Ultimate Assassin Build

[Jake]

Okay, so I decided to create yet another new character in Skyrim. I already made a topic about this, but I believe I need to go more into detail. This character is focused on becoming the ultimate assassin, 1-shotting nearly everything if he can get close enough without being noticed. Without further ado, here is my plan:

 

Race: Breton (Their 25% magic resistance is useful for any build)

Gender: Male (Females get better Agent of Dibella bonus, but Breton males run faster due to taller height, and I prefer playing as a male overall)

Level: 52 if you have Dawnguard, 53 without it.

Health: 350

Magicka: 250

Stamina: 100

Obviously, there will be points left over. Invest these into whatever attribute you feel you are lacking in.

 

Now for the bread and butter of any Skryim build; the perks.

 

We should start with the most important tree, which, believe it or not, is Restoration.

 

RESTORATION

Novice Restoration (For Regeneration)

Regeneration (For Necromage)

Necromage (For the vampire exploit)

Recovery (2/2) (For your illusion spells)*

 

Get these in that order, and as soon as you get Necromage, contract Vampirism, or Vampire Lord if you have Dawnguard. Make sure you complete the Dark Brotherhood and Companions questlines before you do this, as you cannot be a vampire for those questlines, and you have to be a vampire for the rest of the game or else your perk bonuses will disappear.

 

Why do you need to go to all this trouble, you may ask? Simple. Necromage makes all your spells more effective against undead. As a vampire, you are, according to the game's code, labeled as undead. Not only does this make your healing spells stronger, but potions, enchantments, and even some perks count as "spells." For this reason, you want to pick up Necromage as soon as possible. Recovery is one of the perks affected, so don't pick it up until you are a necromage vampire. At 2/2, instead of recovering magicka 50% faster, you recover it about 57% faster. I will put an asterik (*) next to any other perks that are affected, so you know to wait for Necromage to get them.

 

Now, let's go to the other trees.

 

ARCHERY

Overdraw (5/5) (Your bow is your best friend against dragons and similar enemies)

Eagle Eye (What's the point of a bow if you can't snipe?)

Steady Hand (2/2) (This will make sniping a breeze)*

 

NOTE: Steady Hand is affected by Necromage, but do NOT use the exploit for it! Steady Hand slows time while you aim, and Necromage slows it down to such an extent that it's unusable.

 

HEAVY ARMOR

Please tell me you're joking.

 

BLOCK

Your primary weapons will be dual daggers; you won't need a shield.

 

TWO HANDED

See Heavy Armor.

 

ONE HANDED

Armsman (5/5) (More damage on your dagger.)

Fighting Stance (Get the most out of your sneak attacks.)

Dual Flurry (2/2) (EXTREMELY important in open combat)*

 

SMITHING (w/ Dawnguard)

Steel Smithing

Elven Smithing

Advanced Armors

Glass Smithing

Dragon Smithing

 

SMITHING (Vanilla game only)

Steel Smithing

Dwarven Smithing

Orcish Smithing

Ebony Smithing

Daedric Smithing

Dragon Smithing

 

NOTE: Why does Dawnguard matter? The left side of the Smithing tree is shorter, requiring less perks to get to Dragon Smithing. However, this means you miss out on Daedric Smithing, which means you cannot make Daedric Daggers, the best daggers in the vanilla game. If you have Dawnguard, however, you can use Dragon Smithing to create Dragonbone Daggers, making the left side more efficient. You may also be wondering why I didn't include Arcane Enchanter. If you really feel like you need it, take it, but I'd rather save a perk by smithing BEFORE I enchant.

 

LIGHT ARMOR

Although you will be using Light Armor, you shouldn't be getting hit very often, and it's therefore more beneficial to spend perks elsewhere. Put perks here after you get all the other perks in my guide.

 

SNEAK

Stealth (1/5) (Use muffle and fortify sneak on your armor. You just need this perk for the other perks)

Backstab (For Deadly Aim)

Deadly Aim (When facing bosses you cannot backstab, your first attack will usually be a sneaky bow shot. Maximize that damage.)

Assassin's Blade (This is very important. With this perk, if you can sneak behind an enemy, you can one shot almost anything but bosses.)

 

LOCKPICKING

None of these perks really matter, honestly. Just buy as many lockpicks as you can.

 

PICKPOCKET

Once again, none of these really matter. If you pickpocket enough to reach 100, you can steal pretty much anything, anyway. If you REALLY feel like you need the extra space, you can spend 3 perks to get Extra Pockets*, but it's not really necessary.

 

SPEECH

Fence and Investor are moderately useful, but they're soooo high up the tree. It isn't worth wasting the perks.

 

ALCHEMY

Alchemist (5/5) (Potions are crucial to ensuring your survival on Master mode. Whenever you can, create potions of Fortify Health, Restore Health, Fortify Sneak, and maybe some resistance potions.)

