony mace and Daedric have the exact same damage stats. And Ebony mace is a little lighter. So Ebony mace is the winner.
Second, the armor:
With your Heavy Armor skill as described, you don’t need a Daedric Armor to reach the armor cap. An Ebony armor is enough.
Smithing (5)
Following what was just said on equipment, then it looks like for my purpose, Daedric and Dragon smithing perks are not very useful. So I will stop at Ebony smithing first, still taking Arcane Smithing (for the Mace of Malog Bal).
· Steel
· Dwarven
· Orcish
· Arcane Smithing
· Ebomy
How to level: With 1.5 patch, smithing leveling is a little different now. So make daggers… but not only iron, different type following the level you reach. Or jewellery with gems in it.
Alchemy (7)
Note: I use the Circlet/Falmer glitch for Alchemy.
· Alchemist 1
· Alchemist 2
· Physician
· Benefactor
· Alchemist 3
· Alchemist 4
· Alchemist 5
How to level: Alchemy xp depends on the value of the potion you are making. So the fastest way to get your level up is to make High value potion. Everything with Giant Toe and multiple actions would work. Invisibility potions are also pretty valuable.
Enchanting (8)
· Enchanter 1
· Enchanter 2
· Enchanter 3
· Insightful Enchanter
· Enchanter 4
· Corpus Enchanter
· Enchanter 5
· Extra Effects
How to level: Disenchant whatever equipment you can find. Buy every Lesser or Pretty filled soul gems that you can find. Enchant daggers with Banish. Buy every empty Lesser soul gems that you can find.
Last Note
This build uses 49 main perk points and 57 perk points total. That means that it will leave you with 23 perk points to play with, if you intend to go till level 81.
