ShadowGambit
Active Member
Hello guys, here is my guide on how to build an awesome Sniper character in Skyrim.
The way to play a sniper is to be able to pick your targets one by one. And escape when the situation become too hot. For that reason, at high level, I don’t play with a follower. I do play with conjuration because summon Thrall will take the heat for me when I get out of the way and cast invisibility. Then I will find another spot to pick my target, again, one at a time. Patience is the main virtue for a sniper.
To give you an idea, here are the skills that will be used, In that order:
Also, a character cannot be “uber” in skyrim without the 3 crafting skills: Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing. They have to be maxed out.
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)
For the attribute, my leveling advice would be to increase them 1/2/2 every 5 levels till level 50. over 5 levels, you will get +10 magicka, +20 Health and +20 Stamina.
After level 50, put all in Health. At level 81, you should get: Magicka 200 – Health 600 – Stamina 300.
Skills:
The skills in parenthesis will have to be leveled after level 50
This is your bread and butter combat skill. Most of your kills will come from this.
Equipment Note: I will use either the Bound bow or the Elven Bow. The Bound Bow has the same stats than a Daedric bow and fires Arrows with damage equivalent to the daedric Arrows. With Mystic Binding, the Bound bow is equivalent to a Flawless Daedric Bow. At the end of the game, when I can have all my crafting maxed, I will use the Elven bow, for a total of 225 damage, without counting the arrow. Why the Elven bow over, say, the Daedric Bow? Because I only choose to put Smithing perk in Steel, Elven and Arcane Smithing. So I cannot fully upgrade a Daedric Bow. With my skill set-up, a Daedric bow will only do 174 damage without counting the arrow. Also, the Elven Bow has one of the Highest DPS of the game.
Sniper HAVE to stay hidden, and this is the main skill for it. I will not touch the left side of the skill tree though, as with Invisibility spell and Muffle enchantment, investing in the left side is the waste, in my point of view.
Illusion helps A TON your sneaking ability. Invisibility is a must. It will also get you out of difficult situation with spells like Pacify, Frenzy or Calm, letting you get away and then recast invisibility. The Goal is to get quiet Casting and 75 illusion to be able to buy Invisility.
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 and the Bound Bow will be your main weapon for awhile.
Bound Bow is particularly powerful, and better than a flawless daedric bow. Also, Bound arrows do the same damage as daedric’s. Bound weapon will also help you farm souls, with Soul Stealer, which are essential to level you Enchanting skills.
For the late Game, when you gear is set, Conjuration will mostly serve to summon decoy that can get the agro out of you and allows you to disappear with Invisibility.
Sniper has to be discreet, so Light armor is the way to go. Now, the armor cap is set at 567 armor rating, and it will absorb 80% of the damage. So going OVER that number is useless. Because I didn’t want to invest much in Smithing perks, I will use the Elven Armor. Elven armor with my skills set up reaches the cap. Your Elven armor is also fully enchantable.
Shield: I rarely use shield, but I always have an Elven Shield in my backpack, just in case. It is mostly useful at the beginning of the game, where your armor doesn’t reach the cap yet.
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. Paralyze can save you, but I still prefer the enchantment.
At last would you say. For me One-Handed is not essential, because it is mostly situational for me to use.
Equipment Note: I use Dagger (and the Blade of Woe as soon as I can) so I can use Assassin Blade. Why? Because If I choose to have only Elven Smithing, the Elven Sword does only 11 base damage compares to the 12 of the Blade of Woe. The Blade of Woe is also FULLY upgradable with Steel Smithing. Why not the Deadric Sword would you ask? Because I cannot FULLY upgrade the Deadric Sword as I don’t have the Daedric Smithing skill. With my skill set up in One-Handed, a Blade of Woe fully upgraded would do 225 damage. With the same set of skill, a Daedric Sword will only do 168 damage. And Sword make noise when Dagger don’t. And I cannot use Assassin Blade.
Crafting
You will have to max it out. The goal is to make:
Last Note
This build uses 49 main perk points and 58 perk points total. That means that it will leave you with 22 perk points to play with, if you intend to go till level 81.
