Arbalist

High Elf - Crossbow - Clothing - Light - Archer

Background

The arbalist is a master with the crossbow and while other soldiers may be skilled at archery they do not possess the discipline to gain the kind of experience they have. The arbalist devotes their life to perfecting their skill with the crossbow and all other concerns are secondary to them.

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Weapons

Use one handed until you get a longbow in Helgen. Buy a hunting bow from Alvor in Riverwood and and as many Iron Ingots as you can. Chop wood and sell it to Hod until you can buy all the Iron Ingots and then use it to make Iron Arrows. Make some leather strips at a tanning rack and improve the Hunting Bow on a grindstone.

You can pick up a crossbow earlier than joining the Dawnguard by finding the body of an Orc vampire hunter on a cliff to the left just as the entrance to the Thalmor Embassy comes into view. This also leads to a quest where you can get an Elven Crossbow and an Ebony Crossbow. The fletcher in Solitude also sells bolts and crossbows and I bought an Imperial Crossbow for just under 700 gold and a few steel bolts. This does 1 extra damage over the regular crossbow but at level 5. When I bought it I already had Steel Smithing so I improved the damage a little more. The Final Crossbow is this Elven Crossbow that is upgraded to the enhanced version so that it ignores 50% of armour.

Dwarven Smithing is needed to make Dwarven Bolts which do 4 more damage than steel bolts.

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Armor

Craft a set of Leather Scout Gear as soon as you can. The final gear is a Mage Hood, Elven Gilded Armor, Elven Boots and Gauntlets. You can craft the elven items with Refined Moonstone and The Elven Smithing perk. You will also need some Quicksilver Ingots to make and temper the Elven Guilded Armor and there are some ore nodes to the east of Whiterun or a whole mine of it in Dawnstar. The Mage Hood can be purchased from Collette at the College of Winterhold.

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Spells

Alteration for some utility spells. Restoration for out of combat heals.

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Standing Stones

The Atronach Stone for 50% spell absorption, 50 Magicka but -50% magicka regeneration.

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Shrines

Use a shrine of Talos for the 20% shout cooldown reduction.

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Shouts

Slow Time (Time - Sand - Eternity)

Location: Hag’s End, Korvanjund (The Jagged Crown), Labyrinthian (The Staff of Magnus).

Slows time down for you a bit and everyone else a lot. Can be used to get multiple shots in quickly.

Whirlwind Sprint (Whirlwind - Fury - Tempest)

Location: Dead Men’s Respite, Volskygge, High Hrothgar (The Way of the Voice)

Use to reach otherwise inaccessible places and to quickly evade attacks or catch up with fleeing enemies.

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Character Creation

Female High Elf

Dark Elves come out on top for skill boosts in this build on 25/35 but I went with High Elf instead as they are joint second on 20/25 with Wood Elf but I wanted to do an Elven Armor and crossbow build and that seems to fit the looks of a High Elf better. The 50 Magicka from the High Elf allowed me to switch a Fortify Magicka enchantment on the gear to a Fortify Carry Weight, which is more useful for the build with it having a low Stamina to Health ratio on the attributes.

Pick female as the sex for your character as there are more male humanoids than females to fight in Skyrim so the 10% damage bonus against the opposite sex from Agent of Dibella gets more use.

The Dawnguard must be joined to allow you to craft bolts and also exploding bolts. You need to take it as far as finding the vampire attack outside Dragon Bridge in the Prophet quest. After that you can head back to Fort Dawnguard and Gunmer will have set up his forge. Talk to Sorine about teaching you how to craft a crossbow and the bolt recipes will appear when you use the forge. There’s a chopping block outside the fort that can be used to get firewood to make the bolts.

Sorine will then regularly give you quests to track down recipes for an enhanced crossbow, 3 types of exploding bolts and then a dwarven crossbow at which point you can craft dwarven bolts and there exploding types as well. There is a final quest from her to get the enhanced version of dwarven crossbow but it's not required to do this in the build. I did it just as an excuse to clear a dwemer ruin and pick up more materials to make more bolts.

