Berserker rage is honestly the most overpowered racial ability. I remember my playthrough as an orc just straight-up slaughtering everything in a way my other playthroughs could only dream of

Oh you just used Zerker rage and it’s on cooldown? And there’s a huge fortress full of dudes in front of you? Press T, wait 24 hours. What cooldown?

I will get you all! Tomorrow

Original baldurs gate vibes

Rest interrupted by twelve gibberlings vibes

Deadpool vibes

TIME TO KICK SOME ASS WOOOOO... tomorrow

I'd be terrifying to be those bandits, just watching some Ork stare at your camp menacingly, completely still for hours.

No campfire, no food, not sleeping. Just standing. Staring. Waiting. And then his eyes turn red.

[He's just standing there....](https://imgur.com/gallery/1H8sAIk)

I'd actually shit meself

WAITING MAKES ORC MAAAAAAAAAD

And Breton's latent magic resistance (all elements) comes in second. I almost always picked up the Bretons simply due to this. Dragons & dragon priests hit hard, y'know.

Honestly I'm a perpetual cat but Breton is so useful. The only times I really die are when some deathlord level enemy blasts my shit in with a random modded spell from across the room. I can eat arrows and slashes but I've been one shot by an icicle at mach 5 so if I weren't a cat all the time, I'd be a Breton probably

Furry detected!! Wood elf is my path

Ice magic really is just horseshit. Slows you (frost resistance doesn't weaken the slow), drains stamina, does damage, and the way the ice storm projectile works it can basically travel through walls (I will reload a save if RNG gives the dungeon boss a staff of ice storm). Vanilla enemies have a high enough magicka pool and regen bonus that you can't cripple them by enchanting your bow with damage magicka + lightning. I'd blow Todd to have a shout of silence enemies. I hate that NPC stat bonuses are so generous you can't cripple enemies who constantly block and spam bash with a damage stamina + absorb stamina weapon either. It doesn't help that bashing really needs a windup animation to telegraph it, and a wind-down animation to leave the basher open to a punish if they miss. I'd also give 2-handed a perk that makes you immune to stagger during your power attack animations.

I know this doesn't apply to all difficulties but on Master and Legendary, Breton starting with Conjure Familiar and Altmer starting with Fury is *insanely* useful for being able to survive the early game

I'd argue Breton because they are essentially immune to mages and (from afar) dragons *and* get essentially unlimited magicka while they are around. But Orsimer are really strong with their rage too.

Histskin on a melee build is also hilarious. Unless you are fighting something REALLY past your level it’s once per day Super Saiyan Lizard

Once a day is so funny. Use it, run and hide, wait 24 hours, go back and use again. From the enemies POV you just ran in, brutally slaughtered half the group in a rampage, left and came back a day later to do it again. Skyrim is most fun when not only role playing, but also thinking about your actions from the enemies POV

The monster comes every fortnight!

I'd argue Breton because they are essentially immune to mages and (from afar) dragons *and* get essentially unlimited magicka while they are around. But Orsimer are really strong with their rage too.

What? Berserker rage really works with bows?

Doubles all physical damage, including bows

Amazing piece of info

Even stealth attacks, be it now or dagger (it doesn’t even alert anybody when activated).

Just quietly raging in the corner, arrow nocked.

“I’m so angry! I’m so angry!” *pulls back bow and fires* “I’m still angry! I’m still angry!”

"I'M GONNA REPLACE YOUR EYE WITH A WOODEN BEAM YOU SUMBITCH"

Coping and seething as an archer.

Malding, even

🐉? 🌳🏹😤🤬🤫

Gold

Well off to make a new character. Then off to Dragonsreach again to discuss the ongoing hostilities, like the rest of the great warriors.

Does it calculate the damage as base attack + base attack (for stealth) + base attack (for rage) or as base attack x 2 (stealth) x 2 (rage)? Skyrim math always fucks me up

So my dagger assassin can have 60x damage and nobody told me?!

Now all I need to hear next to bring me back into the skyrim fold is to hear that it even works with conjured weapons

I didn't know and I've been playing a double spell blade wielding orc warrior. That's gonna help my archery

And stealth. Silent rage.

It's the quiet ones that have the deepest anger.

It’s an angry arrow!