I would choose to get the Extra Pocket Perk (3 pts) to get the extra 100 carry weight. I would also take Regeneration and Respite in the Restoration line (3pts). Always good to have better healing. I would also take Elemental protection in the Block Line, even if I don’t use a shield much. A 50% elemental resist is always nice, mostly against dragon’s breath.
For the 13 remaining perk points, it is up to you. Investor in the Speech line is not bad, as well as Misdirection on the Pickpocket line. If you want, you can also invest in the full heavy Armor line of Smithing. Now I haven’t made my calculations for Daedric Armor fully upgraded, but I’m pretty sure it is over the cap pretty fast. Also, you will have to switch from Light Armor to Heavy Armor . It will cost you one extra perk to get the same effect. For the weapon, they will undoubfully do more damage.
The way to play a sniper is to be able to pick your targets one by one. And escape when the situation become too hot. For that reason, at high level, I don’t play with a follower. I do play with conjuration because summon Thrall will take the heat for me when I get out of the way and cast invisibility. Then I will find another spot to pick my target, again, one at a time. Patience is the main virtue for a sniper.
To give you an idea, here are the skills that will be used, In that order:
- · Archery
- · Sneak
- · Illusion
- · Conjuration
- · Light Armor
- · Alteration
- · One-Handed
Also, a character cannot be “uber” in skyrim without the 3 crafting skills: Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing. They have to be maxed out.
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)
- Breton: 25% magic resistance, a power that regenerate magicka , +10 conjuration, +5 Alchemy-Illusion-Alteration. Best overall in my point of view
- Altmer: +50 magicka, magicka regen faster, +10 illusion, +5 enchanting-Alteration-conjuration. Very close second on my opinion, but for me the 25% magic resist of the Breton wins it over the +50 magicka. Also, Alchemy is harder to level than Enchanting.
- Dunmer: 25% Fire resistance, +5 Alchemy-Illusion-Sneak-Light Armor. Ancestor Wrath is weak and too situational. If you are a good sniper, enemy rarely come close to you anyway. +10 Destruction is no use for this built.
For the attribute, my leveling advice would be to increase them 1/2/2 every 5 levels till level 50. over 5 levels, you will get +10 magicka, +20 Health and +20 Stamina.
At level 51: Magicka 200 – Health 300 – Stamina 300
200 Magicka shoul be more than enough to cast the spell you need, mostly is your equipment has 100% Fortify Illusion and Alteration (see equipment for more details)After level 50, put all in Health. At level 81, you should get: Magicka 200 – Health 600 – Stamina 300.
Skills:
The skills in parenthesis will have to be leveled after level 50
Archery (7-10)
This is your bread and butter combat skill. Most of your kills will come from this.
Equipment Note: I will use either the Bound bow or the Elven Bow. The Bound Bow has the same stats than a Daedric bow and fires Arrows with damage equivalent to the daedric Arrows. With Mystic Binding, the Bound bow is equivalent to a Flawless Daedric Bow. At the end of the game, when I can have all my crafting maxed, I will use the Elven bow, for a total of 225 damage, without counting the arrow. Why the Elven bow over, say, the Daedric Bow? Because I only choose to put Smithing perk in Steel, Elven and Arcane Smithing. So I cannot fully upgrade a Daedric Bow. With my skill set-up, a Daedric bow will only do 174 damage without counting the arrow. Also, the Elven Bow has one of the Highest DPS of the game.
- Overdraw (5/5)
- Eagle Eye
- Steady Hand 1
- (Powershot)
- (Steady Hand 2)
- (Quick Shot)
Sneak (3-4)
Sniper HAVE to stay hidden, and this is the main skill for it. I will not touch the left side of the skill tree though, as with Invisibility spell and Muffle enchantment, investing in the left side is the waste, in my point of view.
- Stealth 1
- Backstab
- Deadly Aim
- (Assassin Blade... just in case)
Illusion (4)
Illusion helps A TON your sneaking ability. Invisibility is a must. It will also get you out of difficult situation with spells like Pacify, Frenzy or Calm, letting you get away and then recast invisibility. The Goal is to get quiet Casting and 75 illusion to be able to buy Invisility.
- · Novice
- · Animage
- · Kindred Mage
- · Quiet Casting
Conjuration (3-7)
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 and the Bound Bow will be your main weapon for awhile.
