Before Skyrim came out, http://i40.tinypic.com/2epka6b.jpg(In Dungeons and Dragons terms), a character who specialises in crafting and/or utilising magical artifacts, items and arcane lore to produce a wide range of magical effects without requiring specialisation in an actual magic school (Because much of their magic is not actual magic, but a form of "tech"). Enchanting looked like it'd give that option to us, but when the game arrived I was dissapointed to find you can't craft staves, and the stock staves do poor damage, not to mention the destruction schools damage was purportedly underwhelming.

Then when all the guides came out, all of them were dedicated to using fortify weapon skill to max out their damage, and not actual enchantments. it looked like enchanting had been subverted for the purpose of mastering weapons [img]http://www.gamesas.com/images/smilie/frown.gif[/img]




But, they were wrong.

Or at least they were too focused on just one potential pathway. In fact it IS possible to play an archivist/artificer it turns out...





The Basics
Enchantments, despite being enchantments ARE still linked to their native school. Illusion enchantments benefit from illusion perks, destruction enchantments benefit from destruction perks - for example having frost damage bonuses from destruction will make your frost enchantments stronger. It'll also make frost staves stronger - in the same fashion, fortify destruction/illusion/conjuration potions will affect destruction/illusion/conjuration enchantments.

Finally, like having a high proficiency in a magic school reduces the charges expended when casting from a staff, having a high fortification in a school reduces charge cost too - at 100% cost reduction fortification just like the spell cost becomes zero, so does the charge cost of offensive enchantments!

A typical enchantment specialist will want to set themselves up with high destruction fortitifcation (ideally 100%), they'll also want alchemy for fortify destruction and fortify enchanting potions amongst other things. Taking the elemental enchanting bonuses on the enchanting tree is highly recommended, if it's not too far out of character, picking up one of the elemental damage bonuses from the destruction tree will significantly buff your enchantment strength (I got my destruction ranks from a trainer so it was less like using a prohibitied school and more like studying under a tutor to enhance my enchanting ;p)



So what's the advantage
Well, there isn't persay. If you master a single weapon, take all the fortications for it you'll still vastly out-DPS this method, this method is just a different way of characterising your... character. BUT, there is one small advantage: Versatility.

A fortification based weapon master character has 1, possibly 2 weapons they are skilled in. An enchantment specialist can create and utilise a vast range of enchanted weapons and devices with little or no training - Bows, Staves, Daggers, Swords, Scrolls, Shields. Additionally, because you do not expend charges when attacking, you can afford to use the most expensive enchantments you care to and spam the crap out of them without worrying about soul trapping and recharging your gear.

Check these numbers to see how enchantments stack together:

Basic dual enchantment: 25 + 25 = 50 damage
With enchanting bonuses: 31 + 31 = 62 damage
With 50% destruction bonus: 46 + 46 = 92 damage
With fortify enchanting potion: 54 + 54 = 108 damage
With 100% destruction bonus: 81 + 81 = 162 damage

With fortify destruction 75%: = 283 damage
With fortify destruction 163%: = 426 damage

Yeah, imagine a PAIR of dagger that between them add another 852 elemental damage on top of their dual attack. A character walking this path doesn't need offensive training, they can take any weapon and their enchantments and alchemy provide all the damage they need to master master difficulty, an enchanter is truly a master of enchantments not weapons.






So, on to the tools of the trade:


Bows
Bows are the most flexible option for ranged combat since they can also proc sneak attacks, don't draw too much attention if you're being stealthy, they pack slightly higher damage than pairred staves and serve as a carrier for poison. A typical enchanter will have 2 damage enchantments plus the base weapon damage, so you're doing 3 types of damage simultaneously which is helpful if the target has immunities or resistances. You can also deploy weakness to magic poisons to further boost subsequent hits. In fact, you could use a weakness to poison poison, followed by a weakness to magic poison, and a weakness to element potion and stack the enchantment damage to utterly insane levels!




Staves
If you have 100% cost reduction on destruction, there is no real reason to not just use destruction magic if you're a min-max'r; but if you're reading this you don't WANT to be a destruction mage, you want to play an enchanter dammit. In this case, staves are the most powerful ranged weapon option without training... "What?" - I hear you say, how can staves be the most powerful ranged weapon for an enchanter, a staff of icey spikes only does 90 base damage even with the destruction perks, when a bow packs 108 damage under the same conditions, and thats before we even factor in the physical damage.

