Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Character Build: The Arcane Archer

Tags: #Character Build Archer  #Character Build Elementalist  #Character Build Enchanter  #Rank:Legendary 
  • January 22, 2014

    The build is farely one dimensional so you can just go bonkers on archery damage & reisists (what I did) or you could choose to get more creative. The bows themselves are the most important enchants, any enchantments you add to the armor are just a little extra gravy...

    The muffle enchant (if you're lucky enough to find it) and a little sneak bonus can also be very useful if you sometimes want to change the pace of the build and do some un-perked sneaking...

  • January 22, 2014

    Just unload all your noobie enchants on him, or make some potions. All training in the game is fairly cheap until you get over level 50...

  • Member
    January 22, 2014

    Hello sir!

    Is it viable to NOT use summons in Nightstalker but still go out fine?
    I'm thinking of making one (Nightstalker, but without summons) and just use bound weapons.

  • January 22, 2014

    Yeah it's fine, just make sure you have a nice range of enchanted bows to use when the bound bow isn't enough for crowd control...

  • Member
    January 22, 2014

    Well, I already have an idea for that :)

    I've already used your Chaos Ranger before, and so already have ample knowledge about multiple targets vs a bow user. I'll just Slow Time them to death :D

    I just asked it because maybe in Nightstalker summons are really needed as tanks since AA's really are squishy. :)

    Thanks!

  • Member
    February 4, 2014

    There's an easy way to get more Soul Gems without having to buy them or search randomly or go to magical places. I'm sure this was mentioned before, but... Blackreach! Why Blackreach, you ask? Because, the many enemies there drop soul gems, and... there are Geode Veins, which yield empty Soul gems in each, and there are at least 18 Geode Veins (that's as much as I could find, but it was still a lot). I was able to get my Enchanting up 42 levels in a single go (and my enchanting was level 34 at the time)!

    And, if you want easy souls to capture, just find a Nordric Ruin. They all have a fair amount of Draugr to be victims of your Enchantment training.

    As for enchanting weapons, just make Iron Daggers like Mason would suggest. Besides, raising Smithing will help thicken out your other skills that you are going to use anyway, since sometimes it may take a while to level skills on their own despite your resources.

    Also, I would not try to grind. As much as I like having all the good stuff from the get-go, I like to just "play the game"... you know, just experience with whatever you encounter without forcing yourself to. If an opportunity exists where you can grind a skill just by walking into it (and not forcing yourself to)... THEN take it (like reaching Blackreach because of *insert quest here*).

    Just to add my side to the build as well... I don't find using Light Armor has any point to it, especially if you NEED to spend money on training to level it up often especially since you are supposed to keep your distance (that's what Archers and Mages do. And this build is a general mix of the two).

    So, wearing standard unarmored clothing will suffice, and it frees you to just wear whatever you want (let's face it... it gets boring after a while wearing the same getup for more than 2 hours, right?), and it only becomes a burden early in the game on your Equipment load. And we all know Heavy Armor is pretty much useless in comparison, since it has a few perks that don't even apply to most situations that you can't control. It's just easier to maintain than Light Armor... at least LA does not have any useless perks, you invest in less, and it still reaches the armor cap in the end.

    Now don't get me wrong. This is certainly an awesome build, Mason. I just figured there would be an alternative in case people wanted to just... play, you know. Alright, here is my recommended build: http://skyrimcalculator.com/#354512

    I personally think the Atronachs are only best for distractions and/or making a quick escape, and only if you have no dead bodies to use for Necromancy, but I don't invest perks into them for those reasons. Besides, the variety of enemies to encounter gives Necromancy more meaning, usefulness, and fun. Oh, and also... 2 for Magicka, 1 for Health, and 1 for Stamina.

    Yep.

  • February 4, 2014

    Blackreach seems a little risky just for levelling enchanting. I don't think that risk/reward is well balanced...

    For fast and easy enchanting you just need to find a nice simple method of making 3000gold at level 1. Collecting all the uniforms and crap during the tutorial will nail you 1k and alchemy (blue butterfly + blue mountain flower) ingredients found on the way to Riverwood will get you the other 2k...

    At level 1 the Riverwood Trader will usually stock between 7 - 11 empty petty soul gems every load, doing it at level 10 will only get you a couple of gems per load so it takes much longer.

    3000 gold nets you 100 empty petty gems to start your game with, playing normally from here and just collecting gems as you play will put you close to 100 enchanting.

    It only takes 200 enchants (daggers or whatever) to get 100 in enchanting.

    I've played this build several times and still found light armor important on master difficulty, I don't like dying from stray arrows or charging bears/sabre cats. It's still well worth perking/training because this character doesn't have any other means of healing so the key is not to lose much health in the first place by having good armor rating...

  • Member
    February 5, 2014

    Risky, Mason? Are you referring to when you play on Master Difficulty or even Legendary? You can always prepare. And yes, I realize that you can just farm from the Riverwood trader for empty soul gems by selling all the picked up armor and alchemy-made poisons you have to afford it below level 10, but I'm just saying that for those who just want to play, Blackreach is a more... fun and natural alternative. Besides, didn't you say you like to keep your methods glitch free (since attacking a shopkeeper after saving and then reloading for him/her to restock in less than a minute is a glitch)?

    Like I said, Armor is not important for "just in case you get hit" when the whole purpose of being an Archer or especially a Mage is to keep your distance and not get hit at all (Ranger and Power Shot perks helps with that). But that's just me... I think that Armor only serves it's purpose when you actually try to fight in melee range. However, if you ask me, the whole armor thing is overrated. I tested it numerous times against a troll on Adept difficulty, comparing it to not wearing armor... and the difference for me is that I only survive two extra attacks at the most (and I had 150 Health and with an Armor rating of nearly 140). It's only useful on Apprentice or Novice difficulty since enemy damage doesn't overscale so drastically on those difficulties.

    No grinding for me, at least. No armor since I keep my distance, using Archery for long range and Novice destruction spells for mid to close range, and can summon atronachs and raise the undead.

  • Member
    February 5, 2014
    I don't think that the reset thing with the merchants counts as a glitch, and if so it's not an incredibly impacting one. And armour is definitely useful on Master! Without it you'd die in one shot mate. Even if you say being an Archer/Mage is all about avoiding damage, you still will not be able to avoid all damage at all times, so some armour for that stray arrow really helps!
  • February 5, 2014

    Resetting merchants just saves you time, without it I'd just have to wait 48 hours which is very annoying...

    In regards to armor you're correct, 140 armor is barely going to change anything. Armor rating doesn't get strong until about 300 displayed. It's all a matter of game difficulty/preference I guess but if you're playing the game with the hope of never dying (DiD) then you want good armor, I'm not the kind of player that can handle dying, especially when it's a random shot from a bandit that I can't even see...