Bound Bow is particularly powerful, and better than a flawless daedric bow. Also, Bound arrows do the same damage as daedric’s. Bound weapon will also help you farm souls, with Soul Stealer, which are essential to level you Enchanting skills.
For the late Game, when you gear is set, Conjuration will mostly serve to summon decoy that can get the agro out of you and allows you to disappear with Invisibility.
- Novice
- Mystic Binding
- Soul Stealer
- (Summoner 1)
- (Atromancy)
- (Elemental Potency)
- (Twin Souls)
Light Armor (4)
Sniper has to be discreet, so Light armor is the way to go. Now, the armor cap is set at 567 armor rating, and it will absorb 80% of the damage. So going OVER that number is useless. Because I didn’t want to invest much in Smithing perks, I will use the Elven Armor. Elven armor with my skills set up reaches the cap. Your Elven armor is also fully enchantable.
Shield: I rarely use shield, but I always have an Elven Shield in my backpack, just in case. It is mostly useful at the beginning of the game, where your armor doesn’t reach the cap yet.
- · Agile Defender 1
- · Custom Fit
- · Unhindered
- · Wind Walker
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. Paralyze can save you, but I still prefer the enchantment.
- · Novice
- · Apprentice
- · Magic Resistance 1
- · Magic Resistance 2
- · Magic Resistance 3
One-Handed (5-6)
At last would you say. For me One-Handed is not essential, because it is mostly situational for me to use.
Equipment Note: I use Dagger (and the Blade of Woe as soon as I can) so I can use Assassin Blade. Why? Because If I choose to have only Elven Smithing, the Elven Sword does only 11 base damage compares to the 12 of the Blade of Woe. The Blade of Woe is also FULLY upgradable with Steel Smithing. Why not the Deadric Sword would you ask? Because I cannot FULLY upgrade the Deadric Sword as I don’t have the Daedric Smithing skill. With my skill set up in One-Handed, a Blade of Woe fully upgraded would do 225 damage. With the same set of skill, a Daedric Sword will only do 168 damage. And Sword make noise when Dagger don’t. And I cannot use Assassin Blade.
- Armsman 1
- Armsman 2
- Armsman 3
- Amrsman 4
- Armsman 5
- (Fighting Stance)
Crafting
You will have to max it out. The goal is to make:
· Make 4 pieces of Fortify Smithing +29%
· Make Fortify Smithing Potions +147%
· Make Fortify Enchanting Potions +32%
· Make Fortify Marksman Potions +147%
Alchemy (7)
Note: I use the Circlet/Falmer glitch for Alchemy.- · Alchemist 1
- · Alchemist 2
- · Physician
- · Benefactor
- · Alchemist 3
- · Alchemist 4
- · Alchemist 5
Enchanting (8)
- · Enchanter 1
- · Enchanter 2
- · Enchanter 3
- · Insightful Enchanter
- · Enchanter 4
- · Corpus Enchanter
- · Enchanter 5
- · Extra Effects
Smithing (3)
As I said earlier, my choice is no to go for Elven smithing, as Elven armor Fully upgraded will take me to the armor Cap (see Light Armor). Also I choose Elven bow for the reasons gave in the Archery section. The one Handed section will give you my point for my Blade of Woe choice.- · Steel Smithing
- · Elven Smithing
- · Arcane Smithing
Last Note
This build uses 49 main perk points and 58 perk points total. That means that it will leave you with 22 perk points to play with, if you intend to go till level 81.
I would choose to get the Extra Pocket Perk (3 pts) to get the extra 100 carry weight. I would also take Regeneration and Respite in the Restoration line (3pts). Always good to have better healing. I would also take Elemental protection in the Block Line, even if I don’t use a shield much. A 50% elemental resist is always nice, mostly against dragon’s breath.
For the 13 remaining perk points, it is up to you. Investor in the Speech line is not bad, as well as Misdirection on the Pickpocket line. If you want, you can also invest in the full heavy Armor line of Smithing. Now I haven’t made my calculations for Daedric Armor fully upgraded, but I’m pretty sure it is over the cap pretty fast. Also, you will have to switch from Light Armor to Heavy Armor . It will cost you one extra perk to get the same effect. For the weapon, they will undoubfully do more damage.