The answer is simple: http://i40.tinypic.com/140gsur.jpg

And of course, they benefit from destruction fortification, http://i41.tinypic.com/2dw69ev.jpg


The main downside of staves is finding them. PC users are recommended to go grab a mod that let's you craft them (You ARE an enchanter, you should be able to make them really...), console players might have more trouble makign staves their primary focus for offense. There's also the added bonus that staves don't require weapon training like a bow, if you're trying to be a total purist in your combat style.




Melee
In melee hitting fast is more important than hitting hard - afterall, each hit procs the enchantment regardless whether it's a power attack or a glancing slash, so having two weapons means you can proc enchantments twice as fast. Rather counter intuitively dagger's power attack/dual attack is slower than the spinning power attack of a sword/dagger combo so if you want to use your enchanted weapons in a straight fight for maximum damage a sword/dagger pairring is probably your best choice. 2 handed weapons are an awful choice, they attack slowly meaning the enchantments proc little - and if you want to bash/block you might as well use a shield (And enchant it with magic resistance and blocking bonuses [img]http://www.gamesas.com/images/smilie/wink.gif[/img] )



Scrolls
Like staves, scrolls benefit from school bonuses too. In vanilla they're prohibitively expensive and hard to find, if you're happy to use mods on PC you can find mods for scribing scrolls or boosting availability. http://i41.tinypic.com/2wmkgll.jpg



And don't forget!
You don't have to focus on destruction. Spells cast less frequently you don't need to reduce the casting cost of. For example you could hang onto a good strong illusion staff or scroll, and make yourself some fortify potions. Popping a potion and unleashing a scroll of mayhem will be just as effective as if a master illusionist cast it even though you may be completely untrained in that school.




Advanced Theory
Things get intresting when you throw alteration into the mix. Alteration fortification potions extend the duration rather than the magnitude of the spell effect, when a strong alteration effect (ie. paralyze) is added, so that the weapon becomes classed as an alteration enchantment rather than a destruction one the destruction component turns into a damage over time effect. With a fortify alteration potion active, and the "stability" perk, the DoT can easily last 3-5 seconds (with the balanced magicka mod and it's tweaks to how alteration duration is calculated, it can even get up to 15-20 seconds). To boot, it appears the DoT effect stacks, striking rapidly in succession results in faster damage occuring.

Destruction enchantments in this regard are still superior (if you spend 4 rather than 2 perks in destruction damage bonuses), but it's yet another creative (and from from underpowered) option, and there is a small synergy bonus in that if you are an alteration user you can carry alteration fortify gear instead of destruction fortification, since the charges on your equipment will be using the alteration stat to calculate charge usage not destruction.

Excellent post. Could make a very interesting and flexible character - the versatility you could get from using any weapon, because you're using it for its enchantments rather than its single-attack damage, is very cool. Kudos.

That's really cool that you were able to work out a playstyle for an Artificer character, way to go! Using enchanting as a limited form of infusions is a great idea. If you were to use any magic, I'd say rune magic would work well with the Artificer concept as well.

Also, Tytanis' crafting mod can allow you to create staves if your on PC playing this class.

Very useful tips, thankyou for posting.

Make sure to do something for your carrying capacity as well. Fortify Carry Weight is your friend, but Artificers might as well pick up some Thief perks.

Woah woah woah woah.

Woah.

You mean the -100% magicka cost reduction can cause enchanted weapons/staffs to have 0 cost to use as well?

*runs off to dig the Staff of Magnus out of a dusty chest*

Edit: This only applies to generic staffs and enchantments. It does not affect unique items like the Staff of Magnus or the Staff of Jyrik Gauldurson, but it does work for things like Staff of Fireballs and Staff of Ice Storms.

Somewhat deflating, as I really liked the Staff of Magnus' effect. Oh well.

Pretty sure the destruction potions don't work on it too. So slightly less deflating when you realise you can drop an ancient dragon in master difficulty in about 5-10 salvos with a pair of incineration or icy spear staves - would love to see the staff of magnus do that xD. It's a shame the staff of thunderbolts is bugged so it only does 25 damage, not 60 like the other expert-damage spell staves

Awesome post. My sniper was already planning to do some of this but now he has many more things to try. Just to be clear, do you use the magic-fortification and cost-reduction at the time of enchantment or at point of use?

