I need some help big time on placing my perks in such a way that compliment how I play Skyrim. I want to use the following abilities:

Heavy Armor - Mainly for aesthetic purposes.

Shield - For the spell protection perk

One-Handed

Sneak - Mainly used to get close enough to survey the situation before deciding on a strategy.

Archery - Mainly used for picking off sentries and lone stragglers.

Illusion - Mainly used for Fury/Frenzy to soften up large groups of enemies in open spaces such as forts and outdoors. Also used for Mufflle

Conjuration - Mainly used for Atronachs to soften up large groups of enemies in close quarters such as dungeons, tombs, ruins, etc.

Enchanting -

Smithing - For creating and upgrading gear.

As you can see that's quite the spread of talent trees to place perks in. And I'm utterly lost and confused at how to go about doing this. I could really really use some help. Thanks a ton guys/gals.

FYI: Xbox360 Legendary Edition of Skyrim with all DLC's

Which form of attack do you use the most? Sword & board, bows, or magic?

Looks a bit spread out... a jack of all trades master of none build. Nothing wrong with that but I think you need to focus on fewer skills and then grow once you've built the first core ones up.

Pick Archery or One handed for example, Sneak or Shield. That's how I would do it, and one magic at a time. Smithing and Enchanting can wait until later.

Well one problem I see is that you're using a lot of skills at once. Based off why you're using your skills, I'd say perk the defensive trees first. I'd start perking Enchanting/Smithing, Heavy Armor, and Block since those can be levelled quite slow so you won't have to worry about perking them as often. Then I'd go Illusion, Conjuration, Archery/Sneak (although that won't work too well with HA, at least from my experiences), One-Handed/Block.

Hmm. Well, the majority of my damage out put would be sword and board style.

Archery, Illusion and Conjuration would be support roles.

Block and Heavy Armor for defensive purposes.

Enchanting and Smithing for upgrading gear and weapons.

There HAS to be a way to put these together in some semicoherent build!

Lol.

I just get overwhelmed mentally when I start messing with the perk calculators.

It can be done -but don't expect it ready before level 81.

Anyway, I would've done it http://skyrimcalculator.com/393867. If you want dual wielding instead of sword crits, you can take the 3 points from Bladesman and place them in Dual Flurry & Savagery.

There is quite a bit in there that I didn't plan on taking. A basic bare bones build taking what I want maxes at level 51. I'm sure with some changes here and there it could increase up to perhaps level 60. But no way would I need to be level 81 as that build was just overkill.

As you play, evaluate. Ask yourself what perks your character needs most at this point. Then, upon leveling, pick those perks.

Personally, I'd put most of my early points on 1h and smithing, and about every 3rd or 4th point onto enchanting. That way you can raise your damage output and AR, but also take advantage of 'learned' enchantments like fortify 1h, fortify sneak, fortify heavy armor, fortify archery, and muffle. The earlier you learn and apply those enchantments to your gear, the more powerful they become down the road as you level and apply them to new gear... so they can be used to offset a good amount of dumping perk points into magical skills just for things like protective spells, resistances, and such. Then once your strong enough to not have to avoid too many things you can start spreading points around more evenly to all the skills you want to advance. Just take care not to have too many reach legendary level at the same time.

Interesting. I hadn't considered that. Thanks.

Such as a bow with a frenzy enchant. Armor with spell resist. Boots with muffle. Etc. Correct?

I'd get 1 hand and block, armor, conjuration... then as those get pretty useful, evolve into Archery/Illusion and of course Smithing/Enchanting. But everyone has their preferred way of doing it.

It's not my playstyle but yeah, if you're sword and board... that's how I'd do it.

