72 articlesIf you want to take an Arcane Archer build into the challenging Master difficulty in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, you’ve come to the right place.
An Arcane Archer is, effectively, a ranged version of a Spellsword. You’ll wield both bow and magic together to obliterate your foes! All while staying at a (relatively) safe distance. An agile expert marksman with powerful magic can’t be stopped!
Read on, and we’ll go over everything you need to know for this build and playstyle.
Arcane Archer Build Guide for Master Mode | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Let’s kick things off from the very beginning: character creation! Here’s our build recommendations:
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- Specialization – Magic.
- Favored Attributes – Intelligence and Willpower. Focus on Agility, Intelligence, Willpower, and Endurance as you level up. Ignore Willpower if you pick The Atronach as the Birthsign.
- Major Skills – Armorer, Athletics, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Light Armor, Marksman.
- Birthsign – Any of the Magicka boosters works for this build, depending on preference:
- The Mage – Grants +50 Magicka. Less Magicka than others, but has no side effects.
- The Apprentice – Grants +100 Magicka but also increases your Weakness to Magic by 100%. You’ll be a glass cannon, even by Master Mode standards. Pick this only if you’re ready to dodge everything. This also gives you Weakness to Magic as a Spellcrafting effect from the start.
- The Atronach – Grants you +150 Magicka and 50% Spell Absorption. However, you’ll be unable to regenerate Magicka over time. You’ll need to rely on absorbing spells and using consumables. Better for utility and spellcasting.
Your main focus with this build will be to use Conjuration as often as possible to summon minions. These minions will draw attention from enemies, allowing you to reposition and use your bow much more easily. Plus, their stats generally scale with Master difficulty, too!
Destruction will be primarily for offense, as expected, while Restoration will allow you to buff and heal yourself. Marskman improves your bow’s power, Athletics improves your movements, and Armorer allows you to repair equipment on the fly.
Aside from these Major Skills, you’ll also want to dabble in Illusion and Alteration magic schools for extra special effects to give you an edge in combat! Every school of magic is useful in this build.
Equipment and Enchantments to Keep in Mind
When it comes to equipment for this build, any Light Armor and bow works. Just make sure to, as always, make good use of the Enchanting system to power them up with effects you want. Most importantly for your bow, here are some useful Enchantments to use:
- Absorb/Drain Health
- Absorb/Drain Magicka
- Absorb/Drain Agility
- Fire Damage
- Shock Damage
- Ice Damage
- Command Creature
- Command Humanoid
We recommend using different bows for specific Enchantments, on that note. This will allow you to have stronger individual Enchantments instead of having a lot of weaker ones. How you combine them depends on your preferences and what specific enemies you’re facing.
On that note, do not add “Weakness to Element/Magic” effects on the same weapons that you use to deal said elemental or magic damage. The weakening effect applies after the damage, and you’ll need to sacrifice the damage potency for the Enchantment. For weakening, we recommend using spells, which we’ll cover shortly.
On the other hand, it’s not a bad idea to put multiple elements on a single weapon!
Spellmaking Is Vital
Another key aspect of this Arcane Archer build in Oblivion Remastered will be custom spells, particularly in Master difficulty. You’ll need to make good use of Spellmaking to create powerful spells in this difficulty! Here are some examples of the types of spells you should use:
- Weaken Example
- Weakness to Shock/Frost/Fire 100% for 5 secs on Touch.
- Weakness to Magic 100% for 5 secs on Touch.
- Paralyze and Weaken Example
- Paralyze for 1 sec on Touch.
- Weakness to Magic 100% for 5 secs on Touch.
- Magicka Steal and Weaken Example
- Absorb Magicka 15 points for 3 seconds on Touch.
- Weakness to Shock/Frost/Fire 100% for 5 secs on Touch.
- Weakness to Magic 100% for 10 secs on Touch.
- Basic Damage Dealer Example
- Shock/Frost/Fire Damage 10 points for 10 secs on Touch.
You primarily want to make good use of spell stacking with your weakening spells. As long as your spells have different names, the effects will stack up additively when cast. Remember that the effects of “Weakness to X” spells are also stronger if the enemy is already weakened. That means you can also alternate casting two different spells to keep effectively ramping up the effects!
As a good rule of thumb, you want to stack up as many “Weakness to X” effects as possible first. Then, use your bow or a damaging spell to deal massive burst damage to your target. This generally applies to every spellcaster build in Master difficulty, of course. However, an Arcane Archer needs it even more due to being relatively squishy.
Nonetheless, that’s everything you need to know to use this Arcane Archer build in Master difficulty in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. Do know that you will be patient as you level up your magic with this build, but it will be worth it in the end.
