Sniper Mage Build

[ShadowGambit]

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:

• · Archery
• · Sneak
• · Illusion
• · Conjuration
• · Light Armor
• · One-Handed

Why one-handed so far away down the list will you ask? Well, if you are a GOOD sniper, you will rarely have to come in close combat range. One-Handed will be here just for you to be able to get out of some hard close combat fight mandatory in the game. I will detail each skills further in this guide.

Also, a character cannot be “uber” in skyrim without the 3 crafting skills: Alchemy, Enchanting and Smithing. They have to be maxed out.

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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 magicla from spells, +10 conjuration, +5 Alchemy-Illusion-Alteration. Best overall in my point of view
2. 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.
3. 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.

Attributes:

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EDITED: For the attribute, my leveling advice would be to increase them 1/1/1 every 3 levels till level 60. over 3 levels, you will get +10 magicka, +10 Health and +10 Stamina.

At level 60: Magicka 300 – Health 300 – Stamina 300​

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300 Magicka should be more than enough to cast the spell you need, mostly is your equipment has 100% Fortify Illusion and Conjuration (see equipment for more details)

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After level 60, put in Stamina and Health. At level 81, you should get: Magicka 300 – Health 400 – Stamina 400.

Skills:​

The skills in parenthesis will have to be leveled after level 50

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Archery (11-12)​

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
• Critical Shot 1/1
• Hunter Discipline
• Ranger
• (Steady Hand 2)

How to level: Take Faendal in Riverwood as a follower ASAP. He will take you to level 50. Get your Bound Bow OR a LOT of arrows , you can get them for free where the NPC train their archery skill (Solitude, Dragonreach, Thieve Guild inner Sanctum). After that, take Mjoll the Lionness as a follower. Go somewhere open with some nice spot to hide, tell her to wait in the open. Sneak and then shoot her. That will increase your Archery as well as your sneak skill. The good thing about Mjoll is tah she is tagged as an essential NPC, so she cannot die.

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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)

How to level:If you want it early, you can sneak attack Rolof (Or Hadvar) in Helgen. Otherwise in Dragonsreach Great Porch, there is a single guard making his round. Shadow him and you will increase your sneak. Or use the Archery leveling method with Mjoll.

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Illusion (4-5)​

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 Invisbiility.

• Novice
• Animage
• Kindred Mage
• Quiet Casting
• (Master of the Mind)

How to level: In Dragonsreach, go see Farengar, the Jarl Mage, and buy the Muffle spell from him. Cast it over and over till you get to 75 illusion. Then go see Drevis Neloren in Winterhold College and buy the Invisibility spell. From there, getting to 100 will come fast enough.

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Conjuration (3-7) EDITED​

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.
Conjuring Atronach or Dremora will take the aggro from you. You can then get away and be able to snipe again, when your minion takes care of close combat business.

• Novice
• Mystic Binding
• Soul Stealer
• (Summoner 1)
• (Atromancy)
• (Elemental Potency)
• (Twin Souls)

How to level: Go to Dragonsreach and see Farengar. Buy Conjure Flame Atronach and Bow Sword from him. Cast your flame Atronach and then dual wield your bound sword. Fight your Atronach. That will increase your Conjuring level nicely. After 50 conjuration, go and buy your Bound Bow from Phinis Gestor in Whitherhold College. EDITED: DO NOT take Mystic Binding yet. You need to hit your Atronach 3 times before it becomes hostile. Only then will you get the xp for Conjuration leveling. With Mystic Binding you may kill it before 3 hits.

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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

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.

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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
• Armsman 4
• Armsman 5
• (Fighting Stance)

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.

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Crafting​

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You will have to max it out. The goal is to make:

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• · Make 4 pieces of Fortify Smithing +29%
• · Make Fortify Smithing Potions +147%
• · Make Fortify Enchanting Potions +32%
• · Make Fortify Marksman Potions +147%

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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.

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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. When leveling your Conjuration skill (see conjuration), killing your Flame Atronach will fill a Lesser Soul Gem, if you have the Soul Stealer perk.

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Smithing (4) EDITED​

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. The Dwarven Smithing is to level Smithing with Patch 1.5

• Steel Smithing
• Elven Smithing
• Dwarven Smithing
• Arcane Smithing

How to level: EDITED Prior to patch 1.5, craft Iron daggers all the way to 100. With patch 1.5 and over, start with Iron Dagger till you reach about 40. After that craft Dwarven Bow, from the dwemer scrap metal you get from Dwarven ruins, till around 90. Jewellery will be the fastest after 90

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Last Note​

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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.

I would choose to invest in Alteration to get Magic Resistance 3/3 (5pts). Also, you can 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 (3pts), even if I don’t use a shield much. A 50% elemental resist is always nice, mostly against dragon’s breath.

For the 9 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 undoubtedly do more damage.

 

[perkecet]

why outline all that crafting stuff? really distracts from the build notes since crafting is boring, time consuming, and never necessary for a build. also, that information can be found elsewhere. i've used essentially the same build before and it's fun, however, this is very close to the 'no destruction' variant of the traditional nightblade build that most people seem to prefer.

good info regardless however, this will certainly help more than a few people.

 

[ShadowGambit]

i admit that crafting is boring.

But the way the mechanics of the game works, you HAVE to craft to be able to keep up with the game after level 30.

It is sad, but for example you armor doesn't take away an amount of damage, but only a % of damage. meaning, if you wear no armor, a lvl 1 npc with a steel sword still do 10 dmg to you, even if you are level 81. And even fully armored, he will still do 2 dmg to you, as the cap is 80% of the damage.

the thing is that a lvl 1 shouldn't be able to scratch a fully armored lvl 81 character outside of a critical hit, and even the critical hit should be VERY hard to get... but the mechanics doesn't work like that.