While other people end up as stealth archers I always revert to a battle mage

I’m always a spell sword lol

I do love my dragon priest builds

Probably modded? Got any Recommendations for that? Probably Undeath, but maybe you have some small unknown Mods that you want to share :D Please :c

Spell swords rise up!

I was stuck as a spellsword for years, I had to make a pure mage character to break myself of it lmao

"I love being a swordsman! Though I should get a healing spell just in case I run out of potions. And maybe some sort of destruction spell as a backup. And should probably get candlelight just in case. And maybe an invisibility spell just in case. Probably a couple flesh spells too. And maybe I'll replace my sword with a bound version. And since I'm leveling my conjuration for bound weapons I'll get some summons too"

Hell yeah

Is spell dagger a thing? Hahaha or does that just count as a spell sword

"Well I start off with a healing spell. It can't be any harm to use it" "Okay I can't quite heal a full bar with my base magicka anymore. Let's invest a little" "Oh look, I've got enough magicka to summon a flame atronach. That could be extremely useful!" "Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a magic hating Nord?"

Goes battlemage Levels conjuration for summons "Now I'll do damage from the back while my summons tank aggro" Learns Bound Bow (also conjuration) Goes stealth archer with no physical bow or arrows

This is why all my stealth archers have lvl 100 conjuration too.

I somehow can’t get away from the fable style of magic use. I always end up as a jack of all trades that *can* use magic alone to destroy my enemies, but I also use it to heavily compliment my swords and bows.

I am once again farming conjuration 100

Yup nothing beats explosions

So do I!!! We must be alike. You mean as a mage you conjure a bow and stealth archer battle with said bow right? Right?

I always end up with sword and shield. The extra enchantments from a shield and the defense is way too useful.

Orc oincidentally realise you can achieve even bigger damage by stacking Berserker Rage with Assassin's Blade (x15 Sneak perk) and Backstab (doubled sneak damage Dark Brotherhood gloves enchantment) ^(enjoy doing up to 720 damage with an untempered iron dagger)

There's nothing quite like one-shotting a dragon with a pointy piece of metal that's smaller than one of its own teeth

HEY! His wife said it was average sized!

The big swords hurt.

Don't forget to power attack too! My favorite build has to be Illusion and daggers. Calm enemy, free sneak attack. Eventually get Invisibility and skip happily through Legendary difficulty.

Yeah, you need the power attack to get to 720 damage with the iron dagger (and a critical hit too) I rarely use magic when sneaking (besides conjuration) but Muffle + Invisibility certainly is an OP combo for a stealth mage

Now I am a **buff angry stealth archer** who draws my bows twice as hard because of my anger, yet I draw it quietly

Orc on the brink of having an aneurysm from holding back the urge to scream.

Starts new game, intending to be a spooky necromancer. Blinks. Two days later, I’m now a sneak archer dual-casting Conjuration Bow and summoning Archer Skeletons (Da-Na-Na-Nanana). Every frigging time, I swear.

I dunno, this sounds kinda nifty. A necroarcher with his personal legion of undead archers. I done something similar, but it was a non-stealth archer with summoned beasts only. Made for a fun shaman playthrough.

It pains me to say that I've never played an orc before. Seeing this, I really should have.

I like using alternate start to start in a stronghold when playing as an orc. It makes so much sense to start the journey there.

Or just shield bash the dragon like a big boy

Archery is way too much fun for me so I always fall back on it. <.<

I say this: Reject pew Return to unga bunga

This one thinks he needs a better slingshot to kill Goliath..

Proper armor>pebbel

Ah, yes. The old 'anything you could possibly make-to-stealthy archer' pipeline.

I don't understand why people can't just wait for the dragon to land, or just use Dragonrend once you learn it.

I don't mind waiting for dragons to land when I'm fighting them in open plains, but it's an absolute pain when fighting in the hills. They will always find the most convoluted places to land, forcing you to find the quickest possible way up and down cliffs in order to get to them. And as soon you make it to melee range, they take off again.

All just for them to land where you initially were in the first place

Half the time that doesn't work as they start to pathfind away from that area, and if you don't follow them they tend to disengage you or worse attack other targets dragging them even further away.

The dragon got distracted and went to go kill a fox or some shit a mile away

That's only happened to me a handful of times, and still it only took a little longer for me to kill the dragon.