To go with the build I made a few dwarven fire bolts. These can be made from a dwarven bolt and 2 fire salts. Fire salts can be made at the Atronach Forge, in The Midden below the college of Winterhold, using a salt pile, a filled soul gem of any size and either a Ruby, Flawless Ruby, Silver Ruby Ring or Gold Ruby Necklace.

The quest line for the College of Winterhold also needs to be taken to just before the conclusion of the main faction quests to get a Slow Time word wall. The Stability perk is taken in the build to increase the duration of this shout by 50%.

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Attribute Distribution

Distribute attributes at a ratio of 0 / 3 / 1. At level 58 which is required for all the perks the attributes are:

Magicka	Health	Stamina
100 (200)	530 (645)	240 (355)

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Perk Point Distribution

The skill boosts for High Elves are marked in bold.

Mage		Warrior		Rogue
Alteration +5	9	Archery	10	Alchemy	10
Conjuration +5	0	Block	0	Light Armor	5
Destruction +5	3	Heavy Armor	0	Lockpicking	0
Enchanting +5	9	One-handed	0	Pickpocket	0
Illusion +10	0	Smithing	3	Sneak	0
Restoration +5	8	Two-handed	0	Speech	0
Total	29	Total	13	Total	15

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Skills and Perks

Mage Skills

Warrior Skills

Rogue Skills

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Spells

Alteration

Spell	Level	Description
Candlelight	Novice	Creates a hovering light that lasts for 60 seconds
Detect Life	Adept	Nearby living creatures, but not undead, machines or Daedra, can be seen through walls
Telekinesis	Adept	Can pull an object to you from distance. Add it to your inventory or throw it
Waterbreathing	Adept	Can breathe under water for 60 seconds. Stand in water and cast to level Alteration.

The Detect Life spellbook can be obtained in Whiterun by taking to the Steward in Dragonsreach and following the quest to the Stables.

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Conjuration

Spell	Level	Description
Conjure Familiar	Novice	Summons a familiar for 60 seconds wherever the caster is pointing

Conjuration is not needed in the build but you could use conjure familiar to help tank enemies for you in the early levels.

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Destruction

Spell	Level	Description
Flames	Novice	A gout of fire inflicting a base damage of 8 points of fire damage per second
Unbounded Storms	Expert	Targets in melee range take 40 shock damage per second to Health, and half that to Magicka. Random lightning strikes deal an additional 30 damage

Unbounded Storms is purely used as a means to speed the levelling of Destruction by casting and using fast travel.

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Illusion

Spell	Level	Description
Courage	Novice	Target won't flee for 60 seconds, and gets some extra health and stamina.

Courage can be used to level illusion by casting it at an NPC.

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Restoration

Spell	Level	Description
Healing	Novice	Heals the caster 10 points per second
Fast Healing	Apprentice	Heals caster by 50 points
Close Wounds	Adept	Heals caster by 100 points
Grand Healing	Expert	Heals everyone close to the caster 200 points. Does not affect atronachs, machines or undead

Just the healing spells from Restoration.

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Enchantments

The effects listed below are based upon 100 Enchanting skill, all the enchanting perks in the build and with a set of enchanted crafting gear. Read my guide on making crafting gear if you are not familiar with it.

Summary of combined effects

Bows do 225% more damage.
Weapon uses no charges.
Destruction spells cost no Magicka.
Restoration spells cost 46% less Magicka.
Health, Magicka and Stamina are increased by 115 points.
Carrying capacity is increased by 86 points
Resist 37% of all magical effects
86% resistance to fire

Item	Enchantment	Effect
Head	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells and enchantments cost 46% less
	Fortify Restoration	Restoration spells and enchantments cost 46% less
Body	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells and enchantments cost 46% less
	Fortify Health	Health is increased by 115 points
Feet	Fortify Stamina	Stamina is increased by 115 points
	Resist Fire	Grants 86% resistance to fire
Hands	Fortify Archery	Bows do 75% more damage
	Fortify Carry Weight	Carrying capacity is increased by 86 points
Amulet	Fortify Archery	Bows do 75% more damage
	Resist Magic	Resist 37% of magical effects
Ring	Fortify Archery	Bows do 75% more damage
	Fortify Destruction	Destruction spells and enchantments cost 46% less
Crossbow	Fire Damage	Target takes 85 points of fire damage. Targets on fire take extra damage
	Absorb Health	Absorb 37 points of Health

With the Sallowed Regent Black Book the magnitude of all enchantments can be increased. Please note that Black Books can only be used on Solstheim.

