I just started a new character recently after taking some time off playing. I was wondering which enchantments I should take as soon as I find them. I usually play as a warrior so when I would find any enchantment I would take it. However this time I am trying to delve deeper into it, and I know that when you already have one enchantment you can't disenchant a weapon or armor with the same enchantment. So what should I disenchant right away when I find them without looking for a superior version. Any help would be appreciated. And I have already looked through UESP to find some help but so far only found the basics of enchanting.

I don't think you've mentioned what you're going for now. Still a warrior? I did the same, disenchanting everything. Most of them used rings and necklaces to their advantage, and on occasion a piece of armor.

My bad. I was about to be leaving and was trying to hurry. And he will be a warrior again. Just not a tank. Light armor, try and and pick off enemies and engage them on his own terms. Will probably become a werewolf.

I usually disenchant everything in the beginning except for enchantments that I have use for and that are stronger than the ones I can make myself. But as soon as I have levelled up my own enchantment skill a little, I disenchant those as well. Typical enchantments I keep until I can make better are, for a warrior:

-Fortify Health

-Fortify Carry Weight

-Fortify Barter

-Fortify Archery

-Fortify One-handed/Two-handed (depending on what I use)

-Fortify light/heavy armor, depending on what I use

Weapon enchantments are more random, and it usually takes a while before I can make better than I find, so if I stumble over the right kind of weapon with an enchantment I like, I usually keep it, and disenchant the rest (or give them to my followers).

Then we have Fortify Smithing and Fortify Alchemy - I learn these as soon as I have enough grand soul gems and equipment to make four pieces of each to wear for crafting. Even if every item is weaker, the stacked effect might be better (at least than Minor Smithing/Alchemy).

I don't bother with Regenerate Health/Stamina - I use vegetable soup instead.

Enchantments like Muffle and Waterbreathing are great for levelling up enchanting since the size of the soul gem doesn't matter for them, so you can use petty soul gems that are cheaper and easier to come by.

For warrior classes I usually stick with health, health regen and stamina enchantments on my armor. Ill only destroy one or two items until I'm ready to go on an enchanting spree, at which time I collect all the other enchanted items Ive found on my adventures and learn those enchantments.

The first thing I do is to run to Ironbind Barrow to get the Fiery soul trap weapon and put this enchantment (lowing to 2 pts only of soul trap) on my steel sword. I keep this enchantment until the end (Level 78 and more). Fiery soul trap has always 10 pts of Fire dam. no matter the size of the soul gem and trapping souls early helps levelling your enchanting status.

The two best money makers for use on iron daggers or boots (trade goods) are the BANISH enchant, and MUFFLE. Both of them make cheap items worth a huge amount of septims no matter how low the skill levels associated with making them are.

For weapon enchants? An absorb effect is ideal. But if you're going for rote damage, Shock is your best bet, as while there are hardly any foes actually weak to shock damage, very few foes are significantly resistant to it as well. It's a fairly good universal damage effect.

It's also handy for those pesky mages as it zaps their magicka a bit so they have to resort to those silly little iron daggers they carry about with them sooner.

Sword with shock damage + damage/absorb magicka, destroys enemies magicka reserves quickly. (Though most enemies have so much, they will die before running out.)

Axe with fire damage + damage/absorb health for common enemies, fire and bleeding perks both apply a damage over time effect (that is still so low that it doesn't matter).

Mace with frost damage + damage/absorb stamina. Mace perks make it useful for heavily armored enemies while frost effect slows them down and takes away their stamina along with the second enchantment (but only 1 point of stamina is required for power attack or bashing, and there are no heavily armored enemies.)

So, solid on paper, almost useless in practice

For armor, you can go for skill or stats improvement. Either fortify stat + fortify stat regen enchantments, or fortify skill enchantments. Or a combination of both, of course. Skill increase enchantments are useless though, since skill's power comes from perks.


Alas, unlike other crafting skills, the item's value does not effect the amount of skill increase you get. So you have to go for quantity, not quality. Anything with any enchantment and petty soul gem only for grinding.

I usually keep a soul trap enchant on my bow. Once I unlock the perk that allows two enchants on the same item, I'll switch to chaos and paralyze.

It would be if enemy mages didn't have olympic-sized pools of magicka and even fireball spamming barely makes a dent in it.