EDIT: In fact, here's a link of how I would start this build.

http://skyrimcalculator.com/393872

This is how I'd probably focus my perks~

1: One-Handed - Armsman (max asap.) Fighting Stance (take asap.) Bladesman (save for late game if you want it, but tbh it's a useless perk since the % damage is based off of your weapons base un-upgraded damage, even if it is upgraded.) Critical Charge (This one is up to you, though I find it very inaccurate since it's rare that your enemies stand still. If you do take it, take it late game.) Savage Strike (take asap, since with sword & board your block bashes will give you the time to do standing power attacks.) Paralyzing Strike (same as Critical Charge, I find it inaccurate since you have to rely on enemies walking into your power attack, which they rarely do. They also have to be right up in your face to land.) Bone Breaker (if you plan on using maces, take this asap since it helps a lot against Dragons, and any enemies that use armour.) Hack & Slash (useless.)

2: Block - Shield Wall (Max asap. If you plan on using fortify block enchantments later then you can reset the tree and put only 1 point into it, just to unlock the other perks.) Power Bash (required for Deadly/Disarming Bash. Don't bother getting this until you have at least level 50 in block. Why?-) Deadly Bash (if using a shield, it does 3x your shields base defence in damage. If using a weapon, it does 3x its base attack. Upgraded damage is not included.) Disarming Bash (take asap. Using a timed block bash can knock an enemy’s weapon out of their hands, rendering them powerless. Very handy against strong enemies, like Draugr Deathlords ect.) Deflect Arrows (Since you are using heavy armour, arrows shouldn't be much of a problem. You can also avoid arrows with ease most of the time, but take it if you plan on using-) Elemental Protection (to be honest, I usually either use magic resist enchantments, The Spell Breaker, or have the hidden perks which add to magic resist, which makes this perk pointless. But take it if you want-) Block Runner (once again, this is something I never take because I usually use the Steed Stone if using Heavy Armour.) Shield Charge (this one is up to you, if you do take it then leave it for end game.)

3: Archery - Overdraw (max asap.) Eagle Eye (take asap.) Steady Hand (max asap.) Power Shot (take asap.) Quick Shot (max asap.) Critical Shot & Hunter's Discipline (same as Bladesman. But take it if you plan on getting the Ranger perk *though if you use the Steed Stone, you don't need it*.) Bullseye (this is up to you, but It can screw up kill cams, as well as being cheap over all. If you do take it, leave it til last.)

4: Heavy Armour - Now... to be honest with you, in vanilla Skyrim I never took perks in the armour trees since with maxed out Smithing/Enchanting you can make a set with the max armour rating, magic resistance ect. I usually relied in Block to negate damage. The only perk I like from this tree is Conditioning, buuut with the Steed Stone it's pointless. If you aren't going to be using Smithing/Enchanting until late game, then max Juggernaut until you do smith/enchant your gear, after that just reset your perk tree.

5: Illusion* - This all depends on how often you use it, and which kind of illusion spells you rely on. Do you use it to fear, induce rage, calm, or buff you/your allies?

6: Conjuration* - This depends on which kind of conjuration spells you use. Do you use the Atronach/Familiar side, or the Necromancer side?

7: Enchanting* - Enchanter (max out.) Soul Squeezer/Siphon (I found them useless tbh. Soul gems are plentiful in the game.) Insightful Enchanter, Corpus Enchanter, and Extra Effect (take asap.) Fire, Frost & Storm Enchanter (only take these if you plan on using any of these elements on your weapons.)

8: Smithing* - This all depends on what your end game armour/weapon is.

* = If you plan on doing the Dragonborn quest line any time soon, then I'd work on saving points for Enchanting and Smithing instead of Illusion and Conjuration. Max them both in level and perks, choose your end game gear, then enchant/upgrade them so you can reset your perk points and put them into your other skills, or different ones

I'd also invest a little in Sneak for the Extra Pockets perk, though save that for late game.

Hope this helps

Thanks for that link, what a great calculator.