The magnitude of the enchantments can be further increased by equipping 4 pieces of Azhidal's gear.

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Alchemy

All the details for the potions and poisons are based on having all the listed alchemy perks, Alchemy at 100 and a set of crafting gear.

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Potion of Fortify Health

Ingredients	Blue Mountain Flower & Wheat
Effects	Fortify Health	170 points for 60 seconds
	Restore Health	266 points restored

You can get all the Blue Mountain Flowers you need in Whiterun. The two farms to the east of Whiterun also get you all the Wheat you need.

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Potion of Health Regeneration

Ingredients	Canis Root, Juniper Berries & Namira's Rot
Effects	Health Regeneration	Regenerate Health 213% faster for 300 seconds.
	Fortify Archery	170% more damage for 60 seconds

You can get 2 Canis Root for free from Arcadia’s Cauldron if you take her the frost salts from Farengar. The last 4 are found on the opposite side of the river to Solitude Lumbermill as you head north along the coastline The last one is inland a bit but easy to spot as it is elevated up on a ledge. There are 7 Namira’s Rot in Reachwater Rock. I was able to buy 3 in Angeline’s Aromatics in Solitude where only 1 was needed. Juniper Berries are numerous around Markarth.

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Potion of Fortify Destruction

Ingredients	Glowing Mushroom, Snowberries & Steel-Blue Entoloma
Effects	Fortify Destruction	213% more damage for 60 seconds
	Resist Frost	128% for 60 seconds
	Resist Shock	128% for 60 seconds

All the glowing mushrooms you need are at the farm. Snowberries are from around Windhelm. Steel-Blue Entoloma are from Khajiit caravans

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Potion of Fortify Enchanting

Ingredients	Dreugh Wax/Stoneflower Petals & Snowberries
Effects	Fortify Enchanting	85% stronger for 30 seconds

Dreugh Wax and Stoneflower Petals are only available from Khajiit caravans. Some travel between Whiterun and Markarth. Snowberries are abundant near Windhelm.

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Potion of Fortify Smithing

Ingredients	Dreugh Wax/Gold Kanet & Glowing Mushrooms
Effects	Fortify Smithing	213% stronger for 30 seconds

Dreugh Wax and Gold Kanet are only available from Khajiit caravans. Some travel between Whiterun and Markarth. Glowing Mushrooms are in Falmer caves.

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Farming

For more information on getting to and setting up your farm read my guide.

Ingredients Needed

3 x Blue Mountain Flower
6 x Canis Root
5 x Glowing Mushrooms
6 x Juniper Berries
8 x Namira's Rot
6 x Snowberries
8 x Steel-Blue Entoloma
2 x Wheat

Potions and Poisons Produced

18 x Potions of Forify Health
54 x Potions of Health Regeneration
54 x Potions of Fortify Destruction

Main Area (27)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Steel-Blue Entoloma (3)	8	24 + 8 = 32	48 + 8 = 56
Namira's Rot (3)	8	24 + 8 = 32	48 + 8 = 56
Wheat (4)	2	8 + 2 = 10	16 + 2 = 18
Blue Mountain Flowers (3)	3	9 + 3 = 12	18 + 3 = 21
Canis Root (4)	6	24 + 6 = 30	48 + 6 = 54

Side Area (11)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Snowberries (4)	6	24 + 6 = 30	48 + 6 = 54
Glowing Mushrooms (5)	5	25 + 5 = 30	48 + 6 = 54

Planters (6)

Ingredient	Qty	Harvest	Green Thumbs
Juniper Berries (4)	6	24 + 6 = 30	48 + 6 = 54

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