Physician (For stronger health potions, obviously. You're screwed if you run out of health potions.)

Benefactor (For the Alchemy/Smithing/Enchanting loop, which I will post videos of at the end of this guide)

 

ILLUSION

Novice Illusion (For Illusion Dual Casting and Animage)

Illusion Dual Casting (You can squeeze a lot more life out of your spells with this before buying new ones.)

Animage (For Kindred Mage)

Kindred Mage (For Quiet Casting)

Quiet Casting (This will allow you to cast Invisibility and Muffle spells without attracting attention.)

 

CONJURATION

It's a great school of magic, but doesn't fit with the character I'm aiming for.

 

DESTRUCTION

See Heavy Armor.

 

RESTORATION

We already covered this at the top.

 

ALTERATION

As a Breton, Atronach* would be incredibly useful in combination with the racial power Dragonskin. However, considering it's the LAST ability on the tree, it isn't worth it. Magic Resistance* is also nice, but not worth the perks. Invest in it after the build is finished, if you like. The rest of the perks are for pure mages, which we are anything but.

 

ENCHANTING

Enchanter (5/5) (For the Alchemy/Smithing/Enchanting loop, covered at the end.)

Fire Enchanter (Adds a bit of extra punch to your weapons)

Insightful Enchanter (Great for enchanting armor with Fortify Sneak, also useful for the Alchemy/Smithing/Enchanting loop)

Corpus Enchanter (For Extra Effect)

Extra Effect (This doubles your enchantment slots. Do I really have to explain why you want this?)

 

VAMPIRISM (Dawnguard only)

Max this tree out, obviously. It doesn't cost level up perks to do so.

 

LYCANTHROPY (Dawnguard only)

Considering it requires no level up perks, I guess you can max this tree if you want to, but there isn't much of a point.

 

That's all the perks. On to equipment...

 

EQUIPMENT

Right Hand: Dragonbone Dagger (Fire damage, your choice for 2nd)

Left Hand: Dragonbone Dagger (Fire damage, your choice for 2nd)

Bow: Dragonbone Bow (Fire damage, Paralysis)

Head Piece: Krosis or Dragonscale Helmet (Fortify Archery, Fortify Illusion)

Chest Piece: Dragonscale Armor (Fortify Light Armor, Fortify Illusion)

Hand Piece: Ancient Shrouded Gloves

Leg Piece: Dragonscale Boots (Fortify Sneak, Muffle)

Ring: Silver Ring (Fortify Sneak, Fortify Archery)

Necklace: Silver Necklace (Fortify Sneak, Fortify Archery)

 

Okay, now for the Alchemy/Smithing/Enchanting Loop

 

 

 

And we will end this with Powers and Active Effects.

 

Powers:

Dragonskin-Absorb 50% of magicka from hostile spells for 60 seconds (Breton racial power)

Dread Cloak-For 60 seconds, opponents in melee range take 8 points frost damage and stamina damage per second. (Vampire power)

Embrace of Shadows-You can become invisible. Improved night vision for 180 seconds. (Vampire power)

Nightingale Strife-Instantly absorb 100 points of health from the target. (Complete Thieves Guild questline, other two power choices can be achieved with illusion.)

Summon Spectral Assassin-Summons the ghost of the legendary assassin Lucien Lachance to fight by your side, until he's defeated. (Complete Dark Brotherhood questline)

Vampire's Seduction-Creatures and people up to level 8 won't fight for 30 seconds. (Vampire power)

Vampire's Servant-Reanimate a dead body to fight for you for 60 seconds. (Vampire power)

Vampire's Sight-Improved night vision for 60 seconds. (Vampire power)

Vampire Lord-Transform into a Vampire Lord. Use the Revert Form power to change back.(Vampire Lord power, Dawnguard only)

 

Now for the passive bonuses listed under Active Effects. I am not sure if Necromage affects these, so play it safe and get these bonuses after you become a vampire. 

 

Agent of Dibella-You do 10% more melee damage to the opposite sex. (Reward from The Heart of Dibella)

Agent of Mara-15% Resist Magic (Reward from The Book of Love)

Ancient Knowledge-Knowledge gained from the Lexicon gives you a 25% bonus while wearing Dwarven armor and Blacksmithing increases 15% faster. (Reward from Unfathomable Depths)

Champion of the Night-Illusion spells cast by a Vampire are 25% more powerful (Vampire bonus)

Dragon Infusion-Dragons do 25% less melee damage. (Effect from Esbern's Potion. Currently glitched and will not give you effect, wait for patch 1.9 to fix this before obtaining this bonus.)

Force Without Effort-You stagger 25% less and foes stagger 25% more. (Meditation on the Words of Power)

Prowler's Profit-Anywhere gems might be found, members of the Thieves Guild always seem to find a few more. (Reward from No Stone Unturned.)