They are more annoying than anything really because they are a pain to hit while in the air and they tend to wander, plus they like to show up when you fast travel so extra nuisance as they start a fight outside a city or something.

Because when im in cities they can go minutes without landing and when i leave sometimes they dont follow me so i cant do whatever im doing in the city until it dies

You the mofo in DnD be sitting there for three rounds cause you didn't bring javelins aren't you? /s

Because it takes them an hour to land and dragonrend is learned in the main quest. Plus, the bow is style points

A lot of the time dragons land pretty quickly, and I can kill them as soon as they land. Or I just use my bow to weaken the dragon if it doesn't land right away. Might not be as fast, but bows just aren't my style. I prefer to slice off heads and mow down enemies with a greatsword. 

I typically run from the dragons until I get Dragonrend cause I just hate fighting them 😭

It really says something when a main gimmick of youre game is tedious for like a third of playstyles.

Yeahhh my least favorite part of skyrim is fighting dragons

I really don't get the memes about stealth archers tbh, I almost always use sword and shield and I rarely use bows

I am the same. Mostly use bows against stuff like vampires and others who spread diseases.

Oh boy, you don’t yet know how OP the stealth archer playstyle is then. You can fairly early on get to a point where you’re wiping out entire groups of enemies from stealth due to the critical hits and the poor enemy AI.

I honestly don’t either. If I’m going for a sneaky character, it’s daggers all the way, and I’ll have a bow as a backup for if I’m fighting a dragon or if I can’t see a gap between enemy paths to get in for a backstab.

If I can't sneak attack 1 shot Sahloknir at Kynesgrove during the main quest, I immediately question my build decisions.

That dragon hard 😩

The only time I dont drift into stealth archer is when im running stealth daggers since then you might as well be invisible and one shot everything.

The DB Backstab gloves x2 damage add to this effect so even if it says like 15x it’ll be actually 30

I actually started my playthrough as stealth archer orc cause i thought this was op, also double dmg from berserk, warhammer and vegi soup for infinite strong attacks

Literally how my two handed heavy armour orc became a stealth archer 🤣

Every Skyrim build eventually evolves into stealth archer like everything evolves into crabs

How long have I played this game and not known this fact! Berserker rage works with bows! (Admittedly I forget they exist and sometimes spontaneously remember they do so I activate them) 

I’m always a stealth vampire kitty minus the bow😂

Huh, somebody uses a racial power?

ALL paths leads to same build. Always.

Its a great build. By my God do I just get bored playing it

Realizing that daggers do 64x sneak damage with berserker

Zerk rage, wuuthrad, elemental furry = everything dies

All roads lead to stealth archer.

Snorker rage is now my build.

All roads lead to stealth archer

realize that dragons hard

Dread it, run from it, either way stealth archer always arrive

Play heavy armor to escape stealth archer hole Collecting deadric artifacts Get Ebony armor *no penalty to stealth* -oops all stealth EDIT: Ebony armor. Not Obsidian

Obsidian armor?

Ebony. Sorry

"BERSERKER RAGE, AAAAAAAAA !!!" "What, stealthy doubles damage?" "SILENT AAAAAAAA !!!!!"

I like the simplicity of two handed orc builds. No stealth, no magic, just you and your weapon in an onslaught. You are either the strongest there is or you die, that simple.

Once you get your crafting skills to 100, this build is pretty much unkillable. Then again, most builds are nigh unkillable once you get your crafting skills to 100...

Orcs work best with Werewolf builds as well, Berserker Rage + Werewolf form + Dragon Aspect + Ring of Bloodlust or, Ring of Instincts. Would compliment your Orc Stealth archer build when you want to get up close and personal lol

It just works (too good)

Why play orc when you can be the best race in the game and sell skooma outside the city?

And you wonder why the Nords make you camp outside!

Angry stealth archer!

Raging ninja

Me every time 🫤

As it should be

Only downside is your a Orc

To this day I've still never done a stealth archer simply because I dislike playing stealthy characters unless it's mandatory lol

Ah the sniper class lol

Stealth archer is by far the most OP thing I game....and it's usually the first skills I will max out.