On that note, that means that EVERY ATTACK will give you damage, even small one. it is a little strange to have an armor being able to absorb 45dmg from a Giant blow, but not 5 dmg from a dagger.... just 4dmg

So in that point for me, the mechanics is badly scaled. But it is the mechanics and we have to make the best of it.

 

[perkecet]

yeah i get how armor works, there doesn't mean you have to do it to play the game by any means, i'm not sure where you've gotten that idea. the game just becomes actually challenging without smithing or the like. this build in particular doesn't really benefit from smithing at all, since if you're doing well nobody should be hitting you anyway.

 

[ShadowGambit]

Well, let's say this:

I agree that you don't need smithing PERK on this build and that Smithing is BOOORING, mostly with 1.5 patch out, but you still need smithing at level 100.

Why? it is just the way the upgrade is calculated.

Let say that you let your smithing at 15 and that you go buy your weapon and armor. The rest of the skill set up as described.

The best light armor that you will be able to find would be the Glass Armor.

When you upgrade it, even if you have 4 pieces of +29% smithing and smithing potion +147%, your armor rating will be only of 183. That means that you only get 34% of your damage absorbed.... to low for my taste, mostly at level 50+.

Even with Light Armor 100, Agile Defender 5/5, Custom Fit and Matching set, your armor rating will just go up to 367, meaning 56% of damage absorb. That's better, but that's 5 perks more than my initial build.

Also for weapon, with the same formula, the strongest bow is the game, the Nightingale bow, even upgraded, will have a damage output inferior to your Bound Bow with Mystic Binding, 72 damage total, so I would stick with the Bound bow the whole game.

By the way, to get 4 pieces of +29% smithing and +147% smithing potion, you HAVE to have 100 alchemy with Alchemist 5/5, Enchanting 100, Enchanter 5/5, Insightful Enchanter.

My point is that i'd rather spend more time and game money grinding my Smithing to 100 to get better armor and better weapon, instead of spending 5 more perks to have lesser armor and weapon. Time in the game, I can have. Perks are limited.

 

[Doomy]

Not sure why this (and most other) builds have so much protection (illusion and alteration) in them. Run away works just as well and saves all those perks for offensive skills.

Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk 2

 

[ShadowGambit]

"Run whatever you want, you cannot outrun a bullet"

I pretty sure that in skyrim I don't run fast enough to outrun an arrow or a fireball

 

[Google]

High Elfs have the regenerating magic ability, not the Bretons.

 

[perkecet]

the point is that as a sneak build you DON'T need armor, it doesn't matter. you'll most likely be wearing DB, TG, or nightingale armor. weapon's? no need, with a dagger you'll do 15 or 30x damage. there's no reason to smith, at all.

 

[Doomy]

"Run whatever you want, you cannot outrun a bullet"

I pretty sure that in skyrim I don't run fast enough to outrun an arrow or a fireball

Try sideways

Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk 2

 

[ShadowGambit]

oupps sorry. I changed the Breton power. Thanks Google.

Perkecet, I agree with with you about the armor. But I didn't figure out how to SNIPE with a dagger yet. Me, I still need a bow. So the first crafting bow you can have is... elven.

So I though, being able to craft elven, I would do it also for my armor.

Now, a for full fledge close combat assassin, you are right: you use dagger most of the time.

But I would say that your dagger, without the sneak multiplier is not very efficient against a flying dragon. Or against the 3 dremoras in the Azura star quest.

So the point is, if you are just talking about role-playing, I agree with you.

If you want to play the full game and do the quests, then being able to sustain hits becomes pretty important. Not always, but often enough for me to spend some time do the crafting work, which is, as boring as it is, also a side of the game.

 

[Acshunn]

uhh.. if you're a sniper why put so many points into health? snipers don't need much hp actually you dont need any hp at all as a sniper, put enough points into mp so you can cast till you get enchanting up, then put the rest of your points into stamina

 

[Marintha]

Wow, I found this build and ran away with it giggling ecstatically, but I came back to check and realized everyone here had just put up negative replies. I mean, wut?

I think it's a pretty gd awesome build. I wouldn't have thought of using conjuration magic! I really love playing a sneak-thief, but I was having issues getting far enough in to just grind all those awesome weapons and armor you hear about (the smithing/potions/enchanting ones you mention). Not because of difficulty, but because it was boooorrriiiinnnggg.

Adding conjuration to my build and lightly following this guide, it's been pure awesome-sauce. And I just wanted to say, don't listen to those guys, this build rocks. Thanks a million ShadowGambit!

 

[ShadowGambit]

Thanks Marithia. Glad to see it is useful for some people.

I would agree with Acshunn though, Put a less points in health and more in Stamina and Magicka, mostly if you are using Conjuration a lot at the beginning. 1/1/1 every 3 levels till you reach level 50 or so. then after, put points in health.

The Bound bow is really great, even until level 40+, and the bound sword is a nice back-up. That way, you can take your time to increase your crafting skills without being gimped. Conjuring Atronach, and at higher level Dremora, will take all the aggro from you when you get into tight fight or face to many hostile. Mostly with Dremora, which can sustain a good amount of damage. Frenzy and Pacify can help you a lot also, but Pacify is pretty high level too.

Being free of agrro, you can do what you do best: Sniping.

 

[Acshunn]

for me on a sniper mage type build, i put 200 magicka so i can cast my bound bow with the adept conjuration perk you use about 103 magicka points, then i put the rest into stamina

 

[ShadowGambit]

Edited my first post to make some little modifications