Resist Poison-Your Vampiric blood gives you 100% resistance to poison. (Vampire bonus)

Resist Disease-Your Vampiric blood gives you 100% resistance to disease. (Vampire bonus)

Sailor's Repose-Healing spells cure 10% more. (Reward from Frostflow Abyss)

Sinderion's Serendipity-There is a 25% chance of creating a duplicate potion when using your alchemy skill. (Reward from A Return To Your Roots)

 

And that's my entire ultimate assassin build. Even on Master, the game should become incredibly easy after this. How will it fare when Legendary Difficulty is introduced? We'll have to wait and find out!

[Jake]

Do you guys think this is article worthy?

[VAMPRISS]

Well thought out indeed

[David]

Good topic, and a great build. Though I'm sad you didn't add my perk suggestions, even though there is only 2 and they're inconsequential.

 

The topics are usually pretty popular for forum traffic and search engines. I think the general discussion forum is a good place for it for now; it can always be promoted to an article with one click if need be. 

 

It's a high quality build thread. I'm really impressed with the details you added into it, especially upcoming patch fixes for current issues. I think you should post some more of these threads regarding your game-play experiences with this build, or maybe even stories.

[Jake]

Good topic, and a great build. Though I'm sad you didn't add my perk suggestions, even though there is only 2 and they're inconsequential.

I used your suggestions for which I should remove, though. I explained in the guide why I didn't use Arcane Enchanter, and this build doesn't rely too much on poison. Believe me, your suggestions were actually a huge help in redesigning my build.

[David]

Yeah, I only suggested poison because it does quite a bit in boosting the value of potions.

[ShiroSagisu]

When you say we shouldn't use the steady hand exploit what do you mean? If become a necromage Vampire we should pick up the steady hand perk?

[Jake]

When you say we shouldn't use the steady hand exploit what do you mean? If become a necromage Vampire we should pick up the steady hand perk?

As I said, Necromage makes several of your perks stronger, if you unlock them AFTER you acquire vampirism and Necromage. This includes Steady Hand. However, using it with Steady Hand makes time slow down too far. Time becomes so slow, Steady Hand becomes practically unusable. Thus, either take Steady Hand 2/2 BEFORE Necromage, or Steady Hand 1/2 AFTER Necromage.

[ShiroSagisu]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, however, which is best 2/2 before necromage or 1/2 after?

[Jake]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, however, which is best 2/2 before necromage or 1/2 after?

When I wrote this guide, I believe 2/2 before was better. Now, however, I believe 1/2 after is better. Many people believe that 1/2 before is still too fast, but 2/2 before is too slow. 1/2 after Necromage is a nice balance.

[Tristan]

If you were going for the sneak factor, I would also consider the ebony mail, but to make it fairly strong you would also have to invest in the blacksmith tree skill a bit so you can upgrade enchanted items, I believe that skill requires lv 60 in blacksmithing

[Stormalong]

So I am actually new to Skyrim although I have seen some others play it. I grabbed it all on the Steam sale and I wanted to make an assassin and came across your build, looks pretty interesting.  So whats the best way to progress here? Should I rush necromage, complete companions and dark brotherhood, then go vamp and carry on? I imagine in order to complete dark brotherhood and companions I would need some of the arms/stealth/archery perks at least, will that work as long as I avoid the few that benefit from vamp+necromage?

[Jake]

So I am actually new to Skyrim although I have seen some others play it. I grabbed it all on the Steam sale and I wanted to make an assassin and came across your build, looks pretty interesting.  So whats the best way to progress here? Should I rush necromage, complete companions and dark brotherhood, then go vamp and carry on? I imagine in order to complete dark brotherhood and companions I would need some of the arms/stealth/archery perks at least, will that work as long as I avoid the few that benefit from vamp+necromage?

Yes, that would work. Make restoration a priority skill to train, and use it instead of healing potions whenever possible. Necromage requires level 70 restoration, which will take a while.

 

While I originally suggested Breton male as the race, I now believe Orc female is the best choice for an assassin.

[Khabel]

Yes, that would work. Make restoration a priority skill to train, and use it instead of healing potions whenever possible. Necromage requires level 70 restoration, which will take a while.

 

While I originally suggested Breton male as the race, I now believe Orc female is the best choice for an assassin.

 

Why the change to a female Orc?

[Tristan]

Why the change to a female Orc?

Usually female characters have smaller hit boxes, if that has anything to do with it.

[Jake]

Usually female characters have smaller hit boxes, if that has anything to do with it.

Apologies for the long response; I haven't been on for a while.

 

There is a quest in the game that allows you to become an Agent of Dibella. Apologies, I cannot remember the name of the top of my head. Completion of this quest gives you a passive 10% damage bonus against the opposite sex. Most NPCs are male, and for some reason, dragons and several other genderless enemies are also registered as male. This makes female characters ultimately better.