Destruction fortification and cost reduction both have to be in place when you actually use the enchantment. So like you might pop a fortify marksmanship potion when you want to put to put your bow into overdrive, a fortify destruction potion will overcharge your enchantments.

Certainly a nice idea there

Update!:

I was aware that having perks in one destruction element was buggy and boosted the other. But i just found out if you have elemental perks for BOTH elements used in a dual enchantment they recursively boost each other:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/631859135472701043/99DE4F5F234E7BDAEB36D3ECD42DDF4205548B16/

I am kinda sad though, because this means that staves are no longer top dog. And I do like staves*


*Though even in master difficulty, pairred staves can lay waste to a dragon - so you can still afford to shun marksmanship lessons in favour of staves if it fits your style.

Added a new section to the bottom detailling combined-school enchantments. Seems there's a really exciting quirk of combining duration/damage effects, whereby the damage component gets turned into a DoT!

We're talking weapons that can deal 1,000 damage over 20 seconds AND paralyse a target for 20 seconds in a single hit...

Awesome guide! I was going to play a character with enchanting, alchemy, and conjuration, but I think Ill try this with him instead.

Also can you please fix the link above for the enchantment? It takes me to a white page. I really want to see it please!

NM my internet just svcks. Nice enchantment on bow wow.

Very nice topic. I'm playing a Infernal Pact Hexblade Warlock, which is pretty easy in this game(maxing out conjuration,destruction, and weapon skills). I was thinking of dabbling in enchanting and these notes are very useful. Once the CK comes out, I'm going to try to create some spells that conjure enchanted bound weapons.

I love this idea and will be trying it, except now you have me wondering how best to do it in the other TES games too.

Ryu.... this is a most excellent post! +1000 - I really appreciate the time and - well - the thought you put into this. And as Kirtai says.... now I need to go clear back to Daggerfall and see how I can do this....

[Gotta love anything that makes a decade old game like candy to a sweet-lover again!]

Very, very interesting ideas put out here. I'm surprised it's not a more active thread but it certainly has my attention.

Cool indeed... an interesting way to project spell power. I believe I'll be trying this out on a future build.

Hmm... and Dragonbone weaponry? Yeah, I'll have me some of that. *wanders over to SkyrimNexus* Found it!

Still think they should have left in the ability to make active enchantments...i.e. enchantments that required you to "activate" the item...as it is, staves are the only magic items that work this way, and we can't even craft them without mods. :/ I miss my belt of healing and gloves of fireballs...lol

But yeah OP, you've probably outlined the best way to pursue this type of play in Skyrim.

I play a few characters like this already, wanted to point out 2 synergies that you havent taken into account.

1. Destruction actually matches really well with archery or pure melee. Drop a supercharged dual cast rune on the ground, then cut loose with your destruction powered bow/swords of death. Free damage. Lots of it, with potions and perks. It is also pretty fun to get an enemy low on health then rune them over a landmine.

2. You have already maxed alchemy but you are not poisoning your weapons? Weakness to element/poison/magicka will skyrocket your damage. You mention it as throwaway comment in the bows section, but you can poison your dual daggers/swords for crazy damage.
using:
65% weakness to poison to strengthen
97% weakness to element
65% weakness to magic

you get + 260 ish% damage to your enchant. Total damage, not base. More if they have resistances. To every hit after you apply the poison.

Oh, and poisons of different magnitudes stack infinitely. Put 2 different posions on your 2 weapons, and they will stack. You could get 300-400% extra damage pretty easy. Not that you need it.

I don't think this has been tested fully, it seems to be a blind spot in the "max damage" threads. You can get to over 1000 damage per hit. And as a bonus it boosts your runes!

My current favoured build is the arcane archer. Set up a rune (or 3 or more if modded), and just launch the arrows away, including the first one being poisoned.
Against multiple caster enemies the dual enchanted DoT/paralyse bow sounds interesting though, will have to try that.