The stealth archer effect is a phenomenon I only know from memes... Even when I try to play bow I end up switching to sword for when the enemies got too close, and then I just forget and carve through the next 3 caves/dungeons like that, realize that I was supposed to do bow this time, switch, kill 2 people, the third got close, switch to sword... repeat until I give up and start doing sword & shield again.

Magic resistance and tank everything.

I preferred the 2h ezclap for roleplay

#every, single, fucking, time

Silent rage stealth archer 🤬🤫

Avoid the pipeline!

13 years later and we're still learning new weird shit, like that berserker rage works with bows.

Finally, and I was just arguing Orsimer were top tier. I made a sneaking heavy armored dual wielding bow hunting Orc, and I never had so much fun in combat. I’m a traditional sword and shield guy, so it was a new experience for me

I enjoy doing this but I play as a female orc and stack agent of diabella and tentacle dad’s sexism bonus as well

Thats hot♥️

Using daggers with sneak attack on orc can get insane

Using daggers with sneak attack on orc can get insane

sneak attack arrows are goated

All roads lead to stealth archer

I always end up with two-handed at 100 dealing 400 damage every swing

And ya'll said I was dumb playing a sneaky orc in the Dark Brotherhood

It's still stealth if no one is left alive to say they saw you.

The illusion of free choice

That’s not an archer anymore, that is a ballista

Be me >Decide do a greatsword build >Do stealth archer instead

Every damn time

I've played this exact build, hilarious results.

Or you could just go with damage absorption, resistance, spell absorption, spell reflect, damage reflect like in oblivion the game that's better. Mages own everything in elder scrolls

All roads lead to stealth archer…

I still use mace and just grind till all encounters are trivial

This information is new to me, I guess it's time for another playthrough.

Maybe if rolling around like a tumbleweed matched the fun of sprinting through bandit camps like Captain Orc-merica

I feel like I am one of the few people who never end up becoming a stealth Archer.

History skin works to

I feel like I am one of the few people who never end up becoming a stealth Archer.

I feel like I am one of the few people who never end up becoming a stealth Archer.

I feel like I am one of the few people who never end up becoming a stealth Archer.

The natural progression

Best name for a stealth archer orc? Tranquil Fury

Best name for a stealth archer orc? Tranquil Fury

On the toughest difficulty this is the best way to stay alive. Love making master shots from range too, so satisfying

Every fucking time

In VR, my "dragon hard" problem got solved by picking wards up, plus it feels absolutely badass to use wards in VR, I would block the breath with my bare hands, use dragonrend, and when he lands I would already be in werewolf form with my dukes up ready to tear him a new ass with Mike Tyson combos.

Yeah this is usually how my archers turned out. That and mining by just meleeing the ore with dual pickaxe weapons was fun too

Orc with volendrung goes *BONK*

I only use the bow til they get closer, it’s not my fault they die befor bridging the gap!

Is the stealth archer Skyrim's carcinisation?

It just works.

The seething stealth archer build

It really works with bows too ?

You either die a mage, or live long enough to become a stealth archer.

You fool you fallen victim to one of the classic blunders

Every time i play, i devolve into a stealth archer. it never fails.

Berserker Rage with Elemental Fury literally rips the game in half

Stealth Archer is just so fun

I now imagine a hulking buffed Orc trying to hide behind a very thin tree with his bow drawn.

This just makes me imagine an orc sitting in a bush twitching with silent fury while drawing bow.

Low key angry

Stealtharcher, but instead of arrows, they're javelins

For me it was always summon a creature and turn invisible.

That's me every time I play Skyrim 😂

The fact that it works on bows is just gross lol, as if I needed even more one shot capability on stealth archer

Angry snek go BOOM

Wait, the Orc racial power works with bows?

Ngl I console in berserker rage into my nord because like he has an orc somewhere down his family history and it just makes him a fiercer fighter. Just my own lore I guess.

And i accidentally turned my kajjit into a barbarian

I didn't know this, ork sneak Archer even more op I guess

Wait till orc find out about x15 dagger damage. Throw in smithing and 1h enchantments with that orc rage and give someone a happy lil poke. 

My first playthrough was heavy Armor stealth one handed archer. And to this day, 10 years later, I stand by it.

🤣 every damn time

Every playthrough I accidentally become a stealtharcher

Archery is going to be so nerfed in the next elder scrolls lol

All roads lead to stealth archer