Since you're doing sword/board/armor and archery/atronachs, I'd pass completely on illusion. Muffle via sneak or enchanted boots will be fine. To control minds and cause mayhem with illusion takes a lot of perks and dedication to illusion to make it work well on a wide variety of foes and foes of higher levels. Even at best, foes can decide to hone in on you instead of closer enemies. And a frenzy spell invariably blows your stealth (even with quiet casting, good stealth and plenty of range). Use your bow to open from range with a sneak attack. Once your sneak is blown, summon an atronach and go back to shooting for a time. Your atronach can help you keep shooting a bit longer. Then when the foes get close, your atronach can still help as you pull out your sword and board.

I'd urge illusion only if you want to go with a much more dedicated (to illusion) build (at the expense of quite a bit of warrior stuff).

Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the input. You guys/gals rock. Really gave me some different views on how to build and play this character.

Exactly, and once you get the dual enchantment perk your options to increase all that become double for every piece of gear you enchant and use/wear... like a 1h sword with 2 kinds of damage, or my favorite.. boots with fortify sneak AND muffle at the same time. One can have basically a non-magical character (never having increased magicka once), yet have very high magical properties through the gear you use/wear.

That gives me a reason to do some traveling around the different Skyrim cities early on instead of my usual linear path of questing. Awesome!

Build any kind of heavy armor and weapons of any material you want, be an unstoppable force in close or ranged combat, control the minds of even dwemer automatons, weave out of this world enchantments and why summon one Valkynaz, when you can have two?

There's no overkill -only absolute dominance over the battlefield. This is what I would've done, but free to settle for less

It's the best I could find out there. Been using it for quite some time, even before it got revamped. It'll serve you well

I usually play as dual wielder, heavy armor warrior, but i adjusted my build for your S&B style. I removed Dual flurry and Dual savagery from One-handed tree and added perks in Block tree:

http://chrizel.github.io/skyrim/#t/8/4w,-qmx0qo,m79935,-ze5op4,-zik0t7,6bs,0,0

I do have a bow for backup, but i haven't perked that skill line. I only use spells to heal myself (it's more realistic than using potions in battle). Alteration is leveled up by using Telekinesis (you can find the tome in Red Water Den if you have Dawnguard)

I also removed some perks from Alteration tree (Adept Alteration, Expert Alteration and Atronach) because i saw you like to use Conjuration (i used Atronach perk and Atronach Stone for 100% spell absorption, but that would absorb your own summons, so you have to go for maximum magic resistance instead) . This means you'll have to use The Lord Stone instead Atronach Stone. You can get to maximum spell resistance (Magic resistance - 3 perks, Agent of Mara and The Lord Stone)

Depending what armor you like, smithing perks are optional. Here is one example: http://chrizel.github.io/skyrim/#t/7/0,0,0,kg,0,0,0,0

You get Steel Plate armor and Nordic Carved Armor if you take Advanced Armors perk.

I'm used to just having a class ready, so I can't really advise you on how to go about it, but http://uk.ign.com/builds/the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim?d=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000200001100100001111031001100411001100000000000301001020041000030000000000000000021 what I'd probably do.

I wouldn't bother with conjuration or illusion.

You have 9 skills. Pick some of the skills that will only be minor ones.

Sneak- If you only want to scope out the situation and not do a ton of sneak attacks, just take one perk. The 20% extra sneak is helpful for a lot of characters.

Conjuration- maybe limit yourself to just flame atronach. Even on higher levels they can provide distractions and a bit of ranged attack.

Smithing- pick an armor set you like and only take perks up to that. For this character, maybe you want dawnguard armor so only go to advanced.

Illusion- use low level spells with dual casting.

Here's a sample build I came up with that uses all the skills you listed. It's under level 50

http://skyrimcalculator.com/build/393916/phalid/perks

All those skills you picked will make you quite strong. You won't need to put a ton of points in heavy armor or block for damage reduction. With smithing and enchanting you will have adequate defense. You won't need all 5/5 perks in archery or one-handed either.

Even though this build is under level 50, you can still have two atronachs and two enchantments. If you like the look of daedric armor and weapons, having 100 in conjuration will allow you to get daedric gear from the atronach forge and you won't need the smithing perk for it.