Enchanting is one of the most useful skill trees in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and while practically every character type can find a use for it, it could benefit from some more creativity. As one of the three major crafting skills in the game, it cannot be directly used in combat. Leveling the Enchanting tree will instead increase the Dragonborn’s aptitude at buffing, enhancing, and maintaining enchanted weapons, armor, and equipment.

Novice enchanters will be able to extend the duration of looted staves or enchanted weapons, but a Dragonborn who’s a master enchanter can take this to the next level, imbuing items from scratch with properties to rival even Skyrim’s best Daedric artifacts. These upper limits for the potential of the Enchanting tree came at a cost, however. Ten of the thirteen perks in this skill tree are boosts to the strength of enchantments. While these perks stack together to create some incredibly powerful gear, unfortunately leveling the skill has no bearing on the player’s ability to create new enchantments.

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Most of Skyrim’s weapon enchantments simply come in the form of additional elemental damage. A steel axe with a fire damage enchantment can be found in practically every dungeon, and the same goes for an iron mace that deals frost damage. There are some weapons that can drain health or paralyze, but the dearth of creative ideas is hard to ignore. Adding more effects and options would be one easy way for Bethesda Game Studios to improve enchanting in Elder Scrolls 6.

Leveling Skyrim’s Enchanting Skill Tree Has Pros And Cons

Being able to efficiently keep staves charged is one of the pros to leveling skyrim's enchanting skill

The modding community has worked wonders in implementing new, exciting ideas for enchantments players can stumble across in their playthroughs. EnaiSiaion’s Summermyst mod stands out especially, adding over 120 new effects to the game. That Summermyst has received over one million downloads since its December 2016 release lends credence to players’ desire for more imaginative enchantments in Skyrim.

While the enchantments themselves may be lacking in creativity, there is still plenty of room for players to use the game’s Enchanting skill to roleplay all manner of interesting builds. Categorically speaking, it is a mage skill. The best trainers in the game are mage archetypes, and higher levels can be attained faster through using the Mage standing stone. This standing stone will likely be helpful in powering through the Enchanting tree, as it’s one of the grindiest skills in the game to level.

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Enchanting can run quite expensive, as it requires a steady income of soul gems and items to enchant. Lugging around items to later enchant can quickly turn into a game of inventory management. Lower-quality soul gems are cheap, and are easy enough to find through exploring, yet they still require a soul within them before they can be used for enchanting. This means either frequenting the Conjuration spell Soul Trap, or persistent use of a weapon with the Soul Trap enchantment.

The fruits of reaching high levels in Enchanting are worth the labor involved, however. Enchanted items can improve or diversify any playing style, and some of the most powerful character types in Skyrim would not be possible without it. Keeping on the subject of mage builds, for example, the biggest disadvantage of magic combat skills is that Skyrim’s Destruction spells reach a damage cap.

Enchanting Works Great For Skyrim's Destruction Mages

Skyrim Soul Gems for Enchanting Weapons and Armor

Perk points spent on Augmented Flames or Augmented Shock can grant an additional 50% to damage dealt with those elements, and that stacks with the base damage of the spell cast. Potions to fortify destruction can be brewed and consumed to offer a further (albeit temporary) boost, but it’s only through Enchanting that a Destruction mage build can reach its full potential. Armor and jewelry can be enchanted to greatly reduce the cost of casting Destruction spells, potentially even reducing them all the way to zero.

A master enchanter wearing gear tailored specifically to reduce Destruction costs could cast even Skyrim’s best magic spells in combat without it costing any magicka at all. Since there’s little way to increase the damage spells, a strong battlemage becomes a matter of quantity over quality; keeping a constant stream of spells going in combat to keep the damage output high. What’s imperative to note, however, is that this same principle applies to every magic skill tree in the game.

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The above example of casting endless Destruction spells could work just as easily for Restoration (zero-cost heals), Alteration (zero-cost paralysis), Conjuration (zero-cost atronachs, bound weapons, and thralls), or Illusion (zero-cost battlefield manipulation or invisibility). It doesn’t stop there either. Just like Smithing or Alchemy can enhance Skyrim’s strongest builds, so, too, can Enchanting. Further, it is arguably the best of these crafting skills.

There are dozens of creative potions players can brew at an alchemy lab, but potions are consumable items. Leveling Alchemy is even more tedious than leveling Enchanting, and it takes a long time for potions to make a noticeable difference in performance. Smithing, on the other hand, is useful from the start, but many builds have little need for it; it’s solely used to craft and enhance gear to have higher stats.

Enchanting is the perfect middle ground between the two, offering a balance between power and versatility. All of the best builds in Skyrim can benefit from Enchanting, even pure Rogue or Fighter builds that have never cast a single spell. Gear can be enchanted to fortify any skill in the game. Whether that’s fighting with two-handed weapons, sneaking, pickpocketing, heavy armor, shooting a bow, or casting healing spells is up to the player.

The Enchanting Skill Synergizes With Every Other Skill In Skyrim

A player in mage robes holding the Staff of Magnus in Skyrim.

Which Perks To Choose

  • Insightful Enchanter: Arguably the best perk in the skill tree, at level 50 players unlock Insightful Enchanter. This increases the degree to which players can boost skill enchantments by 25%. Any build and any play style can benefit from this perk, especially when this percent is stacked with the 20-100% boost granted by the five skill levels of Enchanter.

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  • Extra Effect: Once the player has reached level 100 in Enchanting, they are rewarded with one of the most all-encompassing perks in the game: The ability to dual-enchant any item. This has inherent uses in Skyrim’s combat, as a weapon can be outfitted with multiple damaging enchantments, but it can also be hugely powerful when put on armor or jewelry. Players could use this to make two separate magic skill trees free of magicka cost, or use it to increase their damage with one-handed and two-handed weapons at once. Or a player could enchant gear to boost both Smithing and Alchemy, making a set of gear designed to maximize their crafting abilities. The possibilities are vast.

Which Perks Not To Choose

  • Soul Squeezer: This perk makes it so soul gems grant slightly more charge when used on weapons and staves. This might be useful for battlemage builds, but soul gems are so common that it’s likely more efficient to simply use two or three soul gems and just find or purchase more. This is especially true if the player has Skyrim’s Daedric artifact, Azura’s Star. Even without it, soul gems are not in short supply. Neither are enchanted staves and weapons. As such, there are more efficient uses for hard-earned perk points.
  • Soul Siphon: This perk is not recommended for the same reasons as Soul Squeezer. It’s not difficult to charge enchanted weapons, as soul gems can be found or purchased everywhere in Skyrim. Furthermore, Soul Siphon only applies to kills made with weapons. This perk does not affect staves.

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Skyrim is available on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.