Great post Definitely going to look into this. I was experimenting with a melee character supplemented by "cloak" spells, which have ridiculous range and huge damage at high +fortify potion levels - you can literally just stand there healing yourself while everyone around you screams "I'm on fire!" and dies - but it seemed like too much of a skill/gear investment for just one spell. This gives me another reason to invest in Destruction

What's the minimum skill/perk investment to make this viable on master, though? Do you absolutely need max Enchanting/Alchemy to get reasonable damage?

There's a few options:

Drop Alchemy: You could use alchemy elixirs out the shop and you'll only lose like 3-5 points of damage off your enchanted weapons's base damage at max level, and rely on shops for destruction potions. This'd drasticlly reduce your "overcharge" damage since shop destruction potions and weakness to element potions arn't nearly as potent as crafted ones, but you'd still have no problems dropping a dragon with staves or enchanted weapons. This'll save you around 7-8 perks.

Note if you drop alchemy, use enchanting to make yourself some +lockpicking/+pickpocket etc amulets for bonuses which you can switch in - these can replace much of the functionality of potions

Drop Destruction: The destruction damage perks are nice but not essentially. Losing those will save you 3-5 perks and reduce your damage output by 1/3 to 1/2 depending whether you are using staves/single enchantment or dual enchantment weapons.

Drop Enchanting: It's theoreticlly possible to get all the gear you need to do this right out of the shops with a lot of diligence and patience. Shop-bought weapons don't have enchantments nearly as potent as a dual enchanted custom weapon, but using staves + alchemy instead would still give you the option of overcharging the stave using a destruction potion and shooting dragons right out the sky. In essence this is elss of an artificer and more of a rogue with ranks in "Use Magic items" in DnD terms

Interesting post in another thread by OP prompted me to search for others... not disappointed.

I have been playing as a mage, and when I finally made it above level 50 I decided to take some perks in Archery and have some fun with it. I recently crafted a daedric bow in the Atronach forge and enchanted it with shock and fire damage. I have noticed that it does not use up it's soul charge as I use it. Now I know why. I typically wear enchanted items providing 100% cost reduction for destruction.


I am about to start a new play-through using a dual wielding type. Now I need to print this out and take it home with me. There goes the last vestiges of my free time.

Thanks, http://www.gamesas.com/user/153451-ryuujin-0/.

The insanity that can come from making crazy alchemy gear, combined with drinking fortify restoration, fortify destruction and fortify enchanting is astounding. I was goofing around on a brand new character I took to the test cell and made some ridiculous items.

The trick is to be able to do this without having to need to max so many skill just to make this viable. I'd be interested in a happy medium without needing 70 alteration, 90 destruction, 100 enchanting, 100 alchemy to pull this off.

If you use stock potions you can hit the 156x2 elemental damage mark and 11 second paralyze. This requires 100 enchanting, 90 destruction, and 70 alteration, putting you at level 27. If you skip alteration you'd shave off about 7 levels, putting you at 20 to make a suped up weapon.

You could work around everything else with double enchanted weapons if you put the primary effect low and the secondary effect very strong, giving you something like the fiery soul trap enchantment or a paralyzing weapon that is only 1 second, but max elemental damage, thereby negating the majority of the cost. So an enchantment that would be powerful would have 3 effects using two enchants on a weapon.

Fiery Soul Trap + Paralyze. The fire damage would scale up with perks, potions (its still small) but you'd get the benefit of the near free cost of use plus a big paralyze time. (haven't tried this in practice, but I might to see if it works)

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198005432007/screenshot/632986216750280363/?tab=public

edit: to note I'm using improved destruction magic mod which adds more tiers to the perks that increase respective elemental damage.

One thing is that the "Absorb Health" enchant is classified as "Destruction" on UESP - I wonder if 100% spell cost reduction works on it. The main drawback to using it "normally" is that it it's expensive, i.e. doesn't have a lot of charges. My main character right now uses dual health/stamina absorbs in order to power attack almost endlessly and survive, but it means a lot of soul trapping. I also wonder if Fortify Destruction potions would increase the damage - unfortunately I don't have access to Skyrim right now to test it.

In any case, I think a character relying on absorbs wouldn't invest anything in Destruction, since the perks are all element-based and wouldn't affect the absorbs. That limits the max damage achievable, of course, but maybe the increased survivability is worth it. This would be with melee/bows, of course - don't know if there are absorb health staffs.