Optimized Endgame Atronach Build (Updated for Remaster)

An updated guide on a build capable of playing at the highest difficulty.

Introduction

Disclaimer: This character takes advantage of a few exploits that some may consider cheating. However, they're not game-breaking and don't require difficult setup, so I consider them fair game.

This will be an updated version of my guide for the original Oblivion. A lot of the information from that guide will be repeated below, but there are some distinctions due to the remaster's new gameplay mechanics and some additional information I felt was beneficial.

Character Sheet

This section will go over the important choices the player must make during the tutorial regarding race, birthsign, and class. The original guide assumed High Elf as the chosen race, and that will still be the focus of this guide, but I will offer a couple of alternatives for race.

Race

High Elf:
My suggestion for race, High Elves have an innate +100 bonus to magicka, the highest of all the races. This alone makes them the best choice in my opinion, as a high maximum magicka is key to being as powerful as possible.

Breton:
Bretons have 50 points less magicka than High Elves, but their advantage lies in their 50% magic resistance. Even though this build will already gain immunity to magic through 100% Spell Absorption, doubling up with 100% Resist Magic will allow players to cast on-target spells without fear of enemies with Reflect Spell. If you want to go this route, Breton is the best choice, only missing out on 50 magicka compared to the original build.

Argonian:
This is a slightly less optimal choice, but if you don't like the previous two options (or just want to be a lizard) this is a better choice than any of the other races. Argonians have a natural immunity to poison, allowing for some equipment swaps which will result in only 15 points less magicka than a High Elf.

Birthsign

The Atronach birthsign is required for this build. Any other choice will result in giving up hundereds of points of magicka and/or some resistances. For other builds optimized for endgame, I recommend the Mage sign along with choosing Breton for race.

Class

With the changes to leveling in the remaster, choices regarding class have lost almost all endgame significance. Endurance is now retroactively applied, so it is not required as a favored attribute and does not need to be maxed as early as possible. 12 points can now be distributed across three attributes, regardless of skill level ups. All skills now equally contribute to character level ups, so Major Skills no longer determine a character's maximum level. Simply choose as your Major Skills the skills that you want to level faster. The only choice with any significance whatsoever is whether or not to choose Luck as a favored attribute. The character this guide showcases did, as it results in higher Luck at max level. However, I highly recommend ignoring Luck altogether, as it does nothing late game and makes maxing your other Attributes a lot harder.

Attributes

Maximizing Attributes in the remaster is a little different than the original, and overall a lot easier. It does have some new challenges, however. It is my current understanding that regardless of class or race, when all skills are at level 100 the character's level will be 44. It is possible, and quite easy, to reach a higher level than this, though I do not recommend it. This is because enemies scale with the level of the character, and being a higher level than necessary will make you relatively weaker. Because of this it is best if you do not level Destruction, Restoration, or Conjuration past level 90. The Oghma Infinium will grant the last 10 levels in these skills.

With a max level of 44 established, lets do some math. For all Attributes other than Luck, in order to reach the values shown in the picture we need to put 500 points (if Luck is a favored attribute) into them. With 43 level ups, we will have 43 x 12 = 516 virtues to spend. This leaves us 16 virtues for Luck, which equates to 4 points totaling 59 Luck. With no points to spare, it can be quite tricky to actually reach these values in all Attributes; without careful planning you're bound to end up in a situation where you cannot spend all 12 virtues and thus won't reach the highest values. Therefore, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ignoring Luck altogether, leaving much more room for error.

Regarding the Attributes being over 100, This is possible because of an exploit involving felldew during the Addiction quest. Felldew withdrawal lowers your attributes by an amount depending on the level of withdrawal severity (up to 10-15 depending on the attribute). This is useful because it is coded as an ability rather than a temporary effect. This means that an attribute that is already 100 or greater can continue to be increased if felldew withdrawal brings it below 100. The Oghma Infinium (Path of Spirit) and Julianos' Blessing are responsible for the remaining 10 and 15 points in Willpower and Intelligence, respectively.

Equipment

The equipment for this build was chosen to maximize magicka while still reaching 100% Reflect Damage, 100% Spell Absorption, and immunity to poison.

Apparel

Helmet:
Helmet of the Mage (Fortify Magicka 20 pts, Spell Absorption 14 pts)

Cuirass:
Perfect Madness Cuirass (Fortify Magicka 50 pts)

Greaves:
Perfect Madness Greaves (Fortify Magicka 50 pts)

Boots:
Perfect Madness Boots (Spell Absorption 15 pts)

Gauntlets:
If High Elf or Breton - Cursed Magebane Gauntlets (Drain Magicka 10 pts, Spell Absorption 24 pts)
If Argonian - Perfect Madness Gauntlets (Fortify Magicka 50 pts)

Shield:
Escutcheon of Chorrol (Reflect Damage 35%, Fortify Endurance 10 pts)

Necklace:
Amulet of Axes/Necklace of Swords (Reflect Damage 33%, Fortify Blunt/Blade 25 pts)

Ring 1:
Ring of the Iron Fist (Reflect Damage 33%, Fortify Hand to Hand 25 pts)

Ring 2:
If High Elf - Ring of Vitality (Resist Disease 100%, Resist Poison 100%, Resist Paralysis 100%)
If Breton - Mundane Ring (Resist Magic 50%, Reflect Spell 35%)
If Argonian - Sorcerer's Ring (Spell Absorption 25 pts, Fortify Magicka 25 pts)

Weapon

The primary weapon of this build is a Durable Daedric Dagger enchanted with multiple weakness effects. It is important that Weakness to Magic is last in the list, so that the effects will "stack". They don't stack in a literal sense, but the Weakness to Magic effect of the previous strike will affect all of the enchantments of the next, effectively stacking additively. Eg. Magnitude 100, then 200, 300 etc. The reason it doesn't work as well if Weakness to Magic is first is because weakness effects won't affect other effects on the same strike. If Weakness to Magic is first it will replace the previous Weakness to Magic effect and thus will not affect the Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock effects.

Spells

(Old screenshot used because the remaster doesn't fit all the spell effects on screen)

The primary damage-dealing spell (and all spells that this build frequently uses) takes advantage of another exploit. The telekinesis spell effect is blocked by spell absorption and returns the base cost of the effect. At 100 Mysticism, this equates to returning 5 times the cost of the effect. By having a telekinesis effect that is one fifth of the total spell cost, the spell can be cast for free. This magicka "refund" is unfortunately applied before magicka is spent on casting the spell, so it only allows free casting of spells with a cost of up to half our total magicka. In this character's case, 312.

The Dispel 67 pts on self is to avoid the spell being reflected back at us, killing us very quickly on max difficulty. A value of 67 is required because dispel can remove the effects of a spell with a cost up to 5 times the dispel value. E.g. Dispel 50 pts can remove all of the effects of a spell that cost the caster 250 magicka to cast (not base cost). Keep in mind our spell effectiveness is only 95% so 67 is required rather than 312/5 ≈ 63. Dispel only works to avoid spell reflection on on-touch spells, and Shock Damage effects must have a duration of at least 2 seconds. If you chose the Breton setup, you can ignore this Dispel effect altogether, and even cast on-target spells against enemies with Reflect Spell.

One issue I didn't mention in my first guide is that the Dispel effect will also remove buffs you might have applied to yourself. Fortunately, this is simple to work around. Dispel will not remove any buffs if they come from a spell with a cost that is too high for the Dispel magnitude. This leads to two solutions: either have your buff spells cost more and buff your magicka beforehand (this is very easy to do with this build), or simply lower the cost of your main damage spell to 310 and the Dispel magnitude to 66. The latter option allows you to keep any buffs from spells that cost at least 311 magicka.

Summary

Once the previous sections have been followed, enjoy easily killing difficult enemies on Master difficulty. Simply slash them a few times with your dagger and then blast them with a spell. You have essentially unlimited magicka to work with, so get creative at the Altar of Spellmaking.

Overall, this build has gotten slightly stronger in the remaster. The changes to magicka regeneration and the two second delay after casting makes it much harder for other builds to spam-cast powerful spells. Of course, any build can become very powerful with enough buff spells, but the purpose of this build is to not require long, tedious setup before each fight.

Thank you for taking the time to read this guide, I know a lot of this information is probably not new to you, but I hope you learned something. As always, I credit UESP as my primary source of information. They have been an invaluable resource for TES